The sun is up, the sky is blue

What a week! And it's only Wednesday! I start classes tomorrow which is so bizarre. What's this school thing I signed up for? I thought I would be travelling all over Europe for 4 months! (Just kidding, Mom...) Really though. I can't believe this semester hasn't even technically started.

So on Monday, we went on a day trip to Maria Taferl, which is a beautiful church, and the town of Melk where we had Mass and a tour of the Benedictine monastery. I'll start with Maria Taferl. I wish remembered more of the history, but combine my history skills with the morning and we're all just lucky that I remembered my name. But apparently it used to be a site of human sacrifices? Eek! Well now it's an incredible church dedicated to Our Lady on top of this mountain with a wonderful view great for pictures. Oh speaking of pictures, I'll include the link to the Facebook album with the pictures, but remember, I'm knew at this so it might not work...But back to Maria Taferl, so inside is just overwhelming beauty. And there's this little almost secret door on the side in the back where you can climb these stairs to three room/platform things and along the entire way, the walls are just COVERED in these beautiful pieces of artwork of Jesus, Mary, and various saints. You'll have to look through the pictures, and even those can't do it justice. I have a feeling that a lot of my pictures will fall short of their subjects. We then had lunch at a hotel/restaurant and it was SUPER delicious and authentic and just so tastey.

Then we piled back onto the bus and headed to Melk! We didn't explore the town, just the monastery, but it was worth it! Oh my goodness, I can't even tell you how breathtaking it was! And they have a museum with an insane amount of awesome artifacts and we got to take a tour of it. One thing I love about Austria is that all the really cool places are on top of a mountain so it makes for really beautiful views. Again, I can't even describe how everything looks, so I highly recommend checking out the pictures. It was an exhausting day but so wonderful. I wish everyday was just like it. Unfortunately, we have school and now even the weather is turning on us. It's freezing and rainy and bleh. Well, it can only get better. Actually, that's a lie. It'll get colder and snow and THEN it can only get better!  Ok well, my pictures aren't quite done uploading but I'll put the link in as soon as it stops being a dumbbutt!

Willkommen!

This is our chapel. Isn't it incredible?

Greetings from Gaming, Austria! I'm going to try and keep up with this blogging business which is as foreign to me as German (and that's pretty bad, trust me!). And don't worry, I'll get my own pictures up as soon as I dig out my camera from the depths of my bag. So I just arrived today and am in the midst of unpacking and learning my way around because it's a lot more confusing than you would think. You have to go up this staircase, turn and go up another, then go through the secret door and up another staircase, it's crazy! (Note: there isn't an actual secret door. It just seems like it).

The bus ride from Vienna to the Kartause (the name of the place I'm staying at) is about an hour and 45 minutes and it was a beautiful drive. The sun came out apparently for the first time in a couple of weeks and everything looked so vibrant and fresh and just gorgeous! And the water here is so crisp and clean! For those of you that have never had to experience Steubenville water, it's quite the change from filtering your water almost excessively to just drinking from the tap. SO GOOD! Go ahead and make fun of me, Sarah, I just can't help it that I love water! 

Well I am just exhausted (even though it's only 3:00 here!) and we have Sunday Mass in an hour, so I better get ready and finish putting my stuff away. There will be more to come. Tomorrow, we're going on an expedition to the town of Melk! Auf Wiedersehn!

P.S. Laura, do you like the font? I changed it to Helvetica! But really, I did.