Vienna Staatsoper

I got lucky when I was walking by the Vienna state opera house (browsing through downtown) and some scalper tried to sell me some tickets to the Macbeth play that was sold out that evening. Normally I just say nein danke and pass on by but this time I actually took the time to check out the flyer of the play before I came back to the scalper. I knew it was supposed to be impressive inside so I said ok lets see if I can game up this guy. He was selling the tickets for 30eu a piece and I told him he could let the tickets go to waste or he could have 20eu now. He gave in and I had my tickets.

Once I was inside I played tourist and took some pictures of the inside. After I was done admiring the inside I used my broken German to find my seat...as the people kept on telling me further back, upstairs, to the right to the left...I was starting to think I was the one who got had by the guy outside.

I finally found my seat waiting for me inside the one of the rooms on the 3rd floor.

When I entered I was taken back because I have never had boxed seats for anything let alone the state opera. Then as the show started there was an open seat at the very front of the balcony and I asked the others if they would mind if I took the seat and they let me go ahead (probably because I put on the charm haha jk).

The show was amazing, they had a live orchestra (no electronic amplifiers), amazing sounds, and they even had little lcds that showed the translated text.

TIP: If you want to see a play or show at one of the Vienna theaters go at the last second and find someone selling an unused ticket or grill a scalper for a good price.

Bratislava

Bratislava is only a 1hr train ride from Vienna for about 28EU round trip. A friend from the University, Mohammet (hes from Turkey) and I headed out pretty early by taking the 8am train. But that meant that I had to get up at 6:30am and start riding my bike to the trainstation to catch the underground that would take me to the Sudbahnhof station where the train was leaving for Bratislava. A visualization:

Bike 15 min --->Purkersdorf Sanitorium---> 20min to Hutteldorf --> Train for 35 min to Sudbahnhof ---> 1hr Train to Bratislava

Anyways, got there and realized we didn't really know how to get to the main city or even how to exit the station. Well we both fell asleep in the train and woke up when it was fully stopped only to find out we were locked in side (must have been asleep for sometime). I thought this was the end of my trip and I was only a window away from Bratislava...no big deal just had to yell and scream at the top of our lungs at the onlookers and we were out in no time (or just ask the conductor to let us out cuz we fell asleep).

Happy to be out and taking a picture of the train stop that doesn't say Bratislava I know my fault.

After wandering around I asked some lady how to get to the center of the city and she directed me towards the 80 bus, but I still had no idea how to get a ticket and thought I must get it on the bus NNNOOOPPPEE. No ticket, but I asked the guy driving where I could get it and he said "in there" I was like oook (kinda mad that I would have to get off after waiting) then he demanded "SIT" and I didn't ask questions I just took a seat and headed for the city center.

All of the touristy spots were located around the city center. They are easy to get to by foot and no cars are allowed to drive in the city center. Was cool but I was glad to get back to Vienna.