somewhere i need to give a second chance: vienna, austria.
On my first Eurotrip (which also happens to be my firs blog post ever, whut up – we’ve come a long way bloggy), I had high expectations for everywhere. I had never been to Europe, so it was all fun and games all the time, seriously. The trip was organized at a crazy pace of 10 countries in 20 days at about 2 nights per city, which meant we saw all we could and partied as much as possible at every destination to truly make the best of each place. We were freshly 21 and the world was our oyster (although 21 lost its significance in Europe, the importance was our mindset).
Anyway, about halfway through the trip, we arrived in Vienna, Austria after what I can only describe as a blurry whirlwind of our previous two stops, Munich and Interlaken. These two cities turned out to be our favorite stops of the trip. Anyway, we were on a traveler’s high and did not want to leave either wildly different but equally majestic place. I’m telling you, one of my friends broke her vegetarianism in Munich. Big things were happening.
But, we had more of Europe to see and Vienna was next on the list. Our arrival started off rough. We were supposed to make a day trip stop in Salzburg between Munich and Vienna, but after de-boarding the train in the wrong village of the Austrian Alps and vicious hangovers for some, we decided Salzburg would be around for another day and we continued onto Vienna. As our train was pulling up in Vienna and we were pulling our backpacks off the luggage rack in the train car, Anne’s strap got caught and pulled the emergency lever. It set off an alarm, the doors opened, and the train came to a halt. As we heard the train workers yelling, we realized what happened and did what any sane backpacker would do and ran for it while yells resounded behind us.
So our trip to Vienna just wasn’t set up for success and as you can see in the pictures, the weather did not help highlight the cities colors. Wow, I’ve already written too much and not even talked about the city. Anyway, I do have two Vienna must-sees:
- Schonbrünn Palace - the most popular tourist attraction in Vienna, and for good reason, the palace and palace gardens are a “mini” Versailles – an ornate summer home dating back to the 1600s. You can spend an entire day exploring here, seriously. But due to our subpar moods, we rode around on a train (pathetic, I know).
- Prater - a huge park that includes an amusement park with rides and typical fair offerings. We had a wildly amusing time there for no particular reason, I can’t explain it. It’s worth a stop though and it’s a really lively part of the city. We were like kids in a candy store.
Things we probably should have also included:
- Austrian food (we ate Asian food – sorry ’bout it)
- Mozart’s home (it’s now a museum – he only lived there 3 years)
- St. Stephen’s Cathedral (after Spain & Italy, we said “once you’ve seen one church, you’ve seen them all)
- Belvedere Palace
- Vienna Opera House
- Hofburg Palace (Marie Antoinette was born here, and lots of other happenings occurred)
- See the Spanish Riding School
Clearly, it’s not that Vienna lacks offerings or personality. We even had friend’s who had studied abroad there send us all sorts of suggestions. But sometimes, you’re just not feeling it. An important lesson about our stop in Vienna is that sometimes it’s A-Ok to take a day or two off. Successive traveling is beyond exhausting. Your back, your feet, and your wallet wear down. By our next stop, Budapest, we were back to our normal selves. Sorry our rest had to fall in Vienna, but it did and was much needed.
If you’re heading to Vienna, there are a range of hotels on venere.com for your upcoming trip. Hopefully, I’ll be heading back there soon. First impressions mean a lot, but I’m willing to give it a second chance.
Have you ever visited Vienna? What were your thoughts?
Never been to Vienna but definitely a place I wanna go. And agree, sometimes you have to rest or the trip will just be a blur. I love that your friend accidentally stopped the train, and that y’all ate Asian ?! Haha.
The stopping the train was straight out of a movie. But really, it’s their fault. Who gives anyone the power to do something like that, even if it is only for emergencies? Craziness.
vienna looks so lovely. i haven’t been there though. hopefully one day i can make the trip. and that time not for work
I liked what I saw of Vienna. But we went there over new year and it was COLD!! At one point we went to the butterfly house purely to get warm. I need to go in summer, when I can appreciate it more.
