Christmas Party at the Ambassador's

Ryan and I were invited to the Ambassador's Residence, along with 250 of our closest friends. The party was fantastic. Mrs. G really knows how to throw a party! Unfortunately, our Ambassador who just arrived in July will be leaving at the end of January. He will certainly be missed, as he is a great leader.

Posing with Ambassador David Gerard di Carlo

Beautiful Swedes!

I went to Stockholm with Ryan at the beginning of December. The weather was freezing cold, the people where absurdly beautiful, and the Glogg was delicious. Glogg is their version of Gluehwien (Vienna's warm christmas drink). It's a hot juice or wine mixed with lots of spices, almonds, and raisins. That glogg stuff is way better than Gluehwein! There isn't a whole lot to see in Stockholm, so we did a lot of walking. But we did have a real American style date. We ate at Pizza Hut and then went to see a movie! They even had free refills on soda...so that made it even more perfect!

Up first is a video of us drinking Glogg

This is just a shot of the city on our way to the old town

Ryan is posing with a stuffed moose on the main shopping street. This is where you will see nothing but beautiful people...even the men were beautiful! Good genes I guess.

Probably the coolest thing we did in Stockholm was go to the Vasa Museum, which houses a viking ship from the 1600's. It was incredible! You can't actually go inside the ship, but you can get fairly close to it. It was pretty dark in there, so the pictures don't do it justice. If ever you have the chance this is definitely a must see! The museum had mock ups of life on the ship and some old relics they managed to salvage, like the captain's pee pot.

I'm standing on a replica of the middle mast. They had these huge look out discs where the crew would stand to look out over the water.

Here is Ryan with a replica of the canons found on the ship.

The second coolest thing we did was visiting the world's first open-air museum, Skansen. This place was really cool. We saw homes and farms from the sticks of Scandinavia built in the 18th and 19th centuries. They had actual working farms, a school house and many other historical buildings. Here is the website if you want to check out all of the neat stuff they have there.

http://www.skansen.se/pages/?ID=260

Seeing this big guy made my trip worth going! He was so huge!

Ryan was super excited about the horses.

Here is a windmill from the 18th century from some small town in Sweden.

They had glass blowing, which was really neat to watch. It's amazing how they manipulate the glass and luckily it was warm in the shop, so we could thaw out for a bit.

These last two photos are our favorite from the trip. We would make such a cute gnome couple!

Lindsey visits Ryan in Geneva!

Well, I had to survive in a foreign country without Ryan for 2 whole months! Surprisingly though, it went by pretty quickly and I got to go visit Switzerland and France out of the deal...not a bad deal I must say! Ryan already posted some pics from my visit, but I thought I'd add some more pics and a video!

Home in Divonne, France

We went to an outdoor market in Divonne, which was very interesting. They had all kinds of foods and crafts including de-feathered geese with their heads still attached and churros, which I thought were a Latin American thing...

A chateau, which overlooks the Lake of Geneva

On a peak neighboring Mont Blanc

Beautiful

Video on the mountain top while we are freezing our buns off!!

Visit from Linda and Chris!

Best Friends forever! 11 years and counting!

Linda and Chris came at the end of September and we had a blast! Unfortunately for Chris, Ryan left at the beginning of October so he had to put up with Linda and my antics for most of their trip. We have a long history of silliness and weirdness that only we share and no one else understands...and that's the way we like it! Chris was a "good egg" as my mom would say and patiently put up with us. 

We took a tour of the State Oper, so we got the behind the scenes look. There is a new performance every day, so they have to take down and set up a new stage every day! Pretty impressive when you see what is involved in setting up for a performance. We are standing in a break room where many famous people have stood, like King Francis, and Sigmund Freud. The tour was really great and I have a greater appreciation for the Opera now!

We went to Klosterneuberg and Linda and I just acted like goofs the whole time. First, I didn't take the bus to get there, which is the way I know, so we got a bit lost and it took forever to get there. We finally made it though. While Chris was looking around, we played with the camera and have a bunch of pictures of us looking ridiculous. We amused an older couple with our picture taking, so I'm glad we provided some entertainment! 

The cute Dolan couple

Here is Linda in front of the Rathaus~ I think they liked it just as much as Ryan and me!

Linda and Chris in front of the fountain at Schoenbrunn

The arena inside the Spanish Riding School. I haven't been there yet, but Linda said it was really great. They train and show Lipizzaner horses, which do all kinds of amazing "tricks." They include complicated step routines, bowing and so forth. The stable is actually right in the middle of the city and is part of the Imperial Palace.

One heck of a day~My 24th Birthday!

We spent the day in Durnstein (see the blog about my mom and Jared's visit to learn why it is such a cool place) and Melk. In melk is the largest abbey in Austria. It sits on top of a hill and is incredibly beautiful. 

Then we had dinner at Tacos Lopez, which is a Mexican restaurant in Vienna...and possibly the only one here! The food was great and they brought out a roman candle!! It was a-mazing!

