In Soviet Russia, intermission takes you.

I can hardly believe that we only have one more day left on this crazy adventure! It seems like there's still so much to do...I will defnitely be coming back as soon as possible.

Today we went to the Zentral Friedhof and saw the grave stones of a bunch of composers, including Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Gluck, Shonberg, and the statue erected for Mozart since he was apparently dumped in an unmarked hole somewhere. Here's a good joke I heard a few days before departing on this trip:

When Mozart passed away, he was buried in a churchyard. A couple
days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard
some strange noises coming from the area where Mozart was buried.
Terrified, the drunk ran and got the priest to come and listen to it.
The priest bent close to the grave and heard some faint, unrecognizable music coming from the grave. Frightened, the priest ran and got the town magistrate.
When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave,
listened for a moment, and said, "Ah, yes, that's Mozart's Ninth Symphony,
being played backwards."

He listened a while longer, and said, "There's the Eighth Symphony,
And it's backwards, too. Most puzzling."
So the magistrate kept listening; "There's the Seventh... the
Sixth...the Fifth..." Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned
on the magistrate; he stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the
cemetery. "My fellow citizens, there's nothing to worry about. It's just Mozart decomposing."

That's actually a lie, because the joke I heard was about graverobbers looking for a score he was buried with, and opening his coffin to find him furiously erasing it...but that's okay, because copy and paste.

We also went to the Albertina and saw some fabulous paintings by Renoir, Degas (love him), Monet, Picasso, and many more. More art museum time tomorrow!

We finished out the night seeing Boris Gudenov at the state opera house...and my, oh, my it was technically stunning. The sets and the lighting design were absolutely beautiful, the musicians were great (especially the Holy Fool at the end of the production, and the house was just gorgeous. Plus, each seat had a personal translation screen. Score! And, in case you were wondering about the title of my post...they did the entire opera without taking a single intermission. I don't know what the heck that was about, because they took time for scene changes between each act but didn't turn the lights up. Sitting for 2.5 hours straight isn't the most comfortable thing, but at least we got out earlier, I suppose!

I don't really know how to wrap up this post, so I'll just leave this here. Goodnight!

**Photo courtesy of the strange and wonderful city of Berlin.

Vienna!

So far Vienna has been wonderful- just like all the other cities. It is like a mix of Leipzig and Berlin- old history yet sheek shopping centers mixed with bustling city and subway systems. It has been the coldest so far here by far. It's really only just below freezing but the windchill makes it feel around 15. Eek! We've managed to stay reasonably warm due to frequent stops in shops, roasted chestnuts, and cocoa and soup in random cafés. :) I can't complain! It is surprising how much less touristy this place is in comparison to Prague and Salzburg. 

We have done so many wonderful things already, it's hard to keep track of them! We've taken a creepy crypt tour under st Stephens where we saw thousands of human bones. Read Melanie's post for more detail! We took a ridiculously chilly, but wonderful walking tour of Vienna. Our guide was wonderful and even had keys to St. Stephens (what!) We've also visited  the central freidhoff cemetery where we saw the graves of composer greats! We've also been to the Albertina museum, seen awesome concerts, an AMAZING production of Boris Gudanov (seriously. the sets, costumes, singing, and orchestra were all phenomenal- not to mention the 100-person chorus) I am very sad that tomorrow is our last day and last concert- though what a perfectly silly way to end our unique trip with the "Las Vegas Rhapsody" in the golden hall. 

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

Today was our second full day in Salzburg, and it dawned with a layer of snow blanketing the city. When I woke up this morning it was hard to believe that only a few hours earlier we saw the Vienna Philharmonic play amazing music and Joshua Bell literally shredded it! Seriously, his bow frayed because he was playing so hard. And we were in the front row, close enough to see the sweat fly off of him! The musicality of the ensemble was absolutely insane. It sounded like there was only one person on each part because they were all just so in tune with each other. I especially loved the sound of the basses...they were so rich and dark I could feel the sound waves through the stage!! And let me just repeat that Joshua Bell was the most amazing string player I've ever heard in my entire life. He was ridiculously expressive and moved around so much with the music, and he played everything flawlessly. His cadenzas were incredible.

