Notes from Abroad

I had interesting expectations for Vienna. Based on what I’d heard and read and even seen on occasion, I really expected Vienna to be a very “European” city. I don’t exactly know what makes one city more European than another, but I figured I’d know it when I saw it.

I wasn’t exactly disappointed by Vienna, but it definitely wasn’t the type of city I expected it to be. It was actually very American. It reminded me a lot of San Francisco and even some parts of NYC at times. Sure it had the cool architecture going for it in places, but overall I was pretty underwhelmed.

Rewinding: My first night in Vienna was pretty mellow. Actually it was very mellow. I went to the grocery store next to the hostel, grabbed myself some yogurt and muesli and pretty much just settled in and sorted out what to do over the next 2 days.

Since I was asleep so dang early (before midnight!), I was also up really early and managed to get up, shower, and be on my way to Schloss Schönbrunn by 9:15AM. Whew! I didn’t want to go into the palace, but I’d heard the gardens were really beautiful, so I figured I’d roam around there for a bit.

One of the guys at the desk at the hostel recommended the garden and said “it’s only half the size it used to be, but it’s still pretty big.” I wasn’t expecting much, but I had two entire days to roam around so I figured I’d check it out. I think the word “garden” was throwing me off, because this certainly wasn’t a garden. It was a park. And, like always, I get lost in parks. This park was no exception.

I wound through the paths for a long while til I found myself at the top of this hill that had pretty neat views of the city. I also stopped at the fountain of Neptune which was turned on for the day only a few minutes after I got there (yeah, that’s how early I was up!)

The park was pretty, but I really wasn’t in the mood to just sit around and take in the scenery so early in the morning. I wanted to be more productive, so I decided to hop on the train back to the main part of town and to the Naschmarkt.

Saturdays are flea market days at the Naschmarkt so I thought that could be entertaining for a while. It was soooooooooooooo crowded though. It was fun to poke around the various tables, but, though the vintage cameras were tempting, I didn’t end up buying anything.

I was, however, in desperate need of some food. I hadn’t eaten yet and it was really, really warm out. I went to the food portion of the market and grabbed myself some cherries (they’re really easy to eat on the go) and some dried banana slices. I also went to the grocery store to grab some drinks – they’re always cheaper there.

Speaking of cheaper: I didn’t know that Red Bull is Austrian and their headquarters is just outside of Salzburg. Consequently, Red Bull is really cheap (well, relative to what we pay in the States). I decided to get a can just because and kept walking.

When I twittered about arriving in Vienna, I got a bunch of responses directing me to the Museum Quartier (the MQ). I’ve avoided museums for this entire trip, so I was going to skip it entirely, but I’m so glad I didn’t! Armed with my cherries, fanta, and tired feet I arrived at the MQ. This was, by far, my favorite part about Vienna.

The MQ is this great little area in the middle of town with lots of museums and public spaces. It’s best known for these weirdly shaped benches that are scattered all throughout the square and seems to be frequented by college-aged people as a hangout spot. There were cafes all around, but I’d read it was best to BYO, so I did. The cafes also pumped music into the square which added to the hangout factor.

So I grabbed a bench. It’s tough to describe the shape of these benches, but they’re designed for lounging. I wasn’t planning on staying for long – perhaps long enough to snap a few photos, drink down my Red Bull, and eat some cherries, but somehow a few minutes turned into a few hours.

I’m a huge fan of public spaces like the MQ – the kind that let you just relax, hang out, and do whatever you want to do, but even if you’re completely alone you still feel like you’re a part of the bigger community. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but it just has a great feeling about it.

Anyway…I was feeling particularly reflective that afternoon. I don’t know if it was the music, the people, being surrounded by museums, or finally having time to myself after being with other people for a few weeks, but I grabbed this tiny notebook I’ve been keeping in my backpack and started writing all sorts of stuff – pretty much whatever came to my mind over the course of those 2-3 hours. It was fantastic. I got to just relax and do my own thing, something I could have easily done at home, but I got to experience more of day-to-day Vienna instead of tourist Vienna. I’d take these sorts of experiences over seeing another palace any day.

I was so into my own world as I sat in the MQ that I didn’t really notice just how sunny it was and how tanned I was getting. I didn’t have any sunscreen on and it’d already been a few hours, so I decided it was time to move on.

There were a few more places I had to see (I call them “the usuals – the usual tourist spots where you go, snap a photo of some building or statue, and move on) so I headed in that direction. Snap, snap, snap through some government buildings, past some museums and more government buildings, and then I heard some classical music coming from a park-looking area. I’m always drawn to the music, so I detoured. The park was really crowded – the benches that lined the path were completely full and there seemed to be some sort of commotion. I kept going to see what was up, following the music until I stumbled upon some sort of festival. I couldn’t really tell from the signs, but it looked like some sort of film festival.

