Europe Through Nessa's Eyes: What a weekend!

With summer winding down, everyone around me were trying to enjoy the last-minute warm weather that we have been so blessed with these past few days. So when the ultimate European music festivals (which happens to be FREE ADMISSION) Donauinselfest, of course I had to head out. For those who don't know, Donauinselfest is usually in the beginning of the summer in June and is a several weeks of music, with countless stages. Each week there is a theme for the music and you can choose which stage you want to hang out at. The thing is Donauinsel is a very, very long island so it is best to where very comfy shoes because you will be walking A LOT.

Robbie and Raffy look SO EXCITED to be at Donauinselfest

Watching an act at the FM4 stage. It was mostly mainstream European acts.

This year, Donauinselfest was only three days because this summer Austria and Switzerland hosted the Euro Cup. So, my cousins and I were totally stoked to go. On Friday night, Robbie and I met up with Raffy and his best friend Andy and their friend Phillip, along with the rest of the Austrian National Lacrosse team at the FM4 stage. Yes, Andy and Phillip play on the country's lacrosse team and so they go out of the country often and play other countries in major tournaments. Andy and Phillip are really fun and chill guys. You would totally want them with you when you go out because they are so entertaining, as you can see in the pictures below.

Raffy and Andy totally enjoying the music

Andy and Phillip. Two guys you would want to party with.

The Austrian Lacrosse Team (well, most of them :P)

The theme for the stage we were at was hip hop, so the acts were European hip hop acts. Most of them were in German, which means that I wouldn't understand them. It's all good. The music was pretty good. Everyone around me were dancing and having an awesome time. The headliner was this group (Forgot the name. It was in German!) that was basically a beatbox group and man, those guys are REALLY good. If I closed my eyes, I would think I was listening to an actual band. They were THAT good.

After the festival, a whole bunch of us went to a party in a club called Sophie's in the city. It was a party for one of Robbie's friends who just graduated from medical school. The place was pretty cool, with it being in the private area in the back. The DJ kinda sucked so not many people were dancing. I met a whole bunch of Robbie's friends and mostly chilled out.

The next day, which was Saturday, I went with my friends from the U.N. to the World Press Photo exhibit. I really liked it because it was all award-winning photos and many of them were very powerful. One that stuck to my mind was of a mountain gorilla that was killed by poachers and was being carried by 10 rangers in Congo. It was sad because the gorilla and it's family was killed because they were caught in between the civil wars among villages and tribes in Congo. The fighting has spread to the mountain gorillas' habitats where the trees and vegetation that make up their homes were being torn down.

After chilling with my friends around the city, I went with my friends Carolyn and Janna to the Donauiselfest. This time the music was more rock, or more like the stages that I was in were more rock. There was this cover band called Lenengarde Cowboys, who basically were a cover band with circus costumes. Apparently they are very popular, but I found them hilarious. Even though I was tired from the other night, I still had fun. It turns out more than 3 million people attended the festival this year.

Sunday afternoon, my family had a potluck/kickback at the home. My friends Carolyn and Janna came, along with my Tita Ruth's friends from the VIC choir. We had a lot of BBQ, dessert and drinks. The weather was really nice and so a lot of the kids there swam in the pool. There was also a ping pong table set up, along with foosball (a.k.a. table soccer), badminton and frisbee. There is a really good drink called sturm that my friend Carolyn brought to the party. What sturm is the grapes during the first stage of wine fermentation. It is really sweet and has a really small amount of alcohol. So no drunken debauchery during the party. ;-P

I played foosball with Raffy, who apparently knew more trick shots than anything. He even tried to teach me the rules. I didn't even know there were specific rules for foosball. He said that there was even a World Cup Table Soccer. You learn something new every day. :-P