Day 3 St. Stephens/Canals/Stadt Park

 Today we finally all feel like we are semi kicking the jet lag, so we can do more in the day without falling asleep on eachother. We finally got the chance to explore St. Stephens Cathedral, instead of just walk past it. None of us expected it to be like this, at least this colorful. It kind of felt like a club, with the lighting how it was.

But then we realized it was just colored wrap on the windows. How lame, i know?

 Our shadows looked like those 3D glasses

 the children are just the greatest, I creep on them all day.

 I don't have any photos of this, but we got to go down into the catacombs under the Cathedral where we saw thousands of skeletons of people that died from the plague. As well as coffins that held some of the famous Habsburgs. Pretty eerie.

 The cathedral was so busy.. yet people still went about their ritual and prayed in the pews, despite the loud surrounding. It was a beautiful routine, that appeared to be extremely special every time. I'm not educated in the Catholic traditions, but I respect Europe for having more active members, rather than just Easter and Christmas like I'm used to hearing from Catholics in the States. 

 All the dames standing next to one of the oldest church's in Vienna.

from left to right: Kaitlyn, Heather, Me, Stevie, Nicole, and Katie.

 

This was the canal that you could just walk/ride through. Where in America has this!? The frog one says, "one frog a day keeps the doctor away".. which for those of you who don't know, some species of frogs if licked, make you high. Fun fact.

 Okay this was hilarious. So in this canal, there were these sand boxes, that they put lawn chairs in and just lay out. Its the "beach of Vienna" .. cracked me up. 

 I guess just in the past couple years they started doing some intense graffiti. Some of it was incredible. 

 This officially is true for me.

 Round 2: Pistachio/Hazelnut. judge me, because I'm probably partaking everyday.

 Then, later in the day we took the stairwell 300+ steps up to part of the top of St. Stephens. 

Thigh. burn. 

But so worth it!

 Closer view of the tiled roof. 

 We then walked around this food market place. Why is fruit just so beautiful?

 I got so incredibly excited when I saw this old Rolling Stones concert poster. I guess I really don't know much about it, but i'm just going to believe that its from a tour back in the day. 

 first kebab of the trip. Which here they spell Kebap. It was not too bad, but I think I can find better. They have them on just about every corner. Missed this. 

 There's one thing about Europe that I suppose surprises me quite a bit. People sucking face

 EVERY. WHERE. 

Especially super cute places, like parks and fountains. Kind of gets gross, they just don't care here. 

 Peopling doing Tai Chi in the park.

 Accidentally caught this awesome shot of Alan, and the lovely park people just enjoying the atmosphere. Alan, if you're reading this, you rock.

 Johann Strauss and I. He created the dance, the Waltz... fancy.

 DRUMROLL PLEASE.....

 Tourist of the day!

Lucky you mister 80's workout Bert & Ernie eyebrow man, you caught my eye today.

 This man was so incredible.. and hilarious. knew at least 3 languages fluently. He was there selling tickets for a Mozart concert, hence the outfit. But this picture was when he was whistling the classic western theme song directed at us (because he knew we were from America... its funny what people think America is all about). Anyway, Kaitlyn was chatting with him for a while, and he ended up finding out we were from Utah State, and then they started talking about Mormonism, he actually had heard about us. He then raved about how much respect he has for us, and straight up said that we 'radiate'.. and that we all look so happy. Super cool experience Kaitlyn was involved in. 

Way nice man.

 Oh gosh.. then we walked around the corner to see some guys slack lining.. my life.. is the luckiest sometimes. So I asked if I could join. The best session ever!!

  Which could be because of the location, and how high on life I am here.

 Even better yet, I met new friends, that are locals. And super fantastic. And nice. And friendly. And talented. And everything great.

 I started talkin to them about slack lining in Utah, and they were shocked and thought Austria was the only place it was big. pssht. not only your sport honey. jk

 Then we really became friends and sealed the deal with some photographs. 

left to right: Me, Fabien, Flo, and Fabien

(yeah.. there's two Fabien's)

 Sometimes I forget that people from other countries actually have sense of humors and are into things I am too. They all had the best hair.. fro-licious, like mine.

I was so happy the rest of the day. Just because I got to do this. Hopefully we'll meet up and do it again before I leave. 

Today rocked.

Sorry if you get sick of me saying that, because it won't be the last. 

Travel seriously is the best eye opener, and you learn more in one day just from observation than you do in like a month of school. A 2 year Graduate degree as a foreign exchange student would be so perfect. I just might have to give my mother a heart attack and look into it;)