Vienna Life

Vienna is consistently rated one of the most livable cities in the world. Nothing I've seen in during my brief 36-hour visit (including a long walk in the brisk night and quick trip on the U-Bahn) contradicts this. A friend of mine recently re-located there from Dublin. While I now have one less reason to visit Ireland, I have one more to return to Austria.

Way back, I had considered applying for a job with the IAEA. Headquartered at the United Nations City in Vienna, business trips would be probably be quite different, on the Axis of Evil tour.

At the time, I wasn't prepared to move far from home, especially to another continent, which I had never visited before. Plus the fact that a Masters degree in a sea of PhDs would be hard pressed to win the job. The pay also wouldn't be that great, although the diplomatic passport and exemption from income tax would surely help.

Austrian Parliament

Votivkirche

Riding out of the mist

Hofburg Palace

Sisi Museum

St. Stephen's Cathedral

At night

Viennese Waltz

Christina Aguilera is in town, and bigger than favourite son Mozart.

Amadeus

The Schönbrunn palace is booked for Christmas events, so our evening concert will have to be at the Augsburg palace. On the way there, the roads are packed with cars and buses from all surrounding countries, full of teens, making their way to see Xtina.

Vienna Opera House

The performance included Mozart and Strauss, vocal and orchestral, and was pleasant enough. What made it exceptional was the realization that we were watching it in Vienna.

Before leaving town, I have pick up some Mozartkugeln.

Christmas in December

In Australia, a pseudo-holiday has developed in wintertime: Christmas in July. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it's almost been another year since Viennese Christmas.

Christmas Tree Decorations

The City Hall is also decorated, as a large-scale Adventskalender.

Christmas Market at the Rathaus

Der Graben is a pedestrian mall, and one of the prime shopping streets in Vienna. Even the Pestsäule, a monument commemorating the end of a plague epidemic, looks festive from a distance.

Der Graben