Day 17: May 30th, A Day At The Castle, A Night At The Ballet

One of the biggest differences between Europe and the United States is an extreme lack of castles in the US. This is probably due to the fact the castle building had gone out of style by the time we were a country. So the only time to really see castles is when you visit Europe, and boy do they not disappoint. While we had been to many palaces over the last few days we had yet to go to a stereotypical medieval castle, so you can imagine my excitement when it was announced that we could be going to Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein is a very unique castle for due to various circumstances the castle had different sections that date from various time periods (some as early as the 12th century and as late as the 19th century). The area surrounding the castle is a forrest planted by one of the owners with many trails and ruins (it was romantic at the time to take a walk in the woods and come across a ruin). The castle itself was a incredible place to tour though. Our tour guide of course gave us a lot of information about the castle like how it can to be, who owned it, etc. but the most interesting part for me was trying to imagine how people actually lived there. After all many things were different than they are now. The whole castle was meant for just one lord and his family, so what did the rest of the people do? Where did they stay? Did they just work their entire lives or did other things happen? Wandering the halls may have gave me a better idea about how royalty lived, but it only raised more questions about how others lived. Something we learned about at the castle was that people slept sitting up due to superstition of the dead laying down, and while the Lord's bed looked quite big and comfortable, how did the servants and other staff mange? Today made me think a lot about assumptions. After all we assume people have slept like we did but really laying down is quite a recent fashion. There is so much we assume about our past and other people and its interesting to think about how much they affect our lives. I am not saying assumption are bad by many means, its just he way our brain works, assumptions are the quickest and most effective ways of thinking for our brain. We have to put real effort in if we want to look past assumptions, which is something I have been trying to work on this trip. To see beyond what I think of others at first, whether I ave been successful or not is the real question I guess. Back on topic though something else I really enjoyed about the castle was just how beautiful everything was inside and out. While the views may not have been the most impressive we have seen (peaks of mountains in the Alps is quite hard to beat) there was something beautifully tranquil about the views from the balconies. It was like I could sit there staring out at Vienna or the forest all day. As a whole I enjoyed Lichtenstein and everything it had to offer.

Later that day some people from the trip and I hurried to the Vienna State Opera House to buy standing room tickets to the ballet Giselle. We though we were quite lucky at first since there was no line outside the building yet, but we were quickly stopped by the Usher who said we were not allowed to enter the Opera in shorts. Just goes to show you you should always look into the dress code of buildings before you enter them. However we weren't going to let a pair of shorts stop us from experiencing the beauty of the ballet, so we ran to the shopping district a rushed to find some pants and a proper outfit for the State Opera House. It was in my mind at least a lot like Pretty Women were we went from drab outfits to very pretty ones. After we bought our new clothes we rushed to a bathroom to change and then got in line again. Now standing room is quite nice in theory a cheap ticket to see an experience, but in execution it quite painful to stand as long as you have to. You stand not only for the performance but to get the ticket, to stand in line to get a place, and then if there are not enough places on the rail you get to stand next to the rail with no support. As one would expect in a situation like this people were quite rude to each other in attempts to get a better spot or claim spots that weren't marked. Despite all the negativity I stayed positive and excited about the whole experience, I love and appreciate ballet after years of doing it myself so I was excited to see a world wide recognized company perform, and man did they not let me down. Despite half the stage being blocked by a very tall man in front of me the dancers were phenomenal. The story was simple but the emotion and performance were astounding, after all Giselle is a romantic period ballet which meant it was very dramatic and compelling. Despite no words being used you could just feel the story being told. I loved the performance and was even able to make a friend with someone near me. She was visiting from Spain and had seen many ballets before (we talked quite a bit before the show and she helped raise my sprints considerably). Even though I got home late and was very tired it was worth it to see the ballet in its entirety and to thank the dancers with my applause. Today was a great day to start winding down on my time in Vienna, but I still look forward to my last few days. Until next time! (P.S. Photos will be up later my computer is acting up right now)