An awful lot of Habsburgs and Markets. Wien und Praha, Part VIII

I took too many photos to post here, so please go see more if you're interested!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 9, 2011
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a wonderful night at the opera, I woke up bright and early for my first full sightseeing day in Vienna. I fortified myself with delicious Hotel Alexander breakfast, packed Berlin Bag (my trusty travel companion since my first trip to Germany) with my guidebook and camera, and trekked up to the Spittelau U-Bahn stop.


I enjoyed a relaxing twenty or so minute train ride down to the Schönbrunn Palace, a beautiful former residence of the Habsburgs, Emperors of a Whole Lot.


A hilarious contrast was the Östermarkt (Easter market) in front of the beautiful Baroque palace:


Before exploring the extensive palace grounds, I shopped around the market. One could buy an Absinthbowle...?


Hungarian marionettes:


And most ubiquitously, delicately hand-painted eggshells:


The palace grounds were completely free. It was a gorgeous sunny day, so I opted to not pay for the inside tour and instead just enjoy the gardens.







Behind the palace were acres of gardens, mazes, and walkways. The Great Parterre was lined with mythological statues made between 1750-1775.





Across the Great Parterre from the Palace was the Gloriette, up on the hill:


I trekked across the gravel to the Neptune fountain...



...where I surreptitiously and shamelessly took many pictures of runners. There were runners EVERYWHERE. Deep in the depths of my shin-related hiatus, I was jealous. But they rocked.


Schönbrunn is home to the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752.

(See another runner?!)

Up up up I climbed to the Gloriette:



From which you can see amazing views of Vienna:



I paused in my journey to have an Eiskaffee (coffee with ice cream in it) in the Gloriette Cafe. The waiter was just a touch on the snooty side and I felt awkward photographing my drink. So I didn't. I regret that now.

Next, it was to the woods!


I met an adorable squirrel with AWESOME ears:


I stumbled across the Obelisk fountain, built in 1777. The hieroglyphs on the obelisk supposedly tell the history of the Habsburg dynasty, however, hieroglyphs were not in fact deciphered until 1822. Soooo whatever. Looks cool?



Finally tiring of the beautiful park ("Schönbrunn", by the way, means "beautiful fountain"), I hopped back on the U-Bahn and headed to the Naschmarkt.



This wonderful open-air market has many permanent stands selling fruits, vegetables, coffee, Döner kebab, scarves, candy, bread, fish, chocolate...and a huge flea market with anything you've ever wanted to find used and cheap! My prize find: a beautiful pair of opera glasses. (The day after I saw the opera. By this time, though, I had purchased a ticket to Carmen in Prague, so I knew I'd use them.) They are pink and silver, (as the somewhat sketchy saleslady claimed) antique, and work just fine. I took pictures at the opera house in Prague, so you'll see them soon.

I walked a bit over to the Hofburg Palace (another Habsburg residence), stopping first in the Burggarten to say hello to Mozart:



And then on to the palace:





I sat a spell in the Volksgarten on the other side and then said hello to Parliament:



Exhausted, I caught the D-Tram back to my hotel for a good nap. Yes.

Refreshed, I D-Trammed back down to die Innere Stadt for dinner and a performance of Bach's Johannespassion at Stephansdom. And photos.

Stephansdom:





Walkin' around:



I made the mistake of eating dinner outside. The wind was biting cold. I froze. So immediately after finishing, I found a warm cafe and ate a slice of famous Sachertorte (with a side of heavy whipped cream) VERY slowly.


It was REALLY good.

I ate ALL of the whipped cream, too.

For REALS.

I perused some shops to kill more time before the concert:



Heh heh heh.

And then, it was time to go inside.




I bought the cheap tickets (of course), and so sat in the left aisle, directly to the left of the choir. I mean if I turned my head 90 degrees to my right, I could stare at the choir's profiles. The orchestra was to my right way behind me. The acoustics were...unique. ;)

My seat block:


My view of the choir's chairs, and the interesting contrast of Old Cathedral and New Technology:


Cathedrals are COLD. I shivered the whole time.


Applauding the conductor:


Despite the temperature and the unique acoustics, it was a fabulous experience to cap my very full Viennese day!

New BOWLS.

Last Sunday, I baked Tiramisu cupcakes for lab. More on them in another post. Briefly, baking necessitated a bowl for batter, a bowl for frosting, and a bowl for filling.

I had one (1) proper mixing bowl.

