Wien, before and after sunrises

Preface: I am a huge fan of both classical music and the movie Before Sunrise. Thus I was already very predisposed to liking Vienna before verifying that I actually did. Which I definitely did.

The Opera House, which was unfortunately closed for all of July and August. But if you go about 90 minutes before shows when it's open, you can get standing tickets for only a few euro!

There are a lot of sprawling open spaces punctuated by statues or carpeted in lush gardens, but there are also long streets lined with shops and restaurants, a bit wide and not so crowded. Windows that are consistently grand, always orderly and ornamental. The rush of wind before the subway arrives, the personality of each station, watching people watch people from across fountains at Museumsquartier, thousands out at Karlsplatz to hear some free Viennese pop (Effi!). Red trams dinging for you to get out of their way and ornate hotels named after famous musical names. The new and living amongst reminders of Vienna's grand past.

To anyone who likes music in any shape or form, I highly recommend going to Haus der Musik, a museum where you can learn not only about the famous composers that have made the city such a capital of the arts, but also about the phenomenon of sound itself - and in a very interactive way, involving singing into microphones that turn your voice into frogs and sticking your head into compartments that surround you with the sound of Beijing, Venice, or interstellar space.

Pictured to the left is a door to one of the dozens of apartments that Beethoven, who was apparently a horrible tenant, resided in during his time in Vienna. You can see all sorts of other stuff that makes me giddy with the happiness of being near things that belonged to famous people, like Strauss' baton and Mozart's first compositions.

Of course I had to walk around and find some of the landmarks that Jesse and Céline visited in Before Sunrise, a movie that was coincidentally perfect to watch right before leaving for Europe (it's very conductive to daydreaming about cinematically romantic situations on trains).

This cafe is from the night scene with the fortune teller, if that means anything to you.

Thus we ended our first day at the historic Prater amusement park. Though we didn't go on the red ferris wheel because it was ridiculously expensive, we did go on this lovely spinning swing thing for an unbeatable view of the city. I had my moment of thinking "you know, I could imagine myself living here - if only I spoke German" while way up in the sky. It's hard to say why, but it involves some combination of its musicality, tidiness, great public transportation, and my affinity (despite the lack of understanding of) for the German language.

This lovely experience was followed by smacking our faces into walls in a glass maze. Always a good end to any day.

Before catching the train on Sunday, we made it over to Schönbrunn Palace, just about 20 minutes away from Wien Westbanhof. It was the summer residence of the Hapsburg monarchs, who apparently needed a different palace for every season. There are miles of impressively well-kept gardens, which I now oddly associate with Garrison Keillor after catching up on episodes of A Prairie Home Companion while strolling through them. Definitely a strange pairing, imperial gardens and stories about small-town Minnesotan folks - but not a bad one.

And there, another magnificent view of the city.

There are some faraway places I've been that I get the sense I'll see again. Who knows when that next time'll be, but Vienna is one of them.