The boys thought they were being funny by giving us a thumbs up behind our heads, so we have a bunch of pictures with random thumbs...like this one

This thing behind me is currently the tallest Lego tower in the Guinness Book of World Records, which was built in front of the Rathaus! Here is the link that gives you the stats and has pictures of the tower during the day when you can actually see it.

http://gizmodo.com/5059662/460000+brick-lego-tower-breaks-world-record 

 A big thanks to Linda and Chris for making the trip out here! We had so much fun with you guys!!! Also, Linda I don't have the pictures we took at the Prater, will you send them to me so I can post them? 

Mom and Jared come to visit!!

There was never a dull moment during mom and Jared's visit. I think the first photo sums up the theme of their visit... lots of fun! We were silly, ate lots of good food, and I introduced them to Vienna. One of my favorite things about their visit, was watching their reactions to all things Vienna...mouths open, yet speechless. We walked more than either one would have liked, though we did get to see almost all of the city in the 10 days they were here. Jared loved Vienna so much that he even changed his major to international studies ( I knew you would once you got out here!!). 

We took a train ride alone the Danube River and visited a small town called Durnstein. This town is famous because Richard the Lionheart was held captive here 1192-1194 by Duke Leopold and was later set free by Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor. The castle and it's walls stand in ruins, as it was destroyed several times. Nonetheless, we had a lot of fun romping around the ruins!

We thought this would be a fun picture...and it was, but...

I got stuck and mom had to help me up, so we are all laughing...at me...

Before we hopped on the train to head back, we had my favoritest soup in the world--pumpkin soup! It is a regional specialty and i love it! Well what we didn't know is that this was no ordinary soup. It turned out to be evil soup, because I had a terrible allergic reaction and within  1 hour, I was decorated with hives! It was definitely not my best look...and it was unpleasant.

Mom and I amuse ourselves by throwing up the peace sign when we take pictures together. We are waiting on our train back into Vienna, notice my skin is normal and not all rashy here!

Jared is decorating our super sized cupcakes. We had some extra batter over and decided to do the "ho-cake" version of cup cakes with the extra--still trying to think of a clever name though... 

...apparently I'm super excited!

One day we ventured to Klosterneuberg, which is the largest private winery in Austria, and happens to be a monastery. They got to taste the most delicious apple juice in the world (not exaggerating!), and tour the monastery, which houses one of the most famous religious works in Austria. It is a large alter made of enamel and gold hat details 36 events from the old and new testaments...it is really really beautiful. I don't know the significance of the building behind Jared, but it made for a nice picture!

 

Mom is scared of ferris wheels, but she always rides them anyway. This ferris wheel has cups that spin, but mom was not interested in the spinning...even though Jared and I tried to convince her to let us...we failed. 

Jared in front of Schoenbrunn Palace-summer palace of the Habsburg family

Mom in front of the main fountain at the palace

Cakes from Demel, which was the bakery that empress Sisi loved and I also happen to love! 

They are know for their marzipan creations. The horse below is completely edible and made of lots and lots of marzipan!

LAST NIGHT IN GENEVA...WOOHOO!!!!

So, as you might have guessed, tonight is my last night in Geneva. I'm heading home tomorrow! It's been an interesting 8 weeks. I've worked my butt off at times and just sat on said butt at others. And no, Geneva didn't get anymore interesting after my first 2, and only posts (yes, I know I said there would be one every week...but we all knew that wouldn't happen). Linz came out to visit the first weekend of November, so that was nice. We had a chance to go out to Chamonix, France...which is where Mont Blanc is. Mont Blanc meaning the highest peak of the Alps...not the pen. It was quite amazing, and honestly, was worth the other 7 weeks of boredom here. Actually, I went there twice. I went with Dottie the weekend before Linz came, and then Dottie took me again when Linz came out. You'll see the difference a week can make in the pictures. There was a lot more snow the second weekend. Anyway, here are some pictures of the Alps and a few others from Linz's visit. I would post a little more, but my wireless account here in Geneva is about to expire. I'm afraid I may not even finish this sen

this is a view of the town of Chamonix from the cable car. you have to take two cable cars to get to the top and it takes about half an hour. this was taken the first time I went without Linz.

and here's what it looked like the next weekend...

and here's us...just chillin' in the Alps. no biggy....

i just like this pic


and here's Mont Blanc....4,807 meters up (which is about 15,770 feet)

i have a lot more pictures of the Alps.....but we'll move on. here's m'lady sitting on the shore of Lake Geneva

and this is Jet D'eau (which is "water jet" in French...aren't they clever). it is the most well-known landmark in Geneva. it shoots streams of water 460 feet in the air. you can see it from all over the city....you can even see it when you're flying over Geneva!

and here's us!!!

this is the Red Cross Museum/HQS

and this is the side entrance to the UN. i ate lunch there a couple of times, and this is where i had to enter. food was ok. wasn't really united enough....

and last but not least....



FLAMINGOS!!!!!!!