Today was a cool day - not jam-packed, but full to the brim. Unfortunately, I only took three pictures - each is in the museum, each is something gross, and each was taken with the express intent to freak out boyfriend. So clearly, priorities were a little off today, as far as pictures go.
In the morning, the four of us headed over to District 1 at the normal time.
While the others were in class, I worked on my blog and on my journals for class.
Some other music students and I decided to go to the Natural History museum, which we hadn't seen yet. Christina, Abigail and I walked over (in the chilly air) to check it out.
We enjoyed the small children waiting to go into the museum.
*Side note about fun Vienna - we see a lot of school trips, especially when going through subway stations and museums. Usually when the kids are little, like grade-school aged, they all either hold hands, walk in pairs, or all wear something that matches (purple hats, yellow vests, etc). It's always funny to see these groups, and always adorable, and the chaperones always look amused by their little entourages.*
The Natural History museum is 1. huge, and 2. awesome. Similar to the field museum in Chicago, there are lots of exhibits and lots to see. You could spend days in there, if you looked at everything with the attention it deserves. To give some perspective, Christina, Abigail and I were there for about 2 hours and saw one wing (of 4).
We first explored the exhibit with rocks from all over the world (and some from outside earth, but we'll get to that later). This museum has the biggest geological collection of samples in the European continent, so we were busy with that for a long time. Next, we wandered into the meteor exhibit - they have pieces of meteors that have landed all over the world, of all different sizes. We saw a piece of one meteor that came from a meteor weighing 47 kilos - over 100 pounds!
The next big thing (literally) were the prehistoric creatures. You got it, DINOSAURS.
Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine walking through exhibits at a similar pace as a group of students that look to be about 4-6 years old. Now imagine the looks on the faces of those kids when they walk into a giant room filled with giant dinosaur skeletons. Pretty pumped, right? Well, the three of us pretty much reacted the same way. Embarrassing, yes, but holy man, dinosaurs are awesome. There was an animatronic dinosaur there which, needless to say, was pretty great.
We also saw the exhibit with early forms of man, and some of the earliest human cultures. There was a ton of information, but the most interesting things to me were the life-size models created for the exhibit, artifacts and explanations from the times of their existence, and the introspective questions the English translations of the exhibit information offered. Example: "What is life, if man is not the center of it? What is man?"
So that was fun. We rode a streetcar 2 stops back to the institute, because it was cold. Then several of us met up to go get standing room tickets for a performance in the evening.
We scarfed down lunch, had class, etc.
After class, I booked it home so I could change and drop my backpack. The 40 minute trip there and back does not allow me room for error or delay, so I was moving fast. I grabbed some provisions from the Spar on the way home, made a travelling dinner for myself, and started back to the institute again 20 minutes later.
A group of us (Micah, Christina, Laurel, Rebekah, Abigail, Allison, Meredith and I) walked over together to attend the performance of one of Schubert's most famous art songs, "Winterreise." The piece is a collection of 22 individual songs, which are all part of the same story, but all different. The separate songs are sung as a series. Art songs, for those who don't know, are vocal pieces for a solo vocalist and pianist. Contrary to other vocal pieces, the pianist and the vocalist are essentially equal partners in art songs, especially those by Schubert.
The performance was incredible. We were in the standing room section, so that part was less fun, but the baritone soloist and pianist were magnificent. They were easy to watch, and it was easy to connect with both of them. The soloist sung all 22 songs straight through, with no break. That's really incredible- to sing for 90 minutes with no breaks other than the pauses between movements is something to be commended on its own, but to perform the piece with as much gravity and beauty as this man did is incredible too. Completely amazing. They got 6 curtain calls. We were very lucky to be in attendance.
I moved very quickly to public transportation after the performance, in attempts to catch a certain bus. I RAN from the station, jumped onto the bus, and ran into Rachel and Jared, with whom I got to ride all the way home. We packed for this weekend when we got home, and I enjoyed goofing around with my housemates.
To make up for my lack of pictures, please enjoy the stars of famous composers that they have outside the Musikverein.
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