Day 14: Vienna

Early morning, we were already on our way to catch a glimpse of Vienna's famous choir, the Vienna Boys Choir. The choir is available everyday, but tickets are usually snapped up long long time before. Because it's so popular, tv sets are mounted outside the concert room for viewing. The concert room is kept open, so the people outside can still hear the original voice. We reached there just in time to catch the last few minutes. It didn't really impress me, maybe because I was not concentrating. It was difficult to enjoy the music with a small room packed with people standing next to each other. There was a myth saying that the boys were castrated to make them sing higher notes. Poor boys, I hope it is not true!!

Jewish monument










This sculpture shows the darkest side of Vienna's history. When Nazi took over Austria, a lot of Jews were prosecuted and as the sculpture shown, many of them who were previously professionals like doctors, lecturers, the rich and famous had to brush and clean the streets, and was jeered by the soldiers. The Jews were later sent to concentration camps, and many of them didn't survive for more than three months.

Staatsoper


Vienna Opera House

Mozart statue




A park near the palace



Peterskirche
We found a little gem near the shopping district. It was a small church which was not mentioned in the guide books. The church facade looked modest, no elaborate engravings on it. But, it was amazing inside. Because it was not well-known, there was not much visitors which made it very peaceful and I could slowly enjoy the view.






The ceiling


A skeleton under the altar

Voltivkirche



Burgtheater


One of the most important theatre of German language

Rathaus


This city hall is just opposite Burgtheater. They are facing each other.


Natural history museum and art history museum have exactly the same architecture.


Art history museum


Maria Theresa, she was the Empress of Austria.

Next, we visited a schnapps museum. Schnapps is similar to liquor, but it's actually not the same thing. The differences lied on how it was made. I'm not sure on the technical details too, so no further explanation. :)

Over there, we tried out different kinds of liquor. I tried the Bailey's Irish Cream alike, they had it in strawberry, caramel, and mocha. I loved these most because they were sweet. Then there were those that tasted very bitter, the owner said it was very good to cure any illnesses that we had ;) The last one I tried was called Absinth, the liquid was in green colour with 60% alcohol. I just took a sip, oh man.. I could feel my lips burning. The owner said that I should take it all in one gulp, it was very very potent...

Guess what, most people in my group bought Absinth, they were really good drinkers...

Day 15 >>