Farewells and Goodbyes to that Fair Country

Friday, July 7, 2006

Thursday night Diana and Collette spent a couple of hours over dinner and talked about life over fruit Popsicles and looking through picture albums before Diana had to scoot to make it to the movies with her siblings for the midnight showing of Pirates of the Caribbean. Their whole family would leave the next evening for Oregon and Aunt Gigi’s wedding.

Back on the other side of the world, it had been their last day in Hungary. Somehow nearly every team member managed to burst into tears upon leaving. Oddly enough, by the end, Cherithite’s original urge to join the mission field had been intensified, Mr. and Mrs. Christmas would three years later become full-time missionaries to Croatia, and Junior would end up as the director of the CEF center.

But despite the goodbyes and everything else that came with such meetings and partings, and other things, they still had a date with Vienna that night. And Diana and Collette were excited to see the sights. They arrived at their hotel by the airport and wasted no time in catching a bus into the city. Austria looked much like the countryside back home, really. Although it was made distinctly different by the German speaking people. The woman sitting next to Collette on the bus spoke fluent English as well, but Collette did not know this at first. She asked the woman in the best German she knew, where a certain part of the city was on the German map.

The women began to reply in German, and Collette explained that she only knew a little German. The woman smiled and began to speak English. Once she had indicated the spot on the map, she and Collette talked a bit about her past. She had visited South America in a choir back in the day which was apparently the first German choir to visit South America since the second world war.

But they had soon arrived at their stop and departed to figure out how to purchase subway tickets. They were aided by a young French stewardess on her way to the airport and hopped out at their stop. Up they went into the city.

The evening had come on and all the buildings were submerged in blue and violet. Not far ahead was the great cathedral, spiring up to the stars. It was a thing of beauty, nearly five hundred years old. Collette was awed as she entered the shadows inside, the thousands of trembling candles, and the paintings on the walls reaching high into the buttresses above in the darkness. It practically gave her chills.

It wasn’t long before they found themselves back on the streets. Yulia had purchased a small cup of banana ice cream, of which Collette got a taste. She couldn’t quite decide which was better – honey dew melon or banana.

And then they stopped in an outdoor cafe which Cherithite had visited before. Collette and Diana ordered Vienna sausage which was served in a pot of boiling water with mustard and bread. And for desert there was chocolate Sacher torte. After running over to the Vienna opera house to touch the pillars, it was a long trip back to the hotel for the night. And the next morning it was to home.

Meanwhile, Collette had a ticket for Pirates and she was quite looking forward to a good summer blockbuster that night at the movies. There was nothing like a good pirate movie.