Vienna Day 1
Monday, May 19, 2008
I LOVE VIENNA!!!
It's like the London and Dublin of Austria.. So energectic and lively.. Yet it's unique charm still lies in the roman architecture sprouting all over the old town. It's really a very welcome difference after weeks of the rest of old slow europe.. Lovely!!!
Lucky for us last night there was this anti-AIDS event held at the city hall so gabe, kp and I took a loooong walk into toe city to join in the fun. We were there just in time only to catch the sponsor's segment. And guess who were the sponsors? Some sexual lingerie company. Haha. So we just watched models strutt around in clothes covering only, you know, what is to be covered. Ha. Ironic hor? Aids event with dirty lingerie show. Hmm.
Since it was a sunday morning today we woke up like damn early to watch the famous Vienna Boys Choir sing at the chapel in the palace. Some guidebook told us we had to start queuing for standing tickets as early as 8 when the mass will only start at 9. And so we did, dutifully, start queuing up at 8. Standing in the queue for 1 whole hour before the doors were open to the standing audience. And guess what? WE DIDN'T GET TO SEE THE BOYS SINGING THE ENTIRE MASS. Yes, it was a Christian Mass and to make matters worse it wasn't in English! So can you imgaine all of us non-Christians, standing for yet ANOTHER HOUR in the chapel, feeling tired and cheated because we didn't get to SEE the boys singing. For all we know the melodious voices coming from the roof could be from a cd!
What pissed us more was when we exited the chapel after the mass, we saw people crowding around a TV outside the chapel watching the Viennese Boys Choir singing! Yes, they saw the boys singing while we didn't. Tamade, we could have woken up later and watched the live video too! Rarrh.
Feeling tired and cheated we headed down to this Cafe Demel place to try the so-called 'world famous' cake SacheTorté. Had their orange liquor coffee at a ridiculous €7.80 and the verdict was
- the coffee not nice
- the cake was normal
Waste money.
The St. Steven's church that we visited after that was one of the nicest churches that i visited. I must say even nicer than, say, Notre Dam in Paris. Nice gothic designs. Cheered me up a little.
The otherwise fantastic weather was ruined by the dark clouds that set in in the afternoon. We spent a few hours in front of the Parliament building playing cards before we were chased away by a policeman. Haha. What unlucky weather. The fountain in front of the parliament was interestingly pretty. But the photos were, well, in gloomy weather.
The night was spent watching some opera that cost us €20. We thought we were cheated when this 'opera' venue turned out to be a little room the size of a classroom. But the contents of the performance were as promised by the guy who sold us the tickets. Songs by Mozart and Strauss, some soprano and tenor singing, and some ballet. Definitely not top notch performance, but certainly not low class anybody-also-can-do-it type show either.
Conclusion: Only €20 worth. No more. No less.
Another notable fact about today was the first time tensions arose within the group. Well, things should get better soon.
Signed off at
8:11 am
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th reader
