Parents Week

Mommy arrived on Monday and it was wonderful! I met her at the bus and then we spent some time in her lovely hotel room before I had to head to class. That night we had dinner at the Keller which is the restaurant on campus and just had time to talk which was wonderful! We then headed up to her room to say a Rosary which of course ended up being Rosary, several hours of talking, and a Divine Mercy Chaplet.

Mommy had a day trip to Mariazell on Tuesday morning but was back in time to visit my Philosophy of the Human Person class! After classes we went to a lovely Welcome Dinner hosted by the university. We had a wonderfully blessed conversation at dinner and at the end all the students introduced their parents which I thought was really nice.

On Wednesday Mommy had another day trip so I don't think I saw her until dinner time when we ate at the Keller again. After dinner we went to the St. Patrick's Day Talent Show which was lots of fun! We then planned to watch The Quiet Man as is our St. Patrick's Day tradition but we didn't have the dvd and we couldn't find it on youtube! So we ended up just going to bed.

On Thursday we headed out for Salzburg! We had a walking tour that evening and then went out to a lovely little restaurant for dinner. We then went back to our hotel and watched the movie Amazing Grace.

Friday was rather more eventful. In the morning we went to the Mozart museum which was pretty interesting though we were both pretty tired and started falling asleep during the movie at the end. We then headed to the beautiful Mirabell gardens! Different parts of this were used in the filming of The Sound of Music. But even if it hadn't been used for the movie it was definitely worth visiting! We then headed across the river and stopped in the cemetery by Nonnberg Abbey which is where Rolf betrayed the Von Trapps. Only it isn't really where Rolf betrayed the Von Trapps cuz they just built a set of it in Hollywood. But it's still really cool and Mom really enjoyed that!

We then went up to the Fortress which I was super excited about! There's a big hill in the middle of Salzburg with this giant fortress castle on top. And there's the coolest story about this fortress which I'm sure I told you all from the last time I went to Salzburg but just in case - The Turks were attacking Salzburg and so all the Salzburgians fled up to the fortress. So the Turks were in the actual city of Salzburg and had pretty much already won. And the only provisions the Salzburgian people had up in the fortress was one cow. But some genius or madman said let's march the cow around the fortress so the Turks can see it and then paint it a different color and march it around again and then another color and so on and they'll think we have endless provisions. So they tried it and it worked! Hence, there are tons of cow souvenirs in Salzburg and since that's my favorite story about Salzburg I decided to invest in a stuffed cow. Her name is Bessie.

But the point is I love the fortress and I really wanted to visit it so I was super excited that we actually got to! And there's so much to see up there! I mean obviously the view is incredible but then the fortress itself is like a little town! There was a whole museum on the fortress and on the Austrian military and even a little museum on the Salzburg Marionette Theatre! Which, by the way, is really sweet! I mean, we never got to go to the actual theatre but if I ever get a chance to come back to Salzburg it will definitely be on my list of things to do. They legitimately perform Shakespeare and The Nutcracker with puppets! It's so cool!

There was even more stuff we could've done up at the fortress but we were tired and hungry so we decided to head back down. But not before getting a picture of Bessie with the Salzburg Stier sign!

Once we got back down we bought a chocolate covered pretzel from a street vendor for our late lunch. We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the fancy dinner we were going to that night. But before dinner we had Praise and Worship!

That morning my beautiful household sister Chrissy was like I really wanna sing I Love You Lord! And I was like Oh my gosh me too! And she was like We should do praise and worship! And she's so cool that she actually went to Sister Monica and was like Sister can we have praise and worship? And so we decided that at 6:30 that evening we would head up to the Capuchin Monastery overlooking Salzburg and do praise and worship! Oh my gosh it was so beautiful! It was just Chrissy and her parents, me and my Mommy, Ari, and Sister Monica but it was so perfect! We were on top of this hill looking out over my favorite city and the sun was setting and we were just singing and praising God and it was soooooo beautiful! And Chrissy and I even got to sing our household song which was so wonderful - I love that song so much and I love household so much and I love my sisters so much and it was just perfect!

