The welcome to Vienna, though less cold than Prague, was not very toasty warm. With only a couple weeks in Europe left, many people were feeling worn out and upset. I think what really made the day tense after arrival at the hostel was the room key situation. Rooms were shared between six people with only three keys. The occupants of my room all had drastically varying schedules and lifestyles, which made the distribution of the keys difficult. After it was sorted out the air felt less tense.
What a joy to celebrate your birthday in Europe! I wouldn’t know, but I will in a few months for another school trip. My lovely wonderful friend in Vienna with me got to celebrate her birthday in Europe, which I hope was somewhat special for her. The day started off uneventful, but I went with another fellow adventurer to go take care of some “secret business” later in the day. The business consisted of purchasing a coffee flavored roll cake in a plastic package, some candles, and a few other coffee related gift items. The birthday girl had a restaurant picked out that closed at ten pm for after the nights concert, this seemed reasonable. We would come to find out that, in Austria, it is customary for each concert to have one hundred encores. Or maybe one to three. That night the piano soloist performed two separate encores after his already lengthy concerto. I wish I was in the right headspace to receive this, but I’m already not used to encores, and that night I just wanted to get out and celebrate. We ended up not being able to get to the restaurant, but went to a bar nearby the hostel. It had decent food and was open when we needed it to be so we were all pretty satisfied. After that we went back to the hostel to go play with fire in the dining area. It was really lighting candles, except we had to light every letter in “happy birthday” which felt like a lot more than it has as I type it right now. The night was enjoyable and there was a lot of laughter about the fire and all of the coffee themed items.
The most interesting concert of Vienna was Don Giovanni. Even though I mostly couldn’t see the opera, when I did manage to angle my head in just the right way in just the right position, the acting was splendid. The performers weren’t only talented singers, but excellent actors. The set design left a lot to be desired in my opinion, but it had some unique ideas, and made the costumes stand out. I expected the “modern” costumes to be jeans and hoodies. It started out that way, but soon after everyone was in very colorful and formal attire. If there was no singing or movement on the stage for the hours I was there, I might have been still satisfied just to stare at the women’s dresses. On a musical note, without the pretty clothes or acting, I would have been satisfied with just the singing. The projection of their voices was legendary, and I was glad to know what they were saying using the mostly functioning translation screen at my seat.
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