Freiheit für Ägypten!!

I have been traveling more around Vienna this past week. Everyday I feel more and more like I actually live here, instead of just visiting.

This weekend my roommate, Kathleen, and I woke up early Saturday to go sightsee around town. We first went to the Jewish History Museum of Vienna, there are 2 seerate buildings that comprise the museum. The main museum is being remodeled and is closed until July, which was a bit of a bummer, but the other part of the museum was. It is smaller than the main museum, but it was still really neat. The museum in Judenplatz showed the remains of what was the biggest synagogue in Europe until it was destroyed during WWII. There was no indication a synagogue ever existed in the square, but once we went into the museum we could see parts of the the foundation that had been excavated and still remained. It was a fascinating museum, and I loved getting to learn about the history of the city and it's Jewish community through the exhibit. It was a lovely museum and I am very glad I was able to see it.

After we left the Museum we walked around the neighboring streets, and looked at all of the beautiful buildings. We then stopped by Mozart's house. He lived on a street in Vienna called Milchstraße, which translated to English would mean Milk Street. It was not as glamorous of a building as I would have expected, and there was nothing to signal it was his house or draw attention to it. There was no one even looking at it, or near it...all there was to know it was his house was a little sign that said "Mozart's House". I'm pretty sure it is used as office buildings today, instead of being turned into a museum. It was a pretty building, but it was not very ornate and did not stand out from the other buildings, which is surprising given it's former resident.

Next we went to Stefansdom where we participated in a protest for Egypt. I had seen the protest the day before, but I was unaware that it would be happenning again on Saturday, so we actually just stumbled upon it, but decided to hang around none the less. It was really interesting, and neat to be apart of. Along with the original protestors we stood in a large group shouting things like "ous, ous mit Mubarak" (out, out with Mubarak) while people held up signs and Egypt's flag, and passed around fliers to the crowd. It was being filmed, but we don't have cable in our apartment so sadly we will not know if we made it to the Austrian news while we protested.

I love that even though we are all seperated by borders, what happens in one nation matters to people in the others as well. So I am very glad to have been in Stefansdom Saturday.

*This explains the tribute sculpture for the Vienesse
Holocaust Victims in Judenplatz.

*Mozart's house in Vienna

*The protest for democracy in Egypt and the President
to step down... the protest took place in Stefanplatz, in
front of Stefansdom.

*Here I am freezing cold, protesting for Egypt

*This is my little bed...we like to call it "Anne Frank's Nook"
this is because as you can see it is in the corner of the room, without
windows, and when the door to the left is opened I feel like I am living
in a closet. It's in the corner, so it really is in a nook. I also ALWAYS
read here, and I read with my nook which you can see lovingly
propped on my pillow there...so my bed area is Anne Frank's Nook.

*Our little kitchen