Vienna ~ Music to My Ears

Vienna, Austria is a city filled with music, fashion, and gilded gold. My friends had told me that Vienna was a beautiful city, but I didn’t truly understand what they meant until I saw it for myself. This past week, I spent 3.5 days in Vienna, my first trip to Austria (yay for reaching my 12th country!). I reached the city by plane, easily flying from Istanbul by Turkish Airlines (guys, it’s true, the airplane food is amazing). After an Airport Transfer bus ride to our Airbnb (I was traveling with family, so spiffy rides and no hostels this time), I was able to take to the streets and see what all the hype about Vienna was about.

In some ways, Vienna was a dream city. In others, I found myself feeling not at home, and wishing for more familiar places like London or Istanbul. But, unsurprisingly, I found that travel is always worth it. As The Shine Project says, “Explore the World, Love the People in It. ” I greatly enjoyed visiting Vienna and getting to explore a city that has meant so much to the world throughout history.

Here are a few things that I truly enjoyed about visiting Vienna, and I hope these become an inspiration to you if you are planning a trip there (which you should be, just saying).

1. Being from America, palaces are a crazy cool and out-of-this-world thing for me. Like, the closest we have to a palace is Biltmore. So, stepping into Vienna blew my mind because there is a palace. Wait, correction: There are more palaces than I could count. We visited Schönbrunn Palace, Belvedere Palace, and Hofburg Palace and would have visited more if time hadn't been a constraint. I was amazed to find that the Austrian imperial family has played such a huge role in history, from the reign of Maria Theresa and her better-known daughter Marie Antoinette, to the intrigue and tragedy of Empress Elizabeth 'Sisi. ' As we walked through the imperial chambers of these royals and looked at mementos and artifacts from their lives, I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn't fiction; these stories really happened. They also walked these floors. They also looked out on the beautiful, manicured lawns. And the walls of these palaces held a lot more than just beauty a long time ago; they held secrets, captivity, romance, and huge decisions of global importance. Wow!

   

2. While walking through Vienna, I noticed a poster advertising an exhibit of Monet and Picasso. I was so glad to learn that it was indeed a current exhibit at the Albertina, and that this art museum was included on our Vienna Pass (more about that later). The works of art located in Vienna are amazing, and between the Albertina and the Belvedere Palace, we saw many pieces that we had only spotted in history books previously. In addition, we even saw a Monet (entitled "The Cook") that we didn't even know existed (which was very surprising to us, as we are big fans and have visited many exhibits of his work). It was a light-heartened and slightly-comic rendition of a chef, and has become one of our favorites of the great master.

   

3. Sometimes I am cheap and picky about buying museum tickets, but in Vienna we decided to get the Vienna Pass. This was a great idea, as this all-inclusive pass gave us a lot of incentive to visit more palaces, and to also just drop into exhibits and historical sites as we passed them. For example, at Schönbrunn Palace our Vienna Pass gave us a free hop-on hop-off bus ticket to the site, gave us access to all the gardens, to the palace, to the oldest zoo in the world, and gave us free rides on the panoramic train (which came in handy when it started to downpour right after lunch). If we had been buying individual tickets, we would have double-thought buying entrance to each of these areas at the palace, but with the pass we had a wonderful time taking advantage of our all-inclusive tickets. Later on in our trip, we decided to split up and take a break from walking to stop in at the Albertina. Although we normally wouldn't have bought a ticket without planning to see the entire museum, with the Vienna Pass we were very willing to hop-in and see what was inside without huge investment. This was a great idea, as we got to sit and view a beautiful water lilies painting by Monet and several great Surrealist pieces without pressure to run through all the exhibits.

   

4. Vienna is full of green spaces, and we loved all of the gardens that surrounded each of the palaces. We also loved leaving the city behind us and taking the hop-on hop-off bus to Grinzing, where the bus took us up through the hills and past great views of the city and through gorgeous bird-song. When we reached our destination, we toured a very old monastery and drank wine from its vineyards. I love visiting a city that has beautiful nature, both inside and out.

   

All in all, I loved touring Vienna and am very glad that I have now had a glimpse of life in Austria. From the palaces to the greenery, the art scene to the ease of the Vienna Pass, this was a great short trip in Europe.

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