It's not a cry you can hear at night, it's not somebody who's seen the light...

I couldn't write yesterday because I baked my brains. BUT I went to Melk and it was awesome. So incredibly Awesome. Even if Peter cowered behind my brain the entire time. On the train there I saw this thing and though 'oh there's a kangaroo!' and then I realised that's ridiculous before realising it was, in fact, a haystack... But you know...a marsupial-like one...

I wandered in the Melk woods (yes, I was OUTSIDE) and then I visited the town before heading back, writing Peter-story in my head the entire way. I started a backstory scene, but as I baked my brain, I only got through two paragraphs. How did I bake my brain?

I went to Schoenbrunn on a whim (I am going inside tomorrow) because the train happened to stop at Huetteldorf station which I happen to known is also an U-Bahn station because I had to depart for class there every day for three months in 2001. So I got off the train there instead of where I got on, and took the U-Bahn to the palace. I used to park myself there several times a week to read, so it was purely for nostalgia value. HOWEVER since it was hot out (it was only 26, but I'm a wuss) and I decided to climb the gloriette and I had only slept for like 3 hours the night before AND I couldn't breathe (stupid asthma) once I got to the top I decided I cared for nothing. Absolutely nothing. So I came back to the hotel and slept. For TWELVE HOURS. It was awesome. Ah, vacation.

Today I went inside Stephansdom because I LOVE IT and it is the most impressive place ever. It's just SO BIG. I think you could fit my entire high school in there with room to spare. You can't get a proper photo because it's just too tall and too huge.

This sexy guy dressed at Mozart offered me his umbrella and I thought 'oh, he's a ticket-seller but he's being sweet' Then he was like 'pretty girls like you shouldn't be in the rain' and I giggled and thought 'Ah, he's not going to try to sell me any-' "Would you like to buy a ticket for a concert! It's not raining in the imperial palace!" Stupid ticket seller. What about our covetous glance-love!? *sigh* And by the time I decided maybe that would be cool, I couldn't find any of the Mozart impersonators to buy a ticket from. Oh well. I'm going to the Hofburg tomorrow at any rate :D

Stephansdom is amazing and I went in the Catacombs like last time. The bones are gross, as are the pots containing the guts of the emperors. Though I did make a funny when the guy asked if anyone knew what they were and I said, "They're for the insides of the people who keep taking pictures". Seriously, you're in a CRYPT and the tour guide said no photos 12 times. Have some respect.

I went up in the north tower and holy shizzle, it's terrifying! The elevator opens up onto this see-through grid and you have to walk up see-through stairs to get to the top. SO SCARY!!! And then you're just on this cement thing which was meant to continue to be build on, and there's a halfhearted fence around it. *shudders* But the view was awesome.

Then I went to Belvedere, which is a castle but also an art gallery. No photos were allowed, but I saw Gustav Klimt's The Kiss. Incredible. And a painting of Der Erlkoenig as well as several of Caspar David Friedrich's paintings. I love him and he loves boats.

Tonight I think I will head to the prater if the rain keeps away! No photos though, as it's a carnival-place. Or perhaps a cafe! Tomorrow is my Habsburg day (*SQUEALS*) and I PROMISE I will try not to make tomorrow's entry a history lesson... But omgHabsburgsomgomg.

New Vienna photos start HERE and Melk photos are here

You know what I love? Looking 'Wiener Neustadt' up on Wikipedia so I could see where it was, and reading the following:

The city was founded by the Babenberger Duke Leopold V in 1194, who financed the construction of the city with the ransom paid for the English king Richard the Lionheart, who had previously been held as a hostage in Austria at Dürnstein.

And knowing exactly what it is talking about. Every bit of it. My University degree is about as useful as toilet paper (which..technically, is pretty useful but only for one purpose...) but damn do I know random crap, thanks to the history component of having a Bachelor of Arts-German Language and Literature major. Like who Leopold V was. And, for that matter, who the Babenbergs were. And the Hapsburgs. Who I know were not mentioned, but they made an empire through marriage instead of killing (though they did that too). Marie Antionette was a Hapsburg! Her mother, Maria Theresia was Empress of Austria for 40 years (exactly) and she had 49729475312 babies most of whom died as kids though the ones that didn't married all over. AND the child Mozart performed for her and she adored him.

And don't get me started on Empress Elisabeth because I can go on all day. The paper I wrote on her got me my very own 98% in a unit, as the paper was the only thing graded in that unit. She's fascinating.

And, back on Richard the Lionheart, the castle in Dürnstein is along the Danube and we stopped there on our way back to Vienna from Melk. And our teacher told us the (fake) tale of the minstrel who came to sing under Richard's window, and that's how they discovered where he was. Ah, legends. So I found it on the web here.

History is my crack for SRS. But I cannot for the life of me remember the word for 'minstrel' in German, but I remember I liked the word! MY LANGUAGE SKILLS HAVE FAILED ME!

Edit: BWUAAHHAHAA - Minnesänger I so just used freetranslation.com. Fail. :D