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Published: April 17th 2012
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We arrived by night train from Zurich. This time unfortunately the train was not very comfortable. We were on the top berth in 6 person compartment and I could not really sleep well. So when we arrived, I was a bit tired. We bought the
3-day unlimited transport pass for EUR 13.60. We decided not to buy the Vienna Card since we were not planning to visit too many museums. We took the subway to our hotel
Pension San Francisco. We had pre-booked at booking.com. It was very close to subway station, and still closed in the morning. So we dumped our luggage at hotel reception and headed into the city. Our first stop was State Park. Unfortunately the day was cold and rainy. Park was nice though, colourful with many tulips. It had a really nice clock made of flowers. Since it was getting cold and drizzling a bit, we spent very little time there and then headed to Marathon Expo once it opened. The expo was not as big as ones in US, and not that much free stuff either. We collected our marathon stuff, roamed at the expo and then headed back to the hotel.
At hotel,
we got quite a nice big room with balcony. Since I was a bit tired and needed energy for the run, we decided to take a nap. Plan for the evening was to see Marathon Friendship Party and then off to Opera. The party was ok. There was usual pasta, and then pancakes in interesting form, small pieces with apple sauce and cranberry sauce. Rahul opted for pancakes that I did not really like. There was also a stage with background where everyone was taking photos. So we also took. As we were getting off the stage, someone approached us with 2 watch-like things and asked that they are trying new time chip and if they can take our photos with it. Well, ok, so we wore those "watches" and they took some pro photos. I thought we were picked up for 'diversity' 😊. I have not yet seen those photos in any magazine.
Then we headed to the famous Opera. At the subway station under Opera, there was Opera Toilet! It had opera music playing inside, we will pass it many times!
The
State Opera house is quite great, as impressive as described in books.
Its huge and magestic, like a real Opera house, unlike the one we saw in Berlin. This opera was not a standard auditorium but opera house it had multiple levels with private boxes for viewers and majestic. Since we did not know if we will like the opera, or if we will stay for the whole show, we bought the cheap tickets this time. Our seats were in a corner on top, so we had view of only half the stage! well! The starting was disappointing, not because of bad seats, we knew that, but because we did not see elaborately dressed people on stage. It was a small show with just 3 - 4 main characters, all dressed in quite contemporary clothes. Very different from the Italian opera we saw in Berlin. This was more about singing and story than about the dresses 😊. The Opera was in French and we had synopsis in English, neither helped. The Italian one had a funny story & actors were more animated. Still we saw almost the whole show and then went to sleep.
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