Quick Salzburg/Munich update

I did make it back from Salzburg and Munich and they were wonderful!! I'm sorry I don't have a real post yet. I have them written up in my travel journal, but it takes a bit of time to type it all out-- especially with 3 days worth of travel adventures, including losing my roommates, seeing the Sound of Music church, Claire hurting her ankle and limping around Salzburg and Munich, the golden chicken that changes your life forever (according to Fr. Brad), almost running into what I thought was a bronze statue but was really a street performer, and eating in the oldest restaurant. This week is really busy with school work and preparing for our trip to London on our own-- our first big trip!! So hopefully, I'll get the actual posts typed up soon and posted as well as pictures from this trip, and more from Vienna. Thanks for your patience!

The Hills are alive with the Sound of Music

We're leaving in about a 1/2 hour for Salzburg!! We will spend the night, and on Saturday spend the day in Munich, Germany-- our second European country! Then we will again spend the night in Salzburg, and drive back on Sunday.

Thanks for your prayers!

Oh, and no, I'm not done posting pictures of Vienna. Sometime I'll finish that... soon...

Pictures Jan. 22

I finally have a spare moment to upload pictures from Vienna! I absolutely loved this city and it would be really neat if I could go back again (especially to St. Stephens!).

Kapuzinerkirche, where we had Mass in Vienna.

The outside of Kapuzinerkirche.

Roaming the Streets of Vienna

Julie by the Pinocchio store!

The Vienna National Library where some of the original
documents from the Kartause are housed.

The Hapsburg royal family's place of worship.

A trip to Wien (aka Vienna)

Today we went to downtown Vienna, which is a wonderful, old city filled with history and beauty. We left the Kartause at 7:30 am after the usual breakfast of granola/cereal in yogurt and a buttered zimmel with water. Then after stopping at a rest stop we went to the Kapuzinerkirche for Mass (we celebrated the Mass for Peace and Justice as the March for Life in the US is on Monday.) It was beautiful Franciscan church where the hearts of the Hapsburg family are contained in urns in the crypt.

We then continued to go on a walking tour of Vienna. Our first stop was the Hapsburg Winter Palace grounds where we saw the balcony where Hitler made his speech announcing the unification of Austria and Germany, Pope John Paul II read the Gospel during his visit, and FUS students led praise and worship during a World Youth Day. We also saw the church of the royal family and the church of the royal servants, who had to worship in another place. From there we walked to St. Peter’s Church—another gorgeous church in the baroque style. Julie and I got a picture by the image of the Immaculate Heart. We continued on to what is my favorite church right now: St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Built in the gothic style (which is meant to lead you up to Heaven, as opposed to the baroque which brings the heavenly to you), we just walked in and out, but some of us came back later.

Then we went to eat lunch which was a deliciously filling meal of soup, chicken, potatoes, and a strudel for dessert.

Afterwards, we had free time, so Julie, Claire, Markita, Tim and I adventured out to the city of Wien.

Our first stop: The Imperial Treasury, which could deserve a blog post of its own, but I’ll just include it in this one anyway. If you ever go there, (which I highly recommend) get the Audio Book!! It’s only 4€ and you can share it! There we saw Napoleon’s son’s crib throne (not actually used—it was just a piece of furniture) and many royal robes, crowns, and swords. They also had a unicorn’s horn on display (which was very large). Finally they had a display of religious items (side note: Austria is a CATHOLIC country which is very prevalent in their history, so it is not unusual for them to have a large collection of religious items), which included a relic of the true cross, Veronica’s veil which had the image of Christ’s face, the nail from Jesus’ right hand, two thorns from His Crown of Thorns, and relics from the 12 Apostles, other early saints, St. Francis, and St. Teresa of Avila. This was my favorite part of the excursion. It was worth paying the 3€ more than I would have if I had brought my student ID. (Contrary to what they tell you, you do need your student ID—not for school functions, but to get a student discount.)

Afterwards, we went back to St. Stephen’s Cathedral to spend some quiet time in prayer. Plus, we found the side adoration chapel, which was beautiful (but, no pictures were allowed to be taken). Another side note: They had an image of St. Thérèse of Lisieux in all of the churches we went to today.

