didn't update on time again, i'm in Krakow but writing about Vienna.

i want to try and make this short but i had such an amazing time in Vienna i don't think that's going to happen. first of all, monday was split half between budapest and vienna. in the morning Jo and i went to the large indoor market, which was nice but sort of dissapointing as far as markets go. OH. on the way there we got caught not having tickets for the tram. i had one but it wasn't validated and Jo didn't have one at all. she ended up having to pay 6,000 kuna (not as much as it sounds, but still a lot), and i was let go without a fine.

after the market i decided to try and go to the holocaust museum on the way to the train station. of course, after going through a whole ordeal to get there, it was closed. good old mondays, right? so i caught the 3:10 train to Vienna and was there around 6:15. I didn't have a reservation anywhere so i went to wombats hostel but they were full. i then went to hostel ruthensteiner and was able to book a night there. i wasn't sure what to do so i decided to take an evening stroll through town. it was BEAUTIFUL. it was so small and had wonderful cobblestone streets, and each building decorated extensively with wonderful baroque statues and gilded gold. i went to the jewish monument first, which looks like an inside out bookshelf, and then to stephansdome chapel. the chapen was still open at night so of course i went in and lit another candle for my mom. i do this in every chapel i enter, as long as they don't make me pay for it... i don't believe in that. after walking for a couple hours i went back to the hostel, updated my blog for two hours and crawled into bed at 1am.

the next day i went to the Albertina museum first because i just happened to be walking by and it looked interesting. turns out, it wasn't. they had a munch of picasso's, monet's, a couple rembrants and some other more modern paintings, but it wasn't really my style. i gave the proper paintings their due and sort of rushed through the photography and more boring parts. after that i wandered through Hofberg, which was also astounding and has my favorite statues. each archway is guarded by two statues, each one battling (and besting) a mythical creature. my favotite was the bull and the fish a close second.

the thing about vienna is everything is completely majestic and over the top but interwines perfectly with the rest of the city. with each breathtaking building or statue i passed, each more beautiful than the last, i continued to experience the feeling that it all just "fit". One of my favorite statues is part of a fountain in the middle of a square. there are various statues lounging on the edges of the fountain but this one specifically was sitting sideways, had one foot on the ground, and was stabbing a bronze fish, who was laying on the bottom of the fountain, with a spear. this just exemplifed how alive the art is here and how it is such an integral part of the city. the statue isn't at all pretencious either, it just... is.

the next place i visited was the fine arts museum. it is across from the natural history museum surrounding a courtyard, and both buildings are again, completely majestic. it is one of those places where the building itself is a museum, not to mention the collection inside it. and what a collection. it had two full wings of renissance and similar paintings (my favorite), a whole section of roman and greek statues and an egyptian section. i think it took me around 3 hours to finally leave. its one of those places that really makes your head spin. after a quick bite to eat i headed for the opera house to score some standing room tickets for the show that night. for 4 euro i had a perfect up close view, a little screen to translate, and even a banister to lean on. I saw Fidelo, music by Beethoven. it was my first opera and even though my feet hurt, it was fantastic and the music all-encompassing. after the show i got a drink with two nice ladies who were standing with me then went to my hostel and went straight to bed.

the next morning i checked out of my hostel and bought a train ticket for the night train. it was sold out for women's compartments so i bought a male pass in the hopes that i would tell the conductor i didn't know what happened with the pass and he would give me the proper accomodation. i then spent the morning at Schlob Schonbrunn Palace. i went on a tour through the palace and saw the hall of mirrors where Mozart performed when he was six. after the tour i skipped straight through the gardens to the on-premise zoo. it was the worlds first zoo, which was my excuse for going, but i really just wanted to see the panda bear and koalas. it was a great zoo and i didn't actually get to the whole thing since it was so massive. i ended my visit at the palace with a romp through the hedge mazes, which were underwhelming. from there i made it back to Stephensdrome by 3:00 to visit the catacombs, but sadly there weren't enough people for a tour and i wasn't willing to waste 30minutes to see if there might be enough for the next tour. instead i walked to the muesum quartier, which is central europes largest collection of modern art and attended the indepentand exhibits, which included one called "the porn identity". it was interesting, but pretty much what you would expect. although there was a replica of one of the miloko milk bar girls from A Clockwork Orange, which was cool. there was also a dark room with couches in it and miles davis was playing over the speakers, which was nice, i will have to start listening to him.

ok, the guys at the hostel are getting me drunk and i can't focus anymore..... i will finish writing tomorrow (hopefully) :)

ok, two days later and i finally get to continue!!

