Month: June 2018

June 21-22

After a long bus ride from Tallinn, we arrived in St. Petersburg! World Cup!!!

Super low rise boats:

We got settled in, went grocery shopping and Michael cooked dinner while we waited for some friends to arrive to the Airbnb. We were being joined by Jacob, a friend from Chicago, and his college buddy, Andy, who lives in NY.

It was pretty late by the time Andy and Jacob arrived, so we had dinner, caught up and then went to bed. Wild and crazy times in Mother Russia!!

The next morning, Michael and I grabbed some runs before heading to our first of two World Cup games – Brazil verses Costa Rica!

The city was decked out in soccer decorations.

But the real show was the fans:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/img_0999.mov

The energy in the stadium was amazing! Everyone was just super excited to be there… including us!

The game was great. We were in a section that was pretty heavy Brazil, but there were some Ticos as well. It was a long and super stressful game. We were rooting for Brazil and were hoping to see Neymar score a goal. It was a long, scoreless game. Finally, Brazil scored a goal in the first minute of stoppage time, by Philippe Coutinho. Then Brazil got another goal in the seventh minute of stoppage – this goal was by Neymar in a penalty shot. We were jacked about it – despite the fact that everyone who saw it on television said it shouldn’t have been a penalty. From where we were sitting, you couldn’t really tell, so we were just excited for the Neymar goal.

After the game finished, as we went to leave the stadium, a strange thing happened. I think they were worried about crowd control, so they didn’t let us out of our seats for 10 minutes. This guy’s job was to block us in until his timer on his phone ran down. It was very strange.

That night, we met back up with Andy and Jacob who didn’t have tickets to the game, and hit the town. We went to a couple of bars before ending up at Poison – a karaoke bar. Awesome.

The bar was filled with Russians (no tourists except for us) but the songs were exclusively in English.

Some of the better performances? A woman who sang The Phantom of the Opera and this guy:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/img_2862.trim_.mov

Some of the lesser appreciated performances? Jacob singing Kid Rock “I’m a Cowboy” and my rendition of Mercedes Benz. It was such a hit in Kraków… not so much here.

So here’s the thing about Russia. At 3 in the morning, it’s still light outside. So when we walked out, it could have been 9:30 or 10 at night. It wasn’t. The energy was still good in the city – lots of people out and about. But it was way past our bedtime. Amazing night, but time for bed!

June 20

Another bus, another Eastern European country. This time we landed in Estonia – our last stop before the World Cup!!

For the past few months, we’ve had a handful of people tell us that Estonia has great craft beer. That’s not really something that we’re interested in, but when in Rome…

Once we got settled in, we headed out for dinner at a place that served local cuisine. It was delicious and beautifully displayed. I had some sort of fish dish that was one of the better things I’ve eaten in recent months.

Michael had braised elk which was also good, but not as good as what I had going on.

The real gem of the meal, though was this cider.

Actual the real gem may have been our waitress. She was great. She talked through everything we were ordering and gave great recommendations. Plus when I ordered the cider, she was excited about it and when she brought it back for me, she gave me the story that accompanies it.

Apparently, its a small, local producer who uses 50% apples from Estonia and 50% from Latvia. This is why the cider is called Ieva. Ieva is the name of the former First Lady of Estonia (until October of 2016). But she’s from Latvia. Hence her being the perfect mascot for a cider that is made of apples from both countries.

When you see the back of the label, you can see she’s holding a bow tie. Her husband is famous for wearing bow ties.

Seriously – how great is our waitress, whose name is apparently Hedvig!

After dinner we climbed some stairs to get a better view of the city.

What about this view! The big church in the back with the black and green roof is St. Olaf’s church. They like warm hugs and summer in there.

Also – how much do I love this?

So much! Which is why I had to pull out my camera to capture it. 😏

Another beautiful Old Town:

The above is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, an orthodox cathedral. How incredible is that?

Other than wandering around and exploring, we found a place to watch some football.

Pretty cool setup, don’t you think?

We’ve done a super fast tour of a bunch of Eastern European countries, but now it’s time to get to St. Petersburg, hang out for a week and see some live games!

June 17-19

The next stop on our whirlwind bus tour of Eastern Europe was Latvia. We were dropped off in Riga, Latvia’s capital. After spending twenty minutes walking around in a circle (just a bit turned around), we got ourselves to the train station and jumped on the next train out of town to Jūrmala. Boom! Train schedule in English!

