"Alles Walzer!"

Once again last night, while standing in a large crowd watching the opening of the Rudolfina Redoute Ball at the Hofburg, someone who had already established by talking to my other friends that we were all studying here in Vienna heard me speaking English and asked me where I was from.  "The U.S." I replied.  "Well yes, obviously, but where?" "New York." "Then why are you living in Austria?!".  My friend did kindly point out that I in fact have recently come up with an entire list to answer just such a question, but seriously, we're all here in the grand ballroom of a palace, dressed in formal wear, listening to fantastic music and dancing...why would I be anywhere else?   

There are about 450 balls which take place over the course of a Viennese ball season, most of which take place in January and February before Lent.  This 2014 season marks the 200th anniversary since the Congress of Vienna, when the Viennese waltz was at the absolute height of fashion, so this year has also been marked as some sort of official year of waltzing.    

While these various balls are held in a number of beautiful venues all around town, the two I attended this year were both held in the Hofburg downtown, which I was just fine with.  Each ball seems to have it's own feel to it, between the choices of music, the decorations and the guests making up the party.

At the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Ball.  There were just about 4,000 people in attendance, with a dozen or so ballrooms and other spaces hosting live bands playing a huge range of music for everyone to dance to all night.  At one point we were dancing and singing along to a live (and quite good) cover of Love Shack in the Radetzky apartments...if that at all helps to round out your idea of what a ball is.

The Austrian portion of the opening festivities

And the traditional opening (hopefully the video below works)

It is easy to get caught up in all the fun and dancing and sort of forget that you are in fact in this ridiculously grand imperial space.  

The main Festsaal

This is the cover of one of the Sunday papers just over a week ago.  The Opera Ball last week turned into something even more exciting than usual, between Kardashian drama and fist fights between grown men in white bow ties and tails (this paper is from before all that unfolded). 

And then last evening, with a perhaps more distinctly Carnival feeling, was the Rudolfina Redoute where all the ladies wear masks until midnight.

The opening processional

Alles Walzer!  It really is so mesmerizing to watch everyone spin perfectly in sync all sorts of colors of long dresses floating around the room.  I really do need to practice this particular skill more.

One of the other ballrooms near the Festsaal, fun fact about this room...apparently this is where Napoleon asked for the hand of Maria Louise, one of the Habsburg daughters. Not sure they could have imagined we'd be dancing to contemporary music with multicolored lights in here in 2014.

And of course, being in a palace does not mean there cannot also be a "Heurigen" inside, complete with the accompanying food, drinks, and music.

And after midnight the masks were able to come off!  Such a fun evening, I will never turn down a night to get dressed up and dance around a palace.

The other side of the Hofburg in daylight.  I never tire of walking past or through this complex of buildings.  It is beautiful day and night from any angle.

I had to rush a bit to go through these photos and post this as we're packing and making last minute adjustments to our presentation for our competition in London this weekend.  One more day of preparations tomorrow and then we're off very early Thursday morning.  We've allotted a bit of tourist time on the front and back ends of this trip, and then it will be back to Vienna for some serious thesis work!