I spent the night (Thursday the 19th) in the BCN airport because my flight to Vienna was at 6:30 on Friday morning. Needless to say, I didn't get enough sleep and ended up passing out on the plane from Barcelona to Vienna. Friday I spent the day by myself, walking around Vienna and visiting some music-related things--such as Mozart's house! (One of the many he lived in, anyway, which is now a museum.)
Saturday was a long day of sightseeing and at night we almost saw Joshua Bell live. But tickets were completely sold out--even standing room! Before that, we ate lunch at this great little place that served finger sandwiches for €1 each. They were pretty tasty, and there were some great vegetarian options.
Sunday we got up realllllly early to go see the Vienna Boys' Choir perform at mass in the Hofburg chapel. The singing was wonderful and had a very other-worldly sound to it. I would have liked to see some of the mass, too, but we were stuck in a very crowded standing-room part of the chapel and I was behind some very tall people. So that was sad. But it was nice, nonetheless.
We also saw the National Library (or part of it, anyway) on Sunday. That was a really wonderful, overwhelmingly ornate place--it was built for one of the emperors of the Austro-Hungarian empire (can't remember which at the moment, though). Compared to the Long Room at Trinity College in Dublin, it was huge and . . . well, like I said, a little bit overwhelming. The whole ceiling is covered with elaborate paintings, and the place itself just sort of oozed decadence and royalty. Not that that's totally a bad thing. But I preferred the Long Room to this, by far.
The National Library
Another thing we did on Sunday was tour the State Opera house. It was beautiful, huge, and the tour guide was really interesting and I learned a lot. Most of the building was destroyed in WWII, but has since been reconstructed mostly according to the original plans. Here are some pictures:
Inside the main hall thing, looking up at the seats directly facing the stage and the huge, awesome light fixture.
Going up the main staircase.
I came back on Sunday night, spent this week going to classes and trying desperately to set up interviews for my research project (and failing!), and getting ready for Granada. Oh, and coming down with a cold. Yessss.
So tonight I head off to Granada by train. I have a ticket to see the Alhambra, but nothing else concretely planned for the weekend. I'll be there until Sunday evening, when I take another night train back to Barcelona. Hopefully going to Granada makes me feel less sick, because this cold thing is really kind of irritating.
Anyway, there are pictures from Vienna here! And now I should go finish packing my stuff for tonight!
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