I am excited to report that tonight we officially attended our first real opera and, lucky for us, The Marriage of Figaro was playing so we sort of knew what was going on!  The Don Giovanni marionette show brought out more of an appreciation of opera for me, but tonight took it to a whole new level and I can’t wait till I get a chance to go again.  Paul isn’t quite as enthralled, but he played the part of the good husband and stood through 3/4 of the performance with me, so I can’t complain…

Our day began at the Wiener Prater, a large public park in Vienna’s 2nd district, made up of widespread meadows, an amusement park known as Wurstelprater, and various restaurants & cafes.  The entire park is free to go in, but you pay per ride at the amusement park (ranging from €2-4 each ride).  I had read that you can get great views of Vienna while riding the “Giant Ferris Wheel,” but we decided against it when we got there and saw how run down it looked (the whole place is a bit run down actually).  I love roller coasters and amusement park rides in general, but Paul has recently started to get motion sick so now he refuses to go on them.  Since it’s no fun to do rides alone, we skipped all the rides and walked around eating mini-doughnuts instead

When we got to a stable of mini horses for kids to ride, we noticed an adorable Newfie dog running around off-leash.  Several other people noticed him too and we amusingly watched as one girl and her boyfriend started playing with the dog, who had fixated on a Sid the sloth doll (from the Ice Age movie) she was holding in her hand which I think they had just won at one of those carnie games in the park.   After 10 minutes or so, the girl and her boyfriend started to leave but the dog kept following them wanting the doll!  Eventually they gave in and let the dog have Sid, and he happily trotted over to the horse’s stables to chew on his new toy.  That’s what you get for teasing a dog with a toy!

As we finished at Prater, an email came through on Paul’s Blackberry advising us that the standby tickets we wanted for the Opera weren’t allocated.  When I had looked up the schedule on our second day in Vienna, I was excited to see Le Nozze Di Figaro was playing tonight, but the only tickets left were 200 euro each, which was a lot more than we were prepared to spend on our first opera, so I put our name in for standby tickets in the 10-40 euro price range. Two days ago I would have been disappointed by this email, but yesterday I learned in Rick Steves’ book that 567 dirt cheap (€3-4) standing room tickets are released for sale 80 minutes before show time, so we had a backup plan to get in! 

Since we had 2 hours to kill before we could buy tickets, we headed back to city center to try a restaurant called Reinthalers Beisl that was recommended in Rick Steves’ book.  Everything was quite good, but our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we ordered 3 dishes to share (the schnitzel, brats with sauerkraut, and goulash), which was a ridiculous amount of food.   But the brats, which were our third choice, turned out to be the best dish so I’m glad we got them!

According to Rick Steves, there’s no rush to line up for standing room tickets unless someone special like Plácido Domingo is in town, so we took our time getting to the Opera, arriving 90 minutes before show time.  We were surprised to see a fairly large lineup forming and quickly got in line since Rick’s book also said to try to get tickets in the “parterre” section for a front and center view, directly below the Emperor’s box, if you’re among the first 160 people (see picture above).

We struck up conversation with two guys behind us who were music students from the UK and Germany studying in Vienna, and they helpfully explained how standing room works.  There are three standing room sections (parterre, balcony, and gallery) and each section is made up of steps (sort of like at the movies) with rails in front of you for you to lean on.  On the rail there is a small screen which, during the performance, provides a translation of the opera in either English or German.  After you buy your ticket you go inside, pick a spot at a rail, and secure that spot by tying a scarf to the rail.

Following their good advice, as soon as we got our tickets we rushed to the parterre section to get a spot before checking our coats.  We managed to get one of the last remaining rail spots near the back (still a great view) and secured our place by tying our hats to the  rail since neither of us knew to bring a scarf and you’re not allowed to use your jacket.  Normally you would stand 4 people per rail on each side (right and left), but on a busy night like tonight people were squeezing in wherever they could fit, including in the middle area between the left and right side where there was no rail to lean on.  If you manage to be among the first into the parterre section (you’ll have to line up way earlier), the front row gives you an awesome completely unobstructed view and you lean on wall which separates the parterre standing section from the expensive €200 per ticket seats in front.

After our last experience of standing through Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe, I had to promise Paul I wouldn’t insist on staying through the entire performance in order for him to agree to come with me.  We initially planned to stay for just one act, but having the rail helped and Paul agreed to try to stay for the entire opera.  After act II, though, his feet were tired and he was ready to go.  With some begging and pleading I managed to get him to go back inside for act III after the intermission, but we skipped act IV and left after that. 

