Starting out on a series of mundane errands late this afternoon (although ‘mundane’ is a misnomer when walking anywhere in Vienna), to purchase blank CDs and covers, and make a couple of phone calls, I simply couldn’t return to the apartment afterwards, with today's deliciously balmy weather. Deciding to explore a part of my neighborhood that I wasn’t familiar with, I discovered a series of embassies (Nigeria, Britain, Ireland), a new park, and, peeking over the rooftops as I rounded one corner, gleaming gold fairytale onion domes. This initially hallucinatory vision beckoned me to come hither. And when I did, encountering its glorious fantastical full façade, it turned out to be THE Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Vienna, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas. I had the even greater fortune to happen upon it while a small and extremely proficient mixed choir was rehearsing in a room in the back of the cathedral, in full frontal eastern-tinged voice, doors open, harmonies wafting out into the street and turning it golden too. Wish I’d had the recorder with me to upload a clip of the singing. Instead, here's a photo of those magnificent magical domes.
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