Jūrmala is a beach town about 15 miles outside of the city. When researching this country, one of the constant recs I found online was to visit this town.

After our 30 or so minute train ride, we checked into our Airbnb. I was pumped about it.

Two reasons that I was pumped – the fact that it was a tiny house and the fact that it had a grill.

So we dropped our bags and went to the grocery store. It was time to do some grilling.

The grocery options left something to be desired, but we made do. And by that I mean Mike made do. Grilled chicken and Pringles!

After our epic grill session, we headed towards the beach to see what we were working with. On the way, we walked through town. It was a super cute beach town… of which we don’t have a single picture. It’s not clear to me how that is possible, but it’s disappointing.

The beach was also really cool. It had a lot of activities – big bouncy house for kids and basketball nets and soccer nets. But the coolest section had some child size excavators that kids could use to dig sand and move it around. It was awesome. A great family beach. Once again, not a single picture. What the heck.

We had a couple days here, and we are pretty tired from moving around so much, so mostly we just had recovery time. You can tell we’re tired by our lack of photos. We watched some tv, hung out on the beach, enjoyed town and walked around. Our only beach shots were from late in the afternoon on our second day when it was pretty cloudy.

We did get some runs in. The sand was pretty packed in down by the water which made it perfect for running. See how happy I am that my run is over?

The beach town did have its share of tourists. And with those tourists come the ridiculous photo shoots. Michael went for a run on the beach. Before leaving, two women were standing by a post taking posed photos of each other. He ran a 10k. It took him about 53 minutes. When he returned, they were still there!

So that was basically it. We really loved this town and I’m disappointed we don’t have any photos since it was such a beautiful town. To prove how beautiful this town was, and to give it the credit it is due, I took these pictures from the internet to show you.

See? I told you.

June 16

So after a tougher time in Minsk, we were pumped to arrive in Vilnius. Michael called Vilnius a better city. I would agree, but really it was just worlds more Western than Minsk. Everyone spoke English, signs were in English and you would have thought it was a college town with all the bars and restaurants on each street.

Note – it is technically a college town since there is a university that we had to walk through to get to the center of town. But it is also the capital of the country so nothing we should be calling simply a college town.

The streets were cutesy and they had bands playing in the center square.

We liked the town a lot, but really all we did for those 24 hours was wander around and watch World Cup games. The real star to this city is not the people or the streets or the sights. It is this gem right here:

An Ode to the Comfort Hotel:

When Michael told me we were staying at the Comfort Hotel, I thought nothing of it. As we wandered up to this place, both of us looked at each other and laughed a bit. It was a Comfort Inn! A little something to make us feel at home.

Now, this was no ordinary Comfort Inn. It is the Vilnius Rock ‘n Roll Comfort Hotel. And this place was awesome. The reception was called “barception” and you could get a beer while checking in. Now that may seem hokey, but there was a line of people waiting for beers and the restaurant area was packed with people hanging out at the Comfort Hotel.

The barception was not what made the hotel awesome, though. It was the signage.

And that was just the start.

Get it? Who tall are you?

And the signs in the room were just as good.

This sign was especially relevant as I spent the majority of my shower disproving it by singing MU330, “Hoosier Love” quietly, after seeing a post about it on facebook.

The signage in the dining room was just as great

So that’s about it for Lithuania. It was easy, fast and really enjoyable… but a good portion of this enjoyment was due to our awesome hotel.

June 15

So… Belarus…

We wanted to go through a few Baltic countries on our way to St. Petersburg where we’ll be watching some World Cup next week. Belarus is apparently not a Baltic country because it’s not on the Baltic Sea and not an Eastern Bloc country because it wasn’t in the Warsaw Pact. Thank you Google for all of the enlightenment. It was kind of on the way and people from the US don’t need a visa as long as they’re there less than 5 days… or so we thought.

When we tried to board the bus from Kraków to Minsk, the bus driver was none too pleased with us. He was certain we couldn’t cross the border. I was pretty certain we could. But then our random new friend showed up. He spoke English as well as Russian while our driver only spoke Russian. Apparently you can only fly into Belarus, you cannot take a bus, if you are from the US. A little googling found a random travel blog that confirmed this. Crapola. But then second new random friend came over and told us that if we are going to the World Cup (we are) and have our fanIDs (we do) that we can maybe get in at a roadway border crossing. The rules were a little bit vague and the English wasn’t the most clear on the website. So we were heading towards a border crossing with no clue if we were going to be allowed in or not. Cool.

