Day 23 - FUS Austrian style

We made it safely to Gaming and Heidi met us at the train station.  Good thing because again we would not have known where to go.  There just ""happened to be a bus waiting to take us up to the Karatruse/Kartasua.  Heidi had told us that the busses are unreliable and that we would have to walk about 45 minutes to where she is living.  NO CAN DO was my response, so Heidi said there are always town folks give them ride so that was plan B, but thank you Lord for the bus.

Steubenville's campus here is very simple and everything, dorm, class, chapel and cafe are all in the same L shaped building.  There is a lot of history here, but i am not sure yet what it all is.  I do know that the current building was a huge monostary before WW II. It was used to hide jews from the nazis and when the nazis found out they destroyed most of the monostary.

Heidi is in class now and as soon as she finishes, we are hiking around the area.  We will be leaving around 8 tonight for the pilgrimage.

After class Heidi, Chris, Cory and I hiked about an hour up to the infamous water fall.  And we were not disappointed.  It was beautiful, just tucked away into one of the foothills.  The water is ice cold and crystal clear.  It feeds a creek that runs along the main road in Gaming.  Some of the guys take a daily dip in the creek for lots of reasons, but one being that of  sacrificing the discomfort of the cold for someone who needs grace in a difficult situation.Yes, these are young men with awesome hearts for our God. They are such a wonderful inspiration for me!  After our hike back and burning all those calories, our next stop was to the Spar ( market) to purchase our weekend supply of Milka.  This is the most delicious chocolate I have ever tasted.  Cory bought his stash and before dinner he had already consumed one entire bar, which is about 3 times the size of a hershey bar.  I was very good, however, and didn't even buy any because I knew I would eat it all.  Cory insisted on sharing with me, so I did have a few pieces.

We had dinner with the students and they could not have been more welcoming.  Everyone we met greeted us with, Oh you finally made it.  How was your trip?  Many told us they had been praying for our safe travel.  What an incredible group of young people to be around.  Cory commented how geniunely friendly everyone was and he was surprised by that.  I think he had preconceived ideas about what the students were like, but admitted they were not like he thought -- even though their faith is very strong, they are still normal college kids.

Food was pretty good, but like all the students said, "Eating it once or twice is fine but everyday gets old."  Apparently there is not too much variety, but the zimmels are wonderful.  They are similiar to a kaiser roll, only much tastier.  They serve them at every meal, so the kids get creative with making a meal out of them.

We are getting ready to leave and since I will be gone all weekend, the next time you hear from me won't be until Monday, the day before I leave this fairy tale.

love ya,