Dear Vienna

Servus!

Since moving to Austria in March I have (almost) constantly had that “get-up-and-go” feeling. I’m living in a tiny little town (more of a village) named Kufstein located an hour or so away from Munich, just below the border of Austria and Germany. It has fantastic connections to the rest of Europe, with direct trains to Vienna, Verona, Croatia and Bologna. So how could I resist a city break in Vienna after my new Aussie pal suggested to me last week? Bags packed and one train later me and another friend arrived in the city of dreams and awaited our Aussie’s arrival from Salzburg.

We were only there from Monday – Wednesday, but my gosh did we fit a lot in. I couldn’t possibly write every detail of our trip, that would be a very long read indeed, so I’m gonna keep this snappy. Vienna (Wien to the locals) is really somewhere you should experience for yourself.

Hostel: Do Step Inn (Westbahnhof) – This place was really lovely. It wasn’t the grimiest of hostels and the kitchen area was lovely, although we didn’t make much use of it with early mornings and late nights.

Attractions:

Sightseeing buses: We used these several times and they were fab! You get to see so much of the city from a seat. They give you an audio-guide in several languages. I was overwhelmed by the Museum Quarter.

Prater Amusement Park: I absolutely adored going round a vintage theme park at night. The best bit by far was the infamous Ferris Wheel with a gorgeous view of the skyline. I love ghost houses, they have always been my fav, so I was so excited to see what was supposedly the oldest ghost house in the world.

Schönbrunn Palace: This is a gigantic palace that was just a summer home for the Imperials of Austria. The grounds are huge and include a maze, gardens, a Palm House and the oldest zoo in the world. I’d recommend spending a day here if you really want to explore it. We spent just over half the day there and chose not to go to the zoo, yet still felt rushed for time. The Palm House was my personal favourite, with 3 different temperature levels with all sorts of plants from around the world. Stunning.

Haus der Musik: Okay, so this was a bit of a gamble to be honest. We were trying to get back into the center to make it to the Time Travel attraction. To our disappointment when we arrived they were fully booked. This was one of (if not the only) place that was still open. It turned out to be a mixed bag of fun. On entrance you walk up the piano stairs and immediately enter The Womb… Yes, there was an audio interpretation of being in the womb. The museum took various twists and turns through Vienna’s musical history and it was definitely an experience.

St Stephen’s Cathedral: This reminded me a lot of York Minster, but nonetheless rather lovely with an interesting treasury. The roof is bloody beautiful.

Belvedere: The home of “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt, amoungst hundreds more gorgeous pieces of art work. I particually enjoyed the Lower Belvedere as I discovered the work of Klemens Brosch, I imagine I’m a little late on the band wagon.

Austrian National Library: Just, wow. I felt like Belle from Beauty & The Beast.

Weltmuseum: We ended up here as it is home to Montezuma’s Headdress which is a piece of Mexican heritage my friend (from Mexico) was keen to see. The museum was in such a beautiful building and there were so many interesting pieces to see, especially if you’re interested in armories.

The National History Museum: As you may expect from a National History Museum, even still it was interesting. They have the largest collection of rocks and gemstones in the world, I believe. I also really enjoyed the temporary exhibition on Cats & Dogs. A lot of taxidermy animals though.

I think that more or less wraps up the attractions we managed to visit. Perhaps one has momentarily slipped my mind, but I’m sure it will come back to me.On the train there we had a bit of a flap about whether or not to purchase a 3 day Vienna Pass + Travel Card; LONG story (and stress) later, after comparing all the prices, we opted in for it and I sure am glad we did because it gave us access to all the above mentioned, making it super stress free and you can just rattle though the (many) museums as you please, the travel card was also a life saver cos Vienna is MASSIVE.

My trip to Vienna ended rather fittingly, watching Before Sunrise on the train back to Tyrol. It’s a rather beautiful part of a trio of films that I watched about 3 years ago. I had totally forgot it was set in Vienna.

One last thing! I found the tastiest vegan hot dog place in Praterstern station. Unfortunately I can’t quite remember the name, but it’s just opposite the stairs as you come up from Line U1. The lady was very friendly and helped me practice my German – always a plus! The picture of this doesn’t really do it much justice, so I’ll leave it out, but I made a pit-stop here on the way back to the station home cos I had to have another. Worth it.