The torrential downpour that we had experienced the day before had flooded some tracks and knocked down some power lines in the western, mountainous part of the country, which meant our train was an hour and a half late. Luckily we were able to take the earlier train, which itself was an hour and a half late, but was leaving soon after we arrived. We had a cozy train ride through the charming Austrian countryside. In Vienna Westbanhof, we took the underground to the nearby Volkstheater stop. It's hard to describe the feeling of amazement you experience when you slowly rise up on the escalator from the underground into the massively impressive architecture of central Vienna. Our hotel was nearby, we thought it had a really funny name- Hotel Pension Wild, but it was pretty calm after all. By the time we left the hotel, the humidity had condensed into moody storm clouds, which looked like they would burst at any moment, but actually held off the downpour for a couple of hours, with only a few light drops before then.

We had picked a good hotel location, because five minutes from our door was parliament, and the national history museum. I was so unconsciously impressed by this empire that I started singing the Star Wars theme. We had wanted to check out some real classical music, but unfortunately we only had one night, and we had to play a show. Next year in Vienna.. We walked through the Hapsburg palace and over to St. Stephen's Cathedral. We were lucky to go inside and were amazed by the beautiful architecture, the vaults and arches, stained glass windows.. We then found out that we could actually hike the main tower, so we did! It was a slightly dizzying trip up 343 steps, in a very tightly spiraled stone staircase, with rocks in the walls smoothed by generations of hands running along them. We had some amazing views out across the rooftops. After a quick dinner, complete with Wiener Schnitzel and gelato, we made it back to the hotel, just in time to avoid the downpour.

We hadn't been told what time our show was, but luckily the website had a time for the beginning of the evening so we went a little before then to check in with them. We were playing at an art gallery called Moe that was an old locksmith factory, with paintings and photos and exhibits all along the old concrete walls, and the floor was stained with ages of grease. It had a very urban charm to it. There were two other acts playing that night, the first a good local singer-songwriter that, although a little nervous, had great finger-picking and some good songs. The next act had a strong and powerful voice that shook the place. The bar wanted us to play acoustic in the main room, instead of in one of the side rooms, where the other bands had played amplified. We had a good set, but it was a bit hard to hear ourselves because we were in a big smoky room with high ceilings. We had some nice philosophical discussions with one of the organizers afterward, talking about music, freedom, anarchy, chaos, and creativity..