This is the quarry of the Mauthausen Concentration camp. The long path that you can see is the long death road that killed many prisoners at this brutal camp.
A MONASTERY!! Who would ever guess? This is the monastery in Melk, Austria. It was very beautiful and the area was very pretty also.
A cool work of art on the side of a modern art building. Don't they look real almost? I thought they were at first!
A DODGE RAM IN VIENNA!! I didn't know they existed over here!
Vienna's Rathaus lit up at night! This is the town hall of Vienna where the christmas market was!!
At the Wiener Christkind Markt...Vienna's big Christmas market!!
Jumping outside of Schonbrun Schloss. This is such a super picture, I think!
This is me in the fountain! I am not quite sure if it was ok for me to be in there? Oops!
This is the very Baroque coffin that the great Oueen, Maria Theresia, and her husband, Francis Stephen, were lain to rest. This is in the big Hapsburg memorial building where the whole family has been laid to rest. The small coffin in front is where Maria Theresia's son, Franz Joseph II was laid to rest. He succeeded her reign.
I am just making a snow-angel in the snow! It was such a beautiful day! 
Hello All,
It has been awhile, but things here in Austria have been ever so good and I have been keeping busy. As another addition to my semester, our entire program got the opportunity to the great music and cultural city of Vienna November 16-20.
On our way to the great city, we made a stop at another great…Monastery. I think I have been to almost every church, cathedral, and Monastery in the entirety of Europe. Or if I haven’t yet, by the time May comes around, I probably will. We stopped in the little town of St. Florian and had a guided tour of St. Florian Monastery. We saw a lot of pictures, pretty architecture, and long hallways. The room I remember the most is the beautiful and very unique ballroom ceiling painting. There was a pony in the painting that wherever you stood in the room, the pony would always appear to be looking directly at you. This way of painting was very popular during the time of when the monastery was built.
After being at the monastery, we went to a place entirely different than a monastery. We went to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. This camp was not different that the others that were used during the late 1930’s and the early 1940’s. This camp was built by a quarry for prisoners of the camp to work at. The large stones produced here were then shipped for use to build Hitler’s large military bases. This was a very brutal camp. They had a death rode, or death steps. There was a huge long rode with over 100 steps that prisoners were packed onto with large blocks. The prisoners were so packed that if one tripped, all the others would fall down behind him like dominoes. Concentration camps were the most brutal places ever and the whole experience was very saddening.
After the Mauthausen Camp, we finally were back on the bus bound for Vienna. Our first night in Vienna, we checked into our Hotel and most of us went out to eat at a local original, Zwölf Apostelkeller. This is a restaurant or wine cellar place that makes wine. Everyone enjoyed true Austrian food of wursts, käsespätzle, cheese platters, fresh rolls, wine, and anything else that may come from Austria.
Saturday morning started with a big breakfast and we began a long walking tour of Hapsburg Austria. We made visits to the Imperial Palace, Capucine Vault, St. Stephen’s cathedral, and Belvedere Palace. If anyone doesn’t know about the Hapsburg Monarchy, you should read up on it. It was the monarchy of Austria that built up its empire through marriages and at one time truly had an empire on which the sun never set. We visited the large palace of the Hapsburgs lived and ruled their monarchy. The Capucine vault holds most of all of the coffins of the royal Hapsburg family. I got to see exactly where Maria Theresia is laid to rest. St. Stephen’s cathedral is a very interesting one with only one spire, we toured this cathedral also. The Belvedere Palace is a pretty palace with a wonderful view of Vienna, too.
The rest of the afternoon we went on a bus tour of Vienna around the Ringstrasse. This is the ring shaped road that circles old Vienna. We saw the social housing complexes, where the Lipazzaner Spanish Riding School is, and saw the great artist, Klimt’s artwork. Around 4:30, some of us headed to the Vienna State Opera for Tchaikovsky’s Opera, Pique Dame. We were able to experience the long line that followed getting our standing room tickets for only EURO 3.50. There are around 700 standing room places in the Vienna State Opera. Standing room tickets are just what they sound like; you stand for the entire opera performance after standing in line for an hour or so for your tickets. There were bars to lean on if you were lucky enough to get there in time to find room near one. There were also screens that printed the words in either English or German. Only for part of Pique Dame did I have room at a bar to lean against. My feet were KILLING me after the night.
