VIENNA

It´s strange to come to a place and not busk in it. I´ve become so used to lugging my guitar out pretty much immediately after checking into a place that to not do so feels slightly out of order

However, I have less than 24 hours here, and due to gettin paid for my recent 'Prague gigs' (!) I don't the money so much. As well as this, I know that busking in Vienna is heavily policed. Perhaps next time...

One day in this city is nowhere near enough. It´s beautiful, swathed in grand buildings and decadence, and also verrrry expensive. I visit the Stephansdom cathedral first, it´s just so damn good-lookin', religious stone carvings everywhere I look... A truly holy place even when filled to the brim with tour groups, it takes me a while to walk around its immense interior, and even longer to stroll around outside - that's despite the aroma of horse manure emanating from the exhausts of the most touristic form of transport - horse and carriages...

My favourite part of the day is visiting the KunstHausWien, a museum dedicated to the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He´s incredible; it´s very rare that I pay to go into museums and nine Euro´s seems excessive due the usual busker's budget (oh, to do this next year without financial constraints...), but I´m sold when I realise the man lived much of his later life in New Zealand, falling in love with the country and dying on the Pacific Ocean there... don't know I missed out on hearing about him before, guess my ears were pretty closed to the world of amazing art!

His work is certianly amazing, so bright and unconventional and humorous!! Very Gaudi-esque, he was also commisioned to transform some old buildings in Vienna which have become famously known as ´Hundertwasserhaus´ - all uneven floors, trees growing out of the roof, coloured tiles and curvaceous balconies... it´s off-limits to the public as people still reside there, but I go and look from the outside and marvel at this man who did so much for aesthetics.

I catch the tram all the way to the famous cemetary on the edge of town where Mozart was buried in a pauper´s grave only to find that it´s closed... and that´s about all I have time for this time around, given my absolute exhaustion after three hours of sleep the night before. Despite all that there is left to see and experience in wonderful Vienna, I´m happy to collapse into bed by ten p.m and dream of my return to Ljubljana tomorrow...