Music, Music, and Music

Coming to Vienna, I knew I was entering a city completely enveloped in a passion for music. Everyone, everyone told me that seeing an opera is an absolute must. So, I came here and had one mission: see operas. Now, almost 3 months into my program (eek!), I have seen 5 operas. What I realized from all of this: I really did not know that much about opera at all. Like...nothing. I knew a few of the big ones, but didn't exactly know all of the storylines. I felt especially foolish when I went to an opera and realized that I had sung an aria from it...once the performer was a few lines in. My reaction: "Wait, what? That song was from this opera?! Now I feel dumb for not even knowing the context behind it...I probably could have performed it better had I known this opera."
So what operas have I seen?
Don Giovanni - the sets were too simplistic for my taste, but who couldn't enjoy Don Giovanni?
Alcina - absolutely amazing, I loved everything about it. The staging was beautiful and the costumes were fantastic. (This is also the opera from which said aria is)
Madame Butterfly - meh. I really wanted to like it, but the performance was horrible. Although the staging and costuming were very very engaging.
Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute; I always want to say it in German for some reason) - Holy crap, I LOVED this. Absolutely amazing in every way it could possibly be. The costumes were gorgeous and elaborate, the performers had strong voices and perfect execution, the set was breathtaking. I just don't have anything else to say other than how righteous it was.
Carmen - My first opera at die Volksoper (everything else was at die Staatsoper). It was a different experience in a very good way. I loved the sets; the costumes (especially for Carmen, herself) were beautiful. I am very glad that I had the opportunity to see an opera here.

But don't worry, if opera isn't really your cup of tea (because it definitely isn't everyone's favorite thing to listen to), there is more to the Viennese music scene than opera and orchestras. Since I've been here, I have been able to see three other musical performances. The first, an open-mic night at a small club in the first district. A student on my program signed up for the open-mic and a bunch of us showed up to support. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was a cool way to experience a different genre of music in Vienna. Then, another small club that hosted IES for a "party" at which a student band performed. To say the least, they were great. They are all extremely talented and I loved being able to see my peers perform at a club in Vienna. And the third one, a soul/funk/jazz show at the same small club. All the performers were originally from the United States and have been living in Vienna for who knows how long, playing gigs whenever they can. This was a great night. We met the musicians, talked to them about studying and living in Vienna, living in the United States, and plans for the future. They played some very danceable music and we all had an amazing time. I got to meet some other really cool people and talk to them about their traveling experiences. This is the kind of scene that I really love. Yes, I love the opera and going to symphonies. But what I truly love are these small venues/clubs that cater to the locals, the common people, the people who love all kinds of music. I love being in social environments that allow me to meet new people and experience new things and talk to people about their crazy experiences.
My next goal: go to a few jazz performances. There's a jazz and blues festival-type thing going on this month in Wien and I definitely want to hit up some of the (free!) shows.
This is what I miss when I'm at school - the events that large cities offer. There is actually something cool going on all the time here and I feel like I'm missing out on so many of them! Oh well, I'll be happy as long as I make it to at least a few along the way.

In other news, Gustavo Dudamel is coming to the Musikverein to conduct the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic) and I AM going. I love him. I need to figure out this ticket situation pronto.

Now, I'm off to do that unwanted homework...goodnight!

Día de los Muertos pictures

Pan dulce conchas!

Their WALL of tequila

Papel Picado and piñatas

Salsa verde y pollo tamal

Tequila glasses

Día de los Muertos in Wien - who would have thunk?

Although it was nowhere close to being as awesome as the celebrations back home (in Los Angeles), celebrating Día de los Muertos in Vienna was still fun. I got to discover the Hispanic part of Vienna, found an awesome store that sells Mexican products (jewelry, calaveras, tiles, decorations, etc.), and found a Mexican market that sells EVERYTHING I could ever want to make some awesome Mexican food - tortillas and salsa verde and everything!! I’m super stoked and I may have to go back and splurge on some groceries there. This is also the place in which the celebrations ensued.

