Day 2 Hofburg

The last two girls arrived last night and this morning. It was awesome to have them here today! I kind of felt bad for them because they were in the same state of EXHAUSTION that we were in yesterday so I knew how they felt. But they pushed through like champs. We met at St. Stephens again, and low and behold there was a flash mob group doing their thing right when we got there. Not sure what they were mobbing about. But we do know that today was a Catholic holiday so the streets were pretty busy, and there was also quite a bit gay rights people out, so it could be associated with either of those. watch the vid of the dance:

HERE

thanks Channi for the correction on what the green rust stuff is.

I CAN'T get enough of the gold everywhere.

The main event today was touring the Hofburg Palace where the Habsburgs resided for hundreds of years as Vienna's royalty. As well as look at thousands of pieces of the silverware and china used.

there was about 29 exhibits of collections. holy

What we were looking forward to most was going to the Sisi Museum. Sisi was an empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary in the 1800's that was famous for being hated because she wasn't like most typical empress', and focused on her non-conformist and free spirit, rather then getting overcome with the fame and fortune. She was assassinated at age 68 spontaneously by someone who was supposed to kill some prince, but that fell through and he decided to kill her instead for no reason. After she died she was no longer hated, but praised for her interesting outlook on life and on how she chose to be as a women with such power. SUPER interesting museum

fun fact: her waist was 19 inches. TINY

I was so mad, they didnt let you take ANY photos in the whole thing, and this was the only one I caught before some nazi lady told me  "no foto! no!" This displayed how she often times wore her hair, because the natural hair length was to her ankles. woof. Sisi seemed so rad.

When we walked out of the museum we sat around a cool fountain for a bit. Heather and her mother have matching jackets, and shoes, its how we find them in crowds.

locals. i think.

Kaitlyn was so excited to learn more about Sisi!

The whole group finally together! from left to right: Katie, me, Suzanne, Heather, Stevie, and Nicole. I look like a hot mess. lets not talk about it.

got to use my long distance lense today to creep on cute tourists.

there was a decent sized sand box in the middle of a park.

this girl... she's a hoot and a half

within this park you aren't allowed to step on the grass, weirdest thing i've ever heard. What about park naps? Or soccer?

This palace was ginormous!! Including the actually buildings, court yards, etc...I would say it was almost equal in size to the Utah State campus. All just for the Habsburgs to live in. No wonder Sisi was skinny, it would be a workout just to walk to the bathroom.

The lovely Nicole. No jokes this is a Chinese model. China's Next Top Model contestant.

We haven't ventured over to that building yet. But within time I'll tell you what the mystery building that peaks out from everyone is.

Looks like it should be Vienna's temple

I didn't think this was real life. But it was real life.

I decided i'm going to do a series on this blog. Its going to be called "Tourist of the Day" or maybe "Asian Tourist of the Day"... but anyway, this is the TOURIST OF THE DAY. I'm picking them according the intrigue, and lucky to have caught a shot. Congrats awesome lady.

this is one of Alan's (our professor) sons. adorable children.

Karlsplatz

Next to Karlsplatz there was this awesome cafe where we ate weinerschnitzel's .. breaded pork.

Then the first of probably every day gelato stops. Gosh, its too good.

Yesterday it was too rainy to photograph outside where we live. I'll do a little of our living here and there.

This is the street we live on.

And the front of the Hostel. Apparently, from numerous sources.. this is the best hostel around. So we got hooked up, with an awesome environment with other people our age doing the same things.

Needless to say, this place rocks. You all should come.