(E.A. Part 9)

Day 9.

Today we traveled to Vienna, Austria. When we woke up, we all looked dirt poor. Our hair was greasy and standing up and weird. We couldn't take a shower since we were staying in a tent. We all brushed our teeth, packed up our stuff, and made our way towards the restaurant that we went to the night before. People to People asked this Viking restaurant to set a breakfast table out in the courtyard. It had a lot of bread and butter. It had a Nutella spread, and a giant bowl of cereal that people could scoop out of. It was a decent breakfast and we all filled up. Afterwards we went to a little medieval construction sight and saw half-finished buildings and it was really neat. It was a Sunday and no one was working. This construction sight was being worked on by a bunch of grown men. They were using old techniques to build the place. There was a blacksmiths shop. They set up an irrigation system and we all got fresh water from a place that's pretty far away. We saw a woodworking shop and a little pulley system that helps get giant logs up a hill. We also managed to see a little area where they were hollowing out a trunk and making a canoe. When we were done touring the area and taking pictures we walked back to our "hotel" got our bags, said goodbye to Feefee and left. Cole and I played "Feed me oil" on my iPad and Dani and Kara sat behind us and made fun of us because our hair was so messed up and crazy. After about an hour we stopped and got a sack lunch. We had a sandwich and a pre-made cookie with apple juice. It wasn't the best but it got us through. We got back on the bus and went to our hotel. We all noticed pretty fast that our hotel was 5 STAR. It was incredible. The hedgings in the front looked like gods. The lobby was big and vast and had amazing furniture. It was huge and our rooms were crazy awesome. I stayed with Chris and Adam and we all got peacock feather blankets and candy on our pillows. It was a huge bed so I got that with Adam and then Chris set his stuff up on the cot. It was still the middle of the day and we had alot planned so we all took showers and got dressed in preppy clothes and then went to the lobby. We hhad to have ties for the place we were going to tonight and me and a handful of my friends didn't have ties. So we went on a tie hunt around the hotel frantically asking people if we could borrow, buy, or use someone's tie. At one point my friend Joe dares me to ask some guy if I could buy his cool cartoon tie. I go over and in German, ask if i could buy his tie. He then knew we spoke English and asked if we all needed one. We said yes and he led us to a room in the lobby. We found out later that he was the hotel manager. He gave us all his card and then he showed us a room full of ties. We all picked one and saw the price tags on them. I got one that was €150. It was just something that we all borrowed so we didnt need to pay. Shortly after we left to go talk to a Holocaust survivor. We met up with the highschool delegation and went into a room. There was a plump old man that seemed really agrivated at someone. He had a skinny proffessor standing next to him. The proffessor was the holocaust survivors translater. The holocaust survivor only spoke German so we heard his tale through the skinny looking man. He talked to us about how hard times were and how cruel some of the generals of the time were. He picked two people out of the crowd and compared them and told them what would happen to them if they were born in that time. It was really weird and hard to think about. Afterwards when he was done with the speech, people to people gave a present. My group and I then left and we all started walking towards our restaurant. We sat down and looked around and it was a pretty elegant place. I sat next to Brian, Dani, Tyler, and Joe. We all got red flavored water and edible flowers. By the time that we got our food we were already starving. We got a plate of chopped potatoes and some shnitzel with lemon. Schnitzel is a traditional Austrian dish made with boneless meat thinned with a mallet, coated in breadcrumbs and fried. It tasted really good and especially with the lemon on it. We all took our squished lemons and threw them into the flavored water pitcher. We all had alot of fun. When we were done we got out of the restaurant and walked through a park to get to our bus. When we got on the bus and left we started heading to a huge orchestra. I sat next to Allyson and Dylan and we laughed at some of the guys who were singing because their voices went up really high. Once we got to the intermission we all left the great hall and went outside to sit and cool off in the cold night air, because at this time it was pretty dark ouside. We took lots of pictures of some of the statues and had a great time. Then we went inside and got some rootbeer. Afterwards we went and sat back down and listened to grown men sing for another two hours. When the orchestra was over, we all started walking through the lighted streets. We got to newspaper stand and waited there until a trolly came and picked us up. We were on the trolly for thirty minutes to an hour and it was pretty interesting. My friends were yelling in the back and throwing gum everywhere. Some people were starring at me and Ally through eye holes in a magazine. And Parker surprisingly sat with a 6'2 blond who wouldnt stay off her phone. When we got off the trolly we started walking towards the hotel and made our way through crowds of men that were just hanging out on the street. It was pretty scary since it was like midnight. We got back to the hotel and started talking to people in othe rooms from the balcony-like area outside the window. We got a bunch of Michigan candy from our friend Daisy and we threw Chrises ipod across the hotel roof. It was an awesome day and I loved it!