I took a daytrip to Bratislava yesterday to do some shopping and give the city another chance (long story which I'll share privately). Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy, but I did get a chance to walk around a bit and take in the city. The first pictures of a billboard for the movie, Die Hard 4.0, which I found interesting. I saw it last week in Vienna on the largest movie screen in Austria. For anyone interested, it's called "Stirb langsam" in German (die slowly). The next picture is of the castle in Bratislava, up on a hill above the Danube, and the last picture if of the Danube as it runs through the city. Last night was Ted's last night in Vienna, and I'm sure he had mixed emotions about going back to the US. He's lived in Vienna for 2 years and 3 of the past 4 years, and has been a good friend and huge help to me during my time here. We met at an Irish pub last night with my roommate Tobi, a couple friends, and a group of Russian girls we had met the night before at a club (not pictured). We were playing teams, and the last game ended with me making a full-table bank shot on the eight ball. A good way to end the night!
I'll answer the questions from Rene's comment first I guess. Yes, I have lost weight while here, but I am eating plenty and drinking plenty as well. The lifestyle is a lot more active, I don't have a car, the food seems to be more natural, and I have also had a lot more time to cook for myself. I needed to lose weight anyway! Johanna is a musicology student at the University in Würzburg. I met her a couple years ago on Dr. Heidlberger's trip, as did the others on his trips, and we have kept in touch and visited a few times since then. We both share a common interest in not doing touristy type things and drinking cocktails!
This weekend I am planning on going to at least part of the Donauinselfest, a huge weekend festival on the Donau Insel in Vienna. The Donau Insel is an island about 20km long in the Danube and is a huge recreational are for the city. It's pretty much a huge park that also has night clubs, bars, and restaurants as well. More than 300 groups will be playing on the various stages throughout the weekend, and there are also going to be fireworks. You can see where it's located on the map and get an idea of what the island is like from the picture (not mine).
Johanna, a friend of mine from Germany, came to visit this past weekend, and we spent the weekend touring the city and catching up. She sends her greetings to those of you she knows at UNT. On Saturday night, we went to Poncho, a Mexican restaurant in the 2nd district. They have a very short happy hour, from 6-7 PM, but the cocktails are half price. The two glasses on the table are from their "Very Long Island Iced Teas," and they mix them correctly. I'll just leave it at that! I've taken quite a few pictures from Schönbrunn, but here's one more anyway! It's taken from the back of a fountain looking at the rear of the palace. I tried to talk Johanna into actually getting in the fountain to take the picture, but she didn't seem to think it was a good idea. On Sunday there was an incredibly strong thunderstorm that lasted about 1.5 hours, and we had just come on the train from Schönbrunn and were headed to the 1st district when it hit. The rain came down so quickly that some of the Strassenbahn lines were not running. We sat on the number 2 for about an hour waiting for the rain to stop and the train to continue, but even after it finished raining the train was not able to move because of flooding at the next station. We ended up getting out and walking to Cafe Landtmann for a coffee and some sweets. The next picture is me with the Burgtheater in the background, one of the oldest and most important theaters in Europe and also the former imperial court theater. The last picture is Johanna sitting by a fountain in front of the Parliament building. The fountain in front depicts Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Cafe Landtmann, the Burgtheater, and Parliament are all located on the Ring in the 1st district.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the Life Ball is the largest AIDS charity event in the world. It's held at the Rathaus every year, and there is a huge parade of attendees dressed in all sorts of wild costumes. There are 2 types of tickets: the expensive ticket where you wear normal evening attire, and the "less expensive" (still very costly) ticket where you are required to dress in some sort of costume. There are apparently regulations for the costumes, but I think these regulations have to do with not being too conservative, not the other way around! People line the Ring by the Rathaus to watch the parade of costumed people into the Ball. The pictures here are just an example of some of the types of costumes that people wear to this event.
