Art, Butterflies, and Ballet

Author: Ale /

Last day in Vienna!
We really made the most of this day because we are both going to be sad to leave this place.
Today our first stop was Belvedere Palace.


It's an art museum now and home to some of my favorite pieces of art ever
I'm not really a fan of Gutav Klimt, but this is absolutely beautiful in person...all the gold is metallic- and call me romantic, but it's kinda sweet :)


This is Flaming June.
It glows- enough said.


Anyway... since I've already seen all that art I decided to let Meryl go though this one alone 
While she was in there I walked around and took pictures...just like I used to a few years ago



One of our assignments was to find a background and take pictures of whoever walks by...I didn't have a lot of time to wait for people, but this door was pretty amazing.



I spent a few minutes on the Graben (the main shopping street) to be a creeper and take pictures of the people I was watching






This is a Mozart man.
Basically there is a group of them that sit outside the Opera house and try to sell you tickets to everything.
They are really pushy and we kinda hate them...
even Meryl learned the value of avoiding them within hours of being here.


We had about 10 minutes of downpour and the loudest thunder I've ever heard and then sun again for our next stop at the Schmetterlinghaus  (butterfly house).


I'd forgotten how humid it is in there...and how hard it is to get pictures of these guys









On our way out we found this bug



and we stopped by the famous Sacher Hotel so Meryl could try the famous Sacher Torte.
It's s chocolate cake thing that isn't really cake-y and is kinda gross in my opinion, but Meryl wanted a true Vienna experience so it had to be done.


Next, we climbed to the top of the Stephansdom tower...my calves are going to be rock hard by the end of this trip


Last time I was up here is was blistering hot with about 90% humidity.
 We also dragged a ton of camera equipment to the top- I had a wide angle lens with me for pictures back then, but this time I just took my little point and shoot... Thankfully it was a bit cooler too.
 Even without a fancier camera and lenses it was still cool to see the city from up here.



This roof is amazing






Back down at the bottom we snapped a few more pictures before heading back to our hostel



Here comes a lot of rather girly pictures of us getting ready for the BALLET!
I've never gone to anything other than an opera in the Staatsoper so I was excited to get dressed up and go to something that might be a little more enjoyable 
And Meryl was ECSTATIC to say the least :) 



We got kinda excited to dress up and attend a ballet 


The final product...


Check out Meryl's new dress :)


We got 4 Euro standing room tickets with an amazing view


The ones right above us are the most expensive ones in the house- they cost 185 Euro!



Here we are standing with about a zillion other people crammed into that standing room area.
Standing for three hours wasn't exactly fun- but seeing those dancers was worth it!


Here we are awkwardly benching in the Opera house


During one of the two intermissions we went to one of the intermission rooms... it's harder to get people to take your picture at the opera so we resorted to mirrors again


The final bow...we couldn't take pictures during the rest of the performance
We saw Don Quixote and if I just saw the ballet, not knowing the story line, I wouldn't have the slightest idea what it was about.
Plot seems to be a fluid concept in ballet...and it moved slowly, at best...but the dancing was AMAZING!


Seriously some of the best I've ever seen- they had so much control and flexibility
and they were so graceful - I loved every minute of it!


The Opera house at night


And our last stop- Zanoni and Zanoni again.
You can't resist the stuff I swear.


Tomorrow we are off to the west side of Austria  :)
I'm going to miss Vienna- it really is my second home...
For now though I'm off to bed...I think my feet are swollen from all that standing and walking today!

Love,
Ale

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