4 of 6, Vienna

Woke up at the Palace Hostel. Laura-Nelle's birthday. We traveled to and then checked in at the Hostel Ruthensteiner and ran smack into Lorna and Bob. It was really good to see familiar faces! We saw a video or something being filmed as we walked to see Karlskirche. The church was really beautiful. They were doing some renovations so the scaffolding had allowed them to install an elevator with a viewing platform. Being able to be so high up in the cupola was incredible and we were able to climb to the highest point in the church. The view was amazing. 

We all found lunch at a little cafe called Delicious Monster. It was very cute and the waitress was sweet. I got to practice my German a little. After, Lorna and Bob were going to see some sort of architecture outside the city, but L-N and Terry and I went to see St. Stephen's cathedral. 

St. Stephen's was beautiful. The tiles on the roof are laid out in this incredible graphic pattern of green and gold. We took a little elevator that put us right up at the level of the roof, on the outside. The floor was a steel mesh - not comforting! The other side of the observation platform was better - concrete. We also got to see one of the original bells. The other side of the roof was a pattern of eagles with the year 1950. My theory is that the church was damaged in WW2 and was fixed in 1950. The size of the cathedral is probably on the level with Notre Dame.

We walked outside into a street performance of breakdancing men. They were pretty incredible. Had a whole routine of call-and-answer and said they had been doing it for 15 years. I have some decent video of it and it's on my flickr page - link on the right hand side. 

After, we went to a cafe that was mostly dessert and got a piece of cake to celebrate Laura-Nelle's birthday. Then we headed home and stopped by the Billa on the way and got stuff for spaghetti for dinner. It was good to have a hot meal for a change. Rima was feeling a little better so she came downstairs and had drinks with us. We talked and toasted Laura-Nelle for her birthday. We also met some other girls from Florida who were studying in England but on vacation in Vienna, too, and another who was from Maryland but taking a year to teach English in a little Czech town outside of Prague.