While my knowledge of opera isn’t good enough to hear the difference between the professionals singing tonight and the aspiring students we heard back at UBC, I felt like seeing tonight’s opera was a much grander experience because of the setting.  The Vienna State Opera House is beautiful and historic, the orchestra and acoustics sounded wonderful, and the costumes and sets were amazing.  I wish we could have saw the entire performance, but I was very happy that I got to see act III because it has my favorite songs in the opera.  If you’re going to Vienna, definitely go get some standing room tickets to an opera!  Or, as Rick Steves suggested, wait outside and bum tickets off people leaving during the intermission since many don’t stay for the entire performance!

While going to ask a question at the hostel’s reception last night, I noticed a huge pile of guidebooks available for guests to borrow, so I picked up Rick Steves’ Vienna and planned today according to his itinerary and recommendations.  We had recently used his book Rick Steves’ 2009 Italy throughout our 4 weeks in Italy since the friends we were travelling with had brought it along, and it felt familiar and comfortable to follow his book again today.  Having a route to follow and a list of places that are “must-sees” just makes sightseeing so much easier!

As far as guidebooks go, I’m partial to Rick Steves’ because I find him easy to follow and full of little bits of fun and helpful info.  Rick has been writing about travel in Europe since 1978 and has published a countless number of books (usually there’s a separate book for each country, with revised editions every year).  In all his books he breaks sights down into must sees, things that a quite important, and things of interest.  He also provides a mapped-route and description for a self-guided walking tour of most cities, as well as a list of restaurant and accommodation recommendations.  Having all this info at your disposal in one book makes it much easier to plan what to do and where to go!  If we weren’t travelling backpacker style carrying as little luggage as possible, I would definitely take a guidebook wherever I went. 

Yesterday, without Rick’s book, we wandered around Vienna’s city center aimlessly, checking out a few sights like St. Stephen’s Cathedral and one of the main streets called Der Graben.  Our roommates had mentioned a good cafe they previously went to with their Contiki tour group that was supposed to be the oldest coffee shop in Vienna, but they didn’t know the name.  While wandering around, we Googled “oldest cafe in Vienna,” and our search came up with a place called Cafe Frauenhuber.  It took us an hour to find it (even though the map showed it as just a block away from where we were! ) and when we got our coffee, apple strudel, and sacher torte (chocolate cake), we quickly concluded (and confirmed with our roommates in the evening) that this couldn’t be the right place – the stuff we got tasted awful!  I don’t know how this place stays in business, but it claims to be the oldest cafe in Vienna…

Today, with Rick Steves in hand, we set out with much more of a plan and started our day shopping and eating at Nasch Market, a large open air market.  After buying an assortment of fruit, we walked to the Opera House and then to Albertinaplatz and the Hofburg Imperial Palace to check out the gardens, the Augustinian Church, and the famous Spanish Riding School (we didn’t see them perform, but the stables and horses looked nice).   We stopped by the Dorotheum, one of the oldest auction houses in the world, but didn’t stay long since there wasn’t anything really interesting to us (it’s mainly jewelry for sale).   We then visited the Museum of Applied Art (MAK),  since I had read in Rick’s book that it’s free on Saturday.  It was an ok museum (great if you’re into architecture), but I would have felt ripped off if I’d paid the regular 9 euro entrance fee!

We finished our day by doing Rick’s “Ringstrasse Tram tour,” which involves riding trams #1 and 2 around the Ringstrasse, a circular road surrounding Vienna’s city center where the old city walls used to be.  By taking tram # 2 from the MAK (in Rick’s guide you actually start at the Opera House) and then switching to tram # 1 at Schwedenplatz, you can ride a tram around the entire Ringstrasse and get a glimpse of all the important sights of  Vienna.  It would be better to do the tram tour at the beginning of your visit, but it was relaxing for us to finish today with it!

For dinner we cooked Nissim instant noodles which I had picked up at a small Asian supermarket at Nasch Market.  I’ve been craving these particular instant noodles for a while (I guess you can say it’s my comfort food), and was super excited when I found them and bok choy at the market (I haven’t seen bok choy in ages!).  The hostel, unfortunately, has the worst kitchen facility out of all the hostels we’ve been to (mess everywhere and 3 electrical hot burners for 260 guests, wtf!), but I managed since instant noodles doesn’t take a lot of effort.

At the end of the day, I feel like today was much more productive and interesting than most of our days when we rely on info we gather from the Internet.  It’s so nice to look at a building and know what it is and some of the history behind it!  It’s also easier for me to refer to a book instead of searching the Internet to find out what time a museum is open to or how much it costs.  I just wish there was a way we could carry all of Rick’s books with us!

