I was at the Night at the Museum - The movie? - No, my life!

No, we did not plan the matching.  It just happened.

Well, life in Vienna is constantly exciting.  This weekend was so much fun and full of culture!  I feel very sophisticated now (she says with her nose in the air while daintily sipping tea)  No, just kidding, though I am drinking tea :)  Anyway, Friday was a great day.  Some friends and I attended our first Opera at the Staatoper.  They way it works is that people start lining up for standing room tickets a few hours before the opera starts.  Standing room tickets cannot be bought in advance and only one ticket per person.  This though, is the cheapest way of seeing an opera with tickets ranging from 3-4 euros.  Once you have your ticket, you claim your spot by tying a scarf or some small piece of clothing on the railing in front of you.  Then you can leave (since it is still over an hour before the show starts) and grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine and then come back before the curtain rises. 

Every girl needs a pair of Opera glasses!


This was our first time making our way through this system, but we were very successful.  We saw Tosca and it was absolutely amazing.  There is a little screen on the railing in front of you that scrolls the translation of the songs.  At times I didn't even need it because the music told me exactly what was happening.  This was my first live opera and I already have plans to attend another next week.  I love it!  Afterwards we were all on an opera high and so we went to a nearby cafe for a recap.  Some in the group are music majors and are here in Vienna pursuing music.  Now, I am familiar with music after playing several instruments and singing with choirs forever, but I have never studied music the way some of my friends have.  It was very interesting to listen to them comparing the shift from the major chord to the minor in the first aria and how that signaled the upcoming tragedy.  I was thoroughly amused and just sat back and listened.  Overall, a fabulous night!

We're not in Wien anymore

 Saturday, we got out of the city and went for a hike in the Wiener Wald (Vienna Forest).  It was beautiful and so much fun to just wander about.  We actually wandered so far that we left Vienna and entered Niederosterreich, the next county over.  Not really a county, but the closest thing in translation.  More like a state.  Austria is divided into seven different "states" and the city of Vienna is one.  We randomly picked trails and one lead right to an open meadow on the edge of a vineyard.  From here we could look down upon all of Vienna.  We strolled through the grapevines and sampled a few.  There was no fence and we were on public trails so it didn't feel like trespassing (but we probably were...oh well).  I may or may not have recreated a scene from The Sound of Music.  Anyway, fun was had on our little adventure!  

meadow with grapes and distant city

Hannah, Elizabeth, and Me


That night we all went to Die Lange Nacht der Museen, which means the long night of museums.  This is a city wide event that happens every year.  One ticket will get you into over 100 different museums throughout Vienna from 6 pm to 1 am.  It was crazy and a little overwhelming.  We started with a Picasso exhibit.  I learned a lot about Picasso and was actually surprised that I liked several of his pieces.  I am not a huge fan of modern art or cubism.  I prefer Impressionist and landscapes, but many of Picasso's paintings were very interesting to look at.  Our next stop was another museum called Dialogue in the Dark.  This is a museum where visually impaired people lead you around in the dark and basically you experience a day in the life of a person who is blind.  A very neat experience and a little scary.  I'm not embarrassed to admit that I am still slightly afraid of the dark.  After that we saw the work of Klimt, a very famous Austrian artist.  He painted the Kiss or as they call it here, die Kuss.  Next came the Belvedere, an art museum.  There was also the Schnapps Museum (unfortunately the tour did not include samples) and the Chocolate Museum.  The Museum of Torture was fun and I ended on a high note of Mozart's apartment.  Overall, not too shabby for a night of museum roaming.  Sunday was then a day of rest and homework.  I am now ready to start my week!