Thanksgiving Feast

Well being in Austria for Thanksgiving I didn't have the traditional celebration. I wasn't with my family and I had school on Thursday but it was still good and I am still grateful. This year, I have so much to be grateful for and so it was so good to have two days to celebrate! The Lord has blessed me so much and I have seen His hand in my life so much. I am grateful that he knows all and loves me. I am so grateful for my testimony of the Gospel and the happiness it brings to my life. I love my family so much and I am so thankful for them. I am grateful that Landon is serving a mission. He is doing the Lord's work! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be on a second study abroad. It is amazing how life works out and the things we do that we never thought of doing.

So on Wednesday, our BYU group got together and had a Thanksgiving feast. It was amazing because we were able to get turkeys, pumpkin pie mix, and other American foods from the Army base in Frankfurt and the UN Center in Vienna. It was so good and so fun to cook and help make food. We had a lot of food and it felt like Thanksgiving because the group has become like family as we have been together for the last three months. We started by having a devotional where we all shared about what we are thankful for and then a few stories about the origin of Thanksgiving. We then ate until we felt sick!

Here is the dessert table.....lots of yumminess! Pumpkin pies, apple crisp, sweet potato cheesecake, and more!
After a little lounging around we had a talent show. It was so fun because there was a great balance of fun and serious acts. I was part of the group that did a music video as our talent. It is pretty funny!

Then after the party, a group of us when to a soccer game. It was so cool to be at a sporting event! The soccer game was between Oesterriech and Tunisian. The final score was 0 to 0! No goals but still fun to watch with a lot of close ones.

Then on the actually Thanksgiving Day, I went to school in the morning. It was so hard to get up and go to because I just wanted it to be holiday so badly. But after class I then went to a chocolate museum. It was amazing because we got chocolate samples!
This is me oh so happy because I am eating chocolate! It was the best truffle I have ever had! So then after that I went to Shoenbrunn and walked around the grounds. It was fun and so beautiful with a little snow on the ground.

That night, I went out to dinner to an Austrian Restaurant....because it was Thanksgiving Day!
I got veal scallops with mashed potatoes and salad. It was so good! Then we walked around the city and enjoyed the wonderful setting of Vienna!

Kurt Koehle's Special Photo Section

Rumor has it there was a special request for more pictures.....ENJOY!

Beautiful Pictures of Europe!

Wien Music Video

Check out this music video.....I did the editing!

Stockholm, Sweden

This last weekend I went to Stockholm, Sweden. The adventure started with an hour and half bus ride from Vienna to Bratislava, Slovakia. The flight left from the Bratislava. The drive was long and there was a big snow storm but we made it and had a two hour wait at the airport. Once we got on the plane we had a two hour flight. The flight was nice because I got a great nap in!
Here are the Brittanys on the flight! So when our plane landed everyone clapped (felt like I was at a movie in Utah or something) and then trumpets started playing announcing that Ryan Air had another on-time arrival....it was so funny!

So the airport was way small and we got there and found out that the airport is about 100km from the city. So we got to take another hour and half bus ride to the city! There was about a foot of snow but wasn't too cold. We got to the central station and from there we realized how unprepared we were. We had a map of the T-bana (Metro System) in English and Swedish and a map of Sweden where our hotel was. But a closer look at the map I realized there was an arrow pointing to the location of the hotel without an address and the arrow covered half of the name of the train station we needed. Luckily I remembered what it looked like so I was able to pick out the letters that were hidden. So we bought train passes and headed to the hotel. When we got to the train station that was near our hotel we asked the guy working there and he was kind enough to look up the hotel and tell us where it was. So our hotel ended up being really nice. It was very modern and had a great atmosphere. We got there around 10:00pm so we called it a night so we could get an early start the next morning. Here is a video of our room!

Not sure if that would fly in the states with no windows but it was a great bed!

So the next morning I woke up at 6:30am and got ready. The bathrooms were in the hallway but they were nice and so it worked. We then had a great breakfast. Breads, meats, cheeses, yogurt, jam, and juice! It was nice to have a good big meal to start the day. So we got on the train and headed to the center of town. It wasn't too cold but I also wore a lot of layers...two scarves, leggings, boots, hat, and lots of shirts!