This opera was definitely interesting. It was a serious modern production and ended up being almost too modern for me. It was about a guy who was in love with this lady and also wanted to know a trick to gambling. There were a few scenes that were a little surprising. For the Masquerade Ball, they had a Drag Queen show that was a little to promiscuous and disgusting for my tastes. I was definitely surprised by this rendition of this opera. My History of Music teacher laughed a little at our thoughts of this opera because in Europe and especially Vienna, liberalized and modern performances are well received and found to be normal. We also later found out that one of the reasons the opera house was so incredibly full was the fact that we attended an opera with a worldly known Tenor and the conductor is also very popular. We were told when either this Tenor actor or this conductor, who is the head of the Vienna Orchestra, perform, all tickets are sold out and people stand in line for standing tickets hours and hours in advance; sometimes with sleeping bags.
Sunday morning came early with a quick breakfast then some of us took a trip to the Hofburg Chapel to hear the infamous Vienna Boys Choir. It was an all German chapel, of course, and we weren’t able to see the boys, but they did sing wonderfully! It was a neat experience.
After the boys choir, our entire group went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the art history museum. This museum includes one of the world’s great painting collections. They had many of Rembrandt’s self-portraits. I don’t really remember the names of all the artists we saw, but there were many and the pictures were all very fascinating and the building of the museum itself is pretty magnificent.
After the museum, I got some bananas and apples for my lunch to go along with my bread and Nutella I had. Then, I spent the rest of the afternoon taking a wonderful nap!
After my leisure afternoon, I again went to stand in line at the Vienna State Opera for standing room tickets to see Beethoven’s Fidelio. This opera was so much more enjoyable and very traditional. It was a love story again about a woman disguising herself as a man to get her wrongly accused husband out of jail. It was a very wonderful performance. My feet were really hurting again after this opera also.
Monday morning, we all had the opportunity to visit the United Nations Headquarters Vienna. We got a tour of the facilities, saw where the large international conferences were done, and also had a talk about Public Relations for IAEA, the International Agency for Atomic Energy. When we were talking about the meetings that happen in the big hall, we learned about the translating of the conferences. Obviously not everyone knows every UN countries language, so each speakers words need to be translated. Anyone whose mother language is one of the official UN languages can be a translator, and you will always translate INTO your own language. The turn around time for the translation is a few seconds and a translator will only translate for 30 minutes at a time. The translation was my favorite part of the tour and learning that every building of the headquarters was built specifically not to cast a shadow on any of the other buildings in order to always have good light and not inhibit someone’s working progress. The shadow thing has something to do with the fact that shadows make you sleepy or something.
Monday afternoon I took a nice little nap again! But not all afternoon, I then went and explored the wonderful Wiener Christkindl Markt am Rathausplatz, Vienna’s Christmas market at the town hall. It was decorated beautifully with lights and garlands. There were many little booths and loads of Christmas decorations and gifts. It was especially pretty at night!
Tuesday, our last day in Vienna, was spent with a trip and tour of Schönbrunn. The Schönbrunner Palace was a summer home for the royal family and had hunting grounds. It has large gardens that I am sure are beautiful in summer. In the palace, the tour showed us where the famous ‘Cissi’ brushed her long hair 1,000 times per day and took very good care of her image. Outside on the grounds, Esther, Kristi, and I adventured to one of the fountains that wasn’t running anymore because of winter. We were able to take pictures inside of it. Then, we ran up this hill and made snow angels in the snow. A lot of us girls also took pictures jumping together. The picture I have is my favorite. It was wonderful!!
