On one of the IAEA holidays, I decided to walk around the city before meeting up with my friends for coffee. Luckily for me it was a GORGEOUS day and many people were out. Here are the photos I took on my walk to see my friends:
Every year, the United Nations Women's Guild holds an International Bazaar to help raise money for children's charities all around the world. Not only did the Bazaar sell cool stuff (in time for Christmas shopping) but also FOOD from around the world. Once I got there, I made a beeline for the Mexico booth because I needed my Mexican food. Yay for tamales! There was also Costa Rico, Argentina, Greece, Iran, Spain and many others that sold their food. I was definitely stuffed. There was also shows such as dances and singing. My favorite was the children of the world fashion show, where adorable kids wore clothes of their culture. So cute! My division also had a booth at the Bazaar, which was taking photos with Santa. My supervisor Giovanni and my colleague Kres played Santa. I stopped by and took a photo with Santa. My friends and I mostly walked around and ate goodies. I did buy one thing and that was a scarf from Palestine. But I did have fun . . .
Later that night, the relatives and I went to the 60th Birthday party of one of Uncle Roland's mountaineering buddies, who's head surgeon at the biggest hospital in Vienna. His name is Ferdl and he's a nice guy. When Raffy and I first came in, Raffy introduced me as his cousin and he teased Raffy saying that Raffy was lying and I was really his girlfriend. Funny guy, huh? First there was drinks and appetizers, music by Raffy and Robbie's Uncle Willy and his quartet of musicians. Then Ferdl's family rented a tram that took all of the guests to the restaurant, where there was a slideshow of the family doing fun stuff together. Then Ferdl's closest friends did their own presentations about him. After that, food. And plenty of it. ;) Following the main course, dessert! Yum! The children then did their own presentation which was music and singing. After that traditional Austrian dancing, which to me, is basically a lot of spinning. Really quickly. Overall, it was fun!
Being that Austria is a Catholic country (as many European countries are), Christmas is especially important to the people. And when it comes to celebrating and decorations, it just takes your breath away. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:
As I was told, every year Marc and his wife Marie have Christmas dinner at the Canadian Embassy. Marie just so happens to be the Canadian Ambassador and their place is very nice. Huge too! We had drinks first in the parlour and then dinner was buffet style in the dinning room. I sat at the same table as Marie who told us stories about when she was a child in Canada. Al was entertaining as usual as I tried not to get red wine up my nose. Wouldn't be a pretty sight. And dessert was so awesome! I had to skip the chocolate mousse but I did enjoy the apfelstrudel, fruit salad and caramel tarts. Oh so good!
My friend and fellow intern Tobias was our piano man that night and we had a lovely sing-a-long of Christmas songs in German, English and French. It was very chill and relaxing. Afterwards, most of the team wanted to go to a bar but I decided to head home. It was fun overall.
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