One great view after another

What a beautiful weekend we had here in Vienna! I guess it goes to show that prayers about the weather are heard. :) God is good, and I know it for sure now, if I didn't already before!

Yesterday began early, trying to find open practice rooms. No luck, but I didn't mind because as you know from my last post, I am in love with just walking in Vienna. Doesn't matter whether I know where I'm going or not. When I am on no time schedule with no pressures to find food or find drinks, I love just walking until I get lost and have to pull out my map. Vienna is not like New York in that the city streets are not a grid, making it easier to get lost. We walked down the main street by Stephansdom (Kärnterstrasse) and we (Emily and I) walked until we got to Karlskirche. There, she went back to IES to practice and I hopped on the U-Bahn to go to my voice teacher's apartment, which is not that far away-- it is just on the edge of district 1 in a really nice area. I had a meeting with Donna for the first time for her to hear me sing, get to know me, and schedule weekly lessons. It will be good for me to study this summer and to receive some different views and methods of teaching voice. Actually, the few comments she gave me yesterday were quite similar to what Professor Trost says to me at Penn State. Surprise! :) These six lessons will serve me well I think, so I am excited to get started, and to get ahead on planning my senior recital. Ihr Haus ist auch sehr schön!

The afternoon of Saturday was spent with "the fam" at Naschmarkt and Flohmarkt, about a 10 minute walk from IES. Naschmarkt is this island with busy streets on either side where fresh...everything...is sold!! Fresh fruit, fresh dried fruit, fresh fish, fresh meat, fresh veggies, fresh nuts, fresh everything. And each stand is run by families who stand there and if you stop and look even for a milli-second, they will get your attention by saying something nice about you, or just a friendly "Bitte schön" which kind of translates to "how can I help you." Flohmarkt is at the end of Naschmarkt and is a huge fleamarket filled with peoples junk. It was hard to find things that I would actually want there, but it was cool to experience that bit of culture, and I did end up buying some jewelry and scarves for which I haggled to get the price I wanted! Yay me!

Emily and I decided we wanted to do some touristy things that we didn't want to miss, while everyone else decided to just relax and enjoy the weather by the Danube. So we went to the top bell tower of Stephansdom to see the 21 ton bell, and a great view of the city! Then we went to the Mozarthaus where Mozart lived for the longest period of time in Vienna and where he wrote The Marriage of Figaro! I got to be in the room where he composed Figaro--about 6 manuscript pages per day! We tired ourselves out, stuffing our brains full of information and wonder, and then treated ourselves to Mozartkugeln, a delicious chocolate truffle!

The night closed with a beautiful rendition of Mozart Requiem in a beautiful church called Karlskirche built in the early 1700s. It was on period instruments, which meant that the trombone was especially interesting to look at, and it sounded almost like a French Horn. I loved it.

This morning, I was given the opportunity to see the Wiener Philharmoniker play in concert! This was like a dream come true. I can barely even describe the wonder of one of the greatest musical experiences of my life. Everything was perfect. The violins not only played the music in unison, but they moved in unison, in correspondence to the conductor. The visual element always adds to the sound. For me, being able to see the conductor and see the members of the orchestra made the sound I was hearing more energized, more exciting, more engaging, and therefore easier to connect with. I swear either my mouth was hanging open or I had a goofy smile on my face the entire time. I was in love with the horn section and the double bass section: the horns for their consistently perfect tone, and range of dynamics, and the bass section for their absolutely engaging musical personalities. Shostakovich left tears in my eyes so much that I could barely clap or say anything! The applause at the end lasted about 6 minutes straight, even after the orchestra left the stage. I thought to myself about the idea of a standing ovation. In America, so often when people give standing ovations, they don't really mean it, or, they stand up and look around hesitantly to see if all will follow. In Wien, they have it right. They stand up when they feel moved to stand up. And not even necessarily after the concert is over! Random people stand up throughout the crowd, maybe 4 or 5, stood up just because they were really moved by a certain piece. They were sincere and not hesitant. They were moved greatly, so they stood up--that's all there is to it. Come on America, get with the program. Stand up if you feel so encouraged to, but don't just do it because somebody beside you does it.

I had Palatschinken at a cafe today for lunch, which is a crepe with marmalade in it. The rest of the day was spent doing Deutsch homework on the terrace in the warm sunshine! I feel like I am on vacation! The afternoon was lovely and relaxing. I decided that before I ate dinner, and before the sun went down, I wanted to go for a run, something I haven't done in over a week, that is normally part of my everyday schedule in the summer time! I went on Google maps to map out where I wanted to run to--Schönbrunn park--a park not too far from my apartment. I ended up running for over an hour (!!!!) because I was so taken by the beauty of this park. After running through some mazes and by some fountains, and like a dream, through a never ending canopy of greens, I came upon this hill with the beautiful Schloss Schönbrunn. The hill was so steep, I could barely run anymore, so I slowed to a walk and took a quick glance behind me. I couldn't keep from exclaiming "Oh my gosh" as I turned around to see a breath-taking view of the city below. Like I said, every steep hill is worth it for the view at the top. And so it is true again. I must go back with my camera.

So Vienna continues to excede my expectations, and I got to run about 3-4 miles through a park to get to know the personality of my love affair better.