Vienna Waits For You

After a brutal night train from Switzerland, Grace and I arrived for our Austrian part of the trip. It was truly incredible to go to sleep in one country and wake up in another. With that being said, I could definitely have gone without the screaming baby in our train car! Because of our college student budgeting, Grace and I didn’t splurge on a bed for the night train, but decided to just go with the sleeping chairs. Big mistake. Our car with six chairs was full with seven people—one being the screaming baby! With no room, shrieking noises, and Grace’s pesky cough, we didn’t get the best night of sleep—even after drinking a bottle of wine while waiting in the train station! Luckily our Vienna hostel was a five minute walk from the train station, and it turned out to be our favorite stay of the trip with its backyard garden and great backpacker’s feel.

Vienna is an breathtaking city. It is full of open space, big grassy lawns, huge palaces that belonged to the Hapsburg family during their ridiculous European dynasty, and bratwurst! I had been looking forward to our weekend in Vienna ever since my nights up chatting with my cousin Sara in London. My Auntie Sue studied abroad in Vienna back when she was young. It was the city that launched her fabulous European life (which included Rome and eventually settling outside London), so I was looking forward to experience the same things that she did, although I promised myself that I wouldn’t ditch my return to the U.S. for a motorcycle trip around Europe with a Viennese man that I met, mainly for my mom and dad’s sake.

After arriving, we decided to skip a nap and power through to the Schönbrunn Palace—a past summer home for the Hapsburgs. The extensive gardens with flowers and fountains was a perfect spot for a picnic lunch too.

This is a picture of the palace from the gardens where we had lunch

I can speak for Grace and myself when I say that the history of the Hapsburgs was fascinating. We were especially interested in the story of the Empress Elizabeth or “Sisi.” At the Hofburg Palace in the historical center of Vienna there is an entire museum dedicated to her. She was a very morbid empress and didn’t seem interested at all in her role. She was known for her tiny waistline and wore her hair all the way down to the floor. Most of her time was spent traveling, which eventually led to her assassination which was an unlucky twist of fate—while vacationing, Sisi got caught in the middle of a man’s planned assassination of an Italian official. The official canceled his trip, but it was learned by the media that Sisi was traveling there, so the assassin decided to kill her instead.   

This is a picture of Hofburg Palace, home of the Sisi museum.
There were many art museums on the complex too.

Our special event of the Viennese weekend was a night at the opera. Vienna is known as the origin of classical music, and our guide book told us about seats we could get for 3 euro. Grace and I waited in line for standing room tickets, and then grabbed appetizers and glasses of wine while we took our time exploring the Opera house before the curtain opened. Overall, it was a great cultural experience. The entire show was done in German, but there were individual subtitle screens in front of every spot—although it took Grace a while to figure this out, so she had an entirely different story line worked up in her head! After the opera, we went across the street to a bratwurst stand, where we would eventually eat three meals!

Inside the Opera House

Our wine and hors d'oeuvres before the show

Grace and I in our standing room only seats preparing for
 a show in a language neither of us understand! 

After months full of visits to churches, I have to say that St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna was the most breathtaking of all the churches I had seen, especially on the inside. 

The inside had reflections of the colorful stained glass windows
all over the walls 

The massive church even had a colorful design on the roof

Lastly, before leaving Vienna, we had to make one final stop to our favorite Bratwurst stand. The menu was in German, so when we ate our many meals there we just had to take our chances and point to something on the menu. Grace made an interesting choice for our final Viennese meal! 

Here I am with my favorite bratwurst with curry sauce,
definitely a recipe idea to bring back!

Grace getting up the courage to try her black bratwurst! 

Due to advice from our Uncle Tim, Grace and I decided to cut our weekend in Vienna a day short, and spend that day in Salzburg instead. So for our last night in Vienna, we went back to our lovely hostel and cuddled up to watch the Sound of Music in preparation for our visit to where it all happened!