first saturday
August 5: Saturday
Well, tonight we have an opera to go to. I originally thought I'd spend the morning and afternoon relaxing (well... the morning sleeping and the afternoon relaxing), but my roommate Cameron invited me with his friends to take a look around Vienna. Retrospectively, it was a better choice than staying at home. We took the subways to Schonbrunn, the fancy old Hapsburg summer palace.
After that, we went exploring other parts of Vienna, and ended up beside the Danube (bottom-right). I could imagine Roman quinqueremes travelling up and down these waters, bringing soldiers and booty to different parts of the edge of the Empire.
A Very Important Date
Like I said, we had to go to the opera tonight. I had fun exploring Vienna with Cameron and his old friends but increasingly I was becoming "that guy." You know: "We have two hours, now." "Okay, now we have an hour and a half." "Remember, the train might be late, or we might come off at the wrong stop, or we might be captured by those guys that kidnapped Kim Kardashian", etc.
We went to a very fine Mexican place off the side of the river, but had to rush things a bit. When we finally paid the bill and rushed off, we had barely forty minutes to get to the opera - and to get dressed beforehand. It was almost too much excitement to bare, rushing onto the train, rushing off the train, and then sprinting for several blocks to the apartment. Cameron is a very fit baseball player; I am not so gifted. I actually lost him in the streets for a while after he made it through a pedestrian walkway but I fell behind and had to wait.
We got to the apartment, finally. I changed into some quality clothes only to find that my sweat stains immediately bled through. And then we had to run, again - this time to the opera place itself. I kept up this time. Luckily, we arrived just as the line was about to end. We were the last ones there - but hey, we were still there.
The Opera and the Church
Mozart's Requiem was played absolutely beautifully. The performance was in Karlskirche, one of the best-looking Baroque churches in Vienna (so I've been told). Unfortunately, I realize only now that I took few pictures of the beauty inside the church - only snapchats. This generation, huh?
The interior of the church was adorned with beautiful white sculptures and marble pillars. At the back there were biblical scenes, lit up by the lamps above. When the orchestra played and the choir singed, I could watch the statues and almost imagine them weaving and battling for and against Heaven.
I can understand why it's said that people "back then" would listen to music to feel closer to God. In the church, I really felt it.
Right: "Fallen Comrades". My first World War One memorial, right here in Karlskirche.
