Vienna Part 2

Now I'm going to talk about my favorite part of my time in Vienna! Seeing my family's past exchange students :-). I've kept in touch with them over the years, maybe not as much as the first few years, but we still keep each other updated on life. One thing I've learned talking to them is that guys are the same world wide haha. But after 5 or 6 years I was SOOOO excited to see them again!! They invited me over for dinner the one night I was in Vienna. They gave me directions and I met them at the metro by their apartment. Ini and Pezi had made me an amazing dinner! They were so sweet! I wish I had brought them a gift. They also bought 8 different types of ice cream for dessert. They're Grandma bought me chocolates and made me yummy pastries. She told Ini and Pezi not to take any. Pezi told me their Grandma wanted to come down and say hi but she didn't do her hair or anything. She also told me she doesn't like Americans, but my family is the exception because we took such good care of them. The grandma was worried we wouldn't. I said I wasn't surprised, everyone hates Americans. Ini and Pezi said that was more her Grandma's generation that hates Americans, their generation likes Americans. I would hope so, everyone likes our music. We're a package deal, you like American music you like us. Or that's how I think it should be, but if that was the case I think there would be world peace.

It's weird, I've noticed a lot of feuds between countries. Ini and Pezi's Grandma doesn't like Americans. Ini and Pezi doesn't really like Germans. British people REALLY don't like the Germans. The Germans don't like the French. My Jewish Studies teacher doesn't like Austrians because he thinks they're all antisemitic. I know Ini and Pezi are not antisemitic because they told me they went to this Jewish, underground bar in Paris. They played Jewish music, danced, and loved it! Which sounds so cool! I guess most people have reasons to dislike other nations, but to group everyone as a whole is stereotyping. People over here aren't politically correct, I think it's more of an American thing.

Oh but anyways, Ini had also bought raspberries and blueberries, but she ate all the raspberries lol. They gave me some tea from France. They were so sweet! They're aunt came over to give them cherries she picked from the garden. They were telling me how amazing they were, but Ini said some had worms. Pezi got really mad at Ini and told her she was horrible at marketing and the cherries were fine, just eat them whole. The aunt came over and gave them the bucket of cherries and she was very sweet. I noticed a small little white worm on the side of the bucket and told Ini and she freaked out a bit and killed it. They offered me some cherries but after seeing the little white worm I couldn't.

Overall I had an amazing time with them and they want me to visit more often so I could go to the ball with them and go to a football game and other things. I'd love to go to one of their balls! They all dress up. All the guys wear tuxes and the girls wear beautiful dresses and they all waltz in these old, beautiful buildings. It sounds amazing!! It's too bad Austria is so far from home.

The next day I went to another castle that had gardens, but this castle was made into a gallery. It's supposed to be one of the best galleries in the world. Probably the most famous painting they had there was The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. I think it's one of those paintings you have to see in person. The gold parts had a certain sheen to it. I really liked it. They had a couple other paintings of his too. My tour guide said that a lot of his paintings were destroyed in WWII because Jewish people really liked his art works and owned most of them. So that obviously meant to the Nazis that it wasn't "good" art and it should destroyed.

This is the dinner they made me! It was really good! I asked for the recipe for the rice. It was good with the chunks of cheese in it. I also tried to turn the picture around but I couldn't make it work.

Ice cream!!! Yum

Ini, Pezi, and I!!

Gardens that were made so the person in the castle could enjoy looking down at it. Also the colors in the garden corresponded to the colors in the rooms of the castle.

Cool benches that were all across Vienna.