I had two tamales: one salsa verde con pollo and one mole con pollo. I had a cup of champurrado that was DELICIOUS. I ate pan dulce: a chocolate concha, one of my faves. I drank a dos equis and I got to enjoy 4 free shots of some ridiculously good tequila. I was able to introduce some of my friends to this awesome celebration and they loved it. They were so stoked for the food and asked me questions about all of it and about the holiday, itself. I got to hang out with some cool people, eat amazing food, and drink some great drinks. It was also nice to spend an evening surrounded by people speaking Spanish. I got to use some of my Spanish-speaking skills, too, but found that I kept mixing it with German! Therefore, I’ve created a new language: Deutisch (Deutsch plus Spanisch). Yea, I’m just mixing up all sorts of languages now.

One thing that blew my mind was how many languages the owner of the market spoke. German, Spanish, English, and I definitely heard a few French phrases come out of this mouth. It was amazing - especially how quickly he could switch between all of them!

I’d say I’ve had my fix of Mexican culture for the time being. But, who knows, maybe I’ll partake in more celebrations tomorrow! There is at least one thing going on tomorrow evening that I know of. I guess it pays off to email the Mexican Embassy in Vienna after not being able to find any Día de los Muertos events myself. I’m loving how my day turned out. I'll post pictures of tonight soon! :]

Felíz el Día de los Muertos <3

I can't believe it's November

How is that possible? I've been gone for 11 weeks and have 8 more weeks to spend abroad. This is insanity...in approximately 7 months I will be done with my junior year and will be preparing for my last year as a student. I can't believe it. How is this possible?

Mostly Pest, but some Buda, too.

This post is a little overdue - but aren't all of my entries? On October 14th, three friends of mine and I went to Budapest, Hungary (after all that drama that I wrote about in a previous post). Our train left at 8:04 am and we were there by noon. We headed straight for our hostel and found it fairly easily. Walking down the street, all the buildings looked really cute, except for one. Belle even commented on how ghetto it looked. Well, it turns out that was the building that our hostel was in. Swell. We walked into this apartment building and walked to the top floor, where the actual hostel was. The building was actually kind of pretty, once you got past how run-down it looked, and the ground floor was definitely the worst part of the building. Once we got to the 3rd floor (European), it was kind of pretty, especially with the sun coming into the courtyard. It's a hostel run by a father and his son and it was actually really cute. Everything was from Ikea...but actually. The sheets, the shower curtains, the window curtains, and I'm pretty sure even the beds were. It was great. The father and son helped us to get a little more situated in the city and gave us all maps and pointed out a few places for us.

After dropping off all our bags and having a few minutes of relaxation, we leave to find the House of Terror - a museum about the communist (Soviet) and fascist (Nazi) regimes in Hungary. The museum was put together really nicely and was just beautiful. I only wish I could have understood more of it, since most of it was in Hungarian. But they did have English information sheets in each room explaining some of the historical context and meaning behind part of the exhibit. I still have a stack of those to read through - I'm just very interested in their history. I feel like Hungary has had an insane history and is a country that has been constantly rocked with political and social turmoil. Even without having understood everything, this museum was able to evoke a sympathetic response from me. You can still tell that Hungary hasn't completely recovered from the Soviet regime. The city looks run down and definitely has a more impoverished feeling than other European cities (such as Vienna).
After spending a little over an hour in the museum, we started to walk to the City Park. On our way to the park, we walked by a bakery that had cupcakes in the window! If you know me, you know about my love for cupcakes. So, naturally I got super excited because I haven't had a cupcake since I've been in Europe! However, this turned out to be false advertisement and they didn't actually have cupcakes there :[ But some of us did end up getting something sweet to eat. I had a massive cream puff while Rachael and Kelly ate some sort of Hungarian pudding thing...I forget what was in it, exactly.

