Austria is a country located in Central Europe, just northeast of Italy. The official language of Austria is German and its capital city is Vienna, which lies along the second-larger river in Europe, the Danube River.
As the third leg of my 4-country, 1 week tour through parts of Central Europe, I stopped in Vienna, Austria for approximately 36 hours. Our time in Vienna started at the city's central train station, Wien Hauptbahnhof, where my friends Ethan, Kabir, and I met up with Kendal after arriving from Prague around midday. With half the day already gone, we made our way to the hostel to drop off our bags and headed to our first point of interest, Belvedere Palace.
Exploring the Belvedere Palace was a pretty cool experience, comprising a large outdoor gardens and what was essentially an art gallery at Upper Belvedere. The palace was split into an upper and lower section with buildings on either side of the property, named appropriately Upper and Lower Belvedere and dating back to the 18th century. While inside the Upper Palace, I decided to wander off from the rest of the group and do some solo art appreciation and introspection.
There were a lot of interesting text blurbs in each of the palace rooms describing the cultural history throughout the past few centuries in Vienna. Though at the time of writing this, much of that escapes me. I also didn't take many photos inside the palace, you know, being introspective and all, but there were some artworks that stood out to me. The hyper-realistic, high definition paintings of Napolean on a horse and of an early train station made me feel like I was looking through a window into the past. Another painting I photographed was of The Kiss by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, which was the main display in their collection, so I figured it only right to capture so I can say I was there. There were also a few marble sculptures that stood out to me, such as the man with a scrunched facial expression and the column design of a man holding up the ceiling in entrance room.
After leaving the palace, we were all pretty hungry so we stopped in a small bar/coffee shop just down the street for a quick snack. The lady working there was super nice and hooked each of us up with slices of Sachertorte, which is a famous chocolate cake originally from Vienna. We stayed and chatted for over an hour before making our way to a much anticipated dinner spot.
For weeks Ethan had been raving about this restaurant in Vienna where his friend was blown away by "banana beer", so of course we had to investigate the hype ourselves. Luckily we arrived before the place got too busy and managed to get a table for four. The first thing we did was order 4 banana beers, known as Edelweiss Hefetrub and described as a "naturally cloudy, golden yellow and particularly fruity with a light banana nose" wheat beer. I struggled to NOT chug it all in one gulp. I don't know if it was the best beer I've ever had but it was just so sweet, but not overly sweet, that it made for an enjoyable drinking experience. Paired with a classic Wiener schnitzel, another staple of Vienna, it made for a high-tier dinner.
The next day, we joined a free walking tour from our hostel to explore more of what the city had to offer. We walked through the iconic Naschmarkt (left), which offered a lively atmopshere with dozens of food stands. Continuing on our walk, we passed the Secession Building (middle), which served as a monument to Vienna Secession art movement, and the historic Vienna State Opera House (right).
After the tour, we made our way over to the main church in Vienna, St. Stephen's Cathedral. It honestly appeared out of nowhere as we rounded the corner, but wow was this thing tall. Very impressive architecture, 9.6/10.
Our next train didn't leave for another few hours, so we decided to spend some time at the Vienna fairgrounds a little ways outside of city center. Known as Prater, the fairgrounds are home to a giant ferris wheel, Wiener Riesenrad, from the late 1800s. We spent something like 15 euros each to ride the wheel one time around, which was vastly overpriced for the experience, but hey, add another historical monument to the list. After, the four of us rode on one of the rides there (Mousetrap) and grabbed a brief lunch (where I tried my first beef goulash) before heading to the train station.
One tidbit I really enjoyed in Vienna was the attention to detail they put into their pedestrian crosswalk lights. Each light offered a fun image of a pedestrian walker and bicyclist that changed depending on the color of the light. For instance, the green "go" light displayed a person riding a bike whereas the red "stop" light showed the bike leaning over with bicyclist stopped on one foot. There was also a green light showing a couple holding hands while crossing the street with a heart between them.
