Gaming is a small adorable town in between Salzburg and Vienna and we had such a fun time! There was snow there which was very exciting and it the town was so beautiful, I was amazed at God's marvelous craftsmanship!
We left very earlymorning by train and got there in the afternoon on Thursday...we explored the town right away, it was very cold there but I was so glad I came prepared, I looked a little goofy even walked a little funny with the many many layers I wore haha but it was so worth it! That evening the school had a turkey dinner for us and it was really neat they served us like a restaurant and everything! They turned down the lights and came out with the huge turkey with sparklers sticking out of it, it was very entertaining and yummy : ) but I must say I still very much wished I could have been home for thanksgiving...nothing can compare to being with my family and I missed all the food (like sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie : ) ) but I was very thankful that I ot to go to Gaming and meet such sweet girls, we had a blast! Oh and I forgot to mention all the students and Libby and I were dressed in our Austrian clothes haha-what fun!(dirndles for the girls, lederhosen for the guys...probably spelt that wrong though!)
So after dinner we went to a little Austrian ball where we got to learn some Austrian dances, this was very entertaining haha...and we even did some polka(Grandma would be proud!), This is a video of one of the dances the guys were trying to learn, haha let's just say there were some coordination issues, it was so funny to watch! then after this they played American music and we danced the night away : )...I think one of my favorite parts was when we practiced our mad interpretive dance skills,haha! so then the next day we slept in and relaxed, watched Sweet Home Alabama, sucha classic and played some cards and Skip Bo and of course we were all in the Christmas spirit so we had to listen to lots of Christmas music! Then we went out to dinner and got pizza, I tried the weirdest kind but it seriously was amazing and I will have to try an recreate it...it was called Nicolette and it had turkey bacon and cranberry sauce as topping, so random! Later we watched the movie "White Christmas" and almost made some chocolate chunk cookies haha...they kind of never made it into the oven, raw cookie dough is pretty addicting! So we were up until like 2:30 in the morning and unfortunately we had to leave in the morning by 5:30...man what an experience, so no buses leave that early on saturdays to take us to the station which is about a 45 minute walk away, so off we went in the dark and we got 2 girls to come along with us..but one of them had a torn meniscus and could only limp, what a good sport Amy! So we realized we may not get there on time so first Libby tries to give Amy a piggyback ride, haha that didnt last long and so plan B, Libby and I start power walking and praying and trying to hitch hike(the people in the town are very friendly!)while Amy and Ashley are behind us also trying to hitchhike knowing that would be their only chance of making the train with us...haha so we get there with only a minute or 2 to spare and thank God we see Amy and Ashley there, someone had picked them up, yay! So then we were off again on our way to Salzburg! Haha with our baggys of pesto pasta, cookie dough and oatmeal, haha, don't ask, we had a few train changes and we couldn't get seats on the train from St. Polten to Salzburg so we laid on the floor in the aisles, I imagine it was a very humorous picture...so once we got there we got to explore the city and see some of the Sound of Music sites and the Christmas markets!
here's a picture of one of the traditional things they sell, lebkuchen(gingerbread) hearts and they're all decorated with cute little sayings and pictures...they also had tons of candy and sweets, including giant gummy bears(superbars) haha!
we got to see Mozart's house too!
it's hard to see but we found the fountain from the Sound of Music and it inspired Libby and I, we were dancing all around it and in it, haha
The town was so awesome and we had such a good time, oh and I was so excited I had been wanting hot apple cider so badly and they don't have it in Budapest so at one of the stands they were selling "kinderpunsch" (kinder means kid haha and it was one of the only hot nonalcoholic drinks) and it tasted just like hot apple cider! So we went to a church that night and then made our way to dinner at the Augustiner Beaustubl, where the beer is brewed by the monks, and I got a yummy burger...it was pretty cool in there because I felt like I was in a giants home, everything was huge, the clocks and decorations and of course the liters of beer, it was quite an experience...we eventually made it to our hostel later that night and it was so nice, all 4 of us got bunkbeds together and we even got breakfast in the morning! It was so nice to sleep after only an hour or two the night before! So on Sunday our friend Ashley had to return to Gaming : ( but Amy came with us to Innsbruck! I must say I have never experienced something like what I saw in Innsbruck, the alps were all around the city and it was so incredible! 
They had Christmas markets there as well and a kind of fairytale land with all these fairy tale characters set up all around!
I found my knight in shining armor, haha...