Every year there is a free concert (Europa-Konzert) at Schönbrunn Palace to kick off the weekend for the Life Ball, the largest single AIDS charity event in the world. The concert is held in the rear of the palace, and the Vienna Philharmonic plays on an outdoor stage. There were supposed to be an estimated 50-70,000 people attending, but I didn't bother to lookup the final count. I met Tobi there late in the afternoon, and he had been camped out there with some of his friends for several hours. Like the Times Square New Year's celebration, the actual concert is much better if you watch it on television, although it was still fun to be there. The first picture is taken from the top of the hill behind the palace, where we started the concert. They had a live ballet for some of the music, which was in that area (2nd picture). For the end of the concert though, we moved down towards the palace so we could hear a bit better. The program can be found HERE, although they did not list the many Johann Strauss encores that were performed at the end. Unfortunately and surprisingly, they did not end with the Blue Danube Waltz. I almost forgot to mention that Bill Clinton was attending the concert to receive a $1 million check for some AIDS charity work he is doing, although I didn't get to see him myself.
Alright, I got the pictures from our party and I'm willing to put a few of them online. The two people you have seen in other pictures are Ted (to the left in the 1st) and my roommate Tobi (to the right in the 2nd). As I mentioned, this was a combination birthday party for Tobi and our housewarming party, although it came much later than planned! The other people pictured attend the University with Tobi. We also finally got to meet our neighbor after 3 months.
I know that I have been really bad about posting in the blog after such a good start, and I got out of the habit of posting when I didn't have my camera for a while. I'm going to try and be much better about updating this in the coming weeks.
I went with a few friends to a wine tavern on Saturday night and took a few pictures on the way. Here are two pictures I took on the way to the Shottentor train station, where we met. The first is the Votivkirche and the second is the Rathaus. I've taken pictures of both buildings before, but I thought the view this particular evening was quite beautiful.
I didn't think to take any pictures when we were at the wine tavern unfortunately. It was raining, and I simply forgot, and I actually just remembered that I had them on my camera now. We ended up going to one of the more touristy wine taverns in the 19th district in the Grinzing area, mainly because it was not too far from the train station, and priority 1 was getting out of the rain. The wine taverns open up in the spring and start serving last year's wine, and I hope to check out some different places in the coming months.
We met some interesting characters at the wine tavern. The first was a man who was about to get married. Apparently, there are a whole bunch of things that he was required to do at his "bachelor party," one of which was to tell some random people the pros and cons of marriage. Lucky us, we were the random people! It was pretty funny, at least the parts of it that I was able to understand. We also met a bunch of middle-aged men from Cologne when we were leaving, all of which also got on the same Strassenbahn that we did. I hopped off earlier than the rest to catch the U-Bahn back home, and these same people ended up on the U-Bahn with me. They must have been there for a while, because the gentleman I was talking to was too drunk to remember that I had just been talking to him 20 minutes earlier at the wine tavern and on the Strassenbahn!
I took it easy this past weekend though. We had a belated birthday party for my roommate, Tobi, which was also a REALLY belated housewarming party. This was on Monday, since Tuesday was a holiday here (May 1st). The party was good and all my friends are still talking to me, so all is well! Tobi took some pictures that I will soon have a copy of, but they are available by request only with the exception of my mother! (just joking Mom) :)
That's not a grammatical error! I hiked "to" the Vienna Woods today. Unfortunately it had been raining earlier this morning, so the ground was still wet. I was in major need of some outdoors time though, so I decided to hike at least "to" the Vienna Woods and check out some of what was around. I came across a sign for the Wiener Wein Weg (Vienna Wine Trail) which I will have to check out later once the weather is not so wet. This is on the outskirts of the 19th district of Vienna, but the Vienna Woods are actually about 1000 sq km. Only a portion of it is actually in Vienna. There are hiking and biking trails all over the place which I intend to take advantage of in the coming weeks, and the views were spectacular. This is the highest point in the city of Vienna, and is also the start of the Alps (foothills). The last picture is nothing special, just a house that I liked which overlooked the valley in the previous pictures.
