Vienna Waits For You

At one point in history, they all lived and composed in Vienna. Beethoven. Brahms. Mozart. Strauss. Haydn. Schonberg. The greatest composers that ever lived all wrote some of their best works right here in Vienna. Maybe it was the water? Who knows. I am sure there are many great things about Vienna. But for me, on this trip, Vienna was all about classical music. Take a listen:

This was my hosts chill red room. And me in a red shirt, doing my blog.




A statue I met whilst walking around the city centre. Sometimes I feel like this.




This church is 1000 years old. Other times, I feel like this.




Continuing upon my walking tour, I stumbled upon Beethoven's house. It was then that I realized that all of the great composers had lived here and composed in their apartments. In this apartment here is where Beethoven wrote his famous 5th symphony.

Here's me jamming in Haydn's place. I'd say about a quarter of my trip is me trying to sneak ridiculous pictures.



So which fahrt is it? Ein or Aus? These are the important questions I'm asking on this trip. Someone has to.





Guess what? In Vienna, you can drink water from a giant flathead screwdriver!




Vienna is one of the cities getting ready to host the huge Euro 2008 Soccer Tournament and Championship. Here's some guys working on a display. I'm sure they were trying to protect themselves from the sun, but it looked liked they were wearing capes.



There is a Grace Kelly exhibit here with over a 100 pictures from here life and a film in German that I didnt understand. Up until now, I hadn't known much about her. I'm still mulling over the decision she made to give it all up. I guess Monaco was just too much to resist.




Some cool breakdancers I saw outside St. Stephan's Cathedral. There are so many little street shows in this tourist zone. A good place to wear your backpack on your front.




These guys all had names for themselves like Ricky Martin and Justin Timberlake. Here's a little taste of the magic.




I was able to capture this little gem right at the end. I can't freakin rob you of this!





There's usually one thing I see in each city where I'm like "what?!?" In Vienna, it was a random statue of Papa Smurf.




In Vienna they have this amazing opera house that has performances 6 nights a week. But it is crazy expensive. So a little tip in my travel book gave me a heads up that loads of people leave at intermission because its so long usually. The one I saw was a total of 5 hours! So at intermission after 3 hours of opera, I was able to snag a ticket from someone leaving and I sat in the orchestra for the 2nd act of a Wagner (Vahg-ner) opera.

Here's what happens at the end of every opera:




The next night, I went back to see a ballet. Let me tell you, Vienna is the place for fine arts. They were amazing. This night, I bought a ticket, and this was the view.

Here's the cast during bows. Check out those sets and costumes! The main ballerina is center wearing the red Spanish dress.




This sign is supposed to tell you how long until the next tram arrives. But this weird symbol was always flashing next to the numbers. Look closely to the right of the "1", "D", and "J": I thought it looked like E.T. in a wheelchair.




Weinerschnitzel! I was so excited to try it. Not as great as had hoped. I guess maybe because of our fast food chain of the same name, I was expecting it to be some sort of sausage. Mine was made of turkey, but basically tasted like chicken fried stake. Go figure.




Here's me mad-dogging Strauss. I think he won.





One song has stuck with me this trip. Not surprisingly, its Billy Joel's "Vienna". What a wonderful song. I must have listened to it 5 or more times in the city. I couldn't find a way to put the video on here, so here are the lyrics. Do yourself a favor and look it up on You Tube or something.

And treat yourself to some classical music this week. See how it makes you feel.

Vienna by Billy Joel

Slow down you crazy child
You're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart tell me why
Are you still so afraid?
Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
So many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you

Slow down you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight (tonight)
Too bad but it's the life you lead
You're so ahead of yourself
That you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong
You know you can't always see when you're right(you're right)

You got your passion you got your pride
But don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize
Vienna waits for you

Slow down you crazy child
Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
It's alright you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize...
Vienna waits for you.

And you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through

Why don't you realize...Vienna waits for you
When will you realize...Vienna waits for you