Before leaving Vienna, we all got lunch and then headed to another…MONASTERY!! We went to the small town of Melk. It was a very pretty town and from the huge Baroque monastery was a beautiful view of the rolling pastures and the river. The view was the best.
We then arrived back home in Salzburg around 7:00. It was really great to be back in a familiar place.
Besides my Vienna trip, I also took a trip to Munich and Dachau, where the infamous first concentration camp is. It doesn’t matter how many camps you go to, each one affects you.
In addition to all that, I have been working on projects for my classes, hanging out with my family, cooking christmas cookies with my family, enjoying the cold and beautiful weather when it snows, and awaiting my upcoming trips to Egypt and Greece. We also had a Thanksgiving celebration here at our college and I was able to make some Caramel Apple Pies. It was truly a taste of home.
I hope this finds everyone well and happy. I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday and will have a wonderful few weeks till Christmas.
Liebe,
Dana
Typical scene on the side a street in Cairo.
JUMP for the Pyramids!
We are so super!
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RIDING CAMELS!
Me, my camel, and the Giza Pyramids! It was the most surreal expereince of my life so far!
Me, Annika, Esther, Ellen and the Egyptian Museum! An entirley unique museum with the craziest and oldest artifacts and mummies!
Cairo at night.
Welcome to Dahab! Our Egyptian friend, Mido, helped us get a taxi and we made our way safely to our amazing hostel in this beautiful village on the Red Sea.
Our Hostel! Penguin Village.
SNORKELING! Can you believe it? We just finished snorkeling in the RED SEA in the Blue Hole.
Jump for the mongross!
Guyland! On our second snorkeling adventure to a National Park, we met many neat people and the young boy here, Guy, was quite a story teller and made up his own island community here on these rocks.
Annika, Ellen, Me, and Esther and the beautiful Red Sea.
Sunrise of Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea. Totally worth waking up at 6:00 AM on our Holiday!
Ellen and our new Australian friends, Nick and Brenton.
The most amazing meal of our time in Egypt. I had chicken kebabs with fresh grilled veggies and the most spectacular milk shake ever. I would go back to Dahab just for another shake!.jpg)
Our last meal together in Egypt. It was a sad morning as we knew we were leaving this wonderful country that night..jpg)
Our Christmas meal in our Hostel in Athens. It was a great time and a lot of socializing with our new friends from Costa Rica, France, England, and Sweden.
Athens...
SUSAN CAME TO VISIT!!! 
Susan and I together in some cool remains.
Susan and I near the Acropolis in Athens again.
Ellen, Susan, and I in front of the big Olympic stadium..jpg)
Swinging in Athens!.jpg)
AHH!! It is much harder than it looks!!.jpg)
Susan and I and the Olympic Stadium in Athens..jpg)
At the top of the Acropolis, Susan and I, were able to get a great photo of us and Athens. Also, below us is an old theater.
Susan, me, and the Mediteranean Sea.
SUSAN AND SALZBURG!!
Me, Susan, and Salzburg!
I think I can pick it up!!
Beautiful canals in Prague under the St. Charles Bridge. 
Prague was really beautiful, I just wished the weahter would have cooperated better.
POLAND!
Krakow...
Inside a Salt Mine I visited, the miners sculpted chapels inside from the salt and here is a sculpture of the Last Supper.
The tour guide openly invited us to lick the walls of the salt mine to make sure it was really salt. I just couldnt pass up the opportunity! They were really salty by the way!
Arbeit Macht Frei. Work will make you free. This is the entrance to the Auschwitz Concentation Camp. This camp was huge and overwhelming with its size.
BELGIUM!
The little boy how pees into a fountain. I didn't even know this existing until I arrived in Brussels. Very regularly ONE man changes the costume on this statue and this day he was Elvis.
Bruges. A beautiful quaint city with wonderful canals and really good waffles and chocolate.
Me and my Toga!
We are so pretty!
HALLO!! 
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