Day 26: St. Stephen's Cathedral — Matt Goes Exploring

For my last day in Vienna I made sure to visit an important landmark for the city. St. Stephen's Cathedral. Like many of the cathedrals and churches I've seen so far on this trip, it is enormous, and it is a work of art.

From the outside, the cathedral is covered in small statues and immense spires that scrape at the clouds, but inside it is a cavernous hall supported by gigantic stone columns. Potentially because it was a little cloudy earlier in the day today, the cathedral was dim and dark. The only light came from candles and the numerous stained glass windows. When I walked back outside the light was blinding.

Being inside the cathedral was enjoyable, but after walking around the cathedral for a few minutes I discovered that you were allowed to walk up one of the tallest towers. This is why my iPhone says I've climbed 23 floors today. The sign said there were 343 steps to the top of the tower, and I guess if I think about it, that is a lot of steps. But it felt like there were a lot more.

The spiral staircase up the tower was cramped and poorly lit, so that I felt as though i was ascending into some kind of sky dungeon. Once at the top though, it was just a small room with four windows, each overlooking the city. While I was hoping for something a little more climactic, it was still a nice reward. Especially the windows that had a nice breeze coming through them.

Climbing the staircase needed constant alertness. At all times the sounds of anyone else on the stairs echoed up and down, so that it was not easy to tell if someone was about to come up behind you or come down in front of you until it was just moments before they appeared. There was just enough space for two people to squeeze by each other.

After the cathedral I wondered what I might do next. The answer came to me when I looked down a side street and saw a green domed building. I decided to see what this was. It turned out to be St. Peter's Church. I was surprised as I entered the building to find that the church was still in use, and in fact currently in use. A priest was giving his sermon at the front of the pews while many people sat and listened. So to be respectful I kept quiet, took a phew photos, and was on my way.

With a few hours to kill before dinner, I decided I wanted to spend some time relaxing and reading my book. I found a nice park to sit in nearby, which turned out to be part of the Austrian National Library. As I entered the park there was some kind of horse show going on. I don't really know what it was all about, but there was a small fence containing five full grown horses, and a younger horse for each of them. I assumed this was the mothers and their children. After watching the horses for a few minutes I found a quiet place to sit, and started reading.

I started The Stand back up again, because despite how sad it is, the book is very well done. I am reaching towards the conclusion with only about a fifth of the book left, so something crazy is bound to happen soon, I just don't know what.

In a way, very similar to my adventures in Europe. Tomorrow I take a train to Budapest, the last stop in Europe for my trip. I don't know what adventures await me there, but I look forward to them. The trip itself is far from over though. The month of July will be over before I set foot in the United States again. I'm personally excited to be in a country that speaks English as it's main language though. Nothing against any other language, I wish I had the time and the patience to learn all of them, but to be able to read street signs and communicate clearly again will be nice. It will be another week and a half before I land in Australia though. So let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I will instead focus on Budapest, getting there and then figuring out what to do while I'm there. I look forward to it.

For now, thanks for reading, and here's to tomorrow.