...unfortunately my tummy was very upset but I'm still so glad I got to see the city...Ashley left in the afternoon and Libby and I had to wait until 9:30 that night to take a train back to Budapest...we sat in the station for a few hours and played Skip Bo(I was so glad I brought that!) then we were on our way back to Salzburg where we had a connection and about a2 1/2 hour layover until our next train!
haha or expressions say it all...
Oh man that was interesting, it was like 2 in the morning...and of course I was sick...I can only look back and laugh now(I'm feeling much better!) but Libby and I almost ended up in Zurich because we were confused and thought a train was going to Budapest when it actually was coming from, oh man praise God a man told us this and we made it off the train before it left! So we didn't get back to Budapest until 9 the next morning and we were both very exhausted so we didn't make it to class but it was all very worth it and it was much more fun to sit around and watch It's a Wonderful Life , Charlie Brown's Christmas, and the Grinch(cartoon version) haha I was so excited to find them for free online! Well it won't be long now until I'm home, how crazy! This next weekend is my last in Budapest and we are going to visit the Christmas markets here and make gingerbread houses and watch Christmas movies and maybe even see the Nutcracker ballet, yay! I must say I absolutely love the markets I've seen so far and cant wait to see Viennas the weekend after this one...its such a huge part of the European culture and so worth checking out! Well I miss everyone so much and am so excited to be home for Christmas!
Oh man that was interesting, it was like 2 in the morning...and of course I was sick...I can only look back and laugh now(I'm feeling much better!) but Libby and I almost ended up in Zurich because we were confused and thought a train was going to Budapest when it actually was coming from, oh man praise God a man told us this and we made it off the train before it left! So we didn't get back to Budapest until 9 the next morning and we were both very exhausted so we didn't make it to class but it was all very worth it and it was much more fun to sit around and watch It's a Wonderful Life , Charlie Brown's Christmas, and the Grinch(cartoon version) haha I was so excited to find them for free online! Well it won't be long now until I'm home, how crazy! This next weekend is my last in Budapest and we are going to visit the Christmas markets here and make gingerbread houses and watch Christmas movies and maybe even see the Nutcracker ballet, yay! I must say I absolutely love the markets I've seen so far and cant wait to see Viennas the weekend after this one...its such a huge part of the European culture and so worth checking out! Well I miss everyone so much and am so excited to be home for Christmas!
We visited tons of beautiful churches too...
Our train ride to Vienna was only like 4 hours- it was so beautiful because we passed through a lot of land and the trees were changing colors, once we got there we went to our hotel, the Carlton Opera, doesn't that just sound fancy? haha well it was very nice and Vienna was like a dream, it all seemed so unreal because the city was like perfect, it was very clean and people were very friendly, (I think they cloned Mozart, haha, because he was all over the city and this one was on his cell phone!) 
I guess in Budapest their history really has affected the city today, they've only been their own country for 17 years now and there seems to be a lot more poverty and homeless...In Vienna things were very expensive though compared to Budapest because they use the euro, it made me very grateful when we got back to Budapest! Walking around the city at night was so fun, the first night we went to a restaurant and Libby and I tried sauerkraut and schnitzel and this french toast dessert thing, it was amazing! Shops seem to close fairly early in the city though so we decided to go church hopping because they were all still open, it was so neat to be in them at night when it was so peaceful and empty, some were just lit with little candles, but the whole time I had to keep pinching myself because it felt so much like a dream...the desserts and chocolate in Vienna were one of the best experiences, haha I will definitely have to bring some of the chocolate home! We visited lots of neat places too like the Schonbrunn palace and gardens, we got a tour of it and it was massive, I can not imagine living in a place that big! we also went to this neat art museum where we got to see lots of italian paintings and we even saw some of Rembrandts paintings! 
Well I am so excited to be going back to Vienna tomorrow morning, we leave for our 3 hour train ride and we get to stay with Lisa, my sisters friend, and her husband Christian, can't wait to finally meet them! I am definitely looking forward to relaxing some too, it's been a stressful week so I think this will be a nice little vacation! We had another bible study tonight and I just feel so blessed, God always provides, I am so thankful to have found a church and be able to fellowship with other believers, its definitely encouraging...Lately figuring out my next semester and scheduling and all that has kind of been overwhelming but I know that God is directing my paths and it will all work out, my lovely momma reminded me of the verse Psalm 32:8 which I've been meditating on, such a great truth to remember...well I am off to finish packing and then get some rest before my trip tomorrow, yay! 
