Happy New Year, Vienna!

What better place to ring in the New Year than Vienna? This grand city played host to our celebration, and we couldn't have been happier. The streets were bustling with revelers as early as 6pm—the spiced wine was flowing and people of all ages were dancing to live music. After watching the astounding fireworks display from the roof of a building, we made it to a couple of parties and met many delightful Austrians. We even got to take part in a unique Austrian tradition that helped us discover what the new year holds in store!

When not celebrating the birth of 2007, we found the time for some of Vienna's fabulous museums and, of course, the opera.

Quick Tips:

The world around the ring is easily walkable, and most of what you'll want to see is focused in that area.

Don't discount the Volksoper if you want to see an opera. Yes, they say the Staatsoper is the better venue, but if you're just an average opera-goer you will enjoy the performance at the Volksoper just the same. And it doesn't have to be expensive! Standing room goes on sale just before the show for as little as €1,50.

If you want to see a show at the Spanish riding school, get your tickets early. For a cheaper option, check out the morning exercises. We missed our chance on both counts, and I'm still disappointed.

The Vienna Boys Choir is a nice thing to do, but it's a long wait in the cold (if you're there in the winter like we were) and it's crowded inside and full of short people who think there is something to see and continually try to push their way forward. If you have better things to do, skip this. If you do decide to go, you can buy a ticket for a seat, but standing room is free. Just show up an hour and a half early—maybe more in the summer.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walking. Buses/trams.

Felber is just a little bakery, but I had to mention it because it was so lovely!

From the outside it looks like nothing more than the usual pastries at the usual bakery, but once inside we learned they have several dishes available. They're in German, of course, so I can't really tell you what they were, except for ham and eggs! My friend Joel ordered that and it looked delightful. Three eggs, several slices of ham, and all for just a few euro.

There are several coffee options available as well. Joel made the mistake of ordering "coffee" and he was served a shot of espresso—not exactly what he had in mind, though a popular choice in many of the restaurants we have visited. Viennese cappuccino and melange were also available.

My brother Jack and I each had a pastry, and they were delicious—definitely on par with any other bakery I've been to. Jack is a tall guy with a hearty appetite, but even he found his treat to be too rich.

The women at the counter were so sweet and helpful. They spoke some English and switched to the attempt of it immediately when they realized our German skills left much to be desired.

If you're in this part of town, I hope you stop by this place for a cheap and satisfying breakfast.

I went to OH Pot, OH Pot on a recommendation—good, heavy food for hungry tummies. Also, they do a lunch special: soup, a "pot" (a casserole-type dish), and dessert for 6,50 euro.

Unfortunately, we were there on a Sunday, and the lunch special is for weekdays only. We ordered anyway.

The menu included soups, salads, desserts, and numerous pots which included several veggie options. They ranged in price from about €3 to €9.

My friend did the Sunday brunch buffet for €11. It included cereal, bread, juice, coffee, soups, and five different pots from which to choose.

I wasn't sure I could eat so much, so I ordered the Thai curry pot. It was delicious and plenty filling, but at €8,20 it seemed a bit pricey to me.

My brother ordered enchiladas for €6,50. They were just okay. He didn't really care for them either, and it wasn't a very large portion, especially for such a tall guy.

The food is good, sure, but the best part of this restuarant was the service. Our waiter was fantastic. He spoke excellent English, having spent 4 years in the United States, and he delighted in speaking with us—especially since the restaurant wasn't very busy when we were there. Our food was on the table within minutes, and he filled up a big pitcher when I asked for tap water—and there was no huff and guff like there often is from the waiter when you order tap water in a European restaurant.

Be sure to use the restroom—it was spotless, smelled good, and the toilet seat was a sparkly gold! I've never seen one quite like it.

OH Pot OH Pot is easy to miss—it's right along the street, but there are bigger words on its sign that you see and then you keep walking. We went too far and had to backtrack. Get a street number as well to help you find it.

Many central and eastern European cities play home to a Jewish museum, and Vienna is no exception. After visiting their museum, however, I doubt the others can meet this standard.

It was quiet on this particular winter day, so we could take our time and see the exhibits without having to fight through any crowds. Admission price included a free audio guide which gave so much information, I'm sure I didn't get through it all.

The first stop is the auditorium on the ground floor, which houses Max Berger's collection of Jewish objects. Berger was his family's only survivor of the Holocaust, and in order to understand his history and religion, he set about collecting items of Jewish interest—and ended up with more than 10,000, many of which he gave to the museum upon his death.

Many of these religious objects are displayed in a glass case, each with a number you can punch into your audio guide. The case is covered with quotes from the Torah or Jewish prayers: a purposeful distraction to help us remember that these aren't just objects on display, but that they have religious significance and are used by practicing Jews. I hadn't realized what a complete, in depth religion Judaism is.

The second floor displayed the Jewish-themed work of three Jewish artists. Each had his own brightly-colored room, all of which I had to hurry through because it was so cold in there. My favorite was the photograph of one of the artists and his mother, both of whom were holding the portraits that the artist had painted of them.