At first I thought I’d stumbled into a beer garden, but after seeing the various food stalls lining the square and the types of food people were carrying around, I knew it couldn’t be. I walked about three circuits of the place before I finally settled on something to eat. This wasn’t just festival food, this was really high-quality stuff! It looked to be mostly local restaurants, but the food choices were very international – there was Mexican, American, Japanese, Greek, you name it! Though I’d snacked pretty recently I decided that I couldn’t pass up a spot like this so I decided on some potato wedges and a cherry schnapps type concoction from the American stand. Why was I so unadventurous with my eating? Well it was the 4th of July and I wanted something “American”. I wasn’t hungry enough for an entire burger, so I just got some fries and ketchup and chose the cherry thing because it looked intriguing and I considered it an homage to George Washington. Even while in Europe, I’m a sucker for tradition and cheeziness.

So I sat down with my fries and bizarre cherry drink and just enjoyed the hustle and bustle around me. I have no idea where I was or why those stands were there, but it was fun! If this is how they do festivals in Europe, the festivals in San Francisco could take a few pointers!

Sufficiently stuffed and really exhausted from spending so much time baking in the sun, I decided to head back to the hostel. I’d been walking around for over 8 hours at this point and I was just dead. It was a good kind of dead though. A satisfying kind.

I spent the rest of the evening just hanging around the hostel and trying to organize my life back at home in preparation for my return (doing things like ordering The Sims 3, reactivating my Netflix account, poking are craigslist for an apartment, and looking through Ikea for furniture for said apartment.

When I first got to Vienna I saw a sign saying that you could do a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia which is only about an hour’s ferry ride from Vienna. I decided that it would be a good thing to do for one of my days in Vienna and planned that for the next morning.

I went to bed early again, but I didn’t get very much sleep that night. Let’s just say that one of the 3 other girls in my room brought some company back with her for the evening and they weren’t exactly discrete about it.

The two other girls in the room and I woke up around the same time and just looked at each other saying “What the eff!?” We decided to go down for breakfast in hopes that the 4th girl would be out of the room before we got back. At some point in the middle of the night while I was kept awake by the rude French girl I realized that the next day was Sunday and that Sunday in Europe basically means “don’t bother leaving your house to do anything besides going for a stroll through the park” because absolutely NOTHING is open. Not even the grocery store!

This led to two things: 1) I didn’t go to Bratislava because what’s the point in going somewhere to be greeted by nothing but gated up storefronts? and 2) I had the BEST BREAKFAST EVER.

Seriously, this breakfast was amazing. It was only 3.70 Euro and was basically a feast. 3 types of bread, butter, cream cheese, jam, nutella, peanut butter, ham, salami, cheese, cucumbers, peppers, hard boiled eggs, cereal, yogurt, muesli, fruit, and I’m sure I could go on for a bit longer. You have to understand the mentality of a backpacker to appreciate why this was so exciting, but in a very short period of time I found myself with a plate piled high with a little bit of nearly everything at the buffet and even went back for seconds. It was probably the most satisfying breakfast I’ve ever had. I managed to hit every single one of my food groups in ONE MEAL. That’s really tough to do around here and it sometimes takes me a few days to accomplish. Breakfast was so filling that I wasn’t even remotely hungry for the next 12 hours! Now that’s a good breakfast.

With nothing really on my agenda for the day I decided to take a lazy day. I felt like I’d gotten everything I wanted to out of Vienna and that even though I didn’t cover EVERYTHING in the city, I was content with what I’d experienced and wasn’t going to go see X building or Y statue just because you’re supposed to.

I ended up spending nearly the entire day in the common area watching Wimbledon with nearly the entire hostel, especially as the final sets came on. I’m not a tennis fan, generally, but that was a really good match.

Post-Wimbledon and now starving, I decided that I needed one more thing before I left Vienna: Wiener Schnitzel. Luckily for me, there’s a restaurant that serves just that right around the corner from the hostel. Off I went. Mmmmm.

The next morning I had yet another wonderful breakfast (not as big this time because I knew I would be spending the day on the train) and went for a little bit of a walk through the shopping district before I got on the train. I’ve been dying for some new clothes lately, but I settled on getting just one tank top to tide me over.

Back to the hostel and on the train to Prague! My last stop before my final city. I’m still completely shocked by just how quickly time can fly!

Though I wouldn’t say that Vienna was one of my favorite cities of the trip, I would say that it’s definitely the type of city I could see myself living in. Perhaps I should start working on my German?

Tags: Adventures, Austria, City, Journal, Vienna