At the entrance to City Park is a huge monument called Heroes' Square. To each side of the monument is the Museum of Fine Arts and the Palace of Art. This monument was beautiful, along with the rest of the park. We walked around and explored the grounds of Vajdahunyad Castle, which included a church and an agriculture museum. We then walked further into the park and stumbled upon a very large building that kind of reminded me of Schönbrunn because of its bright yellow color. It turns out this building houses one of the many Hungarian baths and spas! We looked at prices and decided that was the one we would go to on Sunday afternoon, Széchenyi Bath and Spa.

We left the park and walked to a restaurant that our hostel recommended. Unfortunately, it was closed when we got there at 5pm. We guessed that it might reopen at 6pm for dinner, but since we had a ballet to go to at 7pm, we had to find somewhere else to eat - soon. We walked toward the opera house, found a street lined with restaurants and cafés and decided on a place to eat. I ordered a soup that was not what I was expecting, but oh well. Everyone else had some great food. Also, just in case you ever go to Budapest: they DO have a service charge. Vienna doesn't have tax or anything like that, but Budapest does. So that was a fun discovery...After eating, we went to the opera house and found our seats...or so we thought. For some reason, there are two rows that are called "row 2" in the balcony and BOTH of them had the seat numbers that were on our tickets. So we were confused and just chose the ones that had a better view. It seemed that we were in the clear, until the lights started to dim and we actually got kicked out of our seats by some people who apparently had tickets for those seats...after an awkward first act of the ballet, we found empty seats during intermission that had better views and sat there for the remainder of the ballet. The opera house was beautiful and the dancers were amazing. None of us completely understood the storyline for the ballet, but it was still cool! We all headed back to the hostel after a long day of traveling and walking around Pest.

The next morning, we all got to sleep in a little bit and ate some food provided by our hostel's kitchen...aka a couple of eggs and some bread. Whatevs, FREE FOOD. While walking around the city, we found some Hungarian markets that were filled with booths selling bread, cheese, yogurt, sweets, toys, clothes, etc etc. I bought this bread roll thing that was quite delicious and snacked on it for the rest of the afternoon. We made it to St. Stephen's Basilica and went inside. It was so elaborately decorated with gold leaf everywhere, an amazing organ, and a smaller chapel attached on the side.

Our next stop: Parliament. Parliament is located right on the Danube and looks beautiful from across the river, especially when it is lit up at night.

Then, we walked along the Danube, past Parliament and across Margaret Bridge. Half way across the bridge, it splits off and connects to Margaret Island. We took that detour and walked around the island for a little bit. The island is basically just a huge park in the middle of the Danube. There were a bunch of sports activities going on when we were there and we saw several soccer fields set up in the outdoor sports center. There was also a huge fountain that shot up water so high that we could see it from the bridge, before we even got to the island. We stopped to eat some food at a booth on the island - including the first hamburger I've had since high school..yea, weird. The man also seemed very surprised that I wanted onions on my burger. He didn't speak English, but it seemed like he was trying to tell me that they'll make my breath smell bad. When I said I still wanted them, he just kind of smiled and said "okay.." Awkward.

Finally, we walked across the bridge to Buda and were on our way to Castle Hill. Here, we saw the Mary Magdalene Tower, Matthais Church, found some more markets and touristy booths, and saw some awesome views from a lookout terrace in Castle Hill. Then, we walked to Buda Castle, ate a delicious Hungarian desert that's basically fried dough covered in cinnamon sugar. DELICIOUS. Here, we also went to a wine museum followed by a wine tasting. It was my first official wine tasting and I absolutely loved it. Hungary has some delicious-tasting wine and it was a perfect way to spend our evening.

