vienna for a day

One of the things that you must do as a true-blue backpacker is to sleep in the airport/train station at least once because the cheapest flights are always either super late or super early = no public transport or not worth paying for one night in the hostel. So yup, that's what we're going to do tonight :S

Went to Vienna for a day and a half yesterday, and it was a fruitful one! But then again, so far all our trips had been very fruitful :) There are a lot of museums, especially cultural related ones if you are one for museums, but since we are not, we sought other ways to soak in the musical and cultural atmosphere of the city :)

We caught a concert at Mozart House by the Mozart Ensemble! Mozart House is the actual apartment where Mozart stayed before, and is the oldest concert hall in the world now. As it is part of an apartment, it's not really the size of a normal concert hall, but rather a cozy room that can fit five rows of audience, and the performers are a string quartet. The room is really pretty, with paintings on the walls like the kind you see in cathedrals/palaces, and the structure of the room is made to enhance the acoustics. More about the room and the performance when I upload the photos next time!

The next day was coincidentally the premiere of the 12th International Acapella Festival! Was flipping through the events magazine of Vienna and saw it ^^ As it was the premiere, different acapella groups performed at balconies throughout the city, and we managed to catch one group's performance, which was really good, atmosphere-wise and technique-wise, considering that they were singing on a balcony to audience below with passers-by walking here and there (it was along a busy shopping street) and random noise here and there.

Yup, so everywhere in Vienna there are shops selling music-related items, museums, posters about art/musical events, that add to the overall atmosphere of the city, and the two events we caught really encapsulate the entire experience of the city, albeit it being a short trip.

The cafe that we went to for our last meal there was also yummy! We had the traditional Viennese beef goulash soup, breaded mushrooms, Parisian egg-coated schnitzel, and pork cordon bleu. Totally delicious, especially the first two items.