Last week, I decided on the spur of the moment that I should join my sister on her trip to Vienna. She had booked train tickets and a hotel room a few weeks before and because I was very bored, I thought that it would be a great idea to go and see Vienna as well.
My sister has been a huge fan of Austria for quite some time. I have only been to Innsbruck a few times but never to Vienna.
So after five hours on the train, we finally arrived and it was brutally hot there after we had almost been frozen on the train by its air conditioning.
I had not made any particular plans on what to look at or where to go to for lunch and dinner. I just knew about one café because a friend of mine had been there earlier this year.
So when my sister and I arrived, we were clueless. We had to get a ticket for the underground and map. My advice: if you are in Vienna for only a few days - for example, three days - you should buy the 72-Stunden-Ticket. It is only 16,50 euros for the whole three days and takes you practically anywhere you need.
The first couple of hours in Vienna were rather strange.
Sometimes you have a certain image of a city in your head and when you are finally in that place and everything is different than you had thought, it feels peculiar at first. And this is what had happened to me on my very first day in Vienna. But on the second day, I was already in love with that city. Its people, their awesome dialect (Wiener Schmäh), their culture, their food. There is diversity everywhere you go. And history, tradition and customs.
Something you need to try when in Vienna:
Wiener Schnitzel :-)
Macarons from this bakery
You can do the typcial tourist stuff such as taking a tour around the Schönbrunn castle.
Vienna is famous for its traditional coffee houses (Kaffeehäuser).
Café Central in Herrengasse 14 is one of them and it is fantastic there. Get there early to make sure you'll get seated without having to queue up for ages.
I ordered coffee and Kaiserschmarrn, a traditional Austrian dessert, and it was delicious.
Apart from its coffee houses and delicious cuisine, Vienna is also famous for its artists and musicians. There are plenty of museums, theatres, opera houses, etc.
If you want to see many things in Vienna on the cheap, you should definitely take a trip to the Hundertwasserhaus in Kegelhausgasse. The artist Hundertwasser came up with the idea and the concept for this apartment building.
Just a stone's throw away from the Hundertwasser building, in Untere Weißgerberstraße, you can find the Kunsthaus in Vienna - a museum also designed by Hundertwasser.
If you are hungry, go for a walk along the Naschmarkt. It is Vienna's most popular market and you'll find plenty of stalls there.
And if it is really, really hot and your feet ache and you just want to relax, take a trip to the Danube. The river plays an important role in the lives of the Viennese (so I was told at least) and there is quite a lot happening there when it's warm and sunny. Everyone is out and about there.
My sister and I bought some cake, sat down by the riverside and watched a canoe polo tournament. It was such a lovely evening.
Right down the line, Vienna is most certainly worth a visit!
Kat :-)
