Third Time and Full of Charm

If you have ever asked me what is my favorite country in Europe, you should recall my answer was Austria. Italy is a very close second after calling it home for three months and England would be the third as it is certainly my favorite country history wise! Austria is a beautiful place and its countryside never stops to amaze me but it is also the first country I traveled to independent of my family and got to experience traveling in a new sense. When I graduated high school, I went on a trip with seventeen other girls from my high school to Germany and Austria in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the filming of the Sound of Music. It was an amazing trip and I think it probably is the main cause of why Austria will remain (I think) my favorite European country! I went back to Austria for a full week with my mom before my semester abroad and once again visited the beautiful cities of Vienna, Salzburg, and Innsbruck, the same ones that had stolen my heart three years prior.

Sadly, for this trip, our time in Austria was to be very short but it included a new city for me and I was super excited about that. On Wednesday morning, we woke up in Chartres, packed up our bags, grabbed some breakfast, and then loaded onto a charter bus to head back to Paris to fly to Vienna. Without traffic, the drive should be just over an hour and a half, but of course we expected traffic so we had to allocate an extra hour. Let me tell you, trying to navigate an airport with a group of about fifty people is no easy task. My family had booked our flights separate from the rest of the group so we could use our United miles, so luckily we could move through fairly quickly but some of the group ended up separated and two of them barely made our flight because security shut down for some time. Really they only made it because our flight ended up getting delayed. While we were waiting, we were very entertained by watching our assistant chaplain, Fr. Lee play the Playstation Speedway that was set up near our gate. He was awful and crashed constantly but it provided a lot of entertainment!

Luckily our flight to Vienna was only two hours long. Then we had to get everyone's luggage and go find our bus. We were already an hour behind schedule and the schedule had only allowed for six hours in Vienna. It had said there would be a city walking tour but that must have been cut because we drove straight to within walking distance of St. Stephen's Cathedral, where we had time to go inside and explore. But upon entering, you are instantly distracted by stones that are hung by strings all the way down the main aisle of the church. It was horrible. You couldn't even see the main altar! It was part of some art exhibition that was supposed to represent the community of the church and the stones that were thrown at St. Stephen, the first martyr. Well, whatever it was claiming to be, I didn't appreciate it.

After touring St. Stephen's, we had 45 minutes before we needed to meet up again for group dinner. It was a very hot day in Vienna, so our first stop was grabbing some gelato across the street. Then a group of us girls wandered off to go window shopping. Part of me still wishes I had taken that time to walk to Cafe Central and find my mom that apple strudel she loves so much! But we just didn't have that much time in Vienna unfortunately. At least group dinner would make up for our lack of time in Vienna! I was really hoping that they would make reservations at Stiftskeller, which is an underground tavern/beer hall that is popular throughout Austria and Germany. And they did!

German food is phenomenal and because of the setup that evening for group dinner, we got to sample a lot of it! We were seated at large square tables that fit probably 10 people and they would bring a big platter of each dish for us to share. And the food just kept coming! The biggest struggle was trying to equally split each dish ten ways, which didn't work out so well. Once again, we were very entertained by dear Devan at the dinner table. He is German and was very excited by each dish that would come out. But we were trying to teach him to only take his equal share that way there would still be enough food by the time the plates got to Clay and Clint, who had the biggest appetites of everyone on the trip. You can see the results from the pictures below. I was just happy that I got to have Wiener Schnitzel again, other than that I was content with just having one or two bites of each thing.

After our wonderful, traditional Austrian dinner, we loaded back onto the bus for an hour and a half ride to Gaming, Austria. It was dark and everyone was ready for bed. It had been a long day of travel and most of us dozed off on the ride there. Around 10:30 or so we finally arrived at the monastery where we were staying for the next two nights. During the school year it serves as the semester abroad campus for Franciscan University and I had seen pictures of it before from friends. Nathan and I put our bags in our room and then explored for a little bit. My favorite part was that the chapel was unlocked even though it was way past 11 o'clock at this point. It made me feel at home since I would always go to Christendom's chapel after midnight each night to say night prayer when the library closed for the evening. The lights were all off and Nathan and I must have sat there in silence for at least twenty minutes just praying. It was a wonderful way to end the night.

