Vienna Day 1

Im not counting yesterday because I didn´t arrive here until 4.45pm and really only booked into my hotel, went to the opera (or at least the second half of it because I had bought a ticket to the wrong performance of Don Giovanni! DOH! Kinda lucky though cos it really wasn´t very good...), went out for a drink and went to bed.

So anyway, today was my first day in Vienna. It is an amazing city. So much music. No pics yet (and a very brief blog entry because of the sticky internet-cafe keyboard... 1 finger typing... Hooray!!) but a few observations.

1. I have to admire a city where it is easier to find a classical CD store than a Pop one (though it´s a little dangerous for my budget)
2. In any other city if someone comes up to you with a clipboard, you are either being asked to donate to a charity or to do a mindless advertising survey. Here they are selling tickets to a classical music concert.
3. There really is a museum for every music thing possible. Today I went to the Wiener Staatsoper museum and the Theater Museum. Tomorrow I´m going to an ancient musical instruments museum... and it was so cool to look up my friend Jocelyn (Hickey) on the computer as an artist at the Wiener Staatsoper!
4. The Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) is amazing. Saw Rigoletto tonight with some of the most incredible singing I´ve ever heard (either live or on record). Unfortunately I had a set that prevented me from seeing much on the left side of the stage - and I think the director was blind in his right eye because everything happened on the left and I couldn´t see it - lucky the singing was good
5. Is there anything cooler than going to a Mass in the main Cathedral (which is cool on its own) and having an amazing performance of Mozart´s Requiem as part of the mass?? (and it was free!!!)
6. The only thing cooler might be the fact that it snowed today for the first time this year in Vienna - cooler in both the ´wow that´s cool´sense and in the `my god it´s cold´´sense

And yes, that was all just today. There´s probably more to write but the sticky-key internet cafe is closing.

Roll on Day 2!!!