Then we had to find a café since I guess Vienna is known for its coffee. But first, Claire decided to go up to a mime-statue person street performer and say hi to him, so he reached out to shake her hand, and she took it. And he pulled her into his act! It was harmless and she just stood there for a minute and we were on our way down a side street to a café. On our way, we saw a sad sight of a crowd of people purposely blocking the road so that the police (who were on their way to stop them I think) couldn’t get through, and they were speaking German, so I wasn’t positive, but it seemed like they were mocking the police—something we don’t have in the States. Well, we finally found a café to go into and shared a coffee and a hot chocolate. And it’s nothing like fast-food at all. Europeans like to take their time—especially for food. But we finally finished, paid and walked back to the bus area to find food, but didn’t find too much (as far as something quick), so I got some potato wedges at a “walk-through” (and the tax is already included in the price!). Then we got on the bus and headed back!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go in the opera house, but the treasury definitely made up for it, and if I get back to Vienna, I will definitely want to go to St. Stephen’s again.

And rumor has it that brunch includes juice, eggs, and ham!! Yay! Warm breakfast!

Pictures to follow soon!

Jan. 19 Pictures

Here are some pictures of the town of Gaming:

Some of the houses

The Spar (Shpar) is the local grocery store, where we
were fortunate enough to find laundry detergent!

The stream, which I've heard, is very cold!

Julie by the electronics store that doesn't have batteries.

The other bank.

The flower store

Book Mountain: If you reach the top, there is
a book you can sign the book. There is a lookout
halfway up.

A mountain and the neighborhood.
The tallest building is the parish Church.

The inside of the parish church.

The choir loft of the Church.

Let the academics begin!

Classes start today! It's so nice to actually have something academic to do after more than a month off! My classes for the semester:

Metaphysics with Visiting Lecturer of Philosophy from Columbia Dr. Javier Carreño

Philosophy of the Human Person with Professor Maria Wolter

Christian Marriage with Dr. Donald Asci

Sacraments with Dr. William Newton from England (He's actually teaching a class on C.S. Lewis and G.K.    Chesterton at the International Theological Institute in Vienna--I wish he taught it for Franciscan!!)

Theology of the Church with Professor Robert Cassidy from Scotland

It is so neat having professors from other countries! Plus, their accents are really neat…

It’s going to be a challenging semester academic-wise!

Our Lady of Good studies, pray for us!

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

Pictures Jan. 18

Around the Kartause-- and on top of it!

Walking across the top of the visible ceiling.
The original ceiling is, well, above us!

Katie, Regina, and me on top the ceiling!

The body of the church as seen from in the dome.

Katie carefully walking around the dome.

In the rafters above both roofs!

Prof. Wolter in the Byzantine Chapel.

Pictures Jan. 17

Danube River Valley Excursion Pictures

[Sorry it takes long for me to get these up--if you know of a quicker way for me to get them on here, please let me know!]

Maria Taferl on the hill from below

Inside Maria Taferl

The gorgeous ceiling in Maria Taferl

There were hundreds of religious pictures at Maria Taferl
along a stairwell. These are some of them.

The Hotel Rose, where we ate lunch.

Around the Kartause-- and on top of it, too!

Today we were able to hang out around the Kartause. Well, it wasn’t exactly “hanging out”—it was more like here’s the cool things about the Kartause and how to live in it.

We started off the day with welcome lectures by the director, the Language and Catechetical Institute (LCI) directors, and friars and nuns on campus. (Side note: the LCI specifically for Eastern European students so they can learn to catechize and learn English, and bring the faith back to their countries which was lost during the time before the Wall was up; students from other countries, such as China, also come.) Then we proceeded to learn the rules of dorm life which lead to a brief tour of where to find everything we need to find at the Kartause.

After Mass and lunch, we met in the church, Maria Thron (Mary Enthroned), for a tour of the Kartause of places that are normally locked and you are not allowed entry. After we heard the history of the Kartause, we went to the beautiful Bibliothek (Baroque Library) which used to house many original manuscripts, but which are now located in the National Library in Vienna.

We then broke of into groups. My group got the opportunity to see what is above the gorgeous ceiling of Maria Thron. We climbed the stairs past the choir loft, which proved to be quite dark, until we saw the light at the end of the…uh… stairway, which was let in by the windows of the original height of the ceiling. Maria Thron’s ceiling was originally much higher than it is now (a common feature in these types of churches), and this is the only church in Austria which has retained the original ceiling. We were able to walk across the top of the newer ceiling and walk around the dome from above. This was quite nerve-wracking, and I thought I wasn’t scared of heights! (If you didn’t think about it, it wasn’t too bad—and I’m very glad I did it.) At the far-side of the dome, the Russians that used to occupy the Kartause signed their names, and some, well, many students have done the same over the years. Just when we thought we were done, we were instructed to climb higher—up to the rafters! It was pretty dark up there, but thankfully, the “bridge” had a railing.