The third floor had lots of information about Felix Salten, the man who "invented" Bambi. There was also a fascinating hologram exhibit, which you can consume in no particular order. Each hologram is accompanied by a quote as well as lots of info on the audio guide. I loved this exhibit. My favorite quote was by Eduard Bernstein: "It's no big deal when your memory prefers to keep a hold on that which pleased you, and allows the past to seem more beautiful than it really was; and it is only fair when our desires and wishes in a vision of the future inspire us to fight for just that. But the present will only be seen for what it is."

There is also a coloring room for the kids!

The fourth floor is simply archives on display. It's sort of the collection they didn't have room for, but instead of boxing it away, they let us see it. It's cold up there, and I feel sorry for the attendant who sits alone and turns on the light when the occasional visitor journeys up there. Go if you have time, but know that it's more of what you have seen below.

I learned more about Judaism in this museum than I knew there was to know.

Jewish Museum Vienna
Open daily 10am-6pm
Admission: 5,00 euro (students €2,90)

We arrived in Vienna on a Saturday, dropped our luggage off at the place we were staying, and hurried over to the Austrian Museum of Applied and Contemporary Art—it's free admission on Saturdays!

I was entranced from the get-go. On the main floor there were several rooms, each focusing on a different aspect of art in design. One room was for Oriental rugs, another for furniture, another for lacework. My favorite was the alley of chair silhouettes—you walked down the center of the room and on either side of you are white screens, behind which are chairs, behind which are lights. The lights shine on the chairs to display their silhouettes on the screen. It was beautiful, and an excellent way to take in the differences of the shapes of the chairs.

Each room came with a booklet of information on all the pieces included in the room, which you could read in either German or English. I think you can keep these. Many people put them back, but I held on to the ones I found most interesting.

On another floor was an exhibition called Liguid Logic by Elke Krystufek. I loved this. It involved paintings with lots of writing on the work. I find that so interesting, not only having to decipher a painting but also what the artist meant by those words.

They also feature an Arist in Focus. This display is on a little loft floor and rotates every 6 months. It includes many works by one artist. I didn't care for this particular one.

My brother said he was glad he went on a day when it was free. I liked it somewhat more than that. So, if you like art or have studied design, you will get a lot of good out of this museum. If not...maybe choose one of Vienna's other excellent museums first.

MAK
Wed-Sun 10am-6pm
Tues 10am-midnight
Admission: 7,90 euro (students €5,50)

I'm starting to develop quite an appreciation for contemporary art, and the MUMOK is a great place to foster this appreciation.

The top three floors were devoted to Erwin Wurm and his "Keep a Cool Head" exhibition. I was fascinated. He does lots of photos, sculptures, and performance art. One of my favorite photograph series was "Be Nice to Your Curator" and it showed him feeding a curator chocolate, carrying a curator, and kissing a curator, among others. Another was the "Palmers" series, which shows people wearing clothes in unorthodox ways—for example, sleeves on legs, head through arm holes, whatever. For some reason, it was remarkably thought-provoking. I couldn't stop looking at those photos!

Wurm is also famous for what he calls 1-minute sculptures. These are works of art which by their nature cannot continue to exist in their actual form for much longer than a minute. They are documented in photographs. They are pictures of people holding unusual or unsustainable positions: a girl balancing a bunch of forks between her face and hand, a woman with glass bottles under her arms, a girl with mushrooms up her nose. These, too, are fascinating. The Red Hot Chili Peppers made a video for their song "Can't Stop", and it was inspired by Wurm and his 1-minute sculptures.

There was one floor devoted to Frank Gertsch and his photo-realistic paintings. Unbelievable. I didn't know there was anyone painting anything like that. I didn't know anyone could actually be capable of it. These paintings were like photographs. From a distance, they could easily be mistaken for photographs. For a long time, I was trying to figure out what was really going on, if there was some computer at work or what, but I finally realized that no, he is just that amazing.

I had some trouble with the bottom floor. Lots of trouble. I have never been so disturbed. It was an exhibit called "Concept. Action. Language." and it was made up of photographs and videos. Disturbing. There was one picture of a man with entrails lying on his stomach. There was a series of a lamb being slaughtered on a cross. Poignant, okay, but gross. Blood was a central figure in many of the photos.

I tend to be pretty open-minded all the time, and I make a special effort to do so with art, but this I couldn't quite open up to. It was probably a good thing we didn't start on this floor of the museum, or I'm not sure we would have gone on.

The MUMOK is in the MuseumQuarter, which is one of the largest museum complexes in the world. You can buy a single ticket for this museum, or a ticket in combination with the other museums in the complex. The MUMOK is on the right when you enter the complex. You can't miss it. It has the giant, upside-down house on the roof.

MUMOK
Admission: €9,00 (students €6,50)
Tues-Sun 10am-6pm

We got our seats at the last minute for the Volksoper performance of the traditional opera Die Fledermaus on New Year's Day. (See "My Night at the Opera" for the process of securing the tickets.)

