With just under a month left in this fair city, it is certainly time to start savoring my time here. I think I did the past two days.
After a half-full German class on Friday morning, I took a trip to the National Library of Vienna where I turned into a little musicologist.
For the evening, my apartment folks and I had planned and wine and cheese party. What a smashing success. At the peak of the party, I'd say there were about 20-25 bottles of wine ranging in color from white to yellow to orange to rose to red - I kid you not. The next morning, maybe 5 were left.
At around 3pm that day, I realized I should probably leave the apartment before it got dark outside. So I grabbed a jacket and headed to the Musikverein where I heard Beethoven's glorious Fifth Symphony. Uh huh, I heard the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Christian Thielemann perform possibly the most famous eight notes in classical music: in case one of you readers doesn't know what piece I'm referring to - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SExR2h20HlQ&feature=related. Oh right. I arrived at the Musikverein a few minutes before the intermission...for a reason - to sneak in and hear the Fifth. Now...I'm one who gets the shiver down the back about once every concert. This concert, I may have gotten the most chilling, shivery whoosh up and down my back at this crucial moment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrEzvGQeHTg&feature=related. Not bad for 0 Euros, 0 Dollars.
I then left the Musikverein to find some friends to gallop through the Christmas Markets with. I ate some delicious baked potato and ham and cheese and stuff there. At 6:30ish we had to jet through the markets to the Konzerthaus for a Brad Mehldau/Joshua Redman concert. Of course...we didn't really have tickets - we were hoping to get some seats that the rich folks donated back to the box office. As I stood at the front of the line, a man came up and handed me a ticket and said "I guess you guys are waiting to buy tickets. Take this one - I got one too many. Enjoy the concert." Must've been my English-speaking charm...whatever it was, it got me a perfect seat in the Konzerthaus and I watched Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman jam out for a good two hours.
Two unbelievable concerts, no money spent.
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