| 5.4 - Scenic Hikes . . . The following week we explored Liezen, as well as Ardning, a nearby village where the Friesens used to live. The first time we went to Ardning we took a walk up the very same road that Dana took as a child to her school. Sadly it was closed and we were never able to get a look inside. We sauntered back towards the main part of town and on towards the area where her house was. Dana was finally 'home'. The rest of the week we saw many familiar people, places and things. One afternoon we met with the Friesens' neighbor couple, the Bachlers. Becky's mind wandered during the conversation, as she could not understand the German, and if you want to know the extent to which her imagination went, you can ask her personally. (You can also ask us about our emberassing 'Dip Dog' experience towards the end of the visit.) One evening we visited with an old school friend of Dana's, Kurt, and his girlfriend. (Since they knew English, Becky had no problem battling her notoriously wild imagination.) Compared to the scenery we had seen in Switzerland and Ardning/Liezen, Dana wasn't really looking forward to the flat, gray surroundings of Vienna. Becky, on the other hand, was glad to come back to one of the cities with which she had become the most familiar. Upon our arrival we met a guy from Australia, Shane, who asked us for some help with the ticket machine for the underground. We discovered that he was going to the hostel across the street from ours, so he asked if we could all 'get lost together'. This we did. He took us along a route with which we weren't familiar, and we ended up walking so long and far that he had to carry Dana's 50-pound bag while she took his small one. (And even so, he walked far too fast for us to even remotely keep up!) Our second time at the Believe it or Not hostel wasn't quite as positive as the first, as people really took advantage of the 'no curfew' aspect. The first night they rampaged in at two in the morning, and the last night at four. Home Journals: 1.1 ~ 1.2 ~ 2.1 ~ 2.2 ~ 3.1 ~ 3.2 ~ 4.1 ~ 5.1 ~ 5.2 ~ 5.3 ~ 5.4 ~ 6.1 ~ 6.2 |
| The following Saturday Frank and Gwen Wiebe took us to a gathering where we met some other missionaries from their mission, the Gospel Mission Union (GMU). We had an awesome time visiting and playing card games. The day before we left we hiked up to what is called the "Ardningalm", a meadow and restaurant up in the Alps above Ardning. On the way we discovered a rustic chapel hidden behind the trees near the side of the road. It was a great hike despite the clouds. |
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| Thus we end our 'on the scene' chronicles in Europe as we head for Canada. We feel we are not necessarily returning to reality, as some have suggested, but from it, since we experienced many aspects of life more vividly here than we have before. Stay tuned . . . you haven't heard the last of us! Dana and Becky |
| We met Gerhard in Vienna near the end of our trip - he knew Dana's family and once attended the Gemeinde in Liezen. |
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