The first thing I did there, which was a little weird, was that I went to the torture museum. It was pretty cheesy. They had these terrible manikins set up with cheesy expressions on their faces. I had already heard about a lot of the devices that were there too since we talked about them in my class on medieval Europe. Here are some of the devices.
This one crushes your fingers
Anyways that's enough of that
More interesting is that no one seemed to have told Vienna that it is no longer Christmas. They still had a couple of ice rinks set up in front of their Rathaus, as well as a Christmas Market with food and Gluehwein. But that was fine with me. I hate a ton of Bratwurst sandwiches and crepes and watched people skate. They had a really cool part of the rink where it was like a track through the woods. I didn't take a picture of that though sorry. But here are the normal rinks.
One rink
Another rink infront of the Rathaus
At night
This place had a good atmosphere so I liked hanging around here.
The next day I went on over to the Austrian Military Museum. Same thing as in Belgium and France really. Everything from knights to WWII. It was still cool though. They had a few really important historical objects which I really enjoyed.
Terrible photo but this is the car that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in, which essentially started WWI
The bullet hole in the car that killed him
The clothes that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was wearing when assassinated, along with the couch that he was laid on. You probably can't see it in this photo, but you can see the hole of the bullet which killed him, and the clothes are covered in blood
That was the main highlight of this museum. The rest you could see at any other museum I think. But it was still cool to see.
What I never knew before was that Vienna was actually founded as an outpost for a Roman Legion a couple thousand years ago, and then it slowly turned into the city that we know today. So in the middle of Vienna is a museum dedicated to the Romans and the the Roman Legion's outpost in Vienna. It tells you all about life in the outpost and stuff like that. It was actually really cool. And in the basement is actually the foundation of a few building from the outpost, including the officers mess. So that was really cool and something that I was very interested to learn more about.
Roman Empire Era building foundations
More Roman Empire Era building foundations
More Roman Empire Era building foundations
After the Roman Museum I went to the Jewish Museum. This museum was mostly dedicated to the expulsion of Vienna's Jews from the city during the Holocaust, but as well as the general history of them. I also learned a lot about Kosher and how to cook Kosher and stuff like that, which I was interested to learn because I had not know much about it beforehand. There was actually a whole floor of the museum just dedicated to this subject.
Here is the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna
As you can see, the walls are made up of books, with their spines turned inwards, for some representative meaning, which I unfortunately cannot remember. Also you cannot go in the memorial or anything like that, I think the doors are just for show
The final thing I did was go to a show at the Vienna State Opera. Vienna is supposed to have the best Operas in the world so I said whatever I'll just go, knowing full well that I would hate it. I have so many questions about Operas. Why do they sing so slow? They must realize that their acting is terrible? Why is there a conductor? Surely the musicians are smart enough to play the songs without guidance from him? No one even pays attention to him. Also no one actually likes opera right? It's just another thing rich people do because they can?
Anyways. The Vienna State Opera has this thing where you can show up like 2 hours before and wait in line and buying standing room tickets for the back of the show for 4 euros. Great deal considering you have a fantastic view of the show, and the people seated 10 feet in front of you payed like 100 euros for their tickets. Chumps.
So I waited in line and got my ticket and got a great place to stand. The show that night was Don Carlos, which I had no idea what that was, and didn't really care. It was also in Italian, which means they translate it into English for you because that would be pointless if they didn't. But like I said, I hated it, and I left after the 2nd of 5 Acts because it was miserable, and went back to the Christmas Market and ice rinks.
The view from my standing spot
The balconies
The outside of the Vienna State Opera, which is also my favorite part of the Opera, because it looks nice and means that I am not inside watching the performance
So that was pretty much Vienna. Like I said, not really sure why I went there, and it wasn't really my favorite city, but hey I had nothing better to do, so whatever.
Next stop, Berlin
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