Then, after the long hike back down the very tight, winding staircase, we continued to the adoration chapel and the museum, as well as a renovated cloister garden.

When we finished at that stop, we went to the Byzantine chapel, which is absolutely gorgeous and covered in icons. It was put together by students of the ICI (I don’t remember what that stands for right now…) and the icons were actually written as actual icons are—preceded by prayer and fasting. A Byzantine priest also consecrated it, and it is used for the Divine Liturgy, which they hope to hold once a month. I’ll post pictures of the chapel later so you can see what it looks like.

Tonight was also music ministry auditions, which went very well!

Pictures to come soon-- I promise I do have them, it's just that they're kind of a hassle to post on here!

Lights out!

We had a fun night last night...

My roommates and I learned an important lesson last night: either don’t plug in a power strip into an adapter, or plug everything into the adapter before you plug it into the wall. We were without power last night. That is, until the RA on duty and RD found the circuit breaker and fixed it for us, and then we had numerous people knocking on our door after midnight to make sure they were working.

Danube River Valley Excursion

By the way, before I forget, the jet lag diet worked!

So, the day started with breakfast in the Mensa—again, I miss the caf! We had delicious bread rolls that look like the 5 or 6 petal flowers. Then, Prof. Franz Schneider, who is actually from Austria, gave us a talk about Austria itself and its history.

Then we left by bus for the Danube River Valley, which is gorgeous! There, we went to the pilgrimage Church “Maria Taferl” which is built in the baroque style, which means it is decorated with gold. In a side stairwell in the back, there were hundreds of religious pictures that lined walls as you went up a staircase to a small room filled with them.

After that, we went to the Hotel Rose for lunch.

From there we went on to the Benedictine Monastery at Melk, which is gorgeous!! Again, the chapel part is in the baroque style, and we were able to have Mass there—in English, fortunately. We also were able to go on a tour of the monastery. [See later post for more pictures]

When we came back to the Kartause, we had dinner and other meetings.

One thing to remember about European churches—no heat! Remember to dress warmly!!

Pictures to follow.

Pictures Jan. 16

Waiting in the Chicago Airport.

Waiting in the DC airport.

Waiting for the buses to pick us up from Vienna, or as they say here, Wien.

Can you tell? This is London--
from an airplane at night!

The Kartause Kids greet us with orange roses
when we arrive to the Kartause after a 2 hour
bus ride.

The sign that welcomed us.

The door to our room.

Outside my window.

The first 1/2 the room which you walk in to.

The farther side of the room.

My Desk.

The Kartause. Well, part of it.
Notice the snow in the back-- that's
the biggest pile we have!

More pictures to come soon! We had our excursion to the Danube River Valley today!

Wilkommen in Österreich—ohne Schnee!

I sure hope that is correct German… (It is supposed to mean, Welcome to Austria—without snow.) I arrived in Vienna, Austria on Sunday morning after an 8 hour 20 minute flight, which is a 4455 mile journey in the air, and I was fortunate enough to be seated next to my household sister and in front of another good friend without even asking anyone to swap seats! It is so much harder to sleep on a plane than I thought, especially once you’re over the ocean and flying over famous cities of history that you studied for years in school (like London). Oh, and they fed us food—dinner and breakfast, and it was surprisingly delicious—much much better than I expected for airplane food. But, when we landed, it looked like a nice spring day—8 C and no snow. Once we exited the plane (outside) we were transported by bus to the airport building and then moved on to the place where they stamped our passports (or Reisepass), we grabbed our luggage (only 3 people ended up not finding all of their luggage), and then headed by bus for Gaming. Sr. Joan Paule pointed out some interesting landmarks of interest (including snow-capped mountains and monasteries) during our 2 hour bus ride. Sister also mentioned that they had a bunch of snow, but it warmed up and rained, assuring us that the snow will come back soon. (Oh, one Kartause rule—no snowball fights on the grounds.)

When we arrived at the Kartause, we were greeted by the Kartause kids (professors’ children) giving orange roses to us while wearing their traditional Austrian clothes as they stood underneath a sign that said Wilkommen Franciscan Students. From there we checked in to our rooms and unpacked and ate lunch at the Mensa (the caf at Gaming) and looked around a bit before emailing back home that we got here. One place we found was the chapel—it is so gorgeous!!! And we had Mass there, as well. After dinner and some more unpacking, we went to our welcome meeting and social (but we only grabbed food and left—we were exhausted!).

