Endstation Wien!

---

Waking up mad early thanks to the sunlight, I had ample time to shower and pack up my things as efficiently as possible before saying my goodbyes to Berlin. Before leaving I went to the corner and had a lovely breakfast of a giant disc of basically fat and sugar - it was some kind of streusel as big as my head for less than 2€. The bus to the airport was super easy, but unfortunately that meant I had way too much time to kill at Tegel. I watched an episode of Drag Race and read a bunch of my nerdy English Language book and finally, after three hours, it was time to board.

My first time aboard AirBerlin was über nice - the aircraft was clean and comfy and I was lucky enough to have a seat in between me and the Deutscher next to me. In less than an hour we were high above Vienna and had incredible views of the city - unfortunately my camera was packed in the overhead.

The bus from the Vienna airport was TEDIOUS and took almost an hour to get me to the Western Train Station nearby where my hostel was located. Of course I was seated in front of a small child that just would not shut the **** up and stop screaming and babbling nonsense. Anyway, at 3pm I finally made it to Happy Hostel where I was led to my private room I'm only paying 20€ a night for. After dumping all my stuff I had a little over 3 hours to kill before my opera performance, so I decided to head up Mariahilfer Straße, one of Vienna's biggest shopping streets, and make my way north toward the center.

One thing I've noticed about Vienna is just how beautiful it is no matter where you look. Even this street with its gaudy flashing signs and whatnot is composed of gorgeous whitewashed buildings that just have this elegance about them. Maybe halfway up I decided to stop for a bit of lunch, settling on "bauern toast" from a nice-looking vender. Bauern toast is essentially an open-faced toasted sandwich on hearty bread with a variety of goodies on top - mine had ham, tomato, onion, paprika, and melted cheese on it. Very tasty.

Once I reached the "1st District" with all of the historic sights, I did a bit of exploration there, starting with the Burg Garden in the Hofburg Palace complex. On such a gorgeous day the entire park was full of people young and old sprawled out on the grass with beer and wine just having a good time. I was tempted to stop for a drink at a café bordering the garden but my awkward "I'm alone" complex kicked in and I changed my mind.

Continuing to wander I stumbled upon what would definitely be my favorite part of my first day in Vienna - ·Easter markets! A number of plazas, the first I found being Am Hof, were just covered in cute little wooden stands offering everything from Easter Eggs and Smoked Meats to Handwoven baskets and Pottery. The scene reminded me somewhat of Chicago's Kristkindlmarkt, so good job Chicago on being authentic! By the time I got to my second market I knew I had to get something, and a ginormous freshly baked Apple Cinnamon Pretzel seemed like the right decision. It was deliciously flakey and not like any American interpretation of a pretzel. Next I had a glass of a Welschriesling, which literally means "romantic riesling", from a wine stand. Quite good!

Satisfied I headed back to the hostel for freshen up really quickly before hopping on the U-Bahn toward the Volksopera, where I would be seeing Bizet's "Carmen" at 7:00. While I would have loved to have gone to the Vienna State Opera to see all its glory, the almost 200€ seats made me choose otherwise. The Volksopera building is fairly modern looking despite its having been built in 1898 and gives some 300-performances a year, so it is not as if I chose some kind of community theatre instead. The interior lacks all the grandiose of Europe's major Opera Houses but it certainly gets the job done.

The performance was wonderful, though I must say it was uncomfortably warm inside that place. It was great to finally see "Carmen" put on after having listened to it growing up and even playing selections from it with Metropolis. The entr'acte before 3 never ceases to leave me feeling verklempt I just find it so incredibly beautiful. For some reason I didn't necessarily expect the performance to be in German since I think I've only heard it done in French and Italian. Luckily I knew the plot well enough to follow along, and the music is obviously the same glorious score. My 20€ ticket put me on the upper level but the acoustics were great and as I was on the aisle I had really no obstructed view whatsoever.

One funny thing is that I was sitting in a sea of Slavs, mostly Bulgarians and Croatians that had come for the cheap tickets. I've found that the city is swarming with Eastern Europeans - today on the street aside from German (obviously) I heard Polish, Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian, and Turkish. How fun!
After the show, for a little late-night snack I was ghetto and bought a big-ass beer and a KitKat to munch on in my room while I unwinded for the night. So classy.

---