We got to the border and Poland had no issue letting us go. But then we drove the mile down to the Belarus side and things were less easy. Apparently, friend #2 was right about us being able to cross with the fanID. Great! But then they asked to see our medical insurance. No problem. I knew that this was a requirement and I had all the paperwork pulled up on my phone. Unfortunately they wanted to see a paper copy… which we don’t have. And viewing on my screen was completely unacceptable. Several phone calls had to be made and finally a higher up was brought on scene. Keep in mind that we’re in the middle of a 15 hour overnight bus ride. So we’re doing all of this at about 1am. The higher up reviewed my phone insurance, deemed it acceptable and we moved on to the next step – baggage. Two border control agents were having people open their bags and were using a drug sniffing dog. By the time Michael and I got up there, the one guy asked where we were from, shook his head and just told us to leave. That was easier than I was expecting. Apparently they wanted nothing to do with us and our overstuffed backpacks.

The rest of the bus ride was uneventful. We arrived a little before 9am and took our bags to the hotel to store while we explored the city.

That’s right. Our hotel was next to Casino Royal.

We spent the morning and early afternoon checking out the sights. To be honest, there wasn’t a ton going on in town. We started at Independence Square which had a statue of Lenin and some government buildings.

Then we saw the Church of Sts. Simon and Helen. It was being renovated. This church, like every church in Minsk has a history of getting passed around a bit. Built in 1905, the Catholic Church was robbed by the Red Army in 1932 and closed down by Soviet authorities at which point it became a theater. Then during the German occupation, it became a church again, but after the war, it went back to being a cinema. In 1990, the building was returned to the Catholic Church at which point it was renovated and turned back into a church.

It started raining pretty hard, so we popped into this coffee shop. I took the picture the next morning which is why it doesn’t look too rainy.

Since it refused to stop raining and I left our umbrella in the karaoke/trivia bar in Kraków, we grabbed an Uber to the other side of town for lunch.

This was the recommended local dish. It was pork of some sorts on a skewer with potato pancakes and, of course, fireworks. I was surprised to say the least.

After lunch it had stopped raining, so we got to walk around and see some more sights.

City Hall:

Cathedral of Saint Virgin Mary which I thought was a strange name.

The door was open, so we popped our heads in. Whoops – that’s a wedding going on.

Cathedral of the Holy Spirit:

The below is the Palace of the Republic. It makes me think of a sad 1970’s government building, but apparently this is where lots of social and political events take place with presentations, exhibitions, and concerts open to the public.

Cathedral fo St. Apostles Peter and Paul:

So that was basically it for sights. A ton of churches and a ton of government buildings.

We didn’t spend much time in Minsk, which I’m mostly fine with. The city didn’t seem to have much going on and with no signage in English, it was a bit hard to move around. Thank God for Google maps and Google translate.

The next morning we headed off to the bus station.

There was a bit of panic when I saw the above.

Don’t worry – this is our bus heading to Vilnius, Lithuania. Obvious, isn’t it?

June 12-14

After our brief visit to Slovakia and another few hours on the bus, we arrived in Krakow, Poland. There are some cities that when we visit, within just a few minutes of being there, we know we’re going to like it. That’s what happened when we arrived in Krakow. The walk to our hotel was through a tunnel that could have been shady, but it chose not to be. Then once we got out of the tunnel, we happened upon a food truck park. Perfect! So we got checked in, dropped off our bags and hurried back to the food trucks. It was already 9pm and we didn’t want to miss it.

We got there with just an hour left on the night and it was awesome. We had Georgian street food for dinner. This was the place… just envision it being open and that’s what it looked like.

We asked the guys at the truck if they were from Georgia (country not state). Nope. I don’t know why we assumed those guys were from Georgia but assumed the people at the Cuban place were not from Cuba (or Miami). Similarly, the West Palm Beach food truck people (I think burgers or something) were definitely not from California.

We also grabbed a few beers from the beer truck…

…and then relaxed in some beach chairs for a bit. This is what Georgian street food looks like. It was delicious.

The next morning we wandered around Old Town. We saw some more of the same that we’ve been seeing the past couple of weeks in European cities: government buildings, Churches, museums.

But the thing that is really neat about Kraków is that there a park that runs around the Old Town – just a small strip of park all the way around it in a circle.

That night, we had dinner at Pod Aniolami which translates to Under the Angels. The restaurant is cool because it sits on Gothic cellars.