The view from our seats was awesome!!!

After that phenomenal concert I wasn't sure anything else would live up to what I had just heard. However, Mozart's piccolominimesse in the Salz Dom was really cool!! We got to hear Mozart's music as it would have been performed back in the day when he was the organist, and the acoustics in there were incredible! There was a 10 second ring with the gigantic organ in the back, and there were four other organs in the front of the church! The mass we saw was definitely very different from the service at the Berliner Dom, since that was a Protestant service. I have only been to one or two catholic masses, so I was far more lost in this service than I was at the Protestant one (especially because there was no translator). After the service, Hannah E. and I got some pastries and hot drinks before what we thought was an organ/recorder recital. However, it turned out that the recital was actually another service with the recorders as special music instead of the piccolominimesse! Also, the musicians were two girls who couldn't have been older than 13, and they were amazing! I had no idea recorders could sound so good. 

We saw the services underneath that big green dome!

After the service we went on a guided tour of the city. Our guide was very energetic and engaging, and she was full of interesting trivia about the city. Then half the group split off to explore. We went up to the Franciscan monastery on the hill on the other side of the city, and the view was phenomenal. It was quite the trek to get up there and it was really slippery with mud and snow everywhere! The hike was well worth it and here are some pictures:

Tomorrow: touring the Salzburg castle and seeing some Mozart history!

Day of the Dead

Today has been full of dead people. Well, not really, but we did go see the graves of some great composers this morning. Before I start on today I'd like to go back to yesterday before the concert- yesterday was a very eventful day! First we went to a really awesome music museum. The museum had everything from Mahler's hat to Haydn's parrot and fun interactive exhibits like conducting the Vienna Phil and composing a waltz by rolling a pair of dice. There was also a room where you could experience what it sounds like when a baby first develops hearing in the womb, which was really cool. 

Haydn's parrot

Mahler's hat

Lots of batons!

After this museum we all went back to St. Stephansplatz to meet our tour guide. His name was Herbert and he was fantastic! He took us through the cathedral and around Vienna through alleys and courtyards to the Hofburg Palace and the Sisi Museum. He knew something about almost every building we passed and he was very funny. The Hofburg Palace was interesting and it featured Sisi, or Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She had what seemed like a fairy tale life in the beginning until it all went downhill with family problems and such. I found this museum very interesting since I had some prior knowledge on Sisi from books I'd read when I was younger. It was a nice surprise to see the palace where she lived. Dr. Powell even said that I look a little like her! My hair isn't nearly as long as hers was (thank goodness), it took an hour every day to fix and I can't imagine how heavy it would be.

Crazy hair!

After that was the concert that I wrote about last night! So now, back to today: first we went to the cemetery where Brahms, Beethoven, Strauss, Gluck, and others are buried! The cemetery is definitely the largest one I've ever seen and as we walked down the road to the composers' section we were passed by a funeral party. It was sobering and I definitely felt a bit like an awkward tourist as the hearse passed us. After walking down a few more pathways we made it to Mozart's monument, surrounded by the graves of other great composers.

We also wandered into the church on the site of the cemetery and explored a bit, which was cool but sobering, since there was clearly a funeral in there this morning. 

After the cemetary we all had lunch- I had original Wiener schnitzel in Wien!- and then we went to the Albertina! I really liked their exhibits. They had a chiaroscuro woodcuts exhibit with lots of Dürer, an impressionist and cubist exhibition with Monet, Picasso, Signac, Degas, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and others, and half a room full of Michelangelo sketches on the third floor! There was also a cool modern art museum with an artist who liked to paint things upside-down and an artist who drew the "the end" scenes of movies and eyes. I really liked the eye part of her exhibition. 

One of her pieces

Tonight we're going to see some angsty Russian opera! Stay tuned!

