Playing in Prater II: The Ultimate Zip Line

On Tuesday we were invited to Prater again by our friends the Mamouneys. We were invited to a different part of Prater, even though we thought that we had found all of it . Boy, were we surprised. We immediately raced to get to the slide first. Of course, it wasn't just any slide or I wouldn't have gone to that first. It was about 30 feet high (with a slant of course). It was too good to be true, obviously there had to be a catch, and there it was, a big brown mud puddle at the very bottom of the slide just waiting for its next victim. Then, there was the zip line. Oh, I've been waiting for this moment too long. I ran like I never had before (except in basketball), I got on and off I went as the wind rushed by causing my heart to be soundless (either because I was holding my breath or the wind was really loud). As I got off, I gave it to the next person in line who was... scowling. He said, "-------- --------." It wasn't a particularly long conversation, unless short words in German are long conversations to them. I probably should have looked to see if someone was in line. (By the way, I want to make it clear that the words -------- and -------- are probably either offensive or bad words like swear words, so don't go around saying them.

Most of it was intense stuff like a thing-a-ma-jigger that you climb and there are these baskets that are about 4 1/2 feet wide circles 10 feet off of the ground that I relaxed in for a half an hour, but there are still boring swing sets that I don't miss at all and never will.

"Wood"n't that be nice...

To be in the woods, now that "wood" be nice. On Monday we went to Vienna Woods. It had a view of all of Vienna. The view is a one of a kind kind of view. The view itself was worth the half an hour bus ride up to the top of the hill, but then we went hiking. I missed the smell of the woods, it reminded me of the times Dad and I had a father-son camp out. I miss home, and I'll miss this year's father-son camp out, so I felt like I wasn't missing it (at least, until I turned around again and saw my mom and two sisters.)

As we trekked through the woods, we (as usual) had to stop at the nearest bus stop because Reyna's legs were to "tired". When we got to the U-bahn, Reyna found her energy and ran to the train and when we got off, she ran to the tram. When we got off the tram she took my mom's apartment keys and ran a block to our apartment building. We ran to catch to her and we got into our apartment bulding and then the apartment.

NO PICTURES ALLOWED!

On Saturday we went to the Albertina museum. The Albertina museum had art by Klee, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Picasso, Chagall, Renoir, Monet, and Degas. It was amazing! The only downside is that there was a sign that said NO PICTURES ALLOWED!, it wasn't in English of course, but my mom knows german. I was very disappointed for two things, 1: I couldn't take pictures, 2: some of the paintings were borrowed by another museum. It was still a great experience though.

Oh, by the way, this museum had an automatic bathroom door too.

Playing in Prater

Last Friday I went to Prater. At Prater, we explored the Prater amusement park and played on more playgrounds. As we walked around the amusement park we saw ferris wheels, roller coasters, and something like a boomerang. I can't wait to hopefully go on a ride there. After that, we went to the playgrounds in Prater searching for a big zip line. We found a zip line, but we were confused, it wasn't very big and it wasn't very fun either. We also found a huge climbing structure that went about 25 feet high. My mom was scared the whole time we might fall. Let me tell you, she was right to be scared because one time I was only hanging on by 1 arm, not 2, 1. Luckily, I got back up, all while my mom was throwing something away.

Welcome to "Gudapest"!

We spent two days in what my sister Reyna calls "Gudapest." She clarified, "So we're going to get something to eat at a restaurant called Hungry when we get to Gudapest?" We laughed so hard after that, but we made sure to explain it to her. She laughed too.

The two days that we spent in Budapest were the 23rd and 24th of March.

Tuesday the 23rd: Tuesday, we arrived at the train station early in the afternoon. We got out of the apartment at about 15:00. We walked to Hero Square first. We took lots of pictures. We then walked over to Transylvania Castle and saw very historical and interesting things there. The only thing that I didn't like about it was that the Drawbridge was taken out. We went to the bath house after that, it's too bad we didn't get to go swimming. We walked to a park that I really can't describe, but like other parks, it is sure different than America. I got a secret box that reminds me of the secret desk from National Treasure. We had DEE-licious Hungarian Goulash at For Sale Pub for dinner.

Wednesday the 24th: Wednesday, we spent the day at castle hill at Fisherman's Bastian. It was amazing and had an amazing view of Budapest. The view included the Parlament, Chain Bridge, the Danube River, and the palace. Later, we walked to the palace and saw a different view of the same things. The palace was amazing, I don't know how there were not very many tourists there. We got a DEE-licious Hungarian Tree Cake. I saw old Roman ruins. I also got a Russia Nesting Doll.

