I honestly don’t know how I got started, but back in November I had a thought: I wonder how much it really costs to get a ticket to see the Spanish Riding School perform?
The answer, it turns out, is not a lot of money at all. Around $250 for the absolute front-row best seats in the house. You’d pay far more than that for terrible Broadway tickets.
That line of thinking led to a “I wonder what it costs to fly to Vienna?” Google search.
Which led to a “What would an AirBNB in Vienna cost?”
So, uh, I’m flying to Vienna for my birthday this year.
I’ve got tickets to two Spanish Riding School performances – one with the standard program, and one with the Vienna Boys’ Choir. I’ve got morning exercise & behind the scenes tour tickets. I’ve got an apartment about three blocks away.
Oh, and my mom is coming with me, because one of the things that led to me saying eff it and booking this trip is that life is short and losing my dad so suddenly last year still continues to ricochet through my brain and heart.
It’s one of the more impulsive and extravagant things I’ve done, and it makes my work schedule in May pretty tricky, but I’m SO EXCITED.
I have no idea what I’m going to do for the rest of the week – I suspect my mother won’t be game for going to morning exercises every single day – so if you have any ideas for things to do in Vienna, let me know!
beljoeor.com 
Find some good tack shops!
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I should! I tried to go to some in Ireland but mostly failed. So I will do more research ahead of time for this trip.
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Hooray! That sounds amazing.
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wow i am so impressed you are doing this and I am so glad your mom is going too. I wish I had taken my mom on some of my trips before she died….i regret that….
I can’t wait to follow along your trip!! When is your bday?? I am jealous (not about the birthday) HA
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This will be so amazing!!! I can’t wait for you to come back and tell us all about it! I hope they allow you to take photos.
And I second Amanda, definitely go tack shopping!
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Sacher Torte at Café Sacher.
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Wow that sounds amazing! Definitely a bucket list item for me too. I think there should be lots to see and do in Vienna – including lots of amazing coffee shops with equally amazing cake/baked goods.
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THIS IS SO COOL!
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I regret not taking the train out to Piber to visit the Lipizzaner stud farm – a day trip. There are beautiful castles, etc to tour & of course the food is to die for!!! It’s a fabulous city so very clean & safe. You & your Mom are in for the trip of a lifetime!
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oh my god. Can I come too? I did see the SRS when we were in Vienna for a day but there was no performance. I really wanted to see the training but it was the rest day for the horses. The tour was still fabulous though.
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THIS SOUNDS AMAZING!! Good for you!
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Have you revived this? I was so bummed for you. And for me, I was def going to stalk.
Speaking of which …
Would you consider some sort of virtual tagalong in return for travel assistance? Posts during the trip. A souvenir. Pony pix. This sort of thing can become a hairball and is very likely not worth whatever money you could charge, so it would have to be something that amused you to do. $0.02
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… I mean ,when and if you decided to go. Got ahead of myself there.
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