Our first stop was at the water front. It was so beautiful and the buildings were so cool. I found out that Sweden has a Royal Family....their picture was everywhere! Then we saw the Royal Palace and the Nobel Museum. I didn't know that the Nobel Peace Prize is given in Stockholm. After the water front, we found the Vasa Museum which houses a huge ship that sunk 300 years ago and was brought up about 50 years ago. It was huge and so cool. The museum showed what life was like on the ship and how it sunk then also how it was brought up. It was very cool. We then walked around the downtown area then decided to get on the T-bana and get off at a random stop. We got off and ended up asking a lady where to eat. She was so helpful and nice. She told us about an open market with lots of restaurants. It was awesome with lots of authentic Swedish food. I ended up getting fried herring and mashed potatoes. It was so good. I even ate the fish bones...because they were so small and I was way too hungry to take the time the bones out....Dad, I really wanted you there right then!

After lunch, we got Princess Torte...pretty much it will blow your mind! It was so good.
While we were there we also went to the Vasa Museum which has a huge ship that sank like three hundred years ago. It was preserved in the Baltic Sea because the salt level is lower. So in the 1960s the ship was raised from the bottom of the harbor.
While in Stockholm, we also went to the Temple. It was so beautiful and a very special spirit was there. We weren't able to do any work but we went inside and talked to a worker for a little bit.
The snow made it magical too! Love the Gospel and how even half way around the world I felt at peace.

Berlin

Here we are in the Vienna Airport so excited to go to Berlin! It just so happened that Dr. Keele and his wife, Linda, were on our same flight to Berlin....the Keele's were my first study abroad director and they are in Berlin with a study Abroad group! It was so amazing to see them because it was my experience with them that made me want to do this European experience again!
Our hostel that was only 10 euros a night...and it was so nice! We were so happy that it wasn't like the hostel in Prague! Berlin was treating us right.
This is the Olympic Stadium from the 1937 games. It was so huge! It was destroyed during WWII but was completely rebuilt with a very modern style...I like it!
All around Berlin were markers showing where the Berlin wall stood. The East Side Gallery is the only part that is still standing. It is crazy to think that I was alive when the Wall came down.
This is the Kaiser Wilhelm Church that was bombed out during WWII. Now it is a memorial to the war.
These were sweet teeter-totter that were built by the Sony Center. Berlin is a way modern city and has such a different feel than other European cities because it has built especially on the East side.

Prague

Well I went to Prague and even though the weather predicted rainy weather....it wasn't! I love when the weather reports are wrong. So we took a four hour train ride to Prague and from there went to our A Plus Hostel....well it was anything abut A plus! The bathrooms were in separate rooms from the bedrooms and for the shower it was just a common room with five shower heads! So we then had an awesome tour guide that took us around the city and showed us all the exciting sites.

Prague had amazing food. The first night we found this amazing Italian restaurant and then this Czech Kitchen that had amazing Czech food.
This amazing pasta dish had the CREAMIEST sauce I have ever had! It was a huge portion too! No messing around with going home hungry after spending too much money....it was cheap and a lot of food!
Here is a meal I had at the Czech Kitchen.....goulash with potatoes, borscht soup, and Fanta!

So Prague had a lot more tourist shops and things than other cities we have gone to. One thing I really enjoyed was going to a Body Exhibition where they had cadavers and all different parts of the body to learn about. It was amazing!
This was shop with Russian stacking dolls....it was amazing some having over thirty dolls and the big one was like three feet tall! I wanted one so badly!
This is me on Charles Bridge touching the Saint. It is not for good luck as many people believe it is the thought of being "close" to the saint so you literally touch him. The bridge is definitely a great place because it gives a beautiful view of castle hill and lots of people selling stuff.
This is up on castle hill behind the St. Vitus Cathedral....it is beautiful! The three Brittanys.

OktoberFest

Well this past weekend was a lot of fun hanging around Vienna! On Friday, a group of us meet up and went around Vienna filming a music video. It was so fun to find different locations in Vienna to film and be funny. We even choreographed some moves! We started at Schonbrunn then went to the Danube Canal. Unfortunately, it started to rain in the afternoon and so we went to Camille's house to start the Oktoberfest feast!

We got cookies, milk, and lemon Manner bars for snack while we played Ligretto--a German card game that is like nertz! Then we made wurst and Spaetzle (German noodles), broccoli, and drank apple juice! It was so fun to cook and it tasted and looked good! Then we ate some yummy cakes for dessert. Europe definitely has my heart when it comes to food.