New Years Eve in Vienna!

Hi everyone! Had a great New Years! I went into the city and bought a camera (a 5 megapixle minolta) and a train ticket home. I now have some type of Austrian youth train discount card for the year becasue my ticket was slightly cheaper even after buying the card for 20 Euros. Then I headed into the city as there were stages set up everywhere and people milling about and walking the 'New Years path' which was a suggested rourte to see all the stages. I started out at the town hall and got really really excited when the Christmas market in front was open....I love the Christmas market! Only today and yesterday it was a New Years Market! Oh Hooray! For New Years they sell all kinds of figurines and other trinkets that people give to eachother for the New Year. Pigs are probably the biggest symbol og good luck here but ladybugs, fourleaf clovers, red and white toad stools, frogs and other little things go down well too!

After the Market I went to see an Opera at 7pm called Falitermouse. It is a very famous Austrian Opera by Strauss and Anna's grandmother insisted that I go with her ticket. She insisted so much that she said she was going to be at home weather I went or not.....so nice of her! The Opera was very pretty and I am glad I went even though I did not understand the German and the subtitles were not so good. Then I took the tram back into the heart of the city to see a bit more of the New Years path. It was crazy! There were people everywhere and you can buy small fireworks on the streets here so there was banging going off everwhere. To add ot the noise, the same stalls that sell trinkets often sell whistles or horns so all in all it is pretty 'alive'! I walked to the main Church (St Stephans) in the centre of the city as the bell go off there at midnight and I wanted to see what was happening. It was very weird actually. When I got there there was a crowd but everyone was pushed back creating a big space in the middle and in that space there was the debrits of thousands of fireworks. People were setting off mainly the banging/popping kind but there were fountains and almost professional looking ones being shot into the air. It was pretty out of control. There were no police here, no barricades and people would cross the space and suddenly a firework would fall into their path. In the morning I had been lamenting over the fact that I was going to meet Anna outside the city later. I had this picture in my head of the count down in front of St Stephans and I kinda wnated to be there for the countdown. After seeing that I no longer wanted to be there let alone for the countdown. So I left quickly and took tram 38 back to Anna in Grinzing. As the tram pulled in I saw her and Myrium waiting for me on the street.

With 20 minutes to midnight we went to a hill just around the corner and met Anna's friend Beatrice and Johansses. We waited drinking Champagne in a snow covered vineyeard. Vienna has no officail firework show put on by the city which surprised me but the fact of the matter is they don't need one becasue from the hill we could see hundreds and thousands of fireworks going off all over the city. It was unbelieveable! Incredible! I am so glad I spent my New Years in a snow covered vineyard looking over all of Vienna, Austria!

P.S. My Nonie called me a little bit before midnight which was SO nice and I felt very loved and thought of!