I have my camera back! I went to Budapest 2 weekends ago and left my camera there, but I have it now and am back in business! The first picture is Budapest at night (obviously!). I was staying with a friend of mine, Gabriella, who works occasionally as a tour guide in Budapest so I got a world class tour of the city, but at a comfortable pace this time. One of the places we visited was a museum the size of a small town. It is made up of buildings from all over Hungary in different architectural styles dating back several centuries. They were all transplanted to this location from various places around the country, and they even have some animals that were common at the time, including pigs with hair! Neither Gabi nor myself had ever seen one, although her mother later told us that is part of what we ate for dinner on Sunday! Her mother prepared a traditional Hungarian dinner, and I have not seen so much food in one place in a long time. Everything was great, and it was nice to get some spicier food for a change. The last picture is of Heroes' Square. There are a total of 12 statues which represent important people in the history of Hungary, including St. Stephen (born in 1000), the first King of Hungary. Only the right hand side is pictured here. Throughout the city you can see references to St. Stephen, who is symbolized by a double cross. Budapest is really a beautiful city, and like most places, you can not really take it in all at once. I need to go back there again to see some of the sights that I missed this time for sure.
I just wanted to wish all my family, friends, and everyone at St. Laurence (also considered family of course!) a very happy Easter! I was planning on going to the Jesuitenkirche this morning for mass, but I never made it. I didn't mention it last night, but I was amongst those standing for the entire 3 hour Easter Vigil Mass. In addition, I was standing outside the cathedral for about 1.5 hours prior to make sure I got a place. This seems to have irritated my back problem from last summer a little bit, and I want to make sure that it is better for tomorrow so I can begin my week with no problem. It was nice for a change though to have this option of not going to more than one Easter service. Anyway, enough of the excuses!
I made it down to the center of Vienna early yesterday because I was not sure what time the service would start. I took the opportunity to go into several churches in the area, and I had decided that if I made it to the 1st district for mass today I would go to the Jesuitenkirche. It isn't too far from Stephansdom, and is simply gorgeous inside. The pictures speak for themselves, and certainly don't come close to doing it justice. One of these days I'll learn to keep my hands steady during those long-exposure pictures, but yesterday was not the day!
I figured the best place to go for the most important church service of the year would be Stephansdom, the cathedral for the diocese of Vienna. Previous pictures of Stephansdom can be found HERE and HERE. The Easter Vigil Mass was quite an experience. I do have a couple of videos that I took towards the end of the mass, but it was not really appropriate to take pictures at any other time, although some people really made fools out of themselves and had most of the church mad at them.
The service started in a Romanesque style courtyard of the church building across from the cathedral. If I had to guess, I would say it was built in the 18th century because the similarities to other 18th century buildings in Vienna. There was a fire pit about one square meter in the center and at 9PM the Cardinal came into the courtyard and started the ceremony there. He lit the Easter candle from the fire and we all processed to the cathedral. Fortunately they didn't use all of the readings, but they did use five so it was about an hour until we got to the Gloria. To my surprise, they used both the Gloria and Sanctus from the Schubert German Mass that we use at St. Laurence. Of course they used the German words though and not English! The church bells also began ringing and there was incense everywhere, but not quite as much as Larry Votto likes to use! I'm beginning to think that there must be some problem with the main organ, because they used the choir organ exclusively tonight. It's no small instrument itself, but the main organ is the largest in Austria and it would be nice to hear it. I never got a clear look at the instrumental ensemble, but there were also brass and timpani with the organ and choir. The cathedral was absolutely packed, and even the last place to stand was taken. Fortunately a few people left after the first 2 hours, so it cleared up a tiny bit. The Mass ended just before midnight, so around 3 hours and when I walked outside the church bells began to ring again in celebration of Easter.
The first video is part of one of the anthems. I apologize in advance for the quality of these videos, but I recorded them with my digital camera so a lot of the bass in particular is missing. Also, since I wanted to make sure the files were small enough to upload easily, they are only sections of the pieces. For the purposes of scale, the tallest pipe in the facade of that organ is roughly 32' tall. This organ is also at the front, right of the church in one of the aisles.
This second video is part of the organ postlude, Simon Sechter's Fuge über das österliche Alleluja.
