Update

So my original plan for this weekend was to go to London. However, it ended up not working out for this weekend but I'm most likely going next weekend instead. This weekend I just stayed at the Kartause which has actually been really nice cuz I have just been going going going since I got here and it was nice to just have some time to relax. I was so excited Thursday night when I realized that for the first time since I got here I haven't had to set my alarm clock! So I spent the weekend watching movies, doing homework, and studying for my test on tuesday.

Salzburg Part II

On Sunday morning we went to Salzburg Cathedral for Mass. The entire Mass was in German. It would have been beautiful but I was exhausted and ill so I definitely didn't appreciate it as much as I should have.

After Mass we went to lunch, again at Restaurant Sternbrau. We had a lovely soup that seems to be served in all Austrian restaurants, then veal and noodles, then for dessert . . . white cheese strudel!

We then hopped on the bus and stopped at Mondsee where there is the Church where Maria and Captain Von Trapp are married in The Sound of Music and the lake from The Sound of Music. The Church was beautiful but the aisle was much shorter than it looks in the movie so I was kind of disappointed about that. It probably also would've helped if I'd been feeling better. I had a full fledged cold at this point and would've preferred to stay asleep on the nice warm bus. I then started to head down to the lake but the closer I got the colder it got so I turned around and went back to the bus.

That's pretty much all exciting that happened on Sunday.

Munich

Unfortunately, on Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat :-(

However, we headed out for Munich, in Germany, after breakfast.

When we arrived we went straight to Mass . . . at the Cathedral where Pope Benedict used to be Bishop!!!! It was pretty exciting! Once Mass finished we had a quick tour of the Cathedral in which we saw Pope Benedict's coat of arms as Bishop above his Papal coat of arms!

In the entryway to the Cathedral is a footprint. Legend has it that the devil bribed the architect of the Cathedral to build the Cathedral without windows because windows let in the light of Christ. Without windows the devil could turn the church into a church for himself. However, the architect built the Church with stained glass windows which you can't really see from the outside. So when the Cathedral was finished the devil walked in the front door to claim it as his own and he saw the stained glass windows, which not only let in the light but also showed beautiful pictures of Christ and the saints. So the devil stamped his foot in fury leaving the footprint.

We then went on a tour of (a.k.a. mad dash around) Munich. My favorite place in the city, and Pope Benedict's favorite place in the city, was Marianplatz. This was basically a town square with a large pillar in the center on top of which is a beautiful statue of Our Lady. On the front of the pillar is inscribed "Johannes Paul II 19/11/1980." The reason it has this date is because on the day the Pope was shot pretty much everyone in Munich gathered in Marianplatz to pray for him. Pretty much the entire city was gathered in Marianplatz, including Bishop Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict). The Holy Father later attributed his recovery to the intercession of Our Lady.

On the side of the pillar is inscribed "Benedikt XVI 9/9/2005." When Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope the people of Munich gathered in Marianplatz to celebrate.

After our tour Amy and I headed to the open air market to get lunch. I ate my first German sausage and sauerkraute. And they were delicious!

We then headed to a cafe cuz I was freezing, not feeling well, and in desperate need of a hot chocolate.

After our hot chocolate (heisse chocolate) Amy wanted to check out the Hoffbrauhause. The Hoffbrauhause is basically a famous restaurant/beer hall. So we headed off so Amy could take her pictures of the place and of course we went in entirely the wrong direction. So we headed back in the other direction . . . and ended up going too far that way. So we finally found the place and I insisted on going inside cuz I was freezing, ill, and my feet hurt. So we stood in the gift shop for about 5 minutes then went back to Marianplatz where we found a little cafe and bought some mini pizza type things for dinner. We then ate dinner outside while waiting for the giant glockenspiel (cool clock with dancing people, think Pinocchio) to strike the hour and start dancing. Unfortunately, it didn't go off.

So we headed to the Residence which is basically a palace. But it too was closed. So we wandered around for awhile then went to a Starbuck's and Sarah purchased a caramel brownie which we divided into thirds and which was quite delicious. We then headed for the buses and went back to the hostel in Salzburg.

Salzburg Part 1

Hello everyone!

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this, I haven't had time to breath since I got back to campus!