Today we went to the Danube River Valley, but I'll post more on that later. The next post will have pictures.

The Day of Departure

Well, the eve of that day has arrived—the day of departure. The adventure begins now (tomorrow)!

In the morning I will head to the airport with my one 50 pound checked bag, my one larger carryon, and my one small carryon and I will be wearing my coat so it’s not taking up space in the luggage. There, I will meet a couple students from Franciscan and fly to our layover in DC. We will arrive there in the evening and fly overnight (I will sleep on the plane—well, that’s the plan…) to land in Vienna Sunday morning. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures posted within the week.

St. Christopher, pray for us!

St. Joseph of Cupertino, pray for us!

St. Brigid of Ireland, pray for us!

St. Bona of Pisa, pray for us!

Thank you for all your prayers! Know that they are returned!

Jet Lag Diet

When my Dad traveled abroad, he used this diet to help him defeat jet lag, so I'm going to give it a try! Because I'm leaving Saturday, this means I start on Wednesday.

How to avoid JET LAG:

1. Determine breakfast time at destination on day of arrival.

2. FEAST-FAST-FEAST-FAST: on home time. Start three days before departure day.

On DAY 1, FEAST: eat heartily with high-protein breakfast and lunch and a high carbohydrate dinner. No coffee except between 3 and 5 pm.

On DAY 2, FAST on light meals of salads, light soups, fruits and juices. Again, no coffee except between 3 and 5 pm.

On DAY 3, FEAST again.

On DAY 4, departure day, FAST: If you drink caffeinated beverages, take them in the morning when traveling west, or between 6 and 11 pm when traveling east. Going west, you may fast only half day.

3. BREAK FINAL FAST at destination breakfast time. No alcohol on plane. If flight is long enough, sleep until normal breakfast time at destination, but no later. Wake up and FEAST on high-protein breakfast. Stay awake, active. Continue day’s meals according to meal times and destination.

FEAST on high protein breakfasts and lunches to stimulate the body’s active cycle. Suitable meals include steak, eggs, hamburgers, high-protein cereals, green beans.

FEAST on high-carbohydrate suppers to stimulate sleep. They include spaghetti and other pastas (but no meatballs), crepes (but no meat filling), potatoes, other starchy vegetables, and sweet desserts.

FAST days help deplete the liver’s store of carbohydrates and prepare the body’s clock for resetting. Suitable foods include fruit, light soups, broths, skimpy salads, unbuttered toast, half pieces of bread. Keep calories and carbohydrates to a minimum.

Today I also finished packing! The days are getting closer to departure!

Novena Prayer

NOVENA TO THE VIRGIN OF THE GLOBE
NOVENA PRAYER


O Mary, conceived without sin,
Co-Redemptrix, willing participant in Jesus' great work of salvation,
teach us to work with Him for the salvation of our neighbour.
Pray for us who have recourse to Thee!


O Mary, conceived without sin,
Mediatrix of all graces and mother of every soul,
let the graces we receive through your hands be met with profound gratitude and sincere cooperation.
Pray for us who have recourse to Thee!


O Mary, conceived without sin,
Advocate for the people of God,
from the moment of the Annunciation until the end of time,
lift up our deeply wounded world to God's merciful love.
Pray for us who have recourse to Thee!


Amen.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I hope you will enjoy this academic and spiritual journey with me as I study abroad in Gaming, Austria and explore Europe during my “spare time”, while keeping up with my Theology and Philosophy courses for a Theology and Catechetics double major. My goal is to make a post once a week to keep you updated on my life inside and outside the Kartause—my home in Europe for approx. 4 months.

Currently, I am one week away from my departure from the states to a continent full of adventures, just waiting for all 150 or so of us from Franciscan University of Steubenville. My packing is almost finished—but I’ve been saying that for several days now. I need to finish that and make sure it all fits! I’ve also started a novena to the Virgin of the Globe before my travels. I’m praying that this will be an adventure full of academic achievement and spiritual growth.

Plus, I need to brush up on my French and it’d be nice to brush up on a few German phrases, other than “nein schprechen deutsch; ich schprechen englisch” (I don’t speak German; I speak English) and “guten tag” (good day/hello).

God bless,

Lydwina