The next morning, we got up and ate breakfast in the hotel lobby before getting back on the bus for a shorter 45 minute drive to Mariazell. It is the site of the only Marian apparition in Austria. I was in awe of the beauty of the small town and the Basilica that sat atop of the hill. Unlike the gothic Churches of France, this one was light and airy but still adorned in every possible way. The ceiling and the organ had my full attention from the moment I walked in. We had a private Mass in this little chapel that was part of a tower, it was small but pretty cool.

After Mass and exploring the Basilica, everyone split up for lunch and time to explore the little town. We found a restaurant that had indoor seating as it was finally getting hot on our trip. Between a table of ten of us we had one English menu so it was a little challenging. Even still, I managed to mess up my order and ordered a vegetarian meal instead but at least it was tasty. And of course, we got some gelato before we had to be back at the meeting point to head home. For anyone who has ever been to Innsbruck, Austria. The two towns are very similar!

Not the Silver Cross Hike, but rather a picture
I took of a cemetery in Mariazell. 

We drove back to Gaming and the rest of the afternoon was free time. There was a hike to the silver cross that a lot of the younger crowd was planning on going on. Unfortunately, I was dealing with an injury and had to excuse myself as much as I had been looking forward to going on that hike. I was so lucky to have no injuries or real pain on the pilgrimage but the very night we finished, I started having pain from shin splints. I had had it two years ago during the actual walk so I was ready for it. But this time my ankle swelled up a lot and I had to change the way I would walk to compensate. If I wasn't going to be traveling on after the pilgrimage to Croatia where I knew I would be walking around a ton, I would have pushed it and just done the hike anyways. But instead I stayed at the hotel, iced my ankle and read a book for awhile. But I was feeling up to a short solo exploration so I climbed the hill behind the monastery. It had beautiful views of the valley we were in. I played some music on my phone and journaled for a bit. It was so incredibly peaceful. After some time, I spotted the others returning from their hike so I descended my hill to meet them. They never made it to the silver cross and had turned around early. It definitely lessened my disappointment of not being able to accompany them. I knew I had made the right decision to give my foot and shin a break. I have no recollection of what we did to pass the time before dinner, I think everyone just sat in the courtyard and talked for a bit. Some of the boys were jumping in the stream across the street, Nathan included.

Dinner that night was in the hotel, and another Austrian meal, although not as good as the evening before. But at this point in the trip, dinners are far less about the food than the conversations we get to have. We had decided that we would play cards that night after dinner, since I had brought along a deck. After my semester abroad, I never travel without a deck of cards in my backpack, it solved many long airport delays or train rides for us. What a competitive game ensued! I don't think I've ever played Egyptian Rat Screw with such a group as this! Some fast card games I am good at, like Spit but ERS is not one of them so I was quickly eliminated. We also played Kemps that night which I hadn't played in many years! We played until almost midnight, everyone was having great fun.

Before going to bed, Mary and I made plans to get up and watch the sunrise from the hill above the monastery. Clay and Clint said they would join us, but when 4:45am rolled around and they were not in the courtyard to meet us, we weren't exactly surprised. Everyone should know I am a huge fan of getting up for the sunrise, and always willing to set that alarm even if it means an extra cup of coffee that day or even better a nap built into my schedule. That morning wasn't the clearest sunrise ever but it was cool to see it appear in between the gaps of the mountain. Mary and I must have sat up there for almost two hours just talking about life. It was so much fun! And the weather was perfect, it was just cool enough that you wanted your sweatshirt.

Eventually we made our way back down, showered and went to Mass with the group in the chapel attached to the monastery. Then packed up our stuff and grabbed breakfast. We all sat on the patio drinking mimosas waiting for our bus to take us to Budapest! It was a wonderful start to the day: sunrises, Mass, and mimosas!