Jonesin' for an Epic Birthday

Since my whole Red Sox/ Disneyland birthday didn't exactly work out the way I had planned (considering I forgot to notice that the game against the Angels was at Fenway and not in SoCal, yeah, i might be a genius) I decided to settle for the second most epic birthday adventure I could conjure up. The result: An Indiana Jones movie marathon on the big screen in my backyard with some of my favorite people and good food. I thoroughly enjoyed the geek fest. If this day was any indication, 22's gonna be quite an epic year.

Pretty Night

Thanks Kiera for making the signs

And Sierra for setting up the screen and projector

And mama for the tiki lamps

And I had a little too much fun with the food:

Oh Indy, you are my hero! Thanks for making my B-day so Epic!

Goons at Lagoon

So after the most miserable day of plane traveling in history, I needed a vacation from my vacation. Still jet-lagged, I met up with whole Fam Damily the next morning. Luckily, my 15 year old sister, Kiera, had clothes that fit me since mine hadn't made it back to the country yet. (did I mention the phrase "most miserable day of plane traveling in history?) This was the first time all four of the Klemm kids have been together since Taylor left on his mission in 2006. The four of us and Taylor's bro-in-law spent the day at Lagoon. It was a very nostalgic and nauseating day, but we enjoyed ourselves.

so this picture is cropped kinda wierd, but at least you can see our lovely faces :)

Eating Arby's was probably the highlight of my entire day. Beef and Cheddar, curly fries and

ICE WATER!!!!

Big Old Jet Airliner, Don't Carry Me Too Far Away. .

I shall miss my Viennese home

This is Frau Alfons, my host mom. She is wonderful and I will miss hearing all her stories over dinner every week.

My warm bed :)

I'm still amazed that I got everything in these bags. . . lets just say I brought WAY to much junk with me.

Our kitchen/bathroom/dining room

So this is a terrible picture of both of us, but it's the only one I've got. This is Rene, Frau Alfons son. He's hilarious and so kind. I'll miss him and his son Maxy.

The meager flowers we got for Frau. I only wish I still had pictures of the garden of our house, but of course my unbacked up hard drive with all my Vienna pictures would crash. But, the garden was awesome too.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

My last few days in Vienna were filled with trying to squeeze in everything I still wanted to do+all of my favorite things+homework and packing. *Sigh* My VERY last day in Vienna consisted of German final *bleh*, Grinsing excursion with Tom, and a ride by myself at Prater.*tear*

NO

MORE

GERMAN!!!!

It's a lovely language, really it is. I just. . . NEVER want to take another test on it ever again :)

The vineyards in Grinsing were gorgeous

Utah in Europe, AGAIN!

This is where we had a lovely dinner, with fresh grape juice from the vineyards. It had no resemblance to any grape juice I have ever before experienced. It was. . . Barky-er. . .

The swings at Prater, the way I ended my last night in Vienna

Hungry for Hungary?

Before I left Europe, seeing Budapest was on my absolute must see list. Luckily Kristin really wanted to go too, so we decided to just make a day trip out of it: leave at 7am and be back in Vienna by 10pm. I know, it sounds like kind of a hit-and run type trip and we might have cheated the city a bit, but it was our only option. So on my last Friday in Europe I pulled myself out of bed at 4:30 in the morning (after a week of insomnia and late nights) so that I could be to the bus station with public transport by 6:30. I made it on time, but unfortunately, Kristin overslept and we missed our bus :( Because neither of us had a phone and I had no way of getting a hold of her, I eventually just had to give up. It all ended up okay though because I got to spend a day in Vienna doing whatever I wanted and we still got to Budapest on Saturday. We got lucky, because a mutual friend put us in touch with the charming Taylor Merkley (who just happens to live in Budapest) and she was able to give us an tour of all the must-sees in the city. It was an exhausting day, but so worth it.

With the exchange rate, I felt very rich in Budapest. But also, everything seemed super expensive

Don't be fooled by the pretty staircase, the forever long hike to the top was not a very lovely experience. The view, however, was absolutely lovely.

The Jewish Holocaust Memorial

Views from Gellert Hill:

This looks like the ultimate sand castle to me

We concluded our day with and an hour in the baths before heading back to Vienna. Somehow, I have no pictures of that glorious experience, but if you ever go to Budapest, MAKE SURE you go to the baths.