So, Friday morning we headed off to Salzburg, home of The Sound of Music. When we arrived we, of course, went straight to Mass at Franziscuse Kirche (I probably butchered the spelling on that) which means St. Francis Church. I was exhausted to the point that my friend thought I fell asleep during the homily, but I didn't! I couldn't have fallen asleep during that homily because the auxiliary bishop saying the Mass went up to the pulpit and said "Usually during the homily the priest talks about the Gospel but today I'm going to talk about the Gospel of Life." And so, despite my closed eyes, I was paying close attention for the next 10 minutes (well for the rest of the Mass too, obviously, but my eyes were only closed during the homily). And at the end of the Mass we were informed that the Bishop is well known throughout Austria for his pro-life work! Which is interesting because before I left the U.S. I had been informed that "the Austrian Church is in complete disarray" and to be careful when going to Mass outside the Kartause. But Franciscan seems to have discovered all the orthodox priests and bishops in Austria and gotten them to say Mass for us! Cuz that's just what Franciscan does :-)

After Mass we headed to lunch at the restaurant Sternbrau. I sat with my friends Amy and Ari and with Sr. Jean Paul. We had a lovely meal and conversation during which we discovered that the neck warmer I had made also makes a lovely ear warmer.

Once we finished lunch we headed off on our tour of old Salzburg. We first saw Mozart's house which is on this really cool street where every shop has to have a sign hanging from their store with the name of the store or a picture of what they sell because in the middle ages a lot of people couldn't read and so shops would hang out signs with, for example, a shoe if it was a shoe store, or some sort of picture of the kind of items that the shop sold. And so, it is now law in Austria that, to preserve this cultural symbol, all the shops on this one street have to have these cool signs hanging on their shops. It even made McDonald's look classy. We also saw the smallest house in Austria and several cool statues, although, due to the nasty weather, all the statues are covered with giant translucent cones during the winter because they are hundreds of years old and after a couple years of snow, sleet, and rain they would be seriously damaged. It's ok though cuz I'm going back to Salzburg in the spring when they'll all be uncovered. One sight that I was very sorry was covered was the fountain that Maria splashes in The Sound of Music. The very top of it was uncovered but the bottom with the horses and everything was under a big wooden covering.

We then headed to Mozartplatz where there is a big statue of Mozart across from Cafe Demel where Mozart ate, numerous literary societies were formed, and which is the home of Empress Maria Theresa's favorite dessert. We then saw the Cathedral next to Mozartplatz which Mozart composed several of his compositions for. In front of the Cathedral is a statue of the Blessed Mother. The position of this statue allows it to appear that Our Lady is wearing a crown that is placed on the Cathedral.

When looking to the right of the Cathedral one sees a large hill on top of which is an old fortress. This fortress has never been captured. The closest it came was when the Turks attacked (as they often do) and all the people of Salzburg fled to the fortress. Unfortunately their entire supply of provisions consisted of one cow. So they took the cow outside one day and paraded him around the fortress. They then painted the cow red so that it looked like a red bull and paraded it around again. They then took it back and painted it brown. Then black, then white, etc. So the Turks, who had already completely taken over the town, saw all these cows parading around the fortress and said wow, they've got tons of provisions, there's no way we can starve them out, so they packed up and went home. They had already won and they just forfeited!

We also saw the oldest statue in Salzburg. It's a small statue of a lion and it's survived all kinds of invasions and bombing raids.

We then visited a smaller Church where St. Rupert is buried. We then walked through the Salzburg cemetery and saw the spot where Rolf betrayed the Von Trapps. Except it's not really where Rolf betrayed the Von Trapps because they made a replica of it in Hollywood which is where it was filmed.

After our tour we checked in to the hostel. Amy, Ari, and I were rooming together. After we put our stuff in our room we headed out for our own Salzburg excursion. We first stopped at an outdoor display where they had elephant hats which naturally reminded me of the Republican party. So I of course took some pictures with it.

We then headed over to the Salzburg outdoor market. We saw lots of cool stuff in the market most exciting of which were the real Austrian clocks - like the ones in Pinocchio with the people dancing and chopping wood and all that. I really wanted to buy one but they were kind of expensive. Maybe if I have any money left at the end of the semester I'll splurge.

We then passed some shops, one of which was a hat shop. I love hats. So Ari and I dragged Amy with us into the shop where we proceeded to try on all the hats we could get our hands on. Ari purchased a beautiful beret which looks incredibly adorable on her! I discovered a beautiful cloche hat which I was seriously considering buying. The lady who owned the shop then pulled down a 1920's inspired hat which I tried on. The first hat caught 25 euro. When I asked the lady how much the second hat was she said "I can give you both for 30." So naturally I bought both and Ari and I left in terrible happiness with our new hats. Interestingly enough one of the few German phrases I know is "Ich haben einen hutte" (I'm not sure about the spelling) which means "I have a hat."

We then headed back to the hostel and picked up dinner on the way. In Austria kabobs are a delicious and inexpensive meal. Now kabobs, contrary to popular belief, are not shish-kabobs. They're kind of like gyros but better. Except I don't really know cuz I've never had a gyro but kabobs are delicious!