I've decided during Holy Week to go to a different church each day and experience the services and music as much as possible throughout the city. Tonight I went to the Pfarre Altlerchenfeld, a church not too far from me that I have written about and posted pictures of before. I took one new picture because I think it's boring to make a post here without something to look at! Overall, the music was fairly plain tonight. The musical tradition in Vienna does not include a prelude before the service, and instead of using an opening hymn during the procession, the organist typically improvises something or plays a short chorale prelude. The organ was used very minimally, and there was no choir at this mass, just a cantor. This is, of course, just a neighborhood church, although it is huge by typical American standards. The music wasn't complicated, but was very good and effective, and was certainly supported by the fine acoustics in the building. It was also interesting to hear this service in German for the first time.
Inspired by my early morning walk yesterday, I decided to take a walk this afternoon on the grounds of Schönbrunn palace. There are a ton of trails on top of the hill, and out of nowhere you find beautiful views of Vienna from various angles. The weather was warm today, and there were a ton of people walking or just sitting on the park benches in the sun. Today was definitely a day to spend some time outside and enjoy one of the more quiet settings in the city. I am still in awe of the fact that this was all on the grounds of someone's "summer home." It kind of makes the 1 acre lot I had in Connecticut seem like a parking space at Walmart. Schönbrunn even has the world's oldest zoo (Tiergarten Schönbrunn), founded in 1752. I didn't go in today, but after discovering the various walking trails and paths I am probably going to make this a regular stop during good weather, so I will get there at some point. I'm a big animal lover, and they have some animals that you don't get to see at most zoos including panda bears and cheetahs. I noticed today that they are getting ready for Easter. There is apparently a huge Easter egg hunt on the grounds every year, but I think I will probably skip that chaos in favor of something else.
I was out for a real early morning walk today and headed to Schönbrunn palace. This was the summer residence of the Habsburg's, and is on the outskirts of Vienna. Fortunately, I arrived just as they were opening the gates to the grounds, believe it or not at 6AM. I can't quite believe it myself that I was up and out so early! The first picture is the front of the palace, but it is impossible to capture the palace from inside the gates due to the size of Schönbrunn. The second picture is the view from the back of the palace. Normally in the summer there is a fountain running, but none of the fountains around Vienna have been turned on for the spring yet. It was quite a hike, but I hiked up to the top of that hill. There is a cafe at the top, but unfortunately it was not open by the time I got there at 6:30! The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking and I could see landmarks from all over Vienna from there. The last picture is the view of the back of Schönbrunn, and you can get a perspective of just how high that hill is in proportion to the rest of the immediate area.
Dr. Heidlberger, my major professor from UNT, spent a couple of days in Vienna this week as part of a research trip that brought him to Austria. We met for dinner and drinks last night and tonight, and caught up on all the events in Denton, the US, and Vienna. It was nice to see a familiar face and to catch up on all the changes that I have missed at UNT in this short period of time. I assured him that his Analytical Systems students were working hard on their presentations while he was gone, and that they would all be ready to present next Tuesday (blame Colin for that one!).
Since my dad is a big train enthusiast, I decided to post some pictures of the trains in Vienna. There are quite a few different trains operating within the city, the U-Bahn (subway), the Strassenbahn (streetcar), and Schnellbahn (commuter train), long distance trains heading to destinations all over Europe, and commercial trains. The first picture is one of the Strassenbahn trains which runs along the Gürtel. They have both modern and older trains running these lines, and this is obviously one of the older trains. The older trains are heated, and from what I could tell when it's been cold out, the newer trains do not have heat. The next two pictures are of a trainyard in the 15th district, and they were taken from a pedestrian bridge which crosses the yard. The first is the view towards the outskirts of Vienna, and the second towards the city. The 15th district is just outside the Gürtel from my district, and I took these on an after dinner walk today. Nice weather two days in a row, I can't believe it! The train system in Vienna is probably the best out of any city I've ever been to, or at least that I have visited recently. The only time I have really missed owning a car is when I had to buy some furniture from IKEA. It seems that no matter where you are in the city, there is either a Strassenbahn or U-Bahn stop somewhere nearby, and a monthly pass is not too expensive. The last picture is taken down a side street in the 15th district, and you can see the skyscrapers in the distance which are on the outskirts of the city.
