Wien

The day after Dušičky I was already back in Banská Bystrica, as I had been invited to travel with my second host family. We were initially planning on traveling to Venice for four days, but with the flooding that took place in Venice, they opted to go to Vienna instead. I met up with them early in the morning, and met my next host brother for the first time, he is about six years younger than me and the whole time we were together was a very interesting experience for me. I am the youngest child in my family by about three years, so when my host brother nearly immediately started looking up to me it was a somewhat surreal experience. To have someone pay that much attention to me and look up to me like he does was very odd for me, let alone that this was merely hours into meeting me and I was already a figure that he looks up to. We stopped in Bratislava for a couple hours for lunch, then headed towards Vienna. 

Most of my time in the city was spent walking around various locations, St. Stephen’s cathedral, the Neue Berg, art galleries, as well as official state rooms and gardens. I had a great time exploring, and greatly enjoyed it when the rain started our second night there (I have always loved rain). While we were there the construction of the Vienna Christmas Markets had begun which made me excited to go back with other exchange students for the christmas meeting.