This is also where we got our first pierogi from Poland. They were significantly better than the ones we ate at the pierogi festival in Chicago. Just found out that pierogi is the plural form. Singular is pieróg. The more you know.

Mmmmmm meat on fire…

After dinner we hurried over to a bar called Cocktails and Songs. I had read online that they were doing trivia. When we got there, we were assigned to a team with a guy from Northern Ireland and a guy from some other country. Now normally I would say that if I don’t remember where they are from. But I’m not sure that he knows where he is from. One of the first trivia questions was about New Zealand and he said “I’m from there”. But then he said he was Croatian. Then later in the evening, it was Australia. I guess it’s complicated?

What I do know is that we killed it. It was truly a joint effort but our team creamed the competition. This is the first time I’ve ever been on a winning trivia team in my life. Plus, it was mostly locals in the room who play every week. Even our two teammates were locals, kinda. Again, it’s complicated.

After trivia, the bar did karaoke. Who am I to complain? I had been wanting to go to karaoke for a few weeks now.

Michael and I sang The Beatles, “We Can Work it Out” and then I sang Todo, “Africa”, and Janis Joplin, “Mercedes Benz”. To be fair, Michael did join me for just a second on Todo. Also, apparently people love Janis because it was a hit.

These are our two teammates doing karaoke.

Here is the girl who liked us because we have straight teeth.

We had a lot of fun.

It did, however, make runs the next morning really, really, really hard. But with an overnight bus ahead of us, it was necessary to get moving!

For our last day in Kraków, we headed a bit out of town to see Schindler’s factory. Most of you should know Oskar Schindler from the Spielberg movie, Schindler’s List. Well, we got to see his factory. They have turned it into a museum that shows what Kraków was like under Nazi occupation from 1939-1945.

After having seen a lot about Nazi occupations and concentration camps lately, we were both hoping it would talk more about Schindler, himself. But you take what you can get.

I haven’t seen the movie in years, so we needed a bit of a refresher on the specifics of Oskar Schindler. He was a German industrialist and member of the Nazi party who is credited with saving the lives of 1200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamel factory. They made pots and then covered them in enamel.

Also, they expanded to make ammunitions during the war. Originally, Schindler was a war opportunist, but when he saw the atrocities occurring he began to bribe German officers to keep his employees from being sent to concentration camps. In 1942 the Kraków Ghetto was emptied. All Jews were sent to a nearby concentration camp. One such Jew, Mietek Pemper, worked in the office of the head of that concentration camp. He reached out to Schindler with information regarding the fact that the Germans were going to close down his factory. Pemper knew this because he had access to all German communications that came through his boss’s office. This closure meant that Schindler’s workers would be sent to Auschwitz. So Schindler changed from making enamelware to anti-tank grenades.

Pemper helped develop the famous “Schindler’s List” to save as many Jewish workers as possible. He compiled and typed the list of over 1,000 Jewish inmates deemed “decisive for the Nazi war effort”. Those on the list, including Pemper himself, were transferred to Schindler’s new grenade factory located in Czechoslovakia in October 1944 and were ultimately saved from Auschwitz.

After the war Schindler was completely bankrupt from all the bribes he had to pay to save these people. He was buried in Jerusalem on Mount Zion.

Schindler’s desk:

It was a really nice way to end our time in Kraków. Hopefully we will be back to this city. It is a really cool city.

June 12

On our bus ride from Budapest to Krakow, we drove through the entire country of Slovakia, for a few hours, from South to North.

Views from the window of this beautiful country that we don’t have time to stop and enjoy:

A local beer from our stop:

Us enjoying all Slovakia has to offer!!! (At least all it has to offer considering we only had our feet on the ground for ten minutes).

June 10-11

So did you know that Budapest is actually made up of two cities? Buda and Pest which lie on either side of the Danube? Maybe this is common knowledge, but I had no clue until we got there. Michael definitely knew. We got into Budapest (on the Pest side), accidentally rode the bus for free (but didn’t get caught!), and checked into our Airbnb on the Pest side of town.

Buda:

Pest:

We walked over to the Buda side of town to check out the Royal Palace. This had been the home to royalty of Hungary since roughly 1247 until German occupation of the city during WWII when they forced the royal family out (but apparently at that point the royal family wasn’t ruling anyways – they were just royal and living in the castle). Post occupation, the castle underwent a lot of reconstruction and is now a cultural center/library/museum/etc and a place for state events.