We then stopped back at the hostel before heading out for a lovely little concert. The concert was held in a palace that I can't remember the name of but it was beautiful. The Twins Quartet played some beautiful music and I kind of felt like a princess cuz I was in a beautiful palace listening to classical music.

We then headed back to the hostel and collapsed from exhaustion :-)

Weekend Adventures

I'll be visiting Salzburg and Munich this weekend. Be back on Monday with stories and pictures :-)

"Halfway to Heaven"

Thought some of you might be interested in this: it's the daily schedule of the monks who used to live in the Kartause.

11:45 p.m. - rise - pray Little Office of Our Lady
12:00 midnight to 2:30 a.m. - Matins/Lauds
3:00 a.m. to 6:45 a.m. - sleep
6:45 a.m. - Little Office of Our Lady/Prime
7:15 a.m. to 8:oo - private prayer
8:00 a.m. - Little Office of Our Lady/Terce
8:15 a.m. - Community Mass
9:00 a.m. - Prayer in cell - spiritual exercises, pray, Scripture study
11:15 a.m. - Little Office of Our Lady/Sext
11:30 a.m. - Dinner, rest, work
1:15 p.m. - None
1:30 p.m. - study, pray, work in cell, work in garden
3:45 p.m. - Little Office, Vespers
4:45 p.m. - supper
2 1/2 hours of spiritual exercises
Compline/Compline of Our Lady
8:00 p.m. - sleep

The Kartause

On Sunday we had a tour of some of the more interesting aspects of the Kartause.

We began the tour with the bell tower of the Church. This is the one and only time we'll be allowed to go up to the belltower. We climbed up a very narrow spiral staircase, up and up and up. We passed the choir loft and continued going up and up and up. We finally got to the first stop on our way to the bell tower. We were standing on top of the ceiling. We had to walk on boards over the domes. Then we got to look down into the church.

Then we headed up a little ways more into the tower in which there was another tower which led to the actual bell. We didn't get to go up there though, it's too dangerous.

We then headed back down, stopped in the choir loft to take a couple pictures, then headed over to the library.

Then we visited the Kartause museum.

And here are some other pictures I took of the Kartause:

VIENNA!!!!!

So Saturday morning at 7:30 we departed on buses for the beautiful city of Vienna. It was about a two hour ride. We arrived around 10:15 a.m. and went right to Mass at Kapuzinerkloster. This is the Church where the skeletons of the Hapsburgs (the former ruling family of Austria) are buried. (Their hearts are in another Church and their organs in another.) When the funeral procession would come to Kapuzinerkloster the person at the head of the procession would knock at the door and one of the monks from inside would say "Who demands entrance?" and the funeral procession guy would say, for example, "Empress Maria Theresia, Empress of Austria, Queen of Prussia, etc." listing all her titles and the monk would say "We do not know her." Then the funeral procession guy would knock again and the monk would say "Who demands entrance?" and the funeral procession guy would say "Empress Maria Theresia, Empress of Austria, Queen of Prussia" just listing her two most important titles and the monk would say "We do not know her." So then the funeral procession guy would knock again and the monk would say "Who demands entrance?" and the guy would say "Empress Maria Theresia, a poor sinner" and then the monk would open the door.

After Mass we began a walking tour of Vienna. We visited several churches, including the beautiful, Gothic, St. Stephen's. There are two towers on St. Stephen's one of which is shorter than the other. The legend is that the man building the towers wanted to marry the architect's daughter. So the architect said he could marry her once he finished building the towers. So then the builder met this man who said that he could help him finish the towers really quickly but he couldn't say the names of any of the saints or of the Blessed Mother until the towers were finished. So the builder said ok and he built the first tower and then he started building the second one and then one day he was up working on the tower and he saw the woman he loved down below and so he yelled out her name: "Maria!" And the devil (the mysterious man) struck him dead. So that's why one tower is shorter than the other. St. Stephen's is really cool for several other reasons, first of all it has a perpetual adoration chapel, and secondly it was a meeting place for the Austrian resistance during World War II. The resistance would mark buildings where they could meet with the numbers 05 because the name of Austria in German is Osterreich and 05 kind of looks like OS, which, obviously, are the first two letters of their country's name.

