Vienna: The Gate to Eastern Europe

Commonly, people equate a college spring break with sand, the sun and more often than not a little too much beer.  Well, I'm proud to say my spring break this year was quite different.  This past week, eight friends and I ventured throughout Eastern Europe, traveling through Vienna, Austria; Krakow, Poland; and Prague, Czech Republic.

On Sunday March 10, we arrived in Vienna.  My first reactions were a tad negative.  The city--even on its busiest streets-- was quite empty (I'll cut Vienna some slack though, seeing as it was a Sunday!).  The pastel-colored buildings seemed like a futile attempt to bring warmth to the city.  The area we stayed in was old, but not really in a cultural way.  I was a little skeptical of what was to come.

However, we were pleased when we arrived at our hostel, the Wombats City Lounge.  Our group of nine divided into two rooms, and we didn't even have to sleep with any randos!  Score.  After checking in, we began a 40-minute trek to the center of the city.  This walk was BRUTAL because it was on virtually one humongous shopping street, Mariahilfer Straße.  All the shops looked the same, so it was pretty hard to distinguish landmarks to make the walk seem shorter:(  However, there were an abundance of gelatto stores on the way, so that certainly helped.

Once we passed through that district of the city, we entered the Museum Quartier, and this is where the magic happened!  I would soon learn that this grand collection of palatial buildings used to be the residences of the royal Habsburg family, an empire that ruled Vienna from the middle of the 13th century to 1918. The entire area was exquisite, filled with one impressive building after another.  

Vienna lookin' pretty: The National History Museum,

The Sisi Museum,

 and The Museum of Art History (all of which comprise the grand Hofburg Palace).

Rightfully so, we were enthralled with the area, and we liked it so much that we decided to return later that night.  Luckily for us, Sunday was the last day that a public ice rink was open at the Rathaus, a local government building.  Although we were a little timid on the ice compared to some crazy, hockey-playing Eastern Europeans, we certainly weren't the worst ones out there, so that boosted our confidence.  We ended up having a spectacular night on the ice, and we even walked away injury-free.  Winning!

The Rathaus, the backdrop of our magical night on the ice.

Holding on for dear life.

On Monday, we were determined to actually learn some history about Vienna, rather than just wandering around and taking pictures of things haha.  Two of my girlfriends and I spent the majority of our day at the Sisi Museum (which is housed in the Imperial Apartments in the Habsburg Estate).  The museum featured a lengthy exhibit about Empress Elisabeth, who married into the Habsburg family through her marriage with Emperor Franz Joseph in 1854.  Learning about Elisabeth was simply fascinating, as she was a troubled monarch who longed for freedom outside the demands of royal life.  After her assassination in 1898 she became a symbol of Austria (specifically, Vienna), and to this day she is a cultural icon.  I was completely captivated by her story, and I couldn't believe before going to Vienna I didn't know ANY of this!  Wow.  After absorbing all this knowledge, I was sure to grab some Apfelstrudel to reward/refuel myself.

Apfelstrudel, the Austrian delicacy, tasted even better than it looked!

That night we ventured past the Museum Quartier to pick up discounted £4 tickets to the "Miesterwerke des 20 Jahrhunderts" ballet at the Royal Opera House.  I could not believe what amazing seats we had for the little price we paid!  Granted, we did have to stand for a few hours (and after walking about 8 miles per day that was painful), but overall the performance was simply marvelous.  The first act was very traditional ballet, but the second was my favorite--more modern, with a darker message.  I'm amazed with how accessible culture is to people in the city.  It's just way too cool.

Outside the ballet with some of my closest ND girlfriends!  2 London girls, 2 Dublin girls and 1 South Bend girl who loves us so much she flew all the way to Europe to spend spring break here:)

Inside the theatre...Wien Musik!

Tuesday was our final day in Vienna.  It was much colder than Monday (where temps reached a scorching 12 degrees C!) so we limited our time outside.  First, we ventured to the Schönbrunn Palace, where the Habsburgs vacationed.  The palace, which reminded me of Versailles, looked beautiful even in the cold weather; I can only imagine what the grounds look like in the summer.  

Cheesing outside the Palace.

This specific building was ESPECIALLY GREAT because it had a bathroom. 

I don't know about you, but we'd be cool with summering here.

Once we finished exploring the Palace, we grabbed some peppermint tea at a nearby cafe to brace ourselves for the cold walk to Burggarten, where we saw a statue of Mozart.  I studied piano for ~10 years growing up, so I was especially impressed that Mozart lived in Vienna.  When I studied his music, he felt worlds away; therefore, you can imagine how strange it felt to realize that he walked these very streets 200 years ago.  

Mozart and flowers...could it get any better?!

For dinner our group grabbed random foods from the Karlzplatz Market.  The market consisted of both permanent restaurants and mobile stands.  This part of our night was quite pleasant, but little did we know what was ahead of us. (Uh oh...)  Before heading home, we stopped at Wein & Co, a wine bar.  Three of the six of us ordered wine, and the restaurant was not at capacity, so we thought occupying one table would be appropriate.  When the waitress took our orders and realized that half of us were not ordering alcohol, she asked us to leave, because the restaurant "was not a museum."  Now this did not sit well with us, but we didn't really know the proper way to react.  We later asked to speak with her manager-- LOL of course she was the manager-- and explained our reactions.  I think both sides were polite in the discussion, but she did have a point.  She identified a cultural difference in Austria: apparently entering a bar and failing to order a drink is considered quite rude here.  Please learn from my mistake and drink up or get out during your future Austrian endeavors!

So that's Vienna in a nutshell.  Overall, I have mixed reactions about the city.  It was quite larger than I anticipated, so we walked a ton and were often quite exhausted.  Some areas of the city (mainly the Museum Quartier) were exquisite, drenched with intense history we could still feel today.  However, the rest of the city was barren and a little eerie.  I think I may have overestimated it, and thus I was disappointed with the appearance and feel of the rest of the city.  Regardless, I did make some fabulous memories: most notably, ice skating that first Sunday night.  It was pure fun, and that is what spring break is all about :)

Stay tuned for entries from Krakow and Prague!
Cheers,
C