Vienna Awesomeness

Vienna has definitely been pretty amazing so far. On our first day here we walked around the city and looked at the cites, which included getting a tour through an awesome crypt with rooms full of bones! Yesterday we got an official tour and got to see the interior of the palace, which was very fancy. We ended last night with the Vienna Radio Symphony, which was a very great concert. The first piece, Mouthpiece XX by Erin Gee, was totally freaky and cool. It had this weird video with creepy shadows and silhouettes along with a mime, so I can't really say I understood it, but the fun of the piece was just thinking about the music and the visuals and what it could mean. Afterwards we saw a giant, muscly piano player perform a Prokofiev piano concert and encore with a Chopin nocturne. He was truly amazing, his hands moved so fast I'm surprised they didn't break the piano. Lastly, the orchestra played Brahms 4th concerto, which was superb. Each section had amazing tone and the brass sent shivers down my spine. It was truly a concert to remember. 

So much to do, so little time... left.

Wow, there are only 4 days left of this trip. It feels like we have been gone forever but also like we left yesterday.
There is a bakery across the street from our hostel!!! Guess where Hannah, Annalise and I went for breakfast… It was delicious! When we get back from this trip we will need to find a pastry and hot chocolate place to satisfy our needs. We may be getting addicted…
So today we went to the Haus der Musik and it is absolutely amazing!!! There were so many things to see and interact with! There was a room that sounded like the womb, a room to listen to different sounds through speakers on the wall, a room to create music and more! Oh, it was the coolest thing ever. I could have spent hours more that we did in there. We had to find lunch and meet our tour guide so we left and split to find food. My group got pizza from the same place we got it yesterday. Then we met our guide, Herbert Konrad, who was wonderful and great and knew a lot! On the tour we went inside St. Stephans cathedral again but this time to the roped off part and with a walking, speaking info brochure. Today we didn't go into the catacombs, but that was super cool and creepy yesterday. Next we headed through the town and learned some interesting facts while we walked to the Hapsburg Palace. The wind was bitterly cold and we were all happy when we went inside the palace. Queen Elizabeth (Sissi) was really fun to learn about. I also really like her hair… it was so long and curly! The tour ended there and we had just enough time to go back to the hostel and get a snack or dinner before the concert. I got a snack. The trip on the U-Bahn was faster than anticipated so we had a little extra time to make sure we knew where we were going… to the Konzerhaus. Oh my, this concert was great! Mouthpiece XX was……. Interesting, to say the least. Check out others' posts for more about this. Then the Prokofiev piece was amazing with Tzimon Barto on piano. Look at Hannah Eger's blog post to hear more about him, I'm sure. The Brahms 4 piece was gorgeous but by that time I was getting sleepy and my mind was racing so I didn't quite "hear" all of it. Over all this day was super successful I'd say.

The Mime, the Brahms, and Prokofiev

Tonight's concert, our last orchestral concert, definitely did not disappoint. Up first on the program was Erin Gee performing Mouthpiece XX, accompanied by orchestra, animated film, and her brother the mime. Yes, there was a mime. I didn't know a whole lot about this piece going into the concert other than that Gee likes to experiment with ways to use the human voice without making words, and using the "pure noises" that instruments can make. I'm really not sure at all what to make of the mime/video/music combo. She used two different microphones and made clicks, pops, and other cool vocal effects throughout this piece. There were also lots of glissandos everywhere. Overall it was an interesting piece and I'm really not sure what to make of it.

Concert hall!

Up next was the Prokofiev piano concerto played by Tzimon Barto! He walked out on stage and looked to be about twice the size of everyone else on stage. Well, maybe not twice the size, but he had to duck to get through the door to the stage and looked like he might break the piano sometimes when he got really into the concerto (which was awesome). He absolutely killed it and played an encore of a Chopin nocturne. That was the most sensitively played piano playing I've ever heard. His dynamics were incredible and he milked every last emotion out of that nocturne. After he finished his encore the audience was clapping for so long that he just grabbed the concert master and brought her offstage with him to get everyone to stop! 

Tzimon Barto!

The final piece on the program was Brahms 4 and it was absolutely incredible!!! I love the way Brahms writes for horns and oh man did these guys shred it!!! The entire orchestra was just amazing and I loved every minute of the symphony. Brahms was a great way to end the concert and I would definitely see the Vienna Radio Orchestra again!

 I can't wait to see Boris Godunov tomorrow in the opera house! Stay tuned for more Vienna!

Viennese things!