After praise and worship we headed to the Mozart dinner concert which was really fun! Mom and I sat with Chrissy and her parents who I just love and we ate incredibly delicious food and I thought the music was gonna be all instrumental but it wasn't there were singers too! I'm not really a fan of instrumental music - I need singing so this was just perfect even though they were singing in a different language. It was so much fun, I really enjoyed it!

The next day we headed out for Vienna. Our first day mostly just comprised the walking tour and a beautiful Mass! Mass was in the beautiful St. Stephen's Church but it was actually in a small chapel underneath the Church. Nevertheless, it was wonderful. The Priest gave a fantastic homily. One thing he said has really stuck with me: "We should be so grateful that on the last day God will be our judge and not our neighbor." He was reflecting on the Gospel which was of the woman caught in adultery who the people wanted to stone but who Jesus told to "Go and sin no more."

After Mass we walked out a side door of the Church and practically walked right into a procession! At the head of the procession was a man who was clearly either a Bishop or a Cardinal but I couldn't tell which. And they were carrying the cross and the papal flag and it was a candlelight procession and they were all singing and I was like OH MY GOSH! This was just so cool for me cuz processions were pretty much invented in Europe but Vienna's not exactly the bastion of Catholicism that it used to be and yet here was a legit Catholic procession in the middle of the totally citified Vienna! And then I turned to Sister Monica and asked what the procession was for and she said she didn't know but that it was being led by Cardinal Schonnborn who helped write the Catechism! CARDINAL SCHONBORN!!!!! He's like a catechetical celebrity!!!! So I decided we were going to join the procession. I was in tears as we walked along cuz God is just so good!

The procession ended in a courtyard and Mom was trying to get a good picture of the Cardinal and the next thing I know we're standing about five feet away from him! And then he stepped out to start talking and we were literally a foot away from him! A FOOT AWAY FROM CARDINAL SCHONNBORN!!!!!! This man helped write the Catechism of the Catholic Church - the second greatest book ever written (after the Bible of course)!!!!!!!!!!! I'm majoring in Catechetics - this man pretty much made my major possible! AND I'M STANDING A FOOT AWAY FROM HIM!!!!!!!!!! It was incredible!!!!!!!!!!

We eventually headed out and I just had to stop for a moment and take in everything that I'd just experienced. GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!

After that we stopped by a kebap stand for dinner and even got gelatti on the way back to the hotel!

The next day we had Mass at the Hoffburg Palace Chapel with alumni of the Vienna Boys Choir. Naturally, it was lovely. Mom and I then visited the Treasury which houses both royal jewels and suchwhat and a whole couple rooms of relics of the saints! Including St. Veronica's veil that wiped the face of Jesus! And - I was so excited - relics of St. John and St. Jude!!!! They are two of my favorite saints and when we were in Rome I had really hoped that there would be relics of them but we didn't see any and little did I know they were right in Vienna!

After the treasury we stopped for lunch at a lovely little cafe. We then went to the Hoffburg Palace to see the Sisi Museum and the Imperial Apartments. We got there about 10 minutes before an English speaking tour started so that worked out beautifully! The Sisi Museum is dedicated to Empress Elisabeth, nicknamed Sisi, who was the last empress of Austria and who led a very fascinating but tragic life. I found the museum really fascinating. Then we got to see the Imperial Apartments which were really cool! They were the rooms in which the royal family lived. We also stopped by the silver museum which houses all the royal family's silver, china, and crystal. It was actually a little ridiculous how much stuff they had.

We then went to the burial crypt of the Hapsburgs - the ruling family of Austria. It was actually really fascinating.

We had some time before we had to meet up with our group again so we went to the Adoration Chapel at St. Stephen's and visited with Jesus for a little while.

At 5:45 we met up with our group and headed to the Twelve Apostles Restaurant for a farewell dinner. The food was great, the company was great and we even got treated to some dinner music! And it was so sweet at one point all the dads started dancing with their daughters! I was kind of sad my Daddy wasn't there! (Not like I wanted him instead of my Mom but like I wish they both could've been there). After dinner we took several group photos and then I had to run back to the hotel to pack and get on the bus back to Gaming! Mommy was staying in Vienna for the night and flying out in the morning.

Obviously the good-bye was hard but I actually feel much more confident now that my Mom's been here. Probably cuz I got to show her around and I realized how capable I am.