The first thing we upon arriving was finding our hostel! It was very close to the train station, but a little hidden so hard to find at first, but thanks to the map my host gave me (even though it was in German) we found it in no time. The hostel really wasn't bad at all. There was 3 of us in the room and we had our own private bathroom. It was exactly like a dorm room, which I've certainly had plenty of experience with. For 22 Euros, I would definitely choose staying in a hostel again.
After checking into the hostel we got on the Metro (Vienna's subway) and got off at Stephensplatz, the center of Vienna. It let out right at St. Stephen's Cathedral which was absolutely gorgeous! There were so many people/tourists! I immediately appreciated the size and calmness of Salzburg almost immediately after arriving in Vienna.
After checking out St. Stephen's we decided to check out the Vienna Staatsoper via the highly touristy street Kärntner Street (yay for finally figuring out how to make umlauts on the English keyboard!). We were starving and wanted to not waste time eating at a restaurant (Austrians like to take their time eating at restaurants and with a group of 10 this takes about 2 and a half hours as we later found out for dinner) so where did we decide to eat? Burger King of course! However, I got a kids meal of grilled chicken and a diet coke, or coca cola light with no ice.
After lunch we made it to the Staatsoper and took a great tour of the entire, including the stage thanks to the opera house having July and August off (most probably because of the Salzburg festival). This is the opera house where Mozart's Don Giovanni premiered and many famous conductors directed like Gustav Mahler. The amount of history that has occurred in that building is just mindblowing. However, thanks to an American bomb during World War II (?) much of the opera house has been renovated. The Staatsoper performs 30 operas a year...30!! Unbelievable. After the opera house we went into the opera museum which held old programs, pictures, set pieces and costumes. I missed it, but apparently there was a Salome poster with Gwin Jones' name on it!
The group than headed to the Imperial Palace where the Haupsburg family ruled. We split up at this point and did different things, but about 6 of us toured the Imperial Apartments of the family, mainly Franz Josef and his wife, Elizabeth or Sisi as she was called. It was gorgeous, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures. For me I feel that I will sing somewhat differently after seeing things like this. Instead of thinking of Disney's Cinderella castle or something ridiculous while singing an aria like Mein Herr, I can actually visualize a palace that the composer most probably was actually thinking of.
We were all pretty pooped after this so thanks to the help of Reba's Rick Steve's guidebook of Vienna we found an authentic restaurant a bit off the beaten path. They had local Austrian wines and traditional dishes. I finally had Wiener Schnitzel! It was fried, fattening and delicious!
After dinner we headed back to the hostel and then headed out to a pub right by the hostel for drinks. I have had the most delicious beers since I've been here. I typically don't like fruity beers, but I had the most delicious fruit beer Friday night called Floris Ninkeberry. It was a mixture of pomegranete and mango flavors and was the most refreshing thing I've ever had. With a 3.8% alcohol content I'm sure it's probably one of the first things 16 year olds have when they first drink (legal drinking age in Austria), but everyone at the table agreed that it was amazing. I haven't been disappointed once with the beer here and it's great to have so many choices to perfectly compliment your meal. Seeing as it's only about 30 to 50 cents more to get a beer as opposed to water most usually go for the beer.
Pam, Carey and I came back to Salzburg via train yesterday. This train was much more crowded, but still a smooth, nice ride. Pam and I rested for about an hour and then headed to the Aldstadt to catch some of the opening festivities for the Salzburger Festpiele! We watched a smooth jazz concert of sorts for a bit and ate a delicious Käsekreiner hotdog (No really, I'm still thinking about how good that thing was! Amazing sausage with cheese inside of it and some sort of awesome dijon mustard. I want another one now.) We then ran into some other people from the program and what did we do?? We opted for more food of course! We had coffee and cake at Cafe Tomaselli, the oldest cafe in Salzburg and one that Mozart frequented.
After eating we went and watched festival highlights from years passed on a big screen set up in a square right outside of St. Peter's Cathedral. It was so great and very picturesque with the cool weather and the fortress lit up in the background. After watching all the opera highlights we went and watched the lighting ceremony. Lots of traditional Austrian clothing and dances and candles. There were tons of people so it was hard to see, but still neat.
Today was the first day I didn't have to set an alarm clock since I've been here and I still woke up at 8. I'm still so tired, but am enjoying having a day off of sorts. After lunch I plan on taking the bus to the college and practicing. To paraphrase a famous Pavoratti quote, 'If I don't sing one day, I notice. If I don't sing 2 days, others notice.'
Auf Wiedersehen!
that trip sounds awesome! Do you really visualize Cinderella's castle when you sing?
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