Hundert Wasser Haus

Last Monday I saw Vienna as a huge canvas because I went inside one of weirdest/coolest piece of artwork, the Hundert Wasser Haus.

Weird isn't it. I've never seen a weird face on a weird apartment building, in fact, I've never actually seen a weird apartment building.

Hup, Two, Three, Four!

On Saturday, we started at the Naschmarkt and went from there to wandering around Vienna looking at a bunch of cool, beautiful, amazing, awesome, pretty, old, wondrous, breath-taking, gorgeous, somewhat colorful, and ancient things.

At the Naschmarkt we saw a lot of old things including cameras and World War I and World War II army hats, shirts, guns, and knives. My two sisters found some Russian dolls that have other dolls inside when you open it and I hope to get one too. We saw an old phonograph too.

While we were wandering around Vienna, (well, not exactly "wandering") we walked by the Rathaus (the Town Hall), Parliament, Stadtoper (Opera House), the Lipizzaner stallions (a famous breed of horses in the Spanish Riding School), and the Hofburg palace.

At the Hofburg palace I got into what was supposed to be where guards stand to guard the gates. An old lady saluted me and began to march in place while saying something that in English might have been somewhat like our saying "Hup, two, three, four!". It was kind of weird to me, but I thought right away that I could put that on my blog!

There's a Reason There's a Schoen in Schoenbrunn

There's a reason there's a schoen in Schoenbrunn. If schoen were translated from German to English, it would mean Beautiful, so there definitely should be a schoen in Schoenbrunn.

Yesterday, we went to the Schoenbrunn Gardens. The gardens were behind a huge palace. I was breathless when I walked through the gates into the courtyard of the palace. We walked into the garden next where we saw perfectly cut hedges and trees, but my mouth literally dropped open when I saw Neptune's Fountain and the Gloriette on the hilltop that we got to climb. The view was amazing. I wish everyone that reads this could have been there with me especially my dad and my class. Aunt Sarah you're going to have a great time! I still have pictures though!

Opposite Day? Or Maybe a Dream?

In a fabulous turn of events, we have great weather: a high of 59 degrees Fahrenheit to a low of 46 degrees Fahrenheit. We also saw something different than we usually see: musical history. We went to The House of Music yesterday. We saw old pianos of composers, paintings of composers, learned about sound and music, and played some fun interactive games. My favorite part was when I got to be the guest conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. I learned some new things about my favorite composers, including Beethoven, Mozart, and Strauss. I also learned some names of composers!

We saw my mom's old apartment building where she lived almost 20 years ago, which happened to be the same building where Beethoven lived for three years when he wrote some of my favorite pieces.

What was weird about the bathrooms in The House of Music was that they were free. According to my "1 Franc to use the urinal experience" in Switzerland, I was surprised when no one was there to take money to either sit down or stand up to do my business. The real weird thing about it was, it wasn't a port-a-potty kind of thing. It was a cool bathroom. The job will be done when I tell you this, it had an automatic door!

There were seven "Mostly Mozart" stores on one street in downtown Vienna. Mozart is like a rock star here.

We went to a park that had cool architecture, a famous statue of the composer Johann Strauss, and had a weird and fun play structure in a playground. The pictures say it all. (By the way, I had a lot of fun!)

Ahhh, Vienna, it Couldn't Be Cooler!

Ahhh, Vienna, it couldn't be cooler! True we saw some very cool things like Karlskirche and the Naschmarkt which is an open air market where people sell foods and clothing, but what I mean to say is that Vienna couldn't be colder! We got in to Vienna when a huge, flat, blanket of snow covered everything but the street. It hasn't gone downhill too much, but it has only stopped snowing as much since we got here. It is still really cold. We walked 3 miles to get to church on Sunday when it looked like it was going to be a breezy but nice day at about 1:00 in the afternoon, it was about 45-50 degrees. I made a few friends at church, one of my friends, Charles is American and lives here with his family. We met them at a restaurant for dinner last night where I tried my first Wiener Schnitzel. It looked like an enormous chicken nugget and tasted like one too, but made McDonald's look bad! I can't wait to go back! We like going to the playgrounds here, my favorite thing at a playground here is a tire spinning see-saw. I was pushing one tire with my sister on it and the other tire had my sister on it who was chasing me. I pushed the tire out in front of me so the tire behind me hit me.

Linz, Austria

Sometimes I don't think it was worth getting off the train with ten bags that stopped in Vienna, but there were some things that made it worth it.

Two things that made it worth it were the shockolade (chocolate) and the cool town centers and the STORES!