Finally, a warm and sunny day here! I decided to go out and get some fresh air today and went down to the Prater, a huge park in Vienna's 2nd district. Part of the Prater is an amusement park, and the picture is the huge ferris wheel called the Riesenrad, built in 1897. It is roughly 200 feet tall and has 15 gondolas. It originally had 30, but it was damaged in World War II, and when it was restored they only used 15. Each gondola is huge, and you feel more like you are sitting in an actual room. I believe that actually rent them out by the hour at times and serve dinner, but I'm sure that's not on a student budget!
Well, another rainy day here. I'm hoping that the weather is going to get better soon. We've had some really beautiful days, but not this week! This is kind of boring, but this is the best it's going to get today. Rain = no outside pictures for me! These pictures are taken out my bedroom window, and should give some impression as to the type of neighborhood I live in. We live on the first floor, or translated into English, the second floor. In German, when you say the first floor you are referring to what we consider the second floor. Our street is fairly small, which you can see from the photos, and it is mostly residential. There aren't too many businesses on our little section of Seidengasse. Tonight, if the weather is not too bad, I am planning on going to the opera again to hear Rossini's The Barber of Seville. It's nice having such a large variety of musical events to choose from, and it's especially nice that they are affordable! I'm trying to take in as much of the musical scene as I can while I'm here in Wien!
Sorry I haven't posted anything recently, but the weather has been horrible. It's been very cold, and it even snowed in some parts of Vienna on more than one day this week. This is a picture of Sigmund Freud's house in Vienna which is about a 5-10 minute walk from where I am teaching music/English, just outside the Ringstrasse (9th district). In case that is not specific enough for anyone, you can look it up on a map. The address is Berggasse 19. Legend has it that Freud's house was raided by the Nazi's while his wife was home, and they took approximately $840. After Freud's wife told him about the money he apparently said, "Dear me, I have never taken that much for a single visit!" After finding Freud's house today, I had a little time to kill before my classes started, so I went to the Cafe Landtmann for a coffee. This is one of the more famous cafes in Vienna. I remember going there with Jennifer last summer, and if I remember correctly, it is also one of Colin's favorite cafes in the city.
While I was on my way to a local supermarket the other day, I saw a sign that said Haydn Haus which pointed left from the supermarket. I decided today to check it out and see if I could find it. To my surprise, the Haydn Haus is less than a 10 minute walk from my apartment. The house was built in 1793 and Haydn lived there until his death in 1809 (8th district). In the second picture, I am not standing crooked. That's the street! His house is hidden away on a small side street currently and appropriately named Haydngasse.
For those of you who might view this and don't know me that well, I am a doctoral student at the University of North Texas, and I am also an organist and choir director at St. Laurence Church in Southlake, TX. I have completed all the coursework towards my degree and am currently living in Vienna doing research, studying for my qualifying exams, and trying to improve my German language skills.
I took a daytrip to Bratislava yesterday to do some shopping and give the city another chance (long story which I'll share privately). Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy, but I did get a chance to walk around a bit and take in the city. The 
first pictures of a billboard for the movie, Die Hard 4.0, which I found interesting. I saw it last week in Vienna on the largest movie screen in Austria. For anyone interested, it's called "Stirb langsam" in German (die slowly). The next picture is of
the castle in Bratislava, up on a hill above the Danube, and the last picture if of the Danube as it runs through the city. Last night was Ted's last night in Vienna, and I'm sure he had mixed emotions about going back to the US. He's lived in 
Vienna for 2 years and 3 of the past 4 years, and has been a good friend and huge help to me during my time here. We met at an Irish pub last night with my roommate Tobi, a couple friends, and a group of Russian girls we had met the night before at a club (not pictured). We were playing teams, and the last game ended with me making a full-table bank shot on the eight ball. A good way to end the night!
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