- Buy train tickets
- Visit Cental Cemetary
- Visit Shonneburn Castle
- Get hair cut
- Eat Weiner Schnitzle
So this is how my day went................
Left the hostel at 10:30 after hanging around to listen to the young man from Nova Scotia play guitar.....it was practically like having Johnny Cash in the room with you. How could I miss that? He was awesome. I then walked to the salons I had seen to see if I could get my hair cut, as my bangs were growing towards my nose in an unsightful manner. These salons were all CLOSED.....so not only does everything close on Sundays, but Mondays TOO! Argh.
Decided to buy train tickets to Prague. Another hour of walking around trying to find the ticket booth in a train station that is under a major renovation. Almost gave up on that exercise, but found the entrance to the station just in the nick of time, so I got to cross that off my "to do" list.
Decided to head to the outskirts of town to Shonneburn Castle. Took the wrong subway. Turned around and headed the other direction on the correct subway line. Got to the castle and was thrilled to not have to pay an entrance fee (cost saving highlight to date). I wandered around the beautiful grounds of the castle park taking pictures and enjoying the fall day outside the concrete city. I ran into a couple guys from the hostel I knew and we ended up walking around the rest of the park together talking and laughing. We sat on a bench in the sun, soaking up the warmth like the 70 year olds on the neighboring benches. It was glorious and the time slipped away.
I headed back to meet up with Molly. Found a place to cut my hair (yes!) but never made it to the cemetary and never got to eat Weiner Schnitzle. I love my haircut by the way.....I designed it myself on a piece of scratch paper since I feared I wouldn't be able to communicate with the hairdresser. She was great though, understood what I was looking for and did a wonderful job....I told her I would come back next time I was in Vienna...............I wonder how long my hair might be by then?
A couple other things on my "list" before leaving Vienna were seeing an Opera and eating Sacher Torte at the Hotel Sacher. With one night left, I got a last minute ticket to see Lady Macbeth at the Vienna Opera House for 3 euro. This bargain exceeded any cost savings highlights to date. I had heard about the last minute opportunity in the hostel conversations and sure enough, for 3 euro, you could stand in the back and hear and see (most of) the performance complete with a reader screen converting the Russian opera into English. This was kind of like going to a play with subtitles................my first Opera, really. And I stayed the full 3 and a half hours, standing to find out how the story ended. Tragic. Of course. Do Opera's ever finish happy?
I was too tired for Sacher Torte, so that will remain on "the list" for my next trip to Vienna, when I will surely get my haircut again too. Remember Billy Joel? "Vienna waits for me................"
