This morning about half of the group headed out on their various Spring Break adventures. Its strange not having everyone all together for the first time in 3 weeks, but also a bit refreshing. After breakfast, those of us who were left headed over to Haus Wittgenstein. Apparently it was designed by a well-known philosopher for his sister. It was well detailed, but not much more than that. The prints that were on display, however, were exquisite- by Milko Bozhkov. My favorite was the one that showed birds in flight and sitting on a telephone wire. After that we said goodbye to Andy Ruff, Daniel Topping, and Clay as they headed off on their train to Krakow and the rest of us went to get lunch. We all met back up after lunch at the Secession. Its an art museum that has some really beautiful Klimpt murals painted on the walls of its basement. However, for the time being the lower level has been converted into a Swinger’s Club called Element 6. It was strange. And disgusting. You walked in and there was a fairly normal looking room to check your coat connected to a bar with nice looking couches, a stripper pole, and oil paintings of naked women. Beyond that was a bondage room, then a room with a jacuzzi, and a series of interconnected rooms with beds for floors. When we finally made it through to the Klimpt paintings, they were in the lowest level with some fake trees, children’s lawn toys, and a stuffed lion. The whole thing was just incredibly strange. After the swinger’s club, we caught the bus to the outskirts of town to see Otto Wagner’s Church for the insane asylum. It was all decorated in marble and gold leaf, and it was absolutely stunning. It takes a good bit to impress us at this point, and I think everyone really liked it. An Austrian man named Walter gave us our tour. He told us it only took 2 kg of gold leaf to cover the entire dome, which is pretty spectacular. He also pointed out that this is the only church in the entire world where the holy water fonts actually drip water down over the user’s hands to prevent the spread of disease. The altar and light fixtures (which looked a bit like huge bundles of grapes) were really pretty– everything was so white, and light, and clean. Walter took us upstairs to the choir loft so we could see better, which he said he hasn’t done for a group in 2 years. After Wagner, we went back to the hostel to pack and run some errands before dinner. We went to Cafe Nil, a Turkish restaurant, for our final meal in Austria. It was definitely not a disappointment. I had a bowl of lentil soup with Turkish bread and a final glass of Gruner Veltliner (all for only E5- gotta love Austria).