I re-purposed a sauce pan.

It was sad.

So yesterday, I bought these:


I am prepared for anything.

Stay tuned for more Wien und Praha--I'll visit Habsburg residences, make a sweet purchase at the Naschmarkt, and catch a Bach concert.


Someone officially hates the camera, though it LOVES him:

Mawage! Mawage is what bwings us togetha today.

****************************************************************************
Congratulations, Prince William and Princess Duchess Catherine!
****************************************************************************
(Sorry, I just learned she won't hold the title of "Princess" until Charles is King?)

I have shamelessly been caught up in Royal Wedding Mania since the beginning. Since the speculation started, really, that Wills would marry Kate. I'm most definitely in the huge group of 20-somethings who had a crush on Will when we were tweens and teens. The infatuation is long gone, and I'm just quite happy for him and his lovely, classy, poised, wonderful bride! ;)

***For those of you who don't care, come back next post. I promise this is the only one on this subject. ;) ***

This morning, my alarm blared at 3:55am. I leaped out of bed with a spring I can never muster for a morning run. I hugged my incredibly confused, groggy cat, and then madly searched for live streaming of pre-ceremony coverage.

I was quickly joined online by my BFF, Bethany JO. She, the dear, is in Washington State, so it was 1:00am. We chatted for the next three and a half hours. We spent two of those hours watching a huge horde of British people arrive in the most INCREDIBLE hats. Seriously. Hats. Galore. Why don't we wear amazing hats, I ask you?? Hats that clearly serve no useful purpose! Victoria Beckham's and the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie's hats were the craziest. You can clearly find better pictures all over the internet, but you can see the Princesses on my screen shot:


We streamed coverage from CNN, the official Royal YouTube channel (heeheehee), and BBC. Yes. At. The. Same. Time.
The media coverage is incredible. Only a few stalwart souls were awake on Facebook with Bethany and me, but HATS OFF TO YOU, MY FRIENDS.

For those of you in Britain with no timezone excuse: I do hope you were out partying.

Look at Google Doodle from today:


Love Google!! :D

My sister, Amy, who is in Morocco, joined us online in time for the ceremony. We were struck by the size of the crowds, the beautiful Abbey (which I visited on my only trip to London!), the pomp and circumstance, the boys choir, the organ, the trees (inside), the adorable Queen, the smartly uniformed William and Harry, the cute wee bridesmaids and lovely Pippa, and of course: the gorgeous Catherine. Her dress was beautiful. I am not normally fond of long-sleeved wedding gowns, but hers looked perfect on her. As did the tiara--quite fit for a princess!

Bethany left me for bed around 4:30am her time. I took a break from royal coverage to shower and get dressed for the day. I'm wearing my Easter dress, because it's a special occasion, gosh darn it!

My dress, on Easter:

(The salad, which I'm proudly displaying, is my first attempt at making my family's traditional Caesar salad. My grandpa passed the recipe on to Dad, who sent it to me. He even gave me a pep talk Easter morning over the phone before I made it. Never fear! It was delicious.)


Don't worry, I was back in front of my computer in time for THE KISS! The tradition, apparently, for royal British weddings is to not kiss at the ceremony, but to kiss for the first time in public as husband and wife on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. I'm sure you've already seen better pictures online, but here's another screenshot:


It was fantastic. I'm so glad I woke up to watch the historical event, even if it's all a wee bit silly. I do wish it was a US National Holiday like it is in the UK, but I'm off to lab in my bright blue lacy dress for as long as the Caffeine can keep me conscious.

Cheers to the happy couple, and many prayers that they stay strong together!

A Night at the Opera! Wien und Praha, Part VII

A couple of years ago, six friends and I decided to expand our cultural horizons and attend the opera. We bought season tickets to the Metropolitan Opera in NYC. Four Fridays after lab, we dressed up, took the train to Manhattan, ate dinner, and enjoyed a world-class production of classic opera in box seats. One of my first blog posts described such an evening. We saw La Traviata, Tristan und Isolde, La Sonnambula, and Il Trovatore. It was a wonderful experience! A couple of us bonded with a researcher at lab over opera. He stated, however, that he "only attends the opera in VIENNA."

So naturally, while in Vienna, I HAD to go!

Vienna has a couple opera houses, but I couldn't wait to see the inside of the Vienna State Opera.



I was willing to spring for an actual seat. A little personal splurge. How often is one in Europe?? No price is too small!