Well, the long trip from Prague to Vienna was a success. The countryside was much prettier with the sun out, and the snow was gorgeous! We've now been in Vienna about a day and a half, and I'm really enjoying the stay. Here are some cool things we've done so far:

--We ended up in a really nice hostel that actually has wifi in the rooms!

--We went into St. Stephen's church and saw some amazing gothic architecture.

--Then we went on a tour of the catacombs and saw REAL DEAD PEOPLE. It was so cool! The crypts we've visited so far have been all gravemarkers and no bones. This one was almost all bones - ossuaries and mass graves from the plague era. And it was only a tiny fraction of the graves beneath the city...it's so odd thinking you're essentially walking on ten layers of dead bodies everywhere you go in these old cities. We also saw the urns where the Hapsburg family have their internal organs cased in alcohol.

--We climbed 343 steps to the top of the highest spire of the church...and I didn't pass out! :D

--We found a 24 hour doner/kebap kiosk right outside our hostel that makes delicious sandwiches.

--We went to this super awesome interactive music museum called the Haus der Musik and played with soundwaves and layed on a vibrating floor in a womb-sound-simulation room.

--We toured the city with a great tour guide, learned a lot about the history of the church, and saw all the relics from the old royal family in the palace.

--We heard Erin Gee's Mouthpiece 20 and Brahms' 4th all in the same concert...which was...interesting. I'm not sure what to think of the Gee piece and can't begin to describe it. Please google it, and be perplexed with me. There was clicking and booping and a mime and a weird projection with moving furniture in a forest.

Here's to another two days, two concerts, and more fun in Vienna before we head home!

Vienna is awesome!

Today is our first full day in Vienna! Yesterday when we arrived, after we checked into our hostel (hostel wombats!), we took the u-Bahn to St. Stephan's square. The exit of the u-Bahn puts us right out next to the church, so as we all came up the stairs we were awestruck by the most gothic cathedral I've ever seen! 

Then Dr. Powell pointed us in the direction of a pizza place that gave us all a quarter of a pizza for only €3! It was delicious and gave us enough energy to immediately climb up the 343 steps to the top of the tower for an amazing view. 

After our trek we went the other direction in the church down to the catacombs! The church dates from the 13th century and we saw some seriously old graves, along with creepy rooms full of bones. We also saw a room full of some of the first Habsburgs, who were embalmed and buried in 3 different places. Following the tour, our group split up and me, Alex, and Hannah wandered around for a while. We decided to wander back into St. Stephen's and see what it looked like after dark, and as soon as we got in there the bells started ringing! It was close to 7:00 and almost time for evening mass. We decided to hang around and see if the organ would be played, and just when we gave up and turned around the organ started playing! It sounded amazing and it was a very cool surprise. I got a recording of some of it but I'm not sure I can post it. Afterwards we found dinner at a restaurant called the Gutenberg, and I had Wiener schnitzel in Wien! I'm very excited to see what else Vienna has in store for us, since we have a tour tomorrow and the Vienna Radio Symphony!

Salzburg, I will miss you and your beauty

For our last day in Salzburg we had a free day to do more exploring. A few of us started the day by walking (and in some cases running) to the oldest bakery in Salzburg for some of their fresh bread in the morning. The bakery smells AMAZING and has delicious brioche rolls. In addition to this music tour of Europe, I have been on a bakery tour as well. I don't know what I'm going to do without my European bakeries when get back to Washington. I need my morning cappuccinos and baked goods! After our breakfast we walked up to the Nonnberg Abbey where we met up with the rest of the group. The abbey was a sacred space, it had a complete aura of pious holiness. I was very moved in the presence of the peaceful silence. We were getting ready to leave when the sound of bells stopped us. All the sudden, from up above in the back of the church behind the walls came the sound of the nuns singing and chanting. Mesmerized, I sat in a pew and just let the sound wash over me. It was an experience I will never forget. Later Annalise, Alexandra, Caleb and I hiked up to the monastery and went along the wall surrounding it. I just couldn't get enough of the gorgeous views of the city below. We also found a statue of our buddy Mozart, definitely a romanticized version of him! That night we went to another concert at the Mozarteum with the Mozarteum Orchestra. It was a Mozart aria sandwich with Clementi Symphony bread. This orchestra was also fabulous and played with a beautiful brilliant sound. The vocalist was also wonderful and her melismas during the last aria was gorgeous. The conductor on the other hand was a different story...He wasn't necessarily bad per say, just different. He had a giant baton, kinda looked like a large stick, and I personally thought his conducting style and even face reminded me of Mr. Bean. He is a British conductor too!! If this reference is confusing to anyone, Mr. Bean is a hilarious British comedian. If you have never seen him, go look it up, you will laugh. Anyways, this conductor has a very awkward/harsh/ and somewhat confounding way of conducting. For example he would turn to the idea no literally look at the audience with some sort of weird face. It was kinda uncomfortable when he would do that and hilarious at the same time. There was one point when he looked over right at my row of people and I almost burst out laughing. Very strange conducting, but a wonderful performance nevertheless. It was our last night in Salzburg, but quite a memorable one and what a way to spend Mozart's birthday week!  

