Night of my life

What an awesome day. Started off Friday the usual way, tiredly waking up for Stats, followed by History of Math. After Bobby made some delicious bacon & eggs, it was off to the city to meet the gentleman who was selling me my tickets to see Dave Matthews Band that night in Vienna. After getting a little turned around walking there, we finally made it to the Radisson Blu Paris hotel, to meet JD for the tickets. FINALLY, they were in my hand. I was seeing my favorite band in the very city I live in; it seemed so surreal. Bobby and I then took a stroll through Stadtpark, a beautiful park to say the least. I finally saw a statue I have been dying to see, the gold-plated statue of Johann Strauss. I really look forward to spending time in this park as the weather starts to warm up.

Before long it was show time, so we hit the underground and headed out towards the venue. After having trouble finding a good (cheap) place to get a beer and some food, we ended up choosing to eat at a McDonalds. Looking back, I do not regret this decision one bit, because Bobby and I met the nicest girl from Sweden. Her name was Ani; she is living in the city doing an internship with the UN and was going to the show by herself. We were quick to let her join our two man posse and enjoy the evening with us.

Then the waiting game began. We stood outside for over an hour, in order to give ourselves the best possible general admission seat. Boy was that worth it--we ended being about two rows back from the stage. Out of the many times I have seen Dave Matthews Band, I knew that this experience would be different than any other. Come 21:20, the boys hit the stage, and I was already in awe. My favorite part of the whole night was how intimate Dave was being with the crowd. He was chatting all night about the city and all the things he had done while being in Vienna, joking about wienerschnitzel and how beautiful the city was but, then, he "saw the ugly," referring to seeing a Mcdonalds in Stephansplatz. I could really relate to everything he was talking about, and it made me feel great on the inside.

The show came to an end and Bobby came INCHES from catching Dave's guitar pick he threw into the crowd after finishing. What a cool souvenir that would have been! Oh well. We took the subway back to Stephansplatz and parted ways with our new friend Ani. But THEN, the U1 had closed, so we had to get our strut on in the rain to make it back to Favoritenstrasse. We were so filled with joy from the awesome night we had just had, it didn't even phase us. We stopped at the infamous Four Bells on the way back, and sure enough our FP buddies were all there. We sat down, had a few drinks and told them about the night we had just experienced.

February 19, 2010, was the best night of my life. I love this city more and more every day, and it takes a unique experience like this to make you fall for such an awesome place. Vienna, I love you.