Vienna Officers Ball

We started our night with dinner -

Leaving the hotel. Josh is so adorable in his uniform.

Me and Emma at dinner.

At dinner

In the car on the way to the ball.

The Vienna Officers Ball was with out a doubt a once in a life time thing and something that I will certainly remember forever. It was a great experience, made better by the fact that I got to spend it with my brother! There is no one else I would have rather been with (not even David Beckham). It was held in Hofsburg Palace- so basically it was guaranteed to be amazing. I mean, it's a palace. Seriously how could it go wrong? It's a legitimate ball, in a legitimate palace. I figured it would be fabulous -and I was right, it was. 

Right outside the palace

The staircase walking into the ball

Rumor had it you would get kicked out of the ball if you weren't dressed fancy enough -floor length dress=mandatory- but I don't think that was the case. Everyone was dressed very nice, but I saw some ankles: scandalous! The military dress uniforms were all really cool and I had fun trying to guess what country people were from. (Also did you know the British really do still have red coats?! Slightly awesome.) 

The main ballroom

The ball started with a debutante dance-they each had their own officer to dance with. I have to say I always wanted to be a debutante, but after watching this I decided maybe not (good thing too I think I am about eight years too old for it). They had to stand perfectly still holding a flower for (I swear) like two hours. Yikes! Props to them though.

There were lots of different ballrooms, tons of cool bands and dancing. Right next door to where we had out tables the American Military Band was playing and they were amazing! They played really fun swing music and people were really getting into it.

One of the ballrooms.

Josh and I spent most of the night with the other American officers (and some German officers) talking and had a great time. But we ended up leaving around 2:30 am (it lasted till 4). We went back to the hotel and picked up Joseph and changed real quick. Then we went to a roof top bar that looked over the Stephendom to just talk and ended up joking and laughing the whole time, it was the perfect ending to a great night. We totally let our nerds out and talked about Animorphs (remember that book series? Josh and I were obsessed) and Star Wars and naturally Star Trek too (which none of us have ever watched but apparently there are a lot of hidden political messages in it). It was an amazing experience and I was extremely lucky to have had the chance to attend a real life ball!! Seriously Princess status! 

Grawwrrrr

Military Dinner

Vienna Military Arsenal, where the dinner was held.

Outside of the arsenal

The inside of the museum: holy amazing.

Apparently going to the Vienna Officers Ball is a multiple day affair, which I did not know in advance. Luckily Emma (Josh's upstairs neighbor and a fellow officer) told me I would need a cocktail outfit and I was able to scrape something up. The day before the ball there is a military dinner (somewhat misleading there was not a lot of food, but there was a rockin' desert bar: yummm!)

walking up the staircase

I don't mean to brag, but we are pretty cute!

The real fun was after the dinner when we went to the after party... which was in a  real life Officers Club. I was told that these were mostly done away with after integration of women into the military service, but in Vienna there is still one going strong. And it was awesome. Why? Uhm because it was like James Bond hidden and you had to be buzzed in, like a total celebrity. Then you walked through this old building, followed the noise and ended up at the Officers Bar... The military guys like it because they can drink in their uniforms at a bar (only because it's a military bar, no non-affiliated civilians allowed).
It was really fun, very crowded and there were some fun military traditions (like drinking out of a helmet) that I got to watch. Also some military guys got their "spurs" so that was celebrated (side note: Josh has his "spurs" -not that I have any idea what that means, to be honest- so yay Josh! He also has a super cute military cowboy hat.)
All and all, everyone should get to experience a James Bond hidden bar at one point in their life. Quite a few people ended up pretty intoxicated and apparently slept in the alleyway of the old building, but I was not one of them. I kindly tried to wake them up but that wasn't happening- so I left with Emma around 2am and considered it a night very well spent.

(Lots of the pictures of the Vienna Military Arsenal were taken by this blogger and they are 100x better then anything I could have taken, so thanks to her!)