Nonnberg Abbey

The red dome of the abbey

Beautiful memorials 

View of the city

Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'...

It was such a nice surprise to wake up and see the sun peeking through the curtain and feel the warmth! Hauling suitcases around and wearing coats made it a little hot, but it was worth it for that little bit of sun. The cool air felt even better because of it. The group checked out of the hostel at 10am and we headed to town to take last pictures of Salzburg in the sun on the bridge. Then it was off to the train station and on to Vienna! I napped on the train, so that was nice, and then we found out our hostel, Hostel Wombat, was super close to the station! Close= Less walking! Once we got to our hostel we also found out wifi is free AND our rooms are spacious AND we have wifi in our rooms!!! Today was just a good day. After this we went to go find some lunch in Vienna! All of us ended up with pizza. It was pretty good. It’s not like homemade, but I liked the crust.  We climbed the St. Stephans tower! All 343 steps! The view was beautiful. Then we went inside the cathedral and met up with the rest of the group. We took a tour of the CATACOMBS under St. Stephans!!!!!! It was creepy and cool at the same time!!! Once we were done in the catacombs we were all frozen because there is a bitter, biting wind here in Vienna. So we found a little café and got hot chocolate and whatnot. The group split into smaller groups after this and went exploring. My group of three went to Forever21 and walked around. We walked back into St. Stephans because we could and there was a mass starting. We waited a bit to see if they would play the organ but it seemed like they would only use bells. No sooner had we turned around to go, taken one or two steps, and the organ begins!!! So we spun around and walked back to the gate to listen and video/voice memo record it! It sounded heavenly. Then we went for dinner since it was after seven by the. We found a restaurant named Gutenburg and had Schnitzel and fries (well Annalise and I did. Hannah had onion soup)! I was in heaven. I may possibly have found my new favorite food. It was getting late so we figured it would be best to head back to the hostel, and then we bonded about different shows we watch. It was such a nice day! I can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds with our tour and concert!

Happy Birthday Mozart! Salzburg loves you!

On Monday we had a full day ahead of us! It was Mozart's birthday so we decided to visit both his house museums. How cool is it that we ended up in Mozart's birthplace on his birthday! We first went to the home where he was born. It was so interesting to read some of Mozart's letters (any of the parents or children's writings), see relics, and just be in the place where little Wolfgang spent his early childhood. Oh and there was a giant Mozart cake to celebrate his birthday right outside the house. Next was the Mozart house museum where the family moved to across the river for a bigger living space. That museum had more writings, actual pianos and organs, an audio tour, and a sketch of Mozart's face that the government did as a reconstruction to see what he actually looked like. I have to say, there was a definite resemblance to Nicholas Cage! For those who don't know, Mozart is quite romanticized to look much more handsome than he actually was. There are many statues and paintings of him that portray him as some sort of Roman God. He was quite the opposite: short, thin, prominent nose, and bulging eyes. Poor guy, but hey, he could sure write and play music to make up for his looks! After getting our fill of Mozart (and some delicious bratwurst) we hiked up to the Salzburg castle overlooking the city. What a hike and what a view! There is definitely a reason why it has never been taken, and we discovered it on our strenuous hike up. Yep, we are music majors, not athletes. In addition to the amazing views and medieval relics, there was a creepy marionette museum in the castle with a talking Wolf Dietrich. If you haven't seen the last blog post, he was the crazy Salzburg Archbishop. We had a lot of fun in the museum and Melanie and I even put on a puppet show with a Wolf Dietrich marionette. She does a great impression of good ole Wolfy! Later that night we headed to the Mozarteum to see the Salzburg Camarata play some Mozart symphonies and Gluck/ Mozart arias. We were all blown away by the brilliant sound of the orchestra. It was a wonderful surprise to see this group have such a sparkling bright sound and hear wonderful vocalists. It was a great way to spend Mozart's birthday!  

