Vienna is the place music students flock to- it's one of the few places left where studying composing and music is respected. Because of Mozart. He moved to Vienna from Salzburg and had his most successful years here. Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert are also burried in Vienna. Mozart's legacy of performing many concerts lives on, as there are tons of guys dressed in period costumes selling tourists tickets to mixed concerts featuring opera, ballet etc.
I only had two days here and I didn't see nearly as much as I would have liked. My first day I walked around, seeing the museum quarter and absolutely beautiful buildings like the national library, parliament, Hofburg palace, Stephansdom church and several parks and statues in between. All are massive, beautiful buildings. The city is quite large and spread out, so it took a while to see it. The parliament is incredibly Greek looking- columns, even Cyclades (women statues holding up the roof)... Odd. Lol.
I went looking to see the library but ended up being pointed towards some museum- it was sort of boring. A waste of 6 euros. Later on I went to Mozarthaus, the only one left. He lived there 2.5 years and composed 'The Marriage of Figaro' there. It offered a lot of info, just not so much real furniture in the apartment. It was all "from Mozart's time." So it was basically just the structure of the apartment and what the rooms could have been used for. They also displayed some original sheet music, so that was cool.
I also saw 3 churches. My favourite was not one of the churches you can see from a distance because of their gorgeous steeples, but the one near Stephansdom called Peterskirche. It has the most gorgeous painted oval dome and an ornate interior. Not to mention a skeleton on his side, looking at you, wearing jeweled clothing that fails to cover much of his bones. Creeepy.
That night I tried Schnitzel- I thought it was chicken lol but it's breaded veal. Pretty good.
The next day I got to talking to some of my hostel-mates, Soo from Korea and Tanya who is living in Germany and coming to study composing in Vienna! We decided to check out the museum Albertina together. It was nice to have company.. And someone to take pics of me! (Selfies are getting old.) The museum is mostly modern art, and my favourite was the collection of Picasso, Monet and Kandinsky. They also have very nice state rooms. I love seeing that stuff- makes me feel like I'm royalty lol and it's really pretty.
Afterwards we went to a palace because, as i said, I like that stuff. Schlob Schonbrunn was the palace of the emperor. Specifically Franz Joseph and Elizabeth Theresa Habsburg. Fun fact- they were the parents of Marie Antoinette ... and 15 other kids. Elizabeth died tragically after an Italian anarchist stabbed her with a file. Franz Joseph worked a lot- like 16 hour days for 68 years. The grand tour of the palace allowed us to see 40 rooms, some very beautiful, like the millions room with gorgeous, valuable rosewood paneling. The great gallery, although under construction, has a beautiful painted ceiling.
The gardens are lovely also. Past the Neptune fountain, you can walk up a hill to the arched Gloriette to get a great view of the city, palace and colourful gardens. The Gloriette was built to commemorate Prague returning to Habsburg rule in 1775. The gardens also feature a maze and a zoo.
That night Sue and I decided to check out the famous state opera house. That night was a ballet- Giselle. It was sold out and it's expensive anyway, so we got standing room tickets for 4 euros each! Im still not quite sure what it was about lol. I think Giselle fell in love but had already promised marriage to a member of nobility? So she freaked out and died. The 2nd half was about her ghost, a bunch of other female ghosts, and her love grieving her death at the cemetery. Not exactly sure if he died or lived but... Ya. The dancing was pretty!! (Although i noticed a few mistakes- nobody's perfect lol) and the orchestra rocked. Man, some of those dancers are built. My favourite parts were whenever the male lead danced lol and when the groups of dancers did their thing, all in time with each other in some really pretty sequences. Some parts looked really cool considering we were in the perfect spot- almost in the middle. Such a great spot for 4 euros! It was a little difficult to stand for 1.5 hours but we did get a break at intermission. The venue itself was quite nice. Mostly red and gold. IMO it didn't quite compare to Venice's venue though.
That's it for Vienna! Off to Prague. Sooo excited!
Ranelle