The Best Opera Venue in the World...

...has 3 euro "stehplatz" or standing room, giving us access to cultural experiences of a lifetime.

Everything in Vienna seems to be exorbitantly overpriced except for the culture, which is everywhere, go figure. On Sunday evening, many of us chose to utilize the tips of Marcus, our guide to Vienna of sorts. We were told where and when to stand in line for standing room (2.5 hours before showtime) and how to mark said "room" (with a scarf.) Otherwise, we were total amateurs to Opera, specifically L'elisir d'amore, written in Italian by Gaetano Donizetti. No one knew the story or where we actually marked our spots (many of us had to find our scarves during the intermission) or how hard it is to stand for 2 hours, but everyone came away grateful for the experience. So grateful, in fact, that tonight a smaller contingency organized to attend the ballet form of Anna Karenina put to music by Tchaikovsky. More knowledgeable about the process of stehplatz tickets, we had an impressive view with less of the stress.

Faced with the fulfillment of my pilgrimage tomorrow to the Belvedere, which contains an impressive collection of works by Gustav Klimt, I would forsee a sleepless night were it not for the past 4 hours of standing exertion.