Our tour guide, Christina, was extremely enthusiastic with her job that it made the tour all the more exciting! She lead us around the older districts and explained how Vienna was once a castle with large walls to keep out invaders with smaller houses/villages outside it. Eventually, the walls were taken down and the outer ring road was built around the empire. The palace where the emporer lived has 18 wings and took around 45 years to complete. We also were able to see the area for the three museums: Museum of Natual History, the sister museum the Museuem of the Fine Arts, and Museuem of Modern Art. The first two face one another in the plaza and reflect thei likeness in their architecture, symbolizing that equal importance of art and the sciences. Later that day Santiago would visit the fine arts while I toured the history museum on my own.
From the museums our group then headed for the old palace of the emperor. As mentioned earlier, it has 18 wings and the many large copper statues outside. Next door is the office of the current president of the country now, with two flags raised to symbolize he was currently in the country: a European flag and Austrian flag. Although he does not actually live in the office like our president does, he instead lives in a flat near where our hotel is. Also another cooling thing we saw was three men dressed in all black working on the sculptures of the palace. We joked that they must be ninjas working to steal the crowned jewels, or the golden eagle at the top.
The tour was a good two hours and we got to see so much of the old districts. We got to enter two churches, an extremely baroque church with paintings covering the ceiling, and statues lining practically everything. I think Santi was literally in heaven when he stepped into that place, his expression was so adorable with excitement. I'm sure I was in sheer awe as well.
The next church we visited is the most famous landmark in all of Austria. 10,000 people pass through this church everyday and is a prime spot for pickpockets. We were all vigilant of our stuff as we walked around. There was even a mass being held during our visit! But gated off to visitors to not disturb them. I wish I had had extra time to climb the tower or go into the catacombs, but I had to take care of stopping at the Western Union to pick up money (I had lost my Visa card to an ATM in Zurich five days previous).
Our tour ended outside the Mozart Opera house that we would be attending later that evening.
Santi and I then took off to find a Western Union, crossing over roads and hiking down many blocks to find one. Unfortunately we were unaware that most of the Western Unions had been closed down in Vienna, one as recent as a month ago. After two no goes, we logged onto their app and found one just around the corner of my hotel. I felt so relieved to finally have it all fixed and done. Now I can pay people back for spotting me the last few days.
Santiago and I then returned back to the hotel to tidy up before going out to the museums. We bought a 24 hour pass at the U2 and went our separate ways at the Natural History museum.
Inside, I felt like I had stepped into an art museum rather than a natural history one, the ceiling was beautifully painted and statues of famous biologists and scientists lined the halls.
I wanted to find the dinosaurs first since they were my number one goal, but I thankfully made the wrong turn and ended up in the bird room. I swear that this museum had every single bird ever discovered, or pretty darn close to it. The cases were lined with hundreds and hundreds of animals. I was in scientific heaven. The birds were the center division between seeing the mammals and reptiles, both dividing into respected evolutionary development. From smallest to largest, it went as follows: single cell and historic microscopes, jellyfish and soft corals, hard corals, bugs, crustaceans, fish, Sharks and skates, amphibians, reptiles, birds, small mammals, primates and monkeys, large land mammals, and lastly large marine mammals. I really can't describe how much I possibly saw so I shall leave photos for you to view.
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