Day 24 - Melk

After finishing my last yogurt this morning, we headed to Melk. We got there early (you have to have an appointment to get into the monastery), so we chilled in a park to eat lunch.

Having some fun in the park. Shortly after I took this picture, Alicia completely fell off this kid's toy. Pretty hilarious.

It is pretty huge.

Then we headed up to the monastery. I'm pretty sure we went the wrong way because we had to hike up the side of a hill that led to the very backside of the monastery, then walk forever to get to the front.

Once inside, we looked around in all of the rooms. There were several items of interest in the rooms.

Model of the monastery. It is quite large.

Terrestrial Globe.

Celestial Globe.

How far down does this staircase go? The photographer you see down there is me ;)

Then to the chapel. It is so sumptuous!

We got to hear a choir while we were there. The singing was gorgeous, especially in such a beautiful place! I'm glad we got to be there for that. Unfortunately, we had to leave prematurely in order to catch our train.

After getting back to Austria, we went shopping to get some groceries for the next couple days. Then Elisabeth, Tabitha, and I went to the YSA FHE. For the first 10 or so minutes, it was extremely awkward. We didn't know where to go or what to do. Fortunately, one of the girls from the BYU group came over to talk to us. This bridging of the gap made things significantly less awkward. After a little bit of mingling, they served us dinner. It was great. We had pasta with salad. Delicious. Then we had a lesson. I was worried it would all be in German, but they translated it into English also, since most of the people there are English speakers. The translator was very animated. I liked her. The lesson was quite good. He (the teacher)/she (the translator) talked about talents and how we need to recognize them. It was fun. We played a few fun games, then we headed out and back to our hotel.

When I got there, I tried to use the internet, only to find that it now required a password. Odd. So Elisabeth and I went to the lobby to use the communal computer. There were two guys already at the computer. No problem. But as the minutes ticked on, more and more men began to arrive until there was a whole crowd of them around the computer. They kept trying to talk to us, but we ignored them. They were drunk. I could tell because I could smell the alcohol. Before now, I have never recognized that smell for what it is, probably because I don't encounter many drunks in Springville. It is a horrific smell. I quite dislike it. Anyway, one of the guys asked if I could take a picture of them. I couldn't refuse because it is just a picture that I was taking of them and they were quite persistent. Unfortunately, they decided that it was then okay to get a picture with the two of us. Ugh. Finally they let us use the internet. While I was writing an email to my mom, one of the guys kept looking over and reading my email. I elbowed him in the chest. Needless to say, we got out of their as quickly as possible. I can't wait for BYU guys again.

After I got back to my room, I packed up all my things for London. I had to stuff my purse and my huge camera bag into my backpack because of Easyjet's one bag restriction. It worked out. Barely. I am sad to leave Vienna so soon. The people have been so nice here and I feel like there is so much more I could do in this city. But there are more adventures ahead of me and I will be in London very soon!