At the Salzburg Castle overlooking the town

Annalise, Alexandra, and I as Sound of Music Marionettes

In the Mozarteum for our concert

Panorama of the gorgeous view at the castle

Cannon at the castle 

Wiener Schnitzel!!

More castle views

Beautifull wintery tree at the castle 

I saw dead people

     We arrived today at our final destination of the tour: Vienna. The train ride was filled with flashes of snowy hills and rooftops between stark deciduous trees (not nearly as many conifers as in the PNW - it makes winter look significantly harsher) and I ate some delicious potato leek soup (train food is good in Austria). 

     After checking into our hostel (spacious rooms and right next to the train station = excellent choice), we headed to St. Stephen's Cathedral. We found super awesome cheap pizza and then wandered into the church where we found what I had been anticipating and looking for this whole trip: CATACOMBS!! The real ones. We're not talking about any of that fancy marble tombstone, swept-floors, and pretty stained glass door nonsense; there were ancient brick and mortar passageways like in Edgar Allen Poe's "Cask of Amontillado," terrifying darkness, the remains of corpses, rotten wooden caskets, and literal walls made out of bones from the 15th century. It was epically awesome. 

     First, we saw the newer part of the crypt where archbishops from the past 400 years are buried, and then moved into another chamber where urns filled with the organs of the embalmed Hapsburg rulers were. Clearly, no one was getting into those, because they were shelved behind wrought iron coverings that had no key holes or screws to pull out, but appeared to be built into the walls. 

     Then we descended even further underground. This is where the walls turned to brick and the lighting was confined to a few lone lamps above us. Kai, Caleb, and I were at the back of the tour group and stopped to look at a sort of window in the wall with an iron grate in front of it. We couldn't see beyond the bars because it was too dark, so Kai shined the flashlight of his phone into the hole...

     Bones. Piles of broken, ancient bones. That is what we saw. We all emitted cackling sounds that were somewhere between surprise, awe, and fear. We were NOT expecting that! From that point on, the tour was filled with bones, much to our delight. We saw skeletons in deteriorating coffins (one coffin even had the soles of its owner's shoes still stuck to the wood), crypts piled high with victims of the plague, a pit with a skeleton at the bottom, a trough of bones, and walls that had formed due to the compacted piled bones and sculls of the dead. It was ridiculously creepy and ridiculously awesome. My morbid dreams had been fulfilled. Sadly, however, I did have to pay the guide so I could get out, though I would have been totally fine staying the night in there. Oh well.

     Afterwards, we found the opera house where we will be seeing Boris Gudenov on Friday night, then stopped at a coffee and pastry shop to warm up. I ordered hot chocolate, and it was heavenly. Eric got a strawberry chocolate tart. I wanted to try it, but I only had a spoon and didn't think to ask Eric for his fork, so I just set about trying to cut a strawberry on the tart in half with a spoon. While holding the plate in my hand, not setting it on the table. Maybe not the wisest decision. After sawing about halfway through the strawberry, the plate wobbling, my spoon slipped and the entire strawberry fell THUNK right into my full cup of hot chocolate, splashing everywhere. Dr. Powell, Taylor, and Caleb were all dying but the particularly embarrassing part was that two Austrian ladies next to us were laughing just as hard, if not harder. I'm pretty sure one of them was wiping tears from her eyes. I sheepishly waved at them while hiding my red face. Typical Americans. Or, more likely, typical Melanie.

How was my day?

Why my day was marvelous!  How was yours?

Our first day of blue sky!

St. Stephens in Vienna

Love happy faces!

We climbed all 343 steps!

The State Opera House!  We shall be there soon!