Afterward, we got to walk around the castle at night and it was completely gorgeous. We walked down the hill, took tons of pictures, and crossed Chain Bridge back into Pest. We also stopped at the Four Seasons, which was right at the end of Chain Bridge, and used their fancy bathroom. That hotel was definitely the nicest hotel I've ever seen. The city actually looks really nice at night. On our way back to our hostel, we grabbed some cheap dinner and stopped in a bar to sit and hang out for a while after our long day of walking around everywhere.
The next morning, we packed all our backpacks and saw a few last minute things, including a synagogue in the Jewish district. We passed the same markets we had found on Friday and walked further to find a square. Here, we walked around a little bit and then sat down and drank cappuccinos and ate sandwiches at a great café that I never wanted to leave. All I want in life is to sit with friends in a café, drinking good coffee, eating good food, and having great conversations that make me laugh and love life. Is that too much to ask for? Apparently it is.
Then, it was time for the baths and spa. We spent several hours just hanging out in all the pools and steam rooms. The best part was outside. The pools were gorgeous and filled with people from all over the world - locals and tourists. We also had perfect weather. It was sunny, but still cool outside; cool enough for the pools to be a great blanket of warmth, but still sunny enough so that our heads weren't cold. After getting adequately pruney, it was time to leave so we could catch our train.
We thought we had given ourselves plenty of time, but the walk ended up being more of a trek than we had expected and we had to rush around quite a bit. But we were able to grab some food before boarding the train, found seats, and relaxed on our way back to Vienna. Budapest: check.
Here are some more pictures for you to look at, just in case you haven't seen them already:

Széchenyi Baths and Spa

Smoked Mozarella at the markets!

The delicious desert that I don't know the name of

Parliament from the Buda side

Parliament and Chain Bridge at night

Chain Bridge

Forint!

I spent this past weekend in Venice and LOVED it! Hopefully I'll write make that post fairly soon...but you know me.

A few of my favorite things

As I'm sitting at work in the library, doing absolutely nothing, I've realized that I haven't updated this with my most recent adventures. What better way to procrastinate from working on projects and papers than to update my blog?

On the 9th of October, I went to Salzburg for the day. I had already gone to Salzburg earlier in the semester, but it was with a fairly large group of people and, although we saw a lot of the city, I wasn't able to do absolutely everything that I wanted to: mostly, Sound of Music stuff. If you don't know by now, I am a Sound of Music fanatic. Seriously. I grew up listening to and singing along with the music and my sister and I watched the movie basically everyday after getting home from preschool and kindergarten. I remember running around and dancing to the music in my living room. I remember listening to the soundtrack during every road trip my family took. It was my life.
So, this time around, I went on The Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg. Before the tour, I walked around The Mirabell Gardens (which I had already done last time) and explored more of the park than I had before.

I also stumbled upon the Mozarteum, a music school in Salzburg, and the Marionette Museum where the puppets used in the film are kept. The tour started at 2pm and lasted for almost 4 hours and included so many of the Sound of Music locations that I wasn't able to see the first time I went to Salzburg.
Our first stop was Schloss Leopoldskron. The palace is actually private property of Harvard now (say what?), so you can't actually go inside or on the property. But the most relevant part of the palace is the back, which is visible from across the lake, in terms of the film.

Next, we headed to Schloss Hellbrunn, which is the current location of the famous glass gazebo. Originally, the gazebo stood near the edge of the lake in the gardens of Schloss Leopoldskron, but was moved in 1991, I believe. Also, it has been permanently locked to the public - apparently a woman tried to hop across the benches like Liesl did during Sixteen Going on Seventeen and ended up falling and may or may not have broken a bone...

On our way to the next stop, we drove by Schloss Frohnburg, the palace that was used as the front of the Von Trapp house in the film. It is also the location of the long yellow wall that Maria skips down while singing I Have Confidence. Then, we headed for the hills of Vienna. Driving through the countryside was absolutely gorgeous. I was blown away by how beautiful and green everything was.