After the independant exhibits i went to the outdoor restaraunt across the street and got some food (white sausage) and thought about how much i really wanted to go see the live performance of rocky horror that was opening that night and how many things i still wanted to see in Vienna. After finding out that there were still enough tickets left i made a quick decision.... it was 6pm and the show was at 8. i jumped on the u-bahn, dropped out at the train station and exchanged my ticket for the next night in an all female sleeper car. ran to my hostel and booked back in. emailed the hostel in Krakow and told them i couldn't make the train and would be a day late. ran back to the u-bahn after talking to my family for 2 seconds on the phone, got back to the museum quartier, bought my ticket and was in like sin, 77euro, second row seat, 7:30 pm. i then spent the next half hour figuring out how to accomodate my already packed trip for the extra night in Vienna!

Rocky Horror was AMAZING. the cast was fantastic and everyone had an outstanding voice, better than many i've seen on broadway. they screwed up a couple characters i thought, RiffRaff was turned very animalistic and rocky was skinny, british and spoke all the time! he was very irritating and sort of bounded around the stage, completely negating the fact that hes supposed to be new to the world, reminicient of frankenstein. but whatever. besides that it was fantastic. when i got back i spoke to noah and my parents until i lost service and went to bed.

The next day i checked out of my hostel (again) and got to the spanish riding school by 9:30 for the training session at 10. this is where you watch the horses and riders... well.. train. it was a two hour event with music but even though the horses were beautiful, it was phenomonally boring and i left early. it was quite cold that day so i hopped the train back to the hostel and put on my warmest clothes before heading back out. after grabbing some very tasty goulash i went to the Jewish muesum and got a three-way ticket for two museums and the synogague tour. since it was only 1:00 and the tour wasn't until 2, i occupied myself by walking around a jewish area of town and visiting a jewish supermarket. The tour was really just entry into the synogague between services and a 30 minutes history of jewish Vienna by a very knowledgable guide. the synogague is the oldest surviving in Vienna and a very famous artist (whose name i can't remember) was commissioned to do it, even though he was Christian. since the people were poor, he used mostly wood, but painted it to look like marble. at first glance, you really can't tell the difference. its an orthodox synogague so the women and men sit seperatly, the women sitting at the top level, and thus closer to God. during the history lesson, we learned that there used to be 64 synogagues in vienna until they were all burned. this was the only surviving one because not only was it near a famous church, but also the nazi headquarters, and they didn't want to risk burning those. now there are only 16 (i think?) synogagues there, but they still have a thriving jewish community, jewish quarter, grocery stores and even a pizza shop! i more wrote all this down for my own benefit (before i forget it all) but i hope you enjoyed it too! lol.

After the synogague i went to the museum i bought the ticket at. i guess its supposed to be a really good museum but it totally bored me except for the treasury of jewish objects upstairs. one floor was indepentant exhibitions having to do with discrimination and the second floor a holographic history, yadda yadda yadda. it was a little too "new wave" for me, i understand they were trying to present history and meaning in a different light... but i found the whole thing rather hokey. by the time i got to the last museum i was exhausted and had lost my ticket. i had walked all the way there though so i bought another one and went it. also a bust. the only interesting thing was the remains of the oldest known synogague in vienna. the rest was three rooms dedicated to some study on the merchant of venice and its anti-semetism. i was grateful to leave. since i was so tired i hopped a tram to the museums and took a very cold nap in the courtyard between the museum of fine arts and the natural history museum. i then went and got some japanses noodle soup with chicken and ended my day with a walk past st. stephensdome. it was very nice and after going back to my hostel i got on my train to Krakow. of course, once i got on they informed me that i hadn't paid the fare across the border (poland isn't covered by my pass) and i had to pay 9euro. the other two girls in my compartement had the same exact problem though so i felt a little less bad about it. i spend the night sleeplessly tossing and turning on my rock hard "bed", until we arrived in Krakow at 6:30am.