Miss A's Adventures: Lost in the Opera House

Liebe Familie Sonntag September 21sten, 2008
Ah! I love my life! Once you subtract all of the homework, that is. So, we're traveling so much I'm not sure I'll ever really feel settled down...We're going out of town every few weeks throughout the ENTIRE trip.

Last Thursday I took a tour of the Staatsoper House, at a pleasantly discounted student rate of course. Haha, at the beginning the tour guide instructed us to stay close because it was easy to get lost in the maze of the opera. We listened to many fascinating things about it, how much it cost, that it still requires €5,000,000 annually from the government to stay in business, that the most expensive seats cost €37,000, etc. After wandering around the First District all day, I went and waited in line at the Opera house. I bought my standing room ticket for €4. Four hours later, I had seen “La Juive,” a French Opera (at the Staatsoper they perform everything in its original language, and have a little screen at each place with the option of German or English subtitles,) and my feet were in severe pain. It was a weird, weird opera, and many things are not said in the opera, you have to know them before, so it didn't make any sense at all until I wikipedia-ed it.

Friday morning at 6 I got up and got on the bus to Melk. We visited a monastery there, which was really cool. The library alone is AMAZING. It's covered in books. But yeah, the Monastery used to be a palace way back in the early Middle Ages, but then the ruling family at the time vacated it. However, they still had family graves there, so they gave it to the church under the condition that the monks would continue to care for the graves. The Monastery is still active, as well as the school they have there. How cool is that? The Church was absolutely beautiful too.

After we saw the Monastery, we all rented bikes, and started our 40 kilometer trek to Krems. It was the best three hours of my life. We leisurely rode along, stopping to take pictures VERY often. I want to bike ride across Europe. The bike trail led us through so many little towns that we never would have seen otherwise, and we got to see miles upon miles of the vineyards in-between. Many houses in the little towns had boxes of bags of grapes outside, with a can to put a Euro in, so we bought a bag and they were DELICIOUS. Granted, in Europe all grapes still have the seeds, but they were amazing. I want a vineyard now. We saw millions of window boxes, old, antique doors, beautiful churches, stone bridges, etc. We explored a cemetery, and then an hour later, we hiked up to explore the ruins of a castle. Let me tell you, the hike up to the top was so much fun, with me leading the pack, as I needed no rest. I may breath really heavily, but I am fine and dandy hiking, and don't need those little stops whenever you reach level ground. Bwahaha. I credit my endurance from childhood. So yeah, we saw the dungeon, and loads of rooms you can no longer tell what were used for anymore, etc. Oh wait, there was one bad thing about it; as everyone I'm sure already knows, when you bike for an extended period of time without having done so in many years, your rump tends to get terribly sore, and continues to protest with a lingering pain every time your bottom comes in contact with anything; namely, a chair. Sitting on the bus-ride home from Krems was mildly uncomfortable for everyone.

Saturday I went to Schönbrunn Palace with a bunch of people from our group. Unfortunately, it was yet another rainy day. I personally don't mind, but all but three of us went to a cafe instead of wander the grounds, and with only three people to meander it's not as fun. Who would have known that rainy Saturdays after Tourist Season spark loads of tourists interest in a palace? There were thousands of people there, and we waited in line for nearly a half hour to buy our ticket, and then our ticket was for 2 hours later. Finally entering the palace, it was beautiful of course, just like the Charlottenburg Schloss. Really all throughout Europe they did the same styles and elegance, so it was only mildly interesting to see the expensive things. However, this audio tour had a lot of historical information about the Hapsburgs, which was fun to learn, especially considering all I'd known before was what I'd read in those “diary” books of princesses like Marie Antoinette, and Sisi. But yeah, it was very interesting to learn all about it. Half way through the tour however, the electricity went out, and as most of the rooms contain fragile things that can not come in contact with natural light, the rooms were too dark and you could see nothing. Museum workers went about putting a few flashlights in each room, pointing at things mentioned in the Audio Tour, but you couldn't even tell what color each room was. After about 40 minutes of slowly working my way through the darkened rooms, we made it to the Gift Shop, which of course, had no lack of light. They must not be connected. However, thanks to Jillian, who took forever deciding what to buy for her friends there, we were there when the power came back on, and we went backwards and saw the illuminated rooms.

That night I attended the Burgtheater for the first time to see “Nathan der Weise.” Oh Nathan. What a silly man. He is so clever in the play, but you give a script to an infamously “modern” theater, and they mess it all up. Aside from Sittah, the Sultan's sister, all of the characters were fairly aggravating, and certain actors spoke towards the expensive first few levels, and could not be understood by those in the cheap seats at the top-where I happened to be sitting. Overall it was a good experience though. I'm just trying to figure out what to write my paper on...

This morning was our first time at our new ward. After saving an elderly couple in the U-Bahn this morning, we were running late, and therefore, quite afraid of missing Sacrament. Luckily, Relief Society is first—or should I say, “Frauenhilfsvereinigung.” Haha, I learned that word today, and am quite proud of it. Our ward is nice enough, I only talked to a couple men who are probably mission leaders or something, but next time we're there I'll definitely talk to the other YSA (or JAE) people.

After church I came home to be fed the leftovers of our Guest Parents meal by Eve, the cook. I sincerely doubt that they eat leftovers in this family, so I don't feel bad at all. It just would have been thrown away. We had the most amazing Carameltorte, as well as potatoes and a teensy, weensy piece of meat. Eve (pronounced “Ava”) went on her vacation today, she'll be gone until next Monday in Budapest, her hometown. I cannot describe to you how thrilled she is that we're visiting Budapest. I really wish you could meet her, I really have no idea what words to use about her. She's older, and her German is very limited, and so she repeats the same thing over and over and over again. All I do is say different comments about it every time so that she knows I can understand her. Anyway, I walked her to her train station this afternoon, helping her with her luggage. She had to take a break about every 15 feet. Granted it was uphill, but thank goodness I volunteered—no wonder she was so excited to hear me say that. And in case any of you were worried about me, (which I'm sure you won't), we will have a temporary cook taking her place this next week, so it's not a problem.

Tonight I had my first religion class. It focuses on the history of the Church in German-speaking countries, so we'll have a lot of guest speakers, and it's just a cool place to be. After that class every Sunday night we'll take turns cooking a big meal for everyone, so I am going to be perfectly fine for this food situation. BYU professors are supposed to feed their groups once a week, so Berlin was a lot more expensive and less satisfied due to our lack of meals anywhere.

So yeah. There's the last few days. This next week will be really busy, as I'm traveling to five different cities from Wednesday to Monday, so I won't have computer access.
Viel Spaß!
Deine Anna