Visionary Vienna

I call Vienna visionary in my title because as the seat of the Habsburg rule and center of the Austro-Hungarian empire, for years Vienna was one of the intellectual and cultural centers of Europe. It attracted visionaries from all fields, though perhaps most famously those in the field of music. Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss and many more brought to life their musical genius in Vienna. Hyper-romantic images of grandiose ballgowns and graceful waltzes are still linked to the name Vienna. These were the images that filled my mind as we pulled into the station in Vienna. Though not as well versed on the Habsburg empire as I perhaps should be, I still have that widely found girlish longing for the bygone age of balls and operas, and that was enough to have me excited for Vienna. 

Day One

Hostel Ruthensteiner was located conveniently close to the train and metro station, though not the city center.

Stras with Strauss

A three day transport card fixed that problem though and I enjoyed the busy atmosphere at the hostel. Unlike our past hostels, people sat around in a casual bar near the entrance and chatted and drank in the evenings. Though Nathan and I were basically out all day and crashed right when we came back, it did add a nice buzz to the place and it was amusing to witness the flirting and friendship making. 

Once again, we only had two nights so as soon as we dumped our bags we headed out to catch some of the recommended places that were still open. We went to the Leopold Museum in MuseumsQuartier (the former royal stables) and saw a lot of Klimt and Schiele art, along with other famous Austrian artists. We then went to the Kunst Historisches Museum and saw a temporary exhibit on art with two figures and their collection of "kunstkammer" objects, which were exotic objects that Habsburgs and nobles collected to display in their palaces. We then visited St. Stephen's Cathedral in the city center, which is named for the same saint as the school in Austin (the Budapest one was named after a Hungarian king). It was too dark to see the detail though so we decided to come back some other time. 

We then enjoyed a very nice but expensive meal (oops) at a nearby restaurant before catching the metro to go to Prater Park and the famous Wiener Risenrad. The Risenrad is a big, old Ferris wheel which is part of a mini amusement park inside the city park. It wasn't very busy when we went so we had a cabin to ourselves and enjoyed the night view of the city. After the Ferris wheel I was determined to find a place to celebrate the Fourth of July with fellow Americans so I searched for American bars or restaurants on my Vienna App and found one in the city center.

Habsburg Summer Palace

Unfortunately "Nightfly's American Bar" turned out to be a swanky, deserted place that was very nice but with no sign of holiday festivities or Americans. Since it was late and we were worried about the metro closing, I had one symbolic celebratory drink and we headed back to the hostel. 

Day Two

We started off our second day by heading out to the place on our "to see" list that was the furthest away- Schönbrunn Palace, the Habsburg's summer residence. I really liked it, it was like a smaller version of Versailles. The interior wasn't nearly as ornate as Versailles but the gardens were wonderful. We then went to the Naschmarkt, a food market which was nice but kind of awkwardly positioned on a narrow divider between two streets. Next we went to the Belvedere Museum specifically to seen Klimt's "The Kiss." It was impressive to see how big and sparkly it was. After that we went to the main palace in the city center, the Hofsburg Palace. We went into the royal apartments and the Sisi museum. Sisi was a Habsburg empress who was super beautiful and vain but was assassinated and was turned into a bit of myth. I found her very interesting. In fact all of the royalty I learned about sounded like something out of a book, their lives were so dramatic. 

We finished off the day by revisiting the cathedral in light, going to Stadtpark to see the Strauss statue and ending off the evening with a classical music concert that showcased composers that lived in Austria, ballet and opera. It was a very touristy set up but still quite interesting. 

Concert in Stadtpark

Day Three/ Conclusion

We decided to cut short our last day in Vienna. Overall, it was a pretty, historic town but not super exciting. We thought we would add in another stop to our trip. We left Vienna to catch a train to go to Bratislava, Slovakia for the day.