Opera at street level

If you look carefully at this picture you will see John and Nelson posing underneath the sign that has our name on it. If we could get royalties for the use of the name COBRA we would travel for ever! We were on one of the main shopping streets of Vienna when we spotted this shop.

The Vienna hostel had the nicest common areas since the one we stayed at in Beijing. There is a courtyard in the middle of the complex, a well equipped kitchen, a lounge area with wireless internet connectivity and power outlets located above every chair, and a bar that sells discount beer between 7 - 11 p.m. It was fun to meet other travelers and hear their stories. It was a good thing that the common areas were so appealing too, because our room was about the width of a double bed, it had a set of bunks and a single placed end to end, and there was hardly room for our suitcases, let alone our selves.

Vienna itself took some time to appreciate. It is not as picturesque as Salzburg, or Prague, or Krakow or even Lviv. There are huge royal palaces from Hapsburg times, and cobbled streets from older days, but it is overall the modern city. Once we were adjusted reality the charms emerged from the neon and department store atmosphere. Keep your eyes open and your head up, and you can see all kinds of evidence of the evolution of the city and the beauty of it’s old and new features.

Nelson and I left John at the hostel one afternoon and took a wander on our own, which included a tour of the opera house. The guide began by saying that it was almost completely destroyed by bombing in WW2. “Oh, that was Germans?” Asked an American (the accent was obvious) woman. He gave her a very skeptical look. “Ah, no” he said carefully, “It was the Americans.”. She looked confused. It was rebuilt as a replica of the old place, but there are modern additions. For example, since tickets cost a couple of hundred euro for a seat (five to ten euro for standing room) and that can dampen the most enthusiastic opera fan’s excitement, the most popular operas are broadcast live on a giant screen outside on the street. The opera company managers even put chairs out there and people passing by can enjoy the spectacle for free.

I have insisted all along that we had to go to at least one concert while we were in the world of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and the rest. On our last night we attended a “variety show” that included a little classical music, some opera, and some dancing (I could live without the dancing, but it’s OK) presented in the room in the palace where the emperor and empress had their private command performances. It was fun, and afterwards we bought wine and beer and fizzy apple juice from a vendor and watched the end of the opera while standing on the street with the rest of the ordinary folks. Vienna reveals her charms to those who wander and watch!