Bratislava

Okay, so its been a while since I´ve written, but I´ve been out late and up early, have developed some common ailment (not a sinus infection, but something green and icky) and honestly, most of the stuff I have done I´ve already done and have been experiencing again with Jon. Here´s the new stuff:

Monday Jon and I went to the Haus der Music which is a very hands on museum in Vienna which lets you experience how sound is formed and transmitted. It also has rooms dedicated to every composer that ever lived in Vienna which is almost all of them.

On Tuesday my class took a field trip to the Supreme Court where we met a supreme court justice and the president of the Supreme Court. Super neat-o. Jon hit it off with the Supreme Court Justice and the two exchanged business cards. Now I have a get-out-of-jail-free card in Austria.

Tuesday Jon and I went to the Kunsthaus and Hundertwasserhaus. Both were designed by the artist Hundertwasser. Basically he´s this hippy who liked to play with shapes and colors resulting in a combination of Picasso and Gaudi. His houses are all crazy shapes and colors with grass growing on the roof.

Tuesday we also went to the Prater. As you may know from watching the Third Man (I think basically I´ll see anything with Orson Wells in it) the Prater is a giant amusement park (Jon thinks its the best he´s ever been to). We ate dinner at this place where we split basically the entire rear section of a pig. Not to worry, I took pictures. The Prater is also doing this thing this summer where they show amusement park themed movies outside under the ferris wheel so we saw "Carnival of Souls" (Dad, you´ll love it). I felt like I was in Mystery Science Theater 3000 when I wasn´t hiding my head in Jon´s arm.

Wednesday my entire class took a field trip to Bratislava. Daniella´s mom met us at the train station and gave us postcards and information and then Daniella conducted a tour (or at least tried...appparently you have to have a special tour guide badge to conduct a tour and some woman with a badge told Daniella she was going to call the cops on us.) Bratislava was amazing! I´ve never been to Eastern Europe and it was totally different than I´d imagined. There was definitely the communist side with the mass produced housing, but the center of the town was so middle ages! The cobblestone narrow streets and the crumbling buildings with a castle overlooking the river. I could imagine the peasants gathering during market days as though it were happening in the present. It was much more village-y than Western Europe. And this is the capital city!

Thursday Jon and I went swimming in the Danube. Well Jon went swimming in the Danube, I slept on the shore. (Jon would like me to point out that we also ate the biggest weiner schnitzel ever). Then we went to the Museum of Modern Art which was free (every student´s dream) because there was a new exhibit opening. The new exhibit was great but the rest of the museum was not so great. Apparently modern art in Austria includes bondage, self mutilation, and taking pictures of people with food/intestines all over them.

Today was Schonbrunn again, and since you´ve already read all abut it we can skip over that, except it has the best zoo in the world!!!! Tomorrow is Prague, look for an update Monday!