We also saw a statue of Josef II the King who closed the Kartause and all the monasteries in Europe because he didn't understand the importance of contemplative prayer and so he took the money that would have been going to contemplative religious orders and gave it to orders that were "doing things" like taking care of the poor and stuff, which, obviously, is really important, but you can't succeed in those efforts if you don't have prayer backing you up. We then visited the church where the hearts of the Hapsburgs are entombed and across the street we saw the famous Viennese show horses (actually I think they're Spanish but they do the show in Vienna). Also in Vienna are some ancient Roman ruins, I think they're of the aqueducts, and the cafe, Cafe Greinsteidl, where the original Bambi was written and where many famous writers used to visit. I thought the most interesting sight we saw was the balcony that Hitler spoke from when Germany annexed Austria and where, many years later, JPII spoke!

After the tour we headed to the Melker Stiftskeller for lunch. It was a beautiful restaurant! It was actually underground which was kinda cool and the food was delicious! They gave us soup, salad, a main course (weinerschnitzel! which is apparently kind of like fried chicken only with pork? unless my friend was lying to me), and dessert!

After lunch we had free time to do whatever we wanted. I really wanted to go to Schonbrunn Palace but none of my friends wanted to go there so I decided to be independent and strike out on my own. But, apparently Jesus didn't want me to go to Schonbrunn cuz I could not find a metro to save my life! I thought I found one and then it turned out to be an underground bathroom! What the heck?! So I finally gave up and decided to wander until I found something interesting to do. So eventually I came upon the royal treasury which is basically a museum with all the royal jewels and stuff. It was really cool. They were selling those little electronic tour guide things but I didn't buy one cuz they're usually a waste of money. But then I realized that everything was written in German so I had no idea what anything was. However, I met up with one of the Sisters from our group and she had one of the electronic tour guides. And she grabbed me and was like "Clare, come here you have to listen to this!" So she pulled me over to this big crown that was on display and handed me the device and it explained that the king designed the crown so that there were diamonds to represent Christ, rubies to represent the fire of the Holy Spirit, and a big sapphire on top to represent God the Father, and the diamonds and sapphire are connected by the rubies! I think that is just the coolest ever!!!! And then there was another crown that had a painting of King David on one side and King Solomon on the other. It was really cool cuz most of the stuff in the museum were either religious items or secular items that incorporated religion. And that's when I decided that I am not visiting Europe - I'm visiting CHRISTENDOM! And it's not study abroad - it's a PILGRIMAGE!

When I finished in the museum I walked outside and there was no one in the courtyard and it was just dusk and the air was cool and I was in VIENNA!!! It was just such a movie moment, I can't even explain it, but I just had to stand there and take it all in. It was so wonderful!

All day I had noticed the horse and carriage rides throughout the city. I've seen those before in New York and I always wanted to take one but my parents would never pay for it. But I was in Vienna with my own money and I decided to take a carriage ride. It was soooo cool! It was actually kinda bumpy cuz Vienna still has some cobblestone streets but once we got on regular roads it was fine.

After my carriage ride I had a half hour before I was supposed to meet my friend Amy at the Albertina. Since I had no idea where I was I figured I should pull out my map and start heading to where I thought the Albertina was. I found out later that I was kind of on the right track but at the time I definitely felt lost. But, as always, Jesus took care of me, and I found three of my household sisters outside of St. Stephen's along with one of our r.a.'s. When I showed up they immediately pulled me into the group and we sang Dona Nobis Pacem in three rounds. It was really cool cuz we were just standing in front of St. Stephen's, in Vienna, singing! Then we learned that St. Stephen's has perpetual adoration so we headed in to say hi to Jesus.

When we finished talking to Jesus I had them direct me to the Albertina. Apparently I just had to go straight down the street and ask people along the way how to get to the opera house. So I headed off and about halfway I was freezing so I stopped in the Mostly Mozart chocolate shop to warm up. Then I asked the guy at the counter how to get to the opera house and I was told to just keep going straight. Then I turned around and there was Amy! Apparently she had gotten tired of waiting for me. So we spent the rest of our time checking out the shops and then, I hadn't eaten dinner yet, so we stopped in a cafe and I got an apple strudel. Then we got on the busses and headed back to the Kartause!

VIENNA!!!!

So not much happened Friday, just classes. I had my first Christian Moral Principles class which was lovely.

Then Saturday we headed to Vienna!!!! We left at 7:30 a.m. I slept on the ride.

First Day of Classes

Today, Thursday, was the first day of classes here at the Kartause. My first class was French Revolution and Nineteenth Century Europe taught by Fr. Seraphim Beshoner. One of the unique things about studying in Europe is that Fr. Seraphim was able to assign us a project which requires visiting a historic site, I'm hoping to go to Versailles - the palace of King Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette.

After class Amy and I met up with Katie at the Chapel for Mass. This was the first opportunity I'd had to see the Kartause Chapel and it was beautiful! We are going on a tour of the Kartause on Sunday so expect pictures sometime after that.

