{day nine}

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOZART!

well today was dear old wolfgang amadeus mozart's birthday. so i'm on this study abroad with a bunch of music majors so naturally we celebrated! it was so awesome, i had a lot of fun. it was fun to be with people who really admired mozart and knew things about him already because it made it more exciting for me! since it was mozart's birthday, there was no school in vienna! (cool.) we decided to go on a walking tour of mozart's life, directed by our lovely tour guide and fellow study-abroader aly keller. we started at the stephans-dom and zig-zagged our way through the streets of vienna, visiting all the places mozart left his mark. and finding a few of our own treasures a long the way!

this was outside a concert hall where mozart would perform, and people still perform his music dressed in "authentic" attire. wouldn't that be entertaining?

me&paige in this cool ally.

i live in this place!!!

mustache mirrors found up on the walls of a peculiar ally

we came across this charming courtyard

this is mozarts house! 

mozart also used to live here... but now it's a department store

look!!

mozart decided to stop by his hometown to celebrate his birthday.

we had to fight the crowds, but we finally were able to take a picture with him!

this used to be a concert hall where mozart would perform frequently. he actually performed his last public concert in this hall.

shortly before he died, mozart began to compose a song that he felt would be played at his own funeral. he died a few months later and that song was played in this church a few days after his death.

isn't it stunning?

check out this organ! 

after warming up a bit, we moseyed (and by moseyed i mean took the longest route possible) over to the mozart memorial! it was a pretty cool statue, and after some picture and a lovely performance of "happy birthday" on the violin by julia, we set foot for the cemetery!

unfortunately, by this time we were frozen solid and all we wanted was to be inside with a good lunch. we walked down the street until we came across "wienerwald" (pronounced: veenervald) and decided to give it a shot. BEST shot i have ever given. it was quite the satisfying meal accompanied by a warm venue to relax in.

*note to self: ketchup is not free here. neither is water.

lunch was divine, AND THEN we finally made it to the cemetary! it was quite the journey, a few bumps a long the way, but we made it! and it was incredibly spooky. but in a good way. i'd have to say it's probably the coolest cemetery i've ever been to. you know that part in Phantom of the Opera where christine is walking through the cemetery to see her father's grave?? that's what i felt like! minus the snow and the singing

and we found it! this is mozart's "grave". when he died, mozart was very poor and was buried in a mass grave. the graveyard keeper had a lot of respect and admiration for mozart, so with the remains of other grave stones he build him a tombstone where he thought he was buried. 

being all artsy with pinecones and other things.

a mystic pathway.

a cool tombstone.

the one tree alive in vienna.

a cryptic tree and tombstone.

can you guess which one is the real statue?

after mozarts cemetery we went to institute for waffle night!! all the locals must have found out the american's were going and none of them showed up. but it was ok with me because that meant more waffles and nutella. we hung out with the senior couple and played pool and hung out. it was a lot of fun! then i came home and went straight to bed. i was exhausted! each day i come to love vienna more and more, looking forward to the adventures tomorrow will bring.