Yesterday, we spent our last day in Prague exploring the Jewish quarter and searching for the eurodog again.  Although we managed to find a stand that sold eurodogs close to our hotel, we ordered the XL hot dogs because I was hungry and wanted to see how big it would be, and they turned out to not be served in the baguette with the hole in it (presumably because it’s too big to fit in the baguette which is tiny).

 This morning, on our way to the train station, we finally got our eurodogs by going back to the same place and pointing at the baguettes to order.  The XL hot dogs actually tasted better (the eurodogs use ordinary Oscar Mayer style wieners), but the baguette with a hole in it makes it easy to hold and eat, unlike with regular hot dog buns where your mustard and ketchup get squeezed out the other end as you bite.  Considering it’s just 15 Czech crowns (about 90 cents Canadian) each eurodog, it’s pretty darn good value!  The only thing I can think of that compares back home is the hot dogs at Ikea, but the eurodog is a bit better.

Like most travel days on this trip, after we found our way to the hostel and checked in, we didn’t do much.  The hostel (Wombats the Base) is close to a fairly large main street called Mariahilfer Straße, which has quite a few places to eat.  We picked a fast food chicken place at random and got a chicken cordon blue (which is apparently a popular dish that’s available almost everywhere in Vienna) and a tasty skewer of meat called Adana with rice.  Compared to the food we had in Prague, the stuff here seems tastier and better value so far!   But it’s only the first night so we’ll see how our dining experiences pan out tomorrow…

After a lot of arguing/contemplation, we decided to daytrip to Salzburg, Austria today.  I initially wanted to go to the town of Füssen (in Germany) to see the famous Neuschwanstein Castle  of King Ludwig II (it’s the castle that Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle is modeled after), but Paul was more inclined to check out Salzburg since it’s right at the border of Germany and Austria and it’s more convenient to visit it now than during our trip to Austria later this year, when we’ll be in the eastern side, nowhere near Salzburg. 

Although our Eurail passes are only valid for Spain, France, Germany and the Benelux region, we were able to use them to get to Salzburg because it’s right on the border (apparently we could have used them to get to Geneva, Switzerland too because it’s on the border but we didn’t know that and paid for our ticket!). As soon as we got off the train and walked towards old town, I was hugely impressed with how pretty Salzburg is – it reminds me of Lucerne, except there’s no snow on the mountains that surround it.  The buildings are in great condition and there is a large river (the Salzach) that runs around old town. 

While looking for somewhere to eat lunch, we stumbled upon a restaurant called Saran Essbar which is recommended by Rick Steve’s.  We actually decided to eat here because Paul noticed beef goulash on the menu (apparently he loves beef goulash and I had no idea), and we didn’t notice the big poster board about being in Rick Steve’s Best of Europe 2007 and 2008 until we sat down!  It turned out to be the best meal we’ve had in a while – I ordered veal schnitzel which was cooked to perfection and had a wonderful seasoning, and Paul’s goulash was really tender and full of flavour, just the way beef stew should be

After eating, we checked out a store across the street that sells hand-painted egg shells.  There must have been close to a million egg shells, all hand-painted and for sale for between 5-10 euro each!  It was quite an amazing store and I wanted to buy some egg shells because they were so beautifully detailed, but an egg shell would likely get broken as we travel, no matter how carefully I carried it, so I decided against it.

From here we headed to St. Peter’s Cemetery and Catacombs, the oldest Christian graveyard in Salzburg.  It was a nice cemetery, but I’m not sure what the 2 euros they charge you to go into the “crypt” is for – it seemed like just a set of stairs going into the mountain!  We paid and climbed up, but didn’t find anything crypt-like in there! 

As we made our way around old town, we stopped at several churches.  I found  Salzburg’s churches to be the nicest I’ve seen so far and some of the smaller ones made me wish I could go back in time and re-do our wedding in them (and we didn’t have a church wedding because neither of us is really religious)!   The interiors of even the smallest churches were beautifully decorated with fresco ceilings, marble and gold trim, and soft natural lighting.

We stopped at so many churches that we didn’t make it to Mozart’s house until past 5 o’clock, and they stop letting people in at 5 because they close at 5:30, so we couldn’t go inside.  We decided to continue walking and window-shopping for a while, and then went to the Mirabell Gardens on our way back to the train station.  Being a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, there were several couples taking wedding photos here and we stopped and watched them for a while.  We then found a circular gnome garden off to the side, near the playground, and went around taking goofy pictures with each of the stone gnome figures, which was probably Paul’s favourite part of the day!

Although our trip to Salzburg was shorter than I would’ve liked, I’m glad we came here today.  The only dissappointment was not seeing any string or piano quartets randomly playing Mozart’s music everywhere like I had seen on the travel shows we watched before our trip!  King Ludwig’s castle would have been amazing, but hopefully I’ll get another opportunity to see it at some point in my life