My night train arrived in Vienna at 7.30am, and I grabbed my increasingly heavy duffle bag and caught the subway to my hostel. After arriving at my hostel's u-bahn stop and climbing the stairs, I was a bit amazed by how hot and humid the city was so early in the morning. I should have known then that I was in for a very hot day. By the time I found my hostel, I was feeling more than just a little flushed. After checking in and dropping my bags in the luggage storage room, I took the receptionist's suggestion and grabbed a shower. By 9am, I was still feeling pretty warm, but I ventured towards Vienna's main sights.
I started the morning on Rick Steves' self-guided tour, stopping first at the Vienna Opera House. I was hoping to see an opera while I was in Vienna, but unfortunately the opera is in recess during July and August. So I opted for the one-hour guided tour so I could see the inside of the building. The actual auditorium itself wasn't overwhelmingly spectacular, excluding the grand chandelier, but the side halls and reception rooms were stunning. The most amazing fact about the Vienna opera is that they don't run one show each night for several weeks, as most houses do, but instead the house changes the show each night. Operas are repeated a few times per season, but never on consecutive nights and the number of performances per season of any one opera are capped. Incredible! The amount of extra work (and cost) required to change the set each night is unfathomable, but encouraging an appreciation of traditional culture in its citizens is of high importance to the Austrian government. My MBA-operations-major-now-warped-brain can't help but think that there might be a more cost effective way to achieve similar results, but business school also teaches us that certain elements of every enterprise are "sacred" to its core principles. Clearly, the Viennese find variety sacred.
One other clear sacred principle of the opera house that I did unquestionably admire was its strong belief that the opera should be accessible to everyone. This tenet was achieved in two ways: first, by providing standing room only tickets at prices costing less than a Vienna cafe cappuccino, and second, by offering self-selecting language translation screens at all seats and standing sites. I greatly respected this egalitarian balance between the desire to perform unaltered masterpieces in their original languages with a willingness to use modern technology to enhance the viewers' understanding and appreciation of the performances.
Photos of the opera house:
After the un-airconditioned opera house (modern AC is thought to be bad for the singers' voices), I continued the rest of the walking tour...and by the time it was done I needed yet another shower. The forecast for the day had been a high of 88 degrees, but when I checked my iPhone, the temperature was already at 93, and the city was sweltering. By 3pm, I went back to my hostel...it was just too hot to be on the streets any longer. The temperature was now 95 degrees, and although I was enjoying Vienna, there was no way I was going back out there. I spent the evening hanging out in the hostel common room, which was also unairconditioned, but at least I didn't have to move. I watched the USA women's soccer team's victory over France with a group of very enthusiastic Canadians. When the Canadians were asked why they were cheering for the USA, their response was that they were "rooting for North America." Interesting rationale...but I appreciated that I wasn't the only one clapping for the USA and not the French underdogs. After watching part of the Sweden versus Japan semi-final, I retired to a very hot 6-bed dorm.
The forecast for the next couple days is far cooler...so more of Vienna is to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment