Vienna

Vienna was a bit difficult, Steve really wasn't feeling well but we still managed to make a pretty good run of the city. He was sleeping in so I went shopping, which is much easier without him anyways. After he got up, we started walking through the city. It was gloriously warm and every park we walked through had people picnicking and lounging on the grass. We passed the long line around the State Opera house, apparently there's a very popular show on tonight so we'll try and get tickets for another night. After a quick look around St. Steven's church, we got to St. Michael's Platz. Steve decided to just head back to the hostel while I had a look around and took pictures of the various characters around the square. There were painters, bored carriage drivers, and one guy standing near the fountain who looked like he was trying to read the minds of everyone who walked past him. 

I have found my new mental happy place, one of the most beautiful places I'll ever see, the National Library. Leather bound books lined ornate shelves that reached up to the Late Baroque painted ceilings. As this year is the 100 year anniversary of his death, they had an exhibition on the iconic images of Emperor Franz-Joseph, which was interesting but got in the way of my photos. I spent an hour just walking around the single room, soaking it all in and trying to see where the secret doorways behind the book cases went. 

It was so sunny, I just walked around - may have been because I got a little lost, no comment. Vienna is different in that you don't have a few buildings that stick out as museums or government building, every single building looks beautiful. There aren't a lot of cars in the centre but a few of the tourist horse-drawn carriages can make you fear for your life. The clip-clops just follow you around, echoing, coming to get you. At the hostel, I talked with some of the girls in our room and turns out they're also doing exchange at Kent! Small world! And amazing sister that I am, I bought Steve yogurt - Star Wars yogurt- to help him feel better.  

The next day, we made the short trip out to Schönbrunn Palace, a formal imperial palace and the home of the Hapsburg empire for centuries. We walked through the Rococo style rooms, some of which the audio guide described as 'modest' when they weren't lined with gold. There was the rooms where Mozart first performed for Maria Theresa in 1762, the one where Elizabeth Sisi would spend hours having her floor length hair brushed by servants, where Marie Antoinette would play as a child and where Emperor Franz-Joseph died in the middle of WWI. The white and gold rooms were lined with rather unnerving portraits where all the people's faces, particularly the children's, were pretty much interchangeable and always had at least 2 full length mirrors. The main room was jaw-dropping and I may have gotten a few sneeky peectures of the gorgeous painted ceilings. 

The gardens are a wide open park, crawling with joggers and tourists, with a big fountain and a Gloriette up on the hill, because Emperors need to look at something pretty from their palace windows. We sat on the grass before catching the train back into town to get standing tickets to the Opera. Standing through 3 hours of opera does take a bit of endurance, made me thing of the "penny stinkards," or groundlings at Shakespeare's Globe, might just decide to splurge and get a seat when I eventually go. The Opera of the evening was Jenufa, which was a bit odd, even odder when the other main character's name was Steva, sounded like someone with an accent was talking to me and Steve all night. They have little computers to translate the Czech lyrics to English. In opera, things escalate really quickly, conversations go from 'Can you pass me that rope' to 'you never loved me as much as your other son' very quickly and the phrase 'I'd rather die' was pretty much the alternative to anything. After the performance, we were herded out of the building quickly by a stern clapping lady. Steve had gone to the bathroom but I was still firmly ushered out so I just had to wait for them to chase him out too. 

I could tell Steve was feeling a bit better today cause he was being a jackass again, many of my photos now had blurry hands blocking the intended subject. The Viennese Rathouse is lovely and was pretty much empty so we just wandered wherever the doors were unlocked. You can tell that they've done extensive restoration work on the outside, but the inside is still pretty black - a cynical person might make some sort of political analogy here. We slipped through Freud park before having gelato and Kangaroo steaks (Australia, Austria, same thing right?). We passed the Spanish riding school, which I know what Rachael's favourite part, seeing the "Lippershitter" horses, as Steve referred to them. They're special for something, not sure what. 

For the evening, we went back to Schönbrunn Palace for an orchestral concert in the room where Mozart's compositions would have been first performed. Sitting in that room I remembered how in grade 8, Mr. B held up an Ipod (one of the early ones) and said "I hold in my hand more music than the royalty of Europe would have heard in their lifetime." They had a lovely mix of orchestral, opera and ballet performances and I felt quite fancy, despite the fact that Steve was still wearing the same volleyball hoodie that he has for the last 2 weeks- not exactly black tie. I found it funny that while they put so much stress on Mozart, tonight and in Vienna in general, the music boxes playing throughout the intermission was Beethoven's Für Elise. The Blue Danube will never leave my head, I wanted to waltz the entire time they were playing. The last song of the night was Versailles, which the orchestra brilliantly turned into a pun by heavily exhaling and groaning upon the suggestion. 

For our last day, we wandered past an old Flak tower, through the Nasmarket, which smelled amazing, and found Belvedere Palace - which I found to be a lot Schöner than Schönbrunn. There wasn't anything inside, but the outside was lovely and I think Steve wanted to strangle me with my own camera strap after all the pictures I was asking him to take. While in search of food, we stumbled across the HGM, a massive military museum and I'm so glad we didn't miss this gem. The building itself was impressive but the exhibits inside housed treasures, including the car in which Franz and Sophia were assassinated, sparking WWI. I always liked post WWI art, after the propaganda of it washes away, the pieces leave a compelling and sombre picture of war. The tagline of the Museum was, "Wars belong in Museums." We just managed to grab cookies and more peach iced tea before catching our train and I fell asleep watching the lights fly past.