Day 2
We started the day with a tram tour around the ring street (district). I hate taking trams or buses in Europe during summer simply because there was no air-con!! Poor ventilation inside the vehicle. Honestly, I do not find anything great about the ring district except for endless line of trees along the street.
Next stop: Stephansdom. Another cathedral, but this one had impressive exterior athough it had stood since the 10th century. Interior was normal. I’ve never really been able to appreciate cathedrals and churches so I was not particularly impressed here. At the open space outside the cathedral, we were persuaded by a concert promoter to purchase tickets for a classical performance at 8:30 pm in the evening. All of us except Shaowei agreed to give it a try and we paid an extravagant 23 euros.
At 12, we watched this special clock which had saints which paraded for 10 minutes every 12 noon. 
I grabbed a quick lunch at a roadside stall. They really have very loooooooooooooonngg sausage. The way it was presented was a bit obscene though. One edge of the hotdog bun was cut off and the remaining long piece was inserted into a drill-like machine which made a hole in the bun. The sausage was then inserted into this bun. S-exciting stuff.
Vienna has always been famous for its special coffee called mélange. Basically, it is a mixture of cappucino and hot chocolate. We went to Café Hawelda which was supposedly very famous for this coffee. I thought it tasted normal, albeit a bit lighter than the usual cappuccino, and the 3.40 euros I forked out for it was a bit too steep.
We then went to the cemetery where the tombs of Mozart, the Strauss family and Beethoven were located. Each tomb in this cemetery had its own design and was very well-maintained.
Belvedere Palace was our next destination. After a few palaces and gardens, I was starting to get sick of having to visit another palace. Somehow, they all looked the same to me at this point. We took many stupid photos while resting on the grass patch outside the Austrian National Library which was in the same complex.
We ended the evening with a bang. Initially, I had this apprehension that we might have been cheated by that guy on the street. This was not helped when we stepped into the concert hall which had quite poor seats and poor lighting. The guy mentioned air-con in the concert hall, but there was only the natural one. Luckily, once the concert commenced, it totally proved me wrong. The pieces put up by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra never failed to mesmerize me throughout the night. They did not play the whole length of a piece as it would have put all of us to sleep. The music changed every now and then and occasionally, was accompanied by soprano or tenor solo/duet as well as ballet dancers. Good stuff. I had been waiting for something different other than museums/castles/palaces. Good way to end our trip to Vienna.
Prague
By the time I reached Prague I was really quite tired of travelling already. I was in no mood to explore museums/palaces/castles. I did not really enjoy myself as much in Prague, but to be fair, Prague is a beautiful city with plenty of romantic restaurants. I would probably have enjoyed it more if it was my first destination.
We did minimal sightseeing and the pace was pretty slow. The famous Charles Bridge was bustling with many street performers, artists, painters, etc. There were many restaurants on both side of the river bank.
Anyway, the food here is relatively cheap compared to those in the previous cities. For comparison sake, 1 plate of beef goulash here cost me about 3-4 euros while I would have paid double elsewhere. If you were to visit Prague, you must have dinner at Restaurant Olympia. It is dirt cheap and the portion is ridiculously big. I paid a total of 8 euros for a plate of roasted rabbit, an appetizer of pork crackling and 1 pine of Pilsner beer. Shiok.
We visited Prague castle on our second day, but the only thing worth noticing here was another cathedral called Saint Vita.
In the evening, I decided to split from the group and took a stroll with Sinhui. We had dinner at one of the restaurants by the riverbank. Nice ambience, quality food. Paid 26 euros in total, but once in a long while, at the right place with the right person, it is worth it.
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