Unfortunately the Czech Republic does not celebrate Thanksgiving, so this year I had a nontraditional Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday of the year sadly falls during the time I am out of the country, but I will never forget this Thanksgiving. ISA, the program I am on, had a Thanksgiving dinner for my whole program. They hired a chef for us who made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, soup, vegetables, and cranberry sauce. The food was amazing, and the program paid for the entire meal. It was great to spend Thanksgiving with my friends, and it is one I will never forget.
For the weekend, we had an excursion to Vienna, Austria scheduled. The bus ride was only about 5 to 6 hours long, so it was easy to get there from Prague. Vienna has so many monuments and is beautiful. The buildings are so big because everything is in castle size. Definitely one of the most beautiful places I have been to. We visited the Hofburg Palace, which was the winter home for the family. There were dresses and jewels of Empress Elisabeth on display, and they were elegant. I definitely recommend visiting this palace if you ever make it to Vienna. We arrived at the start of the Christmas markets, which were amazing. They had ornaments, candles, mugs, food, candy, desserts, and snow globes. Supposedly, snow globes were invented in Vienna, so naturally I had to buy one. Also, schnitzel and tortes are very popular Viennese dishes. I was only there for one day but that was plenty. It was a great way to end a Thanksgiving week.