Also, Salzburg had just gotten its first snow the night before and all of the surrounding mountains were topped with snow. It was at this point that I began to really miss my sister. If you can't already tell, my sister and I are very close. We're less than 2 years apart in age and share many of the same interests. Throughout our entire lives, we've shared a passion for music and the arts. We grew up listening to and watching The Sound of Music (among many other musicals) and I really wished she could have been there with me to experience what I was experiencing. I really don't know anyone else my age who loves and appreciates this movie as much as my sister and I do. I just don't know what it is, but I think the music is absolutely brilliant and whenever I listen to it, I get so happy and have a deep longing to be with people who share the same love for this movie. I know my sister is the one person who does share this love and not having her around to talk to about it made me realize how much I've missed her.

During the drive, we saw the Fuschlsee and the Mondsee. We stopped along the road and had one of the most amazing views of the Austrian Alps surrounding the Mondsee and neighboring areas. The view was breathtaking and almost overwhelming. Not only is Mondsee a lake, but it is also a town. In this town is the Mondsee Church, the location used for the wedding scene of Maria and Captain Von Trapp. We also took a small break here and stopped in a cafe to drink some coffee and eat apfelstrudel! It was the perfect diversion in my busy day of sightseeing.

We got back to the starting point of the tour sometime around 5:45 and I decided to do some more exploring of Salzburg before taking a train back to Vienna (the leave Salzburg once every hour, so I wasn't really on a time schedule). I walked around the city some more and was able to see a few more Sound of Music sights and other things that I hadn't seen or noticed the first time around. The tour guide had also told us about a place called Augustiner Bräu. The Augustiner Brewery was founded by Augustinian monks back in the day and now the basement of this building is used as a large bar/brewery with a ton of traditional Austrian food. It was an awesome environment and I'm glad that I ended up finding it.
Then, I began my walk back to the train station and was able to see the city at night. I'm completely in love with Salzburg. I love everything about it and I have a feeling that I will force myself to go back, once again, later on in my life.

Wasted Money and Lost Jewelry

Tomorrow, we're going to Budapest. As I was checking things for our trip earlier today, I noticed something funny on my train ticket: it's valid from 14 September to 16 September 2011, not October. I freaked out, asked Rachael if hers is the same and it is. It's the same for Belle and Kelly, too. Cool, the guy at the station screwed up our ticket dates and they're no longer valid. Except, our seat reservation is for the correct date, so how the heck did they mess that up? Rachael and I went to the Wien Westbanhof station to exchange our tickets. Unfortunately, we can't do it for free. The tickets that we have (the wrong ones) were sold on a special and that special was only valid for those days and doesn't apply to this weekend. Now it's costing us 44 Euro to go (the initial tickets were only 29 Euro) and they can't give us a refund for our old tickets here. They give us a number to call so we can ask what to do for a refund, but it's not guaranteed that we'll even get our money back. So, now a trip that should have only cost 44 Euro is costing 73 Euro. Awesome.
Then, after all this drama and my frustration, we're on our way back home and I realize that my earring is no longer on my ear. Cool, I lost one of my favorite earrings on this wonderful day. This is the third piece of jewelry I've lost in Europe. First, it was my Peace Chain necklace that mysteriously disappeared in Greece. The only time I took it off was in our private hostel room in Paros. So I seriously have no idea what happened to that and how I lost it...Then, it was one of my rose earrings at a club. Whatever, both of those things were fairly cheap and I had had those rose earring for like 6 years; I definitely used them to their worth. But this earring that I just lost belonged to one of my favorite pairs. And I got it from the Oregon Country Fair and they were not cheap. They're hand made and just hippie enough for me. UGH. I know it's dumb to be so distraught over losing an earring, but after having just spent so much extra money, this sucks more than it should and I'm just not in the mood to deal with this.


I'll write a happy post in here soon enough...I went back to Salzburg to do The Sound of Music tour this past weekend, so that was definitely an awesome experience! And hopefully actually being in Budapest tomorrow will make me feel better about today. I promise, happy posts are coming!