A Viennese Experience

Last weekend I had the chance to go to Vienna, the Austrian Capital.

I visited the city center by foot, admiring the exceptional architecture of the city in a peaceful and sunny day. Then I joined a guided tour of the Opera (for those of you who know me, this is totally the thing I had to do!). This Opera is pretty young, only 147 years old and at the time of the construction, 2 architects were hired by the Empereur Franz Joseph to build it (August Sicard von Sicardsburg, and the inside was designed by interior decorator Eduard van der Nüll). When they completed the edifice, critics and nobles were badly disappointed about the outside structure and the building in general: it looked less beautiful than the house across the street or it looks like a train station. Those negative opinions were so terrible that one of the architect ended his life before the inauguration! the second unfortunately passed away before the big day too, from a stroke. On the inauguration day, when noblesse could finally enter the edifice, people were astonished by the beauty of decors and the acoustic of the opera itself. It was a success! Sadly the Opera was mostly destroyed during the wars and an identical reconstruction of all rooms was not possible. Therefore some rooms have design from the 17^th century and some from the 19^th. The auditorium was rebuild as identical and can contains 3000 people.

All of these leads me to give the BEST TIP EVER!

Almost every evening a show is performed (opera or ballet) and of course you can buy your tickets months in advance (from 20 to 200euros) or you can come 90 minutes before the beginning and get standing tickets for the parter, gallery or balcony for the little amount of 4 euros!

This is an incredible opportunity to admire the philharmonic of Vienna performing the greatest operas of our history.

Choose your evening carefully ! Wagner’s opera last for 4hours at least and you have to stand all the time. I chose a Bethoveen opera: Fidelio.

Next morning, we went to see the morning exercices of the Spanish Riding School. It is the best horse ridding school worldwide! The practice gives a glimse of the capacities of those beautiful horses and their riders.

Then came the key event of the weekend: The Ball.

My Canadian friend was a debutant at the Ball der Offiziere 2016 in Hofburg palace (the edifice contains more than 30 rooms and this Ball can host 3000 persons). She invited me to come see her and attend a viennese ball: Ball der Offiziere.

The experience is unique, that is the least I can say. Dress code: princess for women and uniform or somking for men. It is amazing the beauty of the attire of each and every person entering the red carpet stairs, it seems like a dream at the beginning.

After performances of various artists such as violinist, ballet dancers, singers, the debutantes (in white) and their partners opened the Ball by a Waltz prepared for 4 months. No need to say how proud I was of my friend.

The rest of the night was dedicated to waltz, wine or champagne and interesting discussions with people from all over the world.

We spent the Saturday shopping in one of the pedestrian shopping street, where we made a stop into Sacher Imperial hostel for a piece of the famous imperial cake: Sacher torte.

In addition, we went to visit the museum of Modern Art: the Momuk.

Momuk – Vienna

After this trip, I am happy to say that I can cross some items from my bucket list!

I would gladly visit Vienna again for more amazing experiences.

Special thanks to Megan for making all this possible, I truly hope that you will remember your trip to Poland as well as I will remember my trip to Vienna!