Austrian food is a lot like German food lots of meat and potatoes. And Schnitzel of course.
Have you had Kaiserscharrn? I had that with the kids a lot last year and loved it. I mean it’s mashed up pancakes to me essential, so what’s not to like but still?
Love that y’all took shelter in the butterfly house pahaha
I have never been across an ocean. I like to attribute this to the fact that a) my parents don’t love me and b) i don’t have money for any kind of fun eurotripping and mostly c) i’d die from exhaustion. I don’t think I’m cut out to be a traveler but I need to get my ass to germany and find some of my kinfolk, you know, the Schindewolf’s.
Haha I used to feel the same way until I saved all this money to go while my friends all had their parents paying, it was a brutal blow the the bank account but obviously had life changing effects since I’m still here somehow.
Ya with your 930 bed time, you might consider a little slower pace than 10 countries in 21 days, but really, any sane person would do something else.
And if your family name is really Schindewolf, that rules. I’m jealous.
Wow, it truly looks like an amazing place! I have to admit – I have never ever been to Vienna, even though I was living so close to the city (about 3 hrs drive), I saw Salzburg though which is highly recommendable! I would defo go for the Spanish riding school and I would include the Hundertwasser buildings since I am a bit of an art / architecture nerd sometimes, ha ha/ The Schoenbrunn is certainly a must and lots of Schnitzel etc! I have heard that those small islands in the Danube have good clubs / bars, and the going out should be amazing (try this underground club, which was supposed to be or a former underground shopping centre..) Foodwise I would go for the sweet stuff and eat A LOT of pancakes (which are called Palatschinken in Austria. The reason why they are called that way is unknown to me but they are delicious. And even if they are called “schinken” they do not contain any ham
)
Love,
Svenja
xx
PS Which one is your favorite European country?
Ooo what’s the name of this underground club, do you know? I’ve had Kaiserscharrn which I love. Do you have any recommendations for me in Salzburg? I am planning a trip there for April.
My favorite European countries are Germany and Switzerland, but I loved my glimpse of Denmark and am really excited to check out the rest of Scandinavia this summer. What is your favorite?
Yay, Denmark is great, especially the people and so are the Swedes, who I know (have not been there myself – yet, but it is defo in the planning). Salzburg is fantastic. Cute. Sophisticated. Small. Pretty. The place of Mozart, so you can visit his house. There is a castle which can be visited. It is up on a hill and provides you an awesome view about the city! It is also a nice place for classical music (festivals) in case it is your cup of tea, nice for shopping and musing around.. A place a little bit away from the hassle of a real big city, dreamy.
I think the name of the club was Flex, you can find its webpage here . Although I am not sure whether it is the one as I remember that it was more the direction of electronic music. Nevertheless, I will let you know if I remember it properly (I turned 30 last year, I get old, aahhhh).
My favorite country is probably Ireland as it has a cool combination of a hip bigger city (Dublin), lovely scenery (basically the rest of the country, ha ha), gorgeous people, a lot of traditional things to read into, literature, lots of castles and everything is located close to each other so that traveling Ireland is without spending too much time on air carriers, cars or trains.
The amount of sun hours is a bonus too, so I should maybe drop my plans on learning Danish (I have already registered, but now have to wait until enough people signed up, grr) and take an Italian class, ha ha.
Foodwise I’d immediately go for Italy. Yummy. Luckily I do not live there otherwise I would get fat. I mean really fat. I mean it is the birth country of Tiramisu, ice cream, pasta, pizza, prosecco — I think I could go on for ages, ha ha. Maybe I could also work on my discipline
Arrivderci for now
Svenjaxx
Uhh, I think I have written you a book now. Sorry for that.
Pahah you’re the best, I love that you just wrote a novel! Thanks for the tips!
I REALLY want to go to Ireland, both Dublin and Galway and well, everywhere. I’ve been to Italy and the food is just awesome, but for some reason, I didn’t get that Italy hook that lots of others experience. But the Sun is nice!
Wow 10 cities in 20 days sounds tough! No wonder you needed a break in-between! I’m sure Vienna is gorgeous – I can’t wait to go there someday! Have you seen photos of the famous Sachertorte? Mouth-watering!
Oh wow, the Sachertorte looks super rich! We definitely should’ve tried that while there. Like why did we think Asian food was a good idea? My favorite Austrian thing I’ve had is Kaiserschmarrn haha.
That’s amazing that you guys just bolted, hahaha. And 10 cities in 20 days is insane! I think I would have collapsed from exhaustion.
Looking back, it really sounds completely and utterly insane. 3 overnight trains were involved, too.
I feel the same way about Rome… last summer I was backpacking in Europe with my cousin and Rome was our last stop and we were just exhausted and literally did not appreciate the city for what it is. We ate some good food, but didn’t do much else. I’ll have to give it another shot, too. I had a great experience in Vienna though, definitely try it out again!
I liked Rome a lot more my second go ’round, but then again we had this UNBELIEVABLE tour guide that shared stories you could only dream of, so that really made all the difference, too. What was your favorite part of Vienna?
Gosh tour guides can really have an impact.. that’s how I feel about Berlin, too. I mean it’s obviously a wonderful city anyway, but my tour guide on my first day there was incredible and I still remember the stories he told! Anyway, in Vienna I loved the Schönbrunn Palace- so beautiful. and we went to an opera at the opera house and that was a cool experience!
Oooh if you remember how to contact that tour guide or the company, I’ll def have to use him next time I’m in Berlin! I bet the Opera in Vienna was just awesome!
it was Sandemann’s New Europe tours.. I’m sure you’ve heard of them.. they do free walking city tours (tips encouraged) in a lot of the major cities in Europe.. most of the tour guides have some sort of theater experience or are just really animated and they tell great stories- really earn their tips. I remember our guide in Berlin was Paulo (he was cute too!).
Paulo with Sandemann’s in Berlin, check! Thanks, Hailey!
10 cities in 20 days is insaaaaane! But you got to see a bunch of places I haven’t been yet, so that was cool.
I made it to Vienna last year, and I agree, the Prater was fun. The butterfly house was neat, and super hot- my camera lens steamed up! And the Spanish Riding School was quite interesting.
Do try the kaiserschmarrn while you’re there; it’s quite delicious.
oh, and I loved the “No Kangaroos in Austria” signs.
I didn’t even know about the butterfly house, but I LOVE Kaiserschmarrn!
I still haven’t been to Vienna, and it is definitely on my list of must-dos. I can’t believe you guys accidentally pulled the alarm, that is too funny!!!
Vienna is just one of those places… I want to go, but I don’t NEED to go. But, I will give it a try because it would be rude not to
And the backpack and the emergency lever… I’D DIE!
Hahaha that’s how I feel about going back – if I do a GermanWings blind booking and end up there, I won’t complain
I’ve never heard of a GermanWings blind booking, so I looked it up. That’s a fabulous idea! And massively cheap!
I can’t really believe that I have never been there. I always wanted to but never made it. But hopefully I will have the chance to visit Wien someday!
There’s definitely a ton to do, I’m looking forward to making it back someday!!
That’s so funny, I was just talking with a friend the other day about places that didn’t really knock my socks off, and Vienna was on my list. I agree with you that I’d like to give it a second chance… given that I was there for the weekend with a friend who has a much different travel style to me, we didn’t get to see that much. We had Sacher Torte at the famous cafe, and we saw Schonbrunn palace, but I wanted to get to the Prater and that didn’t happen. We spent most of the Saturday we were there at the flea market, which is HUGE and pretty cool, but not for like, 5 hours. But it was my friend’s first trip to Europe and that’s what she wanted to do. So we did it. I’ll just leave it off the “to-see” list for next time.