Vienna, Austria

On Thursday evening I went to the Prague train station and caught the 11:35 overnighter to Vienna. I bought the cheaper reservation which meant that I had a seat, not a couchette. I did not sleep well. The train arrived at 6:17 and it took me about an hour to find my hostel. I couldn't check in until 2 PM so I sat in a sleepy stupor for several hours in the Hostel lobby until I saw a free walking tour of the city. I decided to join it.

I'm very glad I did. The guide (named Charles) had lived in Vienna for 30 and knew everything about the city. We walked around for three hours and saw all the main attractions (the State Opera House, the Hapsburg's palace, St. Stephen's Cathedral.

At the end of the tour I asked Charles if there was any way that I could see the Vienna Choir Boys perform live. He said that there was an expensive concert that evening, but if I was staying until Sunday I could get free standing tickets for the mass in the castle where the boys have been performing since 1498. I had not considered standing tickets before, and asked if I could get standing tickets to anything else. "Sure!" He said, "if you wait outside the Vienna State Opera for 2.5 hours before the performance you can get tickets for €4 to the ballet this evening." So I went to the Ballet! It was incredible. The music was played by the Vienna Philharmonic and the dancers were so good. I think my only experience with Ballet prior to this has been the Nutcracker, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I also made a friend named Hannah, and we hung out afterward and I didn't go to bed until after 12. I was so exhausted.

Saturday morning dawned and I met Hannah at 9:30 and we walked to Schonbrunn palace together. It was the Summer palace for the Hapsburg's and its beautiful gardens are open to the public. I had been planning on day tripping to Bratislava Slovakia, but when Hannah asked me what I was going to do there I had to admit that it really was just to check a box and say that I'd been to Slovakia. So I stayed in Vienna and walked around with Hannah. There was an Austrian cultural festival going on with most of the people wearing Lederhosen. They looked really funny. I went to bed very early to catch up on sleep.

On Sunday morning I got up very early and walked half an hour from my hostel to the palace where the Vienna Boys Choir has been performing since 1498. I had to wait in line for about an hour, but my view from the state ding area was far better than some of the ticketed spots. It was rather depressing to see how few people treated it like a mass. Most people acted as if they were at a concert--worse in face. They constantly stood up and took flash pictures. But the choir boys were phenomenal and they are so young!

I bad forgotten to mention that this was the weekend of the Vienna City marathon. Tents and barricades were strewn all over the city obscuring views and photographs. But for someone intersected in races it was exciting. I went straight from mass to the finish line and pushed to the front. I only had to stand for about 10 minutes before the first place runner crossed the Line with a time of 2:05:41--a new course record. After all the excitement I wound my way through the clouds and barricades, picked up my backpack, and caught the train to Salzburg.