Day 10: Klagenfurt, Austria (Sunday, August 17)

I had a hard time getting up this morning. Okay, so most mornings have been hard to get up. But I didn't sleep that well on my little cot I had. I had showered last night so I didn't have to this morning. Good thing too because by the time I went into the bathroom to change and get ready for the day I heard the people living there come out of their room. They had a little boy and while I was putting on mascara, I noticed him peek under the bathroom door. Now let me just show you this bathroom. 

Yes, that is just a sliding door with newspaper covering it! So sketchy! Especially when the bathtub doesn't have a curtain. And you can see the newspaper doesn't cover the whole door. There is still a giant space on the top and bottom. Oh, and there was no lock. Not the most comfortable bathroom to be in..

The three of us got dressed and headed out to walk around what's called the Innenstadt which is the pedestrian downtown area. 

We were trying to find a cafe to eat breakfast at, but everything seemed to be closed. We made jokes that they were closed because it was Sunday. But it was just because we were too early. We finally stumbled upon a place that had smoothies! Mmm finally a breakfast without pastries! Now, don't get me wrong, pastries are delicious, but I was getting sick of them. So I had a smoothie and a boiled egg. 

We finished and walked around for a little bit more until we went to this little square which was probably the center of the city. That's where Logan and Liz were going to pick us up; at "the dragon." Some weird story about Hercules killing a dragon that allowed the city to be established. I don't know, it was all in German. 

They finally picked us up and the member they were staying with (Ksenia who is 21) drove us up to this tower called Pyramidenkogel. She was so excited to be taking us to this place. It's this tower that gives you a view of the city. It sounded cool so we were game. We got there and she ended up paying for all of us to go up! So nice of her. And you might be thinking that paying to go up some tower to see a view is kinda lame. But, Oh. My. Goodness! I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking.. 

Guys, I'm learning German and moving to Klagenfurt! That big lake that you see is the biggest reason we came to this city. Since Logan served here, all he wanted to do was swim in that lake! That was his only request for this whole trip. I'm so glad I chose to come here and not go with Tom straight to Vienna like I almost did. 

Anyway, this tower has a slide to go down on, which you also had to pay for, and Ksenia made sure she paid for us to do it. I'm glad she did even though I felt bad she spent all that money on us. 

Not a bad way to get to the bottom! They take pictures like a ride in Disneyland, and you could get the pictures for free, but we were already late for church so we didn't get them. Bummer. We hurried down the mountain and made it to the end of church. It was crazy hearing a different language during church. It was fun to try singing the songs in German though! 

Once church was over, we sat around while Logan and Russ (who served in Germany as well so he speaks the language) talked with a few of the members. One family invited us all over for lunch. We couldn't say no to that! So we headed back to pick up our bags from the places we spent the night. When we got to Ksenias house we talked with them for while before leaving. Liz ended up tweaking her neck during church so they were trying to put medicine on and massage it. 

We then said goodbye and headed off to the other members house for lunch. This happened to be the family Logan liked best and the dad is the bishop of the ward. When we got there, she was still in the middle of making the food. So we chatted and helped her set the table. 

When the dad got home, we sat down to eat. It was so nice having a home cooked meal! She made this pasta dish (which she confessed getting off of Pinterest) and a salad with bread. Mmm it was so good! I helped myself to seconds and almost went for thirds but decided I might regret it cause I was full enough. Then we had apple strudel for dessert. So yummy! Wish we could eat at members houses everywhere we go!

We helped them with the dishes and then after using their bathroom to change, we were off to swim in the lake, or Lake Wörthersee as it's called. 

On the way to the tower this morning, Ksenia pointed out a certain spot with a rope to swing into the lake. So obviously that's where we went. 

It was so much fun!! The weather wasn't the warmest and I had no idea what temperature the water was, but I couldn't not go in! I mean, look at that water!! And a rope swing too! The first time I did it, the water was chilly. But after a couple of times and treading in the water for a bit, it got warmer. I could have stayed at that lake all day. I could have stayed in the city longer than a day. But sadly we had to move on to our next stop. So we got back in the car. We made a quick stop at a gas station to change, where it happened to be the first tome I had to pay to use the restroom, apparently that's super common here which is dumb, and then we were off to Vienna.

The ride was a little more rough this time. I haven't been feeling the best all day. I've been on the verge of a headache all day and my stomach has felt weird at times. I think this no sleep thing is catching up to me. Hopefully I can last another week. It would be so crappy to get sick here. 

We went to our hostel and got so excited because they said we could do laundry here. We all desperately need to do laundry. I have run out of clean clothes. But we went down and found out there is only one machine. And someone was already using it. Lame. We'll have to find something tomorrow. 

We went back to the room and sat around trying to decide what to do for dinner. Tom showed up to join us not too long after. He had already eaten though and Liz wanted to lay down so Russ, Ellen, Logan, and I went to find some dinner. We stopped at a little cafe and I got a salad. I'm in need of healthier food! It was an interesting salad though. Good, but interesting ingredients. We then just headed back to our hostel. 

And now hopefully I'll get a lot of good sleep tonight. 

Tomorrow: Vienna, Austria!