D-enna in Vienna

Authored By:

Deanna K.

 

Time for another long overdue post! This time on last month’s trip to Austria. More specifically, Vienna.

Admittedly, I did not know much about Austria prior to the trip. Nor did I do a whole lot of research beforehand. The only visualization I had of the country was Julie Andrews singing “The Hills Are Alive” in the Sound of Music. And the setting for that movie wasn’t even in Vienna.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

What I did know about Vienna was that it was a mere 4.5 hour train ride from Prague. Perfect for my first weekend trip outside the Czech Republic.

That Friday, I met my friends (Olivia, Stevie, and Kelsey) at the train station directly from school. Everything went smoothly enough- we boarded on time and enjoyed snacks and movies as our train moved along the countryside. As someone who never takes trains (especially along the countryside), I felt a little like I was on the Hogwarts Express.

We arrived in Vienna late in the evening and immediately wanted to get to our hostel to put our stuff down and get some sleep. Problem was, our train stop ended up not being where we thought it was. And so, instead of a 5 minute walk to our hostel, we were closer to an hour’s walk. After wandering around trying (and failing) to figure out the metro/train stops, we caved and called an Uber to take us to our place. Awww well.

Our hostel ended up being a pretty nice place with a location that placed us between all the sites we wanted to see in the next three days. Since there were 4 of us, we got a room all to ourselves.

Day 1 started with Vienna’s well-known coffee and breakfast at a Austrian café where our waiter actually ended up being Czech. And here I could have used my limited Czech as opposed to my severely limited German the whole time…

After, we took a 30 minute walk on over to the Saturday morning flea market.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

The flea market was huge! Unlike the Saturday morning market I’m used  to in the Czech Republic, this market was loaded with antiques, clothes, paintings, jewelry, and knick-knacks. Towards the end, the flea market converted into a food market, where slices of dried mango and falafel were generously given out for free.

Next, we walked over to the Danube River for a 1-hour cruise that we had booked online. After much backtracking along the river (the struggles of traveling in a foreign country with poor English instructions), we finally found our boat. However, we got a very strange look from the man in charge of giving us our tickets. Turns out, we had accidentally booked tickets for a cruise in October 2019. So, we were a year early for our cruise. Oops. After some pleading and nervous laughter, we got the man to smile and he allowed us on for the day’s cruise.

The anxiety of missing our boat (while at the same time being too early for it) quickly dissipated as we settled into prime seats at the front of the boat and soaked in the sun (it was a warm day for October).

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

The tour may have been in German, but we still got to enjoy the nature views, as well as graffiti done by local artists.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

After the cruise, we stopped for a scoop (or two) of ice cream and then set out for a long walk to the Belvedere art museum.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

From the street entrance, the Belvedere appears nothing special- just a simple courtyard. Walk through the first building and into the next open area though and you are treated to a spacious private garden.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

The Belvedere has a range of art that spans over several centuries. Perhaps one of the most popular pieces featured there is Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. 

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

After a few hours of walking around the Belvedere, it was time for more walking! This time to an Italian restaurant to enjoy an outside meal across the street from this sight:

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

After carb-loading, we regained enough energy to then check out some of Vienna’s nightlife.

Day 2 began with another yummy breakfast, this time at a vegan place called Deli Bluem (definitely recommended if visiting Vienna). We then walked on over to the Leopold Museum to check out more art work. I was excited to see Klimt’s Death and Life here, a painting I have always been fascinated by:

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

At the Leopold, we said goodbye to Kelsey, who had to go back to school on Monday. Olivia, Stevie and I then headed to the quirky Hundertwasserhaus. Along the way though, our past day and a half of walking finally caught up to us and we decided to lay out in a park where I may or may not have dozed off for a bit.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Eventually, we did make it to the Hundertwasserhaus, which was the attraction I wanted to see the most in Vienna.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

The Hundertwasserhaus is a bright expressionist landmark that stands out from the many white imperial-style buildings throughout Vienna. The building consists of actual apartments and offices with trees and bushes randomly jutting out. It also has a café attached to it, where I was able to try Vienna’s famous apfelstrudel (apple strudel) and sachertorte (chocolate torte).

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Next, we went to Prater Park to ride the ferris wheel and get a view of the whole city.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

The ferris wheel carts were a little too crowded for my liking, but still worth checking out.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

We finished the day by eating at an Asian restaurant and walking another 1.5 hours to get back to our hostel (we were determined to keep our anti-public transportation streak going).

Day 3- After breakfast at another café we decided to head to one of Vienna’s most popular attractions: the Schönbrunn Palace. Since we were leaving Vienna that day, we didn’t actually have time to tour inside the palace. Rather, we just circled around to the back of the building and into the gardens.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

By far, the Schönbrunn Palace was my favorite part of my trip. We climbed up the garden hill that not only overlooked the palace, but also all of Vienna.

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

It was another beautiful day with the weather being warm, but not sweating hot. We laid out right on the hill and all I kept thinking was how fortunate I was to experience this on what otherwise would be a typical Monday morning back home. It was the perfect way to end our trip.

The best piece of advice I could give to anyone wanting to visit Vienna is to simply walk everywhere you want to go. Over the course of 2.5 days, we walked 30 miles. Totally worth it with all the sights we stumbled upon:

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Photo for blog post D-enna in Vienna

Thanks for the memories, Vienna!