Some great views…

Plus we got to see this changing of the guard:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/img_2723.trim_.mov

Next, off to Matthias Church which is not actually named that. It’s called Church of Our Lady, but everyone calls it Matthias Church after King Matthias who added some value somewhere when it was being built. This Church was the site for royal events like the coronation of Charles IV in 1916. It was converted into a mosque during the Turkish occupation of Hungary and then was reclaimed as a church in 1686.

This is Fisherman’s Bastion, which is right next to Matthias Church.

The fishermen’s guild was given the responsibility of protecting the walls of the city in this area, so they built this structure in 1895. There are seven towers which symbolize the seven tents of the leaders that first lead the Hungarian people to their home at the end of the 9th century.

So those were the official things we saw, but mostly we just relaxed. It was super hot and humid and we were exhausted from having guests the past couple of weeks. So we took advantage of our air conditioned airbnb and the city to catch up on sleep, watch some John Oliver and Westworld, replace my nonverse sneakers with legit converses and get a few runs in. Oh and I finally got my hair fixed… by someone that was not Michael. So it was a great few days.

Oh and we found a place serving tacos and chilaquiles!

Oh and for those of you who are wondering what the subject of this post is all about… I’ve been found out. Michael just called me out on singing the wrong first line of this song, which I love, for years.

https://youtu.be/VHrLPs3_1Fs

Apparently it’s my house in Budapest, not miles from… it makes a lot more sense now.

May 30 update

We just got our photos from meeting Ben Folds.

Excited much, Jane?

June 8-9

We left Prague and took a train to Vienna. Once again we struggled to get seats on the train. Once again Michael spent a portion of the ride sitting on the floor. We have to figure out this whole 2nd class ticket thing because we are doing it wrong. If anyone knows what “last time res” means, I’d love to know.

We arrived late to town and went to sleep as soon as we arrived to our Airbnb.

The next morning we woke up ready for another marathon day of exploring the city. After breakfast at the cafe next to our apartment and a load of laundry, we headed out. We started in Museum Quartier which is home to a variety of art installations, large art museums, small museums, festivals and a center for dance. Knowing that we didn’t have nearly enough time to tackle anything of that size, we just walked through and looked around the area. I was hoping to find the sculpture garden exhibit, but the google machine wasn’t giving enough information to make that happen.

So instead, we wandered over to Volksgarten, or the people’s park. After struggling to find roses in the Queen’s gardens in the UK, we found them here.

.

This is a famous temple, called Theseus, that is a replica of a Greek temple.

Water lillies and irises… two of my favorites:

Next we saw the Neue Hofburg which is the addition to the Hofburg Imperial Palace.

The Rathaus. Yes it’s called the Rathaus. It is the local government building. I don’t know what the translation is, but it doesn’t sound great. I assume it doesn’t translate to Rat House, but maybe it does.

The next park on our list was Burggarten which was originally a garden for the Hofburg Palace. There are several statues on the grounds, but the Mozart statue is the most famous. And it is really cool.

There is also this Hercules statue in a fountain, but there is an awkward tree and fencing that makes it really hard to see.

And these ducks that Michael made us stop to take a picture of. Ducks.

Our next stop was the Vienna State Opera House. It is very famous and very beautiful.

We got into the lobby but weren’t allowed any further because they had a show playing. We thought about getting tickets for the evening but it a ballet and we thought it more appropriate to see an opera or something while in Vienna instead of ballet. So we passed on that, but Lady Mozart talked us into seeing some live music later that night. It was a chamber orchestra that played Mozart highlights and some other major pieces. More about that later.

We made it to Petersplatz when we got a message to our Geppetto Noisewater WhatsApp group from Ken. It was an article informing us that Anthony Bourdain had committed suicide.

For those of you who don’t know, Bourdain was a chef who traveled around the world, eating food and experiencing other cultures. We watched him on several shows, but most recently on Parts Unknown on CNN. He originally became famous for an article he wrote to The New Yorker about what life is really like in a restaurant kitchen, followed by a book Kitchen Confidential.

Anthony Bourdain traveled the way we wish we traveled or the way we hope to travel. He went to distant countries that most people would never want to visit and he spent time getting to know people through their food. It wasn’t what he ate or where he went that was so inspiring. It was his attitude about life and inclusion of other cultures that was very moving. He was constantly looking for genuine human connection. He didn’t need fancy food and he didn’t operate in a normal comfort zone. He seemed equally comfortable at a plastic table with a cold beer and some street food as he did in a Michelin starred restaurant. That said, he was no saint. He was snarky and sarcastic in a really wonderful way that made him incredibly entertaining.