Until one realizes that the cheapest seat left is 100 euros, and one can get standing-room only tickets for three euros.

What kind of grad student can't do THAT math? Standing it was!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 8, 2011
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three Oxford friends joined me: physicists Edmund and Joseph and archaeologist Amber. My poor Princeton self was outnumbered. It's okay. They are fabulous.

Good thing, too, because after dressing up (natch) and D-traming it down to the Opernring, we chilled in line for over an hour:


I mean, we queued.

Finally we were allowed inside! We were there to see Anna Bolena by Donizetti:



The premium four euro standing-room tickets for the Parterre (main floor) were sold out, but we successfully purchased three euro tickets for the Balkon (balcony). Next, we ran to the queue for choosing "seats", enjoying the architecture while waiting:


The Met is beautiful, in a posh, modern way. Die Staatsoper was extravagantly, elegantly gorgeous.

Once we climbed the stairs and waited in line (queued) for about twenty minutes, we frantically tied our scarves around almost chest-high rails to reserve our spots. We briefly pondered whether the scarves would be there upon our return, but concluded that the opera crowd should be fairly trustworthy and honorable.

We then FLEW out of the opera house to find dinner. It was, oh, about 6:30pm, and the doors were going to close promptly at 7:00pm. This, ladies and gentlemen, is how we ended up eating hot dogs and pizza from a street vendor before our night at the Vienna State Opera:


(Please excuse my crazy black-and-white printed shirt matched with different-crazy black-and-white printed purse. One can only pack so much when one wants to travel "lightly".)

Amber and I were yawning and truly craving coffee to power us through three hours of standing, but alas, none was quickly found. We skipped up to our "seats", at which point I realized I needed to change my shoes. Yes. I packed a classy black
convertible dress (worn as a skirt here), cute heels, and thank GOODNESS fast flats. In the restroom, I stuffed the heels in my purse and padded back to my spot at the rail in my "hopefully don't look too much like slippers from afar" flats.

Apparently, they had to chase a couple of people off, but no one took our scarves! We were in the back row of official standing spots, elevated slightly above the first row of standers, who were slightly above the stadium seating in the far right side of the balcony. There were screens with the text in English, German, or French for about every two people. Thankfully, I was surrounded by Brits and an Australian. I can't read German quickly enough.




The lights dimmed, the audience applauded as the conductor walked to his place, and the orchestra played. For half of the first scene, we couldn't see a THING. Anna Netrebko began singing beautifully as a despairing Anne Boleyn, who just realized that Henry VIII lost interest in her, but she was standing out of view. We worried. Deeply.

Thankfully, she moved eventually. The choreography was excellent in that respect--we saw something interesting at least half the time! ;)

The costumes! Ooooh the costumes were brilliant! Beautiful, rich, velvety Tudor dresses and poofy man-sleeves. Purples and reds and blues. Long, silky, brunette hair on Anna and blond hair on Giovanna (i.e. Jane) Seymour.

Giovanna was played by Elina Garanca. She and Anna Netrebko were absolutely amazing. Their parts were both so full of emotion (um, hello, it's a tragic opera) and their voices gave me chills (that's a good thing). They are both coming to the Met this fall for its production of Anna Bolena; I might go see it again. Not even joking. They were that good.

By intermission, my feet hurt. But I was doing all right! Surviving! Yes! We wandered about and got drinks. My champagne was six euros: twice the price of my ticket.


I found the evening's composer:



We were so glad we dressed up. We'd be quite out of place otherwise. I did see one or two women in jeans, but for the most part, they were all in lovely dresses.

During the second half, my feet complained. Everyone began a subtle, uncoordinated dance, shifting back and forth between feet, leaning on the rail, stretching calves, balancing on one foot... Occasionally, someone sat on the floor and just listened for a while. It was ideal when someone in front of me did this--then I saw so MUCH!

The opera ended as history predicted. Quite dramatically and tragically.

We gave it a standing ovation. ;)



But no seriously, everyone did.

Anna Nebtreko is blurrily in purple, Elina Garanca blurrily in blue:



I must say, overall, three euros was a steal and standing through the pain was well worth it.





We caught the U-Bahn back uptown and found some delicious gelato. Ein Kugel Ferrero Rocher und ein Kugel Baileys Eis, bitte! Finally, we returned to our hotel and called it a pretty much perfect Friday. :)

***If you are interested in getting standing-room tickets at the Wiener Staatsoper, this is a good description on how to do it.***