I don't even know where to begin, it's been one of the best vacations ever. There's going to be a lot of photos because I knew I'd want to remember everything so I wanted photos of every detail so I can look back at them. I totally fell in love with our neighborhood. There was a park 2 minutes away and Westbahnhof train station was awesome with great shops and a huge food court and trains to go wherever we wanted. Our hotel, Mercure hotel, was great too, amazing breakfasts and nice staff. After having a little bit of a bad beginning with our lost luggage and things like that Ken reminded me that everything that starts poorly with us turns out to be the best later which cheered me up a lot. He was right. For some reason every thing amazing with us started really bad, it's always been like that.
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| I love the coffee cups |
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| They had water melons at the breakfast, hurray! |
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| We ate so much, haha! |
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| Train by the hotel |
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| Loads of leaves, they were so much fun! |
On Monday we first went to Stadthalle where Muse was playing later and got information about Kens press pass and checked out the queue that was there. Then we went shopping and got lots of stuff and saw different things. We went to queue for Muse around four thinking that the doors opened at 19.30, but later figured out that the show started at that time and the doors opened at six. It was a pleasant surprise in one way because it was very cold, but I would have come to queue sooner if I knew that. It didn't matter much anyway, the queue got really long behind us and looked like a really big U so the queue started and ended the same place and of course when they opened the doors everybody in the back just went for it and everybody further back ran for it so we came quite far back which I hated. Me and Ken went in together and saw the support act together. They were called 'Everything Everything', they were nice! When they were done Ken left to go and get ready to photograph Muse.
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| This lovely message was in one of the cardigans I bought, I love it! |
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| In a shop they had red eggs.. |
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| Close to Stadthalle, the whole side of the building is stairs! |
Muse came on stage 20.50 and were amazing of course, Muse has been my favorite band since I was fifteen so it's always big for me to go see them. The show was in a way very similar and in a way different from what it used to be. It was the same kind of set up with cool things happening on stage, like how typical isn't it that they have a big pyramid on the stage, it was moving and showing videos and stuff. Some of the stuff was exactly the same as the previous tour. Matt had like a new kind of confidence though, he sang several times without his guitar. He was dancing around looking all cool and funny while singing, he even went to down to the crowd touching everybody's hands, I was jealous, he didn't do that any of the million times I've been in the front row! He even kissed a girls hand and was flirting with the camera. It was very different, but very cool! It was amazing seeing Chris sing as well, he performed one of his songs, 'Liquid State', he did a great job. There was footage on the screen of Dom doing crazy kung fu moves and fighting ninjas, it was really funny! I loved the entire show so much. I had a great time.
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| Ready to see Muse!! |
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| In the queue, Ken just got his press pass! |
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| Matt |
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| Dom |
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| Chris |
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| From further back |
Ken got amazing photos of Muse! You can find them
here, I'm so proud!
Ken bought us Muse t-shirts at the concert which was awesome, I love mine! We met a friend, Rebecca, at the show briefly before she disappeared in the crowd, It was nice seeing her again! After the concert we went to a place really close to our hotel which is like a fastfood place, but they sold sushi, it was really cheap so I thought it might not be that good, but it was worth a try so I got a little bit and it turned out to be amazing!! We went back the day after and got a whole lot for a fourth of the price we would have payed anywhere else, it was so cool!
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| Me in my new t-shirt the morning after the show |
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| The sushi takeaway:) |
My dream since before I started horse riding at six was always to go to the Spanish Riding school in Vienna and last Tuesday it actually happened we got tickets to see the morning training of the horses and a tour of the stables. It was amazing. The whole old area around the riding school was amazing too. We had to be there at ten o'clock and watched them ride their horses till 12. Then at 2 they started the tour. In between we had a good look around, had some food and coffee and bought souvenirs.
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| We weren't actually aloud to take photos, but I could't help myself! |
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| Everything was so beautiful! They rode in their uniforms and everything. |
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| Nice lunch in between |
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| These were hanging in the café |
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| I even had Spanish Riding School chocolate! |
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| Coffee at Starbucks and reading the program |
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| Souvenirs |
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| The entrance |
The tour we had was great, we learnt so much about everything. For example:
- The horses don't use shoes, a few do because they really need it, but then they only have it on their hind legs.
-As you probably know most Lipizzaners are white, but every now and again they turn out dark brown and they say that the riding school need to have at least one brown horse for luck.
- All the stallions are bred within five different bloodlines and are named after it and it's mother so they are all mainly called by girls name.
- They have 70 horses on the stable at all times and 30 on vacation. All the horses get vacation every year so they rotate between which go where.
- It takes between 8 and 12 years to become a rider. You have to be over 170 cm tall and have really long legs to do it.
- They get about 250 applications per year from people who want to do it and from that they pick out 15. Most of those drop out or get kicked out for not being talented enough.
- All the riders get paid from day one.
- Regardless of experience, all the riders start on the same level.
- All the horses only have one rider.
- After many years in training the riders get a young horse to train so the horse have the same rider it's entire life.
- They pick the horses when they are young, they pick the ones that are the most dominant and look the best.
- The horse retires from performing when it's 25 and then goes on to live in a stable somewhere else, they never sell their horses.
- The average horse they have live till they're 36 years old.
- The riding school is not fonded by the government, they get money from tourism and shows.
- They go on tour for one month every year, not any longer.
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| One of the saddle rooms |
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| The colour represents what the horse is best at! |
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| The riding hall from the ground |
After the tour, we decided to go on a horse and carriage ride with a tour of Vienna. It was amazing, I was smiling the entire time! It was definitely my highlight of the entire trip! We got to see the oldest fire station in the world, where Mozart held his first concert at six, Viennas oldest school and many other things.
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| <3 |
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| Just perfect |
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| They were searching my pockets for treats, haha! |
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| The catholic church I think |
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| Fountain of marriage |
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| Perfect view |
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| The best sushi! |
After everything we went home, ate sushi, rested for a bit and got ready to go out again on a dinner date our last night in Vienna. We found the perfect little Italian place a few blocks down and had the entire place for ourselves almost the entire time.
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| Wine <3 |
The food was absolutely amazing and we paid very little for what we got, it was just perfect!
We were sad the next day as we were leaving that amazing place, we had half a day to spare before leaving for the airport at 3 so we went shopping a little enjoyed our time together.
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| I got a Vogue, I probably won't understand it all, but I'll enjoy the photos. |
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| On the bus to the airport.. Not happy! |
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| My favorite chocolate there |
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| Mozart chocolate, haha! |
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| This was at the airport, it was really cool, it looked like it was snowing letter and on the ground it said profound things in different languages. |
The flights were nice and it went smoothly, no luggage on the run this time! The whole experience was just amazing and now I have post-vacation depressions because I just want to go back there immediately! Ken speaks German so it was cool hearing it again too. There was so many beautiful things to see, especially the buildings, they were all stunning!
Lots of love xoxo