But his words describe him better than any of mine could:

“If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food. It’s a plus for everybody.”

“Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don’t have.”

“Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.”

“As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life – and travel – leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks – on your body or on your heart – are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.”

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s ok. The journey changes you; it should change you. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”

And my favorite as Michael and I have a few unplanned weeks ahead:

“When dealing with complex transportation issues, the best thing to do is pull up with a cold beer and let somebody else figure it out.”

Hearing about his death was heartbreaking for us. We stood next to random building for a few minutes trying to get any information we could about it. When we finally started walking again, we realized we were just a few steps from Peterskirche, or St. Peter’s Church. There has been a church on this site since 4th Century A.D.

When we entered, we were lucky to have someone playing the organ – classical music, Motzart or something. It didn’t fix us. Michael and I were going to be sad for much of this day and for parts of upcoming days. But it helped. We may not be doing it as well as Bourdain, but he is definitely an inspiration to try as hard as we can to make the most of this time we have traveling.

After St. Peter’s, we walked a few more blocks to the food festival that was set up in a square. It was pretty empty, but we grabbed some sausages and drinks. Sarah and I had some type of spritzer after a woman encouraged us to “try something you’ve never had before”. How could we say no?

Although the food festival was pretty empty, there was a tent there with a small orchestra that was practicing. We popped in for a few minutes. They were great, but then, out of nowhere, a random woman from the only table with people stood up and started singing along. Apparently she’s part of the performance, but it was amazing the way she just came out of nowhere, belting it out.

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/img_0741.mov

After this, we popped into a wine bar called Wine Tray to try out some Austrian wines. They were delicious plus we got the chance to have some good conversation with “locals”. I put that in quotes because the owner is originally from Hungary and his wife is originally from Romania but they’ve been living here for the past couple of years, which means that they speak English to each other and to their super cute little girl, Sophie, who was also hanging out with us.

I’m measuring my hand with a tape measure. She’s not that impressed.

The feeling we got is that the man liked speaking about wine while his wife liked speaking about anything else. I asked her about maternity leave in Austria. She’s in finance and got one year, but apparently people are offered up to three years paid maternity leave. She was adamantly against three years. She thought one was the right amount to have off and that anything more than that removed the incentive for people to go back to work. I asked if she thought being away for a full year had a negative impact on her career and she said a fast and hard no. She said that things are very different from the United States. In the US, everyone thinks they have to be there all the time or they will get left behind, which is why people don’t disconnect (agree). But, when I pressed just a little bit further, she admitted that women aren’t in higher level positions for the most part, so being away has no affect on them. She then shifted into talking about how hard it is for a woman to get ahead in Austria and how wrong that is. Alright… so… maybe it does have an effect on their careers? Maybe?

After a few glasses of wine, we took naps back at the Airbnb and then headed off to our concert.

Here’s a cool clock we saw:

A picture inside the Wiener Musikverein:

The concert hall was just beautiful, but no pictures allowed of the musicians, so you’ll have to use your imagination. Everyone was dressed like Mozart – different colored coats, short pants and stockings. Plus everyone wore a white wig. Imagine this guy holding a violin:

The program was composed mostly of pieces from Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro. We heard Magic Flute, Eine Klein Nachtmusik, Rondo alla Turca, among others, with the night ending on the Danube Waltz by Strauss. It was a great show with quite a few of the pieces being accompanied by two opera singers that really just nailed it. My favorite was from Don Giovanni. Michael isn’t sure what specific part of Don Giovanni. So I don’t know how to narrow that down without singing it for you… Much of the night was spent with Michael telling me the names of pieces as they came up and then saying, “you have heard this one, right??” Shout out to Michael’s father who I’m pretty sure is the reason that Michael knows the names of so many classical pieces. A part of me loves it about him and a part of me is annoyed by it.

That last piece reminded Michael of something important: We hadn’t seen the Danube yet!! Michael and I were off to Budapest the next day, so it didn’t matter that much for us, but Sarah needed to see it! So we wandered over.

You can see in this second picture some food stalls on the left bank and a boat that housed a bar/night club. We did grab burgers at the food stalls and had a drink, but couldn’t bring ourselves to go to the club, despite the fact they were playing Pony by Ginuwine. See… I know music too…

Vienna was a beautiful city and a great end to our time with Sarah. She was an easy and fun travel partner and is off on the next leg of her journey with 10 days in Italy while we’re off to Budapest!