Following Mass we had lunch - Austrian hot dogs wrapped in bacon! I never thought I would say this but it was actually too much meat for me.

After lunch I grabbed my books and headed to Theology of the Church with Professor Robert Cassidy. Amy and I had this class together. Upon entering we discovered that our friend Ari was also in the class with us. And then, a few minutes before class begin Katie came in sat down next to me and said "I heard this professor's Scottish so I'm waiting for him to open his mouth!" At which time he promptly began speaking . . . in the most amazing Scottish accent ever! He gave about a half hour rousing introductory speech to the course (it reminded us of Braveheart) in which he informed us that this class is part of a journey toward sainthood ". . . and so we begin . . . with a syllabus!" Was the wonderful ending to this wonderful speech. Yeah - it's gonna be a great class!

Following Theology of the Church I moved to the front row of the same classroom to sit with Ari and our friend Sarah during Philosophy of the Human Person with Professor Maria Wolter who is also amazing! Philosophy usually frightens me but she just made it so cool and oh my gosh I can't wait to get started!!!! And it's philosophy of the human person which I didn't really know what that meant before tonight but it's basically what it says it's philosophy about the human person and the dignity of the human person so it's a totally pro-life class so I'm soooooooooo excited!!!!!!!

I then returned to the back of the same classroom to sit with my friends Maude and Sarah during Intro to Scripture, also with Professor Cassidy. He gave another, different, rousing speech for this class.

Finally classes were done and Ari and I headed into Gaming so I could get some euro's (european money) and she could stop at the spar (pronounced shpar) which is the grocery store. I've spent most of the rest of the evening arguing with the wireless and my computer.

Wednesday

Wednesday was orientation day here at the Kartause. The morning began with two orientation meetings after which I entered the lobby to find my lost luggage! Thankfully a kind gentleman was passing at the moment so I didn't have to carry the almost 50 pound bag all the way up to the second floor. It sounds silly, but I was really rather overjoyed when I opened my bag to see all my missing items!

I then took a short nap before our mandatory alcohol awareness meeting. Which I kept dozing off during which is ok cuz I'm not planning to drink anyway! After that we all received free Austrian cell phones to use during the 4 months we're here. We then headed down to ground floor to pick up our textbooks.

After that I attempted to catch up on this blog but that clearly didn't work out too well. We then broke into small groups for a walking tour of the town of Gaming. It was a mostly practical tour, with the R.A.'s showing us such sites as the bank, doctor's office, and drug store. However, I intend to go back at some point to take photos of the more picturesque areas of the town.

After returning to the Kartause I was finally able to speak to my mommy!!!!!!

And that was most of the excitement for the day.

Melk Monastery

After eating lunch at the Austrian restaurant on Tuesday we got back on the busses and headed to the beautiful Melk Monastery in the Danube River Valley. Melk Monastery is one of the oldest working monasteries in the world.

The first sight we saw in the monastery were portraits of the Monastery's most famous historical visitors: Empress Maria Theresa and her husband whose name I can't remember. They had 16 children, one of whom was Marie Antoinette, the wife of the French King Louis the Sixteenth who ended up being guillotined (beheaded) during the French Revolution.

We then toured several rooms containing ancient artifacts from the monastery. As the tour guide pointed out, all these treasures pointed to God. The riches of the monastery consisted of items such as golden monstrances and bejewelled chalices. Also included were ancient paintings, a treasure chest with an insane lock, and numerous relics of saints.

In another room was a miniature model of the Melk:

We then entered the dining room that was used for important guests. As we were in this room, admiring all the man made beauty, God gave us His own incredible work of art. I attempted to take pictures of the sun but none of them could capture the beauty of God's creation at that moment. The sun seemed to be on fire! A few minutes later, as the sun continued to set, the orb seemed to be red on top and purple on bottom. Though none of the pictures I took adequately express the beauty of that moment, I will include the best ones here so you can get some idea of what we saw: We then stood on the terrace from which we could see the Danube and the back of the Melk on which are statues of St. Peter and St. Paul to whom the monastery is dedicated. St. Peter is holding the key and St. Paul the sword. From the terrace we entered the library. We saw the first two, two floor, rooms of a 10 room library. They were incredible! It was better than the library scene in Beauty and the Beast! After the library we came to the main attraction: the Chapel. I was absolutely dazed when we walked in. Though I took tons of pictures it seemed almost pointless. Pictures could never fully capture the beauty of that building. But, here are some of the best: In the Chapel were two full skeletons of catacomb saints. Amy named the first one Friedrich.

My favorite part of all the rooms we visited were the ceilings: