The Donau

K:
Today we just wandered, all over the place, for a long time. 
We wanted to go over and check out the Donau River (in the English: the Danube). We were told that there is lots to do over there. A place to rent some boats and a big mall and things. 
We started on the U6 train line, which is the one that runs near our house. We went up to near the top to the Neue Donau station. For those of you who don't know German, that mean New Danube (but I'm sure you could have figured that out). We got off on that station and there didn't seem to be much happening there. There was a little stip along the side of the river where some people I think were just sitting, I'm not sure that you can actually swim in this river. 

So we followed the bridge across the river and went for a little walk. We saw a few more things on the other side. It's really just a big park. It has bike trails, soccer fields, a playground, another field and some giant trampolines for children to jump on. They looked kind of fun I think, but there was only one little boy and his mom there today so we couldn't really tell how fun they were. There really weren't many people around, and definitely NO WHERE to get food (which is what Eric was really ready for).  
We'd heard from one of the Sister missionaries in our ward that there is a big mall on the other side of the river, near the top of the city. So we headed over to the other end. We went one station further on the U6 and took a tram over to the mall. It was fun, we wandered around the mall, in and out for stores for a little bit. Mainly in search of a place to stop and eat. We found a few little bakeries and a few meat counters. Nothing for a full meal. We searched for a while, with little luck. Here's where I start to get frustrated. When I get hungry and tired it's really no good. I slow right down, I'm easily agitated and my body gets sore fast. So all these started and Eric stopped me and asked what I wanted to eat and why I was getting upset. "I JUST WANT TO ORDER IN ENGLISH. I just want to understand what I'm eating and not have to guess all the time." On the verge of tears and a break down we found a map and decided to look that way instead of walking aimlessly some more. We found the category that we assumed meant food because it included things like Burger King, McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Finally some things I recognize! We headed towards these places, and on the way we found a few more. We stopped to look at the menus but they were still all in German. We found a buffet, which sounded promising because we could look at our own food and pick it out, but then the lady working there spoke NO ENGLISH and had to grab a girl walking by to translate for us. So finally it came to decision making time, which I'm not good at at the best of times. Now normally, back home in Canada, I would not choose McDonald's, I would not choose Burger King and I definitely would not choose KFC. This was a desperate time though. No matter where you go, there's no translation for Whopper, or for BigMac, or for Zinger. We settled on KFC because at least there I knew what meat I would be getting in my burger. You know what, I gotta say, NOT BAD! It's funny, the fast food restaurants here look really fancy. They're all new and none of them are dirty, but I didn't expect the food to be different. This chicken burger I had was enjoyable and I would maybe even consider it again. When in Rome...or Vienna.
After that adventure the mall started to close and we were bored of it anyway so we left and went down the U1 line to the Alte Donau station. This one's a little tricker, so I'll translate. Alte: Old. Donau: Danube. There really wasn't much happening over here either. I don't know yet if we've mentioned, but something about Vienna you should know is that the place basically shuts down around 6. When we got over there, there wasn't much to do, but there was some to see. We walked along the river and came across these sights, and took these pictures:

I'll have you know, I'm not looking for a good reason. This photo almost caused a little bicycle accident. We had it set on the self timmer and this poor little girl saw the camera right as she was about to pass and stopped really fast, then her brother bumped into her, and their dad came and tried to stop and they were all kind a little confused. I felt bad. 

My lovely husband posing for the picture. That's the male model coming out in him.

This is Eric poking spiders with a stick. He found these spiders up in the rafters that were HUGE so he, of course, had to grab a stick and try to get them all on the end of it, wrapped up in their webs. That's the little boy coming out in him.

It was a good day. Nice and relaxing. I love Vienna.

Last couple things before classes start

K:

Today we needed to pay our power bill, before they cut us off. We weren't exactly sure what to do because the forms we got in the mail are ALL German. The other day when we were out shopping we saw a Wien Energie location, so we made our way over to Mariahilf Strasse today. We got there and didn't actually have to pay it yet, but the lady helped us fill out our forms properly and told us how to pay it at the end of the month. That was all we have planned for the day, so this is what we saw after. 

This is a really yummy pizza place we found. We were near here the other day (on Tuesday) and it smelled SO good, but we settled for Austrian McDonald's chicken nuggets because our curiosity got the best of us. This is the Della Cassa pizza we ordered today. It was good!

It was rainy today, so good thing we had our little umbrella. This is a 6euro umbrella we bought when we got stuck in the rain shopping in Der Graben after Stephansdom. 

Cool fun fact of today: Miriahilfstrasse (the shopping street from week one, and location of Wien Energie) links up with Museums Quartier (the place we took pictures of those GORGEOUS buildings on Tuesday the 13th). If we'd just walked 100m more either of those days we would have seen it, but we never did. Until this afternoon, we bumped into the pizza shop again and put the two together. It was fun. I feel like I'm getting to know the city a bit more, piece by piece. 

Anyway, so we wondered back into and around Museums Quartier for a little bit. We found this fun little yellow building and Eric just had to see what was inside. I bugged him at first, but I'm glad he did.

Everything in and around this building is yellow. The chairs, the tables the cabinets. Everything. It was cool. It's actually just a little promotional booth for one of the banks. They have iPads you can use in there and all kinds of free stuff. We talked to them for a few minutes about Vienna and they gave us some cool stuff like little subway maps, and light up pens, and a student planner...AND these drinks. We love them now. They're much like ginger ale, but BETTER. It's an Austrian specialty and we certainly enjoyed it. It's called Almdudler. We'll have to spend some time searching the super markets and restaurants for more of it before we leave. 

I love you little yellow umbrella.

Eric is right now in his very first class at school. German class!

Rainy Day

Thursday september 15th

K:
Today was a bit of a lazy day-ish. We didn't have any plans when we woke up so we looked through one of the books we got from the Morgans. Enjoying Vienna. Eric wanted to see what a second hand store would be like here in Vienna. The book told us about one set of stores called Humana. We looked up the locations and found one right near our house! Like a 10 minute walk. We set out to find it and when we did, it was closed. FOR GOOD. That was a bummer, but we wondered that street and found some other cute little shops to wonder in and out of. 
We also came across this funny scale on the side of the road. You can put coins in it to use it. This one we actually found beside a few dumpsters so we assume it's for weighing garbage, but then this evening we found one randomly over near the train station. Who knows what that one's for. Weird. 

We still wanted to see this second hand store though, so we went back home and looked up another location and headed to that one next. It was not too far from home, just the other way a little bit. We made it there not long before it closed, but we enjoyed looking at a few interesting things. Like any second hand store I'm sure it's hit or miss. This time was a little bit of a miss, but it was a fun one. 
Eric actually nearly bought this sweat shirt he's wearing, but I found this silly jacket that was exactly the same colours. It was a precious set. 

Then we wandered all around the streets and came across a little market. There are several outdoor markets around Vienna, but we weren't quite expecting to bump into this one. We walked through it, and it was fun to see. It was late in the day though so there wasn't much left to buy. I did find a fun duffle bag I kind of want to buy though. I searched for one the few days before we left home. I wanted one for a carry on on the plane, but also for weekend trips we plan to take around while we're here. I want to go back and get it. I also want to go back to the market to see the stands again on a day when they're full. 
From there we hurried over the the church for choir practice. Keith convinced Eric to join the choir for our ward. Apparently Keith used to be just about the only man who could carry a tune, but all of them just love to sing. He flattered Eric by complimenting his voice, and bam! he got himself an extra member. Eric then tried to convince me to join, but they're singing in Stake Conference on Sunday this week so I was scared to join on such short notice. Maybe I'll start going now and sing in future performances, when I have more practice. 
These are just the cute little Men and Woman signs on the bathrooms at the church. I've always been used to the typical Man and Woman stick figures that are basically universal in Canada. I assumed they were everywhere but here the sign for the direction to a bathroom is just WC and in the London airport it was just TOILETS. Anyway, I thought they were cute.

After choir, I was really hungry. We got on the tram at the church and rode it until we came to somewhere that looked good. We passed a few things like Subway, and a few little stands that were still open, and some cafe/bars and stuff. Then we passed this big set up that just looked spectacular and caught my attention with all the bright lights. 

I nudged Eric and we jumped off the tram to see what we could find here. Turns out it's actually a circus tent set up in front of this magnificent palace. I wish there was a way to capture just how beautiful it actually looked, but night pictures are so hard to get just right. This picture is taken a little bit off the road, right at the entrance to the circus. Behind me here though are a bunch of little carts set up with all kinds of different foods, eat looking and smelling as good as the next. Eric laughed at me while I made two whole rounds of the place before I chose what I wanted. I had to make sure I didn't miss anything, then see someone else eating it later and be jealous! That's the worst!
I finally worked up the courage first to share some bratwurst with Eric. It's basically a sausage, but it's some kind of Austrian specialty. It was pretty good actually. For whatever reason trying meats and milks in new places (even in new cities inside Canada) scares me. This was a big step for me, and I was brave. 

So I rewarded myself with a plain and delicious chocolate and vanilla crepe (which is what Eric guessed from the very beginning is what I would pick anyway). We shared that next and it was also DELICIOUS. 

We're in EUROPE! Life is good. New things are so fun and exciting. 
Also, we get to see gorgeous buildings like that one and this one just sittingeverywhere around us. What a beautiful day, and night!

Tuesday September 13th

E:

Katherine and I planned to go to an outlet mall. It happened to be outside of the Vienna transit districts and we would have had to pay 7.20 euro each for a one way ticket and then a taxi at the last stop to then get to the mall. It just didn’t seem worth it with the time that we had. So, at the station where we would have boarded a REX train, and at the point that we found out that it was going to cost over 30 euro to make the trip, we decided not to go.

Instead, we strolled down some of the streets with the most beautiful buildings; old buildings of course. After going through some of the shops, we went and sat at a park. It was by a huge stone building decorated with elaborate statues and mouldings.

Sitting on that park bench, I thought to myself, “We are in Europe”. Back home people build fantasies around places like this. It was rather neat to think that I was enjoying a carefree afternoon with my wife in Vienna.

Almost care free.  At different points in a day either Katherine, I, or both of us find ourselves needing a break, food or water. Things go well when we are sure that we get enough breaks, water, and meals/food. It’s easy to get moody or less patient and harder to have fun when you’re tired and/or hungry. Today was a hot day so it was tough at points, but we took some breaks and then found ourselves feeling better.

One break today was at this interesting book store. Since Katherine and I know basically no German, we ended up looking at the photo books.

Later, Katherine found a dress and bought it. We ate chicken nuggets for dinner. It was a cool night, and after guessing wrong which tram to take, we ended up strolling the rest of the way home. It was nice.  ... except for the part where I caught a glimpse of the strippers standing just outside of the door to the ‘Piano Bar’, who didn’t happen to be wearing much at all. That was upsetting to see and a surprise. Back home they don’t lure people in to the club by placing the girls just by the entrance. Other than that upsetting experience, it was an enjoyable walk home.

We finished off the evening by watching “The Holiday”. It was good to hear some people communicating in English.

Scriptures with Katherine, then prayers; now off to bed.