After that we all decided to bake some homemade Hungarian "thumbprint" cookies and by this time it was about midnight...they turned out amazing and they were so simple to make, instead of using jelly for all of them we used different kinds of chocolate so this made them even better(I will have to make these for everyone at Christmas!), then after enjoying quite a few and reminiscing of christmas and holiday pastimes we watched "Singing in the Rain"...well atleast I did, some of us fell asleep ; ) haha...what a night though! On Friday we went to St. Stephen's Basilica, which is this huge cathedral built over the course of half a century and completed in 1905...and we got to see the mummified right hand of St. Stephen that was brought there by the Hapsburg empress in 1771 after being discovered in a Bosnian monastery...it was interesting, the cathedral was huge though and the structure inside was so intricately detailed...
We then decided to venture off to one of the other malls, Mammut(which literally means mammoth!) and they even have mammoth statues around it, haha...and we looked aound for a good bit but couldn't explore the entire thing because it was 7 floors! Later we went out and ended up dancing to music like "celebration" "can't touch this" and "stayin' alive" haha, good times! Today Amanda, Didi, Libby, and I decided to go to the Budapest zoo! I loved seeing all the animals, and Libby and I decided we want to share a farm later in life, and mom I still want to herd goats! 
The zoo also had a petting zoo with horses, goats, roosters, geese, sheep, and this funny wooly pig...haha I had to get a picture of him...
On the way back we got one of the common street treats of Budapest, called Kurtoskalacs or chimney cakes, it was very tasty and it happens to be the oldest Hungarian pastry and it was influenced by the Turkish...it was originally made by wrapping the dough around chimney pipes, so the actual pastry is like a hollow shape, yum! 
I'm kind of feeling a little under the weather though so I'm going to rest tonight and have lots of tea and vitamin c, hopefully I'll feel refreshed tomorrow!
It was a pretty rainy and yucky day so Libby and I decided to go to the thermal baths that are so famous here...in the city there are tons of thermal springs overflowing with warm to scalding mineral water so this is a huge part of the culture here! We went to the Szechenyi baths in City Park, its so big, there's about a dozen thermal baths and 3 pools! It was quite an experience, they have a kind of locker room area and all the women are just so free with their bodies, it was kind of awkward because I am not used to that...there are also men of all sizes wearing little speedos and I'm not a big fan of this, a lot of the men were very large too but not ashamed at all! Different baths have different temperatures and minerals but they all are supposed to be very beneficial and good for your health, I could have fallen asleep if I stayed in one too long because they are so relaxing! They smell kind of funny because the minerals but I got used to it and by the end my whole body felt so relaxed and loose I wanted to go take a nap...I think my favorite part was the huge bath outside surrounded by a beautiful courtyard, by this time the sky had cleared up and it was so awesome to swim surrounded by the statues and fountains and the sky above us : )...
I was a little sad after though because the men working there tried to rip us off, you are supposed to get money back when you leave and they knew we were Americans so they were just going to keep it, thankfully I had read about how this works in my guide-book so I asked them about it and they acted like they had forgotten...hmm...that's okay this was only the first time something like this happened and I was a step ahead of them!
I went to church again on Sunday and met some more really awesome people, I even met a man from Uganda, it's so awesome to worship God among so many different nationalities and cultural backgrounds! I'm very excited because I am going to meet with the youth pastor on Monday and try and get a bible study started for college age/young adults, so keep this in your prayers! Sunday afternoon I went grocery shopping and then we went out for dinner at this place called Nagyi Palacsintazoja, which translates into Grandma's pancake place! it was so cute and palacsinta are a Hungarian specialty, they're kind of like crepes but I like them even better...I tried one with sourcream and cheese, one with broccoli and chicken, one with chocolate and one with cottage cheese and fruit, they were all amazing and the whole meal only cost me like $3, we will definitely be getting these again! 
...it's pretty sad because many of the statues and monuments are kind of depressing, and Hungarians in general are often very solemn and many are still depressed because of the rough and unstable past of their country...this memorial is in memory of the victims shot into the Danube river by Arrow cross militiamen in 1944-45...
...one of the bridges is nicknamed suicide bridge because of how many have jumped off, and I found out that Hungary has one of the highest, if not the highest, suicide rates in the whole world...There's just so many lost people in need of a savior, but so many are either bitter towards God or they just think of their faith as religion...Well on a positive note, the whole day was so beautiful and I am excited for all God has in store for me here...it has been so incredible and I am just keeping my eyes on the cross day to day...I am so thankful for the grace He has poured out on me! 
Well it's Thursday and another end of a school week! I am off to statistics class and salsa, yay! ~I will put the rest of my pictures up on facebook so check them out!