It wasn't so difficult as we thought it would be, because everyone was at the Staatsoper, which has the reputation for being the best around. This concerned me for all of two minutes, until I realized that I wouldn't know the difference between a superb opera and an average opera unless I could see them both, and since I can only see one—I'm sure the Volksoper will do a fine job. They're professionals, too, after all.

And a fine job they did. Those voices—I can't imagine possessing something so amazing.

The performance lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes, and included two intermissions. (After the first one, my brother said, "Is that all?") It was in German, of course, but the story was easy enough to follow, especially with the English subtitles displayed on the screen above.

I had never been to an opera, so I hadn't realized that this was customary. They weren't exactly subtitles—the dialogue wasn't translated word for word. They were more like little descriptions: so-and-so is upset because, so-and-so wants to go here because, so-and-so is pretending to do this because, etc. They were short but adequate. If they had been any longer, you would have spent all your time reading instead of watching the action.

If you want good seats— expensive seats—reserve in advance. If you want to take advantage of the standing room option or whatever inexpensive seats might be left, show up an hour before the performance.

Perhaps the opera isn't your thing, but I think it would be a shame not to see at least one in your life—and what better place to do so than in Vienna?

Our New Year's celebration began with a delightful dinner prepared by our hosts in Vienna. Afterward, we took part in a uniquely Austrian tradition: we melted some lead on a spoon over a candle and dropped it into a glass of cold water. Then we faced the task of interpreting its new shape to determine our fate in 2007! The interpretation process is not easy, but we had a lot of fun with it—and it looks like I'll be having a fantastic new year!

I'm not sure what our original plan was. There was talk of heading to a hill overlooking Vienna where there were bound to be a lot of people. Apparently we took too long with the eating and the melting, so we instead opted for a roof on some building.

This is not so much legal, of course. We had to skirt some security cameras to join the handful of others who had already found this vantage point from which to enjoy the New Year's fireworks.

What a show. I have never seen so many fireworks, not even at the most enthusiastic 4th of July celebration. The bangs started early in the evening and gained intensity up to this point, just a few minutes before midnight. We could see over the top of much of the city, and the fireworks were all around us. It was impossible to decide where to look, so we ended up sort of spinning in imperfect circles, trying to take it all in.

There we were: me, my brother, our friend, our hosts, and a handful of Austrian people I had met only moments before. No one managed to make a count down, but we popped open the champagne and toasted to every good thing we could think of.

The fireworks continued full force for another 15 minutes or so. We clamored off the roof before they had died down completely and made our way to a party.

It was a different sort of New Year for me. Typically I am surrounded by dozens of people I know and love. This year I was surrounded by strangers, but it didn't matter. They were good people, amazing people, each wonderful in his or her way, as we all are. It is so good to be reminded of that—that in a world such as this there still exists such goodness and opportunity for happiness. We toasted to the best of everything, not just for us but for everyone. I barely knew any of those people. But I loved them just the same. Happy New Year.

A necessary stop on my trip to Vienna was the opera. I didn't make reservations, thinking I could just stop by the venue the day before and pick up some last-minute tickets. This was easier said than done.

We first went to the State Opera because I was told that it is the better venue, but it was sold out for the January 1 performance of Die Fledermaus, a traditional opera that is performed every New Year—at both venues. Apparently everyone recognizes the Staatsoper as the superior opera.

The next day we went to the Volksoper to try to reserve tickets. However, the box office had only been open for 3 hours that day (as it was New Year's Eve), and we missed it. The handsome gentleman in the lobby suggested coming tomorrow between 9am and noon for tickets—and good luck, he said, because he figured it would be hard to do at this late date.

I was nervous, especially when we opted to sleep straight through the box office hours after celebrating a Happy New Year the night before. I was nervous, but I was determined. You can't visit Vienna without seeing an opera, can you? My brother thought you could, but I doubted it.

I had heard about the super-cheap (1,50 euro) standing room tickets, so we hurried to the Volksoper around 4:30 that afternoon to score some for ourselves. The woman told us the box office won't open again until 5pm.

Perfect. Time to get something to eat. I fretted most of the time that the line would be too long and we would miss our chance. The boys reassured me. In retrospect, I think it was because they were hoping the line would be too long and we would miss our chance...

We were back just before 5:00. The line was not so long at all. We waited a few minutes—long enough to decide that standing for 3 hours wasn't our cup of tea, and we decided to try for the cheapest actual seats.

"Three hours!" my brother exclaimed, who until that point had been a pretty good sport about the whole opera thing.

It turned out that the cheapest actual seats were €6,00 if we wanted to sit apart, and €19,00 if we wanted to sit together. However, if we waited until 5:30pm to buy our tickets, we could get the student price—best available seats for €8,00! So that's what we did.

We ended up in seats that normally cost €50,00, sitting next to a well-dressed man who fell asleep before the opera even began.

And my brother? He managed to stay awake for the entire performance of Die Fledermaus.