Today's adventures started with a trip to the center of the city to check out the Hofburg Palace--home to the Habsburgs (Hapsburgs in English) for over six centuries.However, in order to start the morning the best way possible, we bought some apfelstrudel--apple strudel! It was a delicious (and nutritious (: ) breakfast--though maybe not quite as good as a good piece of apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream!
The visit to the Hofburg Palace turned out to be more frustrating than enjoyable. The first part of the museum (i.e. the ENTIRE first floor) is the Hapsburg Silver Collection. Generations upon generations worth of silverware and plates and gold covered candlesticks. The sheer volume as well as the expense I found to be extremely off putting. I could imagine that there were times in Austria's history in which there were people starving in the streets while the Hapsburgs were eating off of their golden plates.
After viewing the Silver Collection, we went upstairs to see the Sisi Museum and Royal Apartments. I didn't know anything about the Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) before visiting the museum. She grew up in the country--enjoying the freedom that such a live can give. She married Franz Joseph of Austria and had four children. Living at court was difficult for her because she missed the freedom of the country and didn't like being the center of attention. Court life became unbearable for her after her daughter died and her son committed suicide. She was assassinated by an anarchist when she was just 44.
In the Royal Apartments, we got a glimpse of her daily life in the palace. Sisi had incredibly long hair that she had styled every day--taking 2 to 3 hours out of her day! It was during this time that she studied world languages like Hungarian and ancient and modern Greek. She was also extremely conscious of her figure. She had a room where she did exercise. She had a pull-up bar, rings, weights, and other apparatuses.
After exploring the Hofburg Palace, we wandered around the city--passing by the Austrian Parliament. We also saw a little fair going on nearby. We couldn't tell exactly what it was for, but it seemed to be celebrating Austria's green movement efforts.
Soon, we had to stop for lunch, and we had wiener schnitzel--fried veal. It was delicious, and the price we paid wasn't that bad.
After lunch, we continued to wander around the city and stumbled upon this clock. It looked really neat and we thought that it would do something special--like the clock in Prague. Since we were there just a few minutes to 4:00, we decided to wait and check it out. Four o'clock came and went and the only thing that happened as that the figures moved a couple inches across the clock.
Even though we wasted our time in waiting, we did make friends with another tourist--a Colombian. Together we made our way to the Hundertwasserhaus. Hundertwasserhaus is an apartment complex constructed in the expressionist style of Hundertwasser. It's really beautiful in a funky way. I think it would be neat to live there!
After seeing Hundertwasserhaus, we made our way to the Opera House! Vienna is well-known for opera and classical music, and it can be extremely cheap to enjoy these things. We went to the Opera House one and a half hours before the show to get standing room tickets--which are only 4 euros!
We saw a really beautiful ballet. All of the dancers were very talented, and it was truly enjoyable to watch--well worth 4 euros!
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