Danke, Danke, Danke Schön!: May 17th - 18th: Cathedrals, Dinnerware, and Violent Operas

Sorry to end the first post so abruptly! I'll pick up right where I left off, with the second day... This was, of course, also full of amazing experiences. We started our day with a visit to St. Stephen's Cathedral, an amazing gothic-style Catholic church and the most important religious center in Austria. A beautiful, enormous structure, it was built in 1147 but almost entirely destroyed in World War II. As a result, much of what we saw was a reconstruction, but that didn't matter to me; it was the first cathedral I had ever set foot in, and it couldn't have been more amazing! We picked an interesting day for our visit; it was Ascension Day—the 40th day after Easter—, a very important national holiday in Austria. As a result, a special mass was going on and we weren't able to walk through most of the cathedral. Despite that, the views of the interior were astounding, and the mass was very entertaining to watch. They even had a full orchestra! All in all it was a great experience and I hope I'll get to return when mass isn't going on so that I can see more of the place.

After St. Stephen's, we got to see a baroque (as opposed to gothic) cathedral, St. Peter's, but only briefly because of Ascension Day. So it wasn't long before we moved on to other activities. We grabbed some käsekrainer (cheese-filled sausage) from a hotdog/brat stand for lunch, and we got some cake and coffee from the most famous pastry shop in Vienna, Demel! It was delicious, and surprisingly not terribly expensive considering its reputation and location (basically Vienna's Times Square).

After lunch we visited the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum), specifically a gallery on historic musical instruments. It was amazing! And there were SO MANY different things. We saw instruments of all types from antiquity and medieval times, and we saw several unusual experimental instruments, such as microtonal keyboard instruments and dual-necked guitars. We even saw pianos played by Chopin, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Brahms. Who knows, maybe other famous composers played them as well (so many were contemporaries of one another!). We pressed one of the keys, even though we weren't supposed to, and the strings seemed to be in tune!

After the museum we went out of our way to find a multicultural food experience. We ended up settling on Chinese food (Chinese food in Austria!). It was very good, but my kung pao chicken tasted about like every other kung pao chicken I've had... It was more of a learning experience for me; they brought me rice, seemingly as a component of my order, and then charged me extra for it. Not cool!

That pretty much concludes the second day! The third day, which I am currently ending, was another blast! We started the day with a tour of the Hofburg Palace, which has housed some of the most powerful people in Europe and Austria, and which currently serves as the President's home. Honestly I wasn't too impressed; it was first a tour of ritzy dinnerware and then a tour of historic bedrooms/bathrooms/etc. which essentially a gargantuan display of wealth. I accidentally set off an alarm at one point by reaching over a glass barrier to get a picture. Heh heh...

After Hofburg Palace, we took a tour of the Wien Staatsoper, the Vienna State Opera. It had a spectacular auditorium and a lot of history attached to it; it was associated with many famous conductors, composers, premieres, and major changes to opera practices. Later that day we got to see an opera by Richard Strauss, Salome, which was quite a strange experience, but wonderful nonetheless as it was my first live opera experience. We got standing room seats with a good view for only €4 per ticket, and the opera was only an hour and forty-five minutes long (short for an opera). It was quite disturbing... I do not exaggerate when I say that the plot consisted of a princess falling shallowly in love with a "holy man," the holy man not returning her love, and the princess ordering his beheading and kissing his head. It essentially ended with the girl taking pride in kissing the man against his will and then being executed, for being a crazy necrophiliac I suppose. Anyway, I found the drama to be pretty obscene but the music and musicians were wonderful. It was certainly a neat cultural experience!

I think the highlight of the day was visiting a place called the Naschmarkt, an open-air food market with various restaurants, butcher shops, cheese shops, pastry shops, etc. It was so cool because we had seen the place on Anthony Bourdain's TV show! We found the specific meat shop that he had visited and ordered a mixed meat platter. It cost €24, but we split it between eight people and it was totally worth it! There were over five different types of meat with rye bread. Delicious. We also spent a great deal on various cheeses, most of which I had never heard of, and I think we each ate half a pound of the stuff. It was all SO GOOD. We will definitely be returning for other meals; there were so many options it was impossible to put a dent in the place in just one day!

That concludes day three and I am up to date on my blog! Hope I didn't miss anything! More posts will be on the way.

UPDATE: Pictures! And be sure to look at more on Facebook.