Part One: The one where it gets worse before it gets better

Willkommen am Flughafen Wien! …

…. were the first words I heard when we eventually landed in Vienna. Why eventually? Because RetardRyanair decided the Romanian people are third class citizen and our flight was repeatedly delayed, first for an hour, then another one, then another one and a half, leaving only about 5 hours and a half later than planned because of invented “weather conditions”, just so they wouldn’t pay for compensation or expenses. Sure, that didn’t stop the plane that was supposed to take us from Bucharest to leave Vienna with the direction Rome. Also didn’t stop other planes to go from Vienna to other places, nor some other flights to land in Bucharest. Oh well, guess scam airlines gonna be scam airlines. At least I had some time to work and even encountered an old friend, by chance.

But I digress. After what was a very long and tiring day, and a short flight, the taxi I’ve been waiting for about 10 minutes at the airport decided to cancel the trip not even 200 meters away from me for fuck knows what reason. The app quickly pairs me with another driver, this guy being 12 km away, so it’s another 10 minutes or so. Once arrived on my street, it’s basically a construction site, having to run some highly-skilled panda parkour. I found my way home, and after searching for 15 minutes the lockbox for the keys to my apartment, I finally got in and decided to take a shower, which was not an easy feat to accomplish, as the towels I found in the apartment were stained and dirty and yucky as fuck. Tired, did a very hot shower and waited for the water to evaporate off me and then went to bed. I’ve had a very long day and I just need to sleep it off, hoping that the next one will be better.

Part Two: The one where it actually gets better

Put on those shades
And wave to yesterday
The sunlight hurts my eyes

It’s morning, I realize I have no coffee, no sweets, nothing to boost my energy, so I quickly decide to get dressed and hit the streets. I’ve already made a list on Tripadvisor with stuff I’d like to see. Nothing is set in stone, but as far as I can tell, I’ve noticed a few concentrations of attractions, so I’m heading towards there. I’m not gonna talk too much about each thing I’ve seen, because Vienna is a beauty. Everywhere you look, buildings are pretty, they look amazing, have really nice architectural decorations and the just seem really well taken care of.

Just roaming around the streets I found myself in the Naschmarkt, which has a beauty reminding me of my home town and childhood. The stench of the bazar, with beer being served here, candy and condiments being sold next door and someone selling wursts that fill the air with their smell, an old lady selling some vegetables. Doesn’t matter where you are, the market is a colourful and living organism that brings the community together, each person with their happiness, their problems and their thoughts.

I left the market and continued to aimlessly go around the streets. After a quick pit stop for a coffee, I circled the Opera House and got into the Albertina Museum. I already knew about it from Ben and Ilinca, and since I was there and it was so hot outside, I decided to go in and visit the exhibits. I’ve seen a collection of “art” made by Eva Beresin, which reminded me that shit can be art if you fool people to look at it sideways, then visited the State Rooms (which were really nice), but nothing to write home about. Classic rich men rooms with rich men furniture, reminded me of Peleș Castle a bit, or any other 17-18th century royal museum.

I then moved to the next floor, to see an amazing collection by photographer Gregory Crewdson (which I recommend open heartedly, his works are emotional and stirring!), as well as an exhibition of a part of the collection of Mr. Batliner, who donated a ton of stuff to the museum. I’ve seen some works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Franz Sedlacek (wow!), Max Beckmann, Alexandra Exter (wow!), František Kupka, Claude Monet, Gustav Klimt, and others.

I then went to the basement, for the star show of the museum, the exhibition with the works of Roy Lichtenstein. If you don’t know who that was, it’s normal, but most likely you’ve seen his works at least a few times in life.

All in all, the Albertina Museum visit was not only a success, but it was also the best way to start this trip. So after 4 hours spent in the museum, it was only logical to stay and eat something at the cafe-restaurant of the museum. The prices weren’t too steep and I somehow felt I wanted something fresh, so I got the most Austrian thing one could get: a cappuccino and some tomato and mozarella gnocchi. The food was absolutely delicious and I loved that some guy saw me taking photos around so he asked me “speak English?” and then said “Enjoy Vienna!”. Fun dude.

Stomach full, was time to take a walk, to let the food settle, but it was a very short walk, as I landed in the Burggarten. Seeing how all the locals were just chilling on the grass, either in the sun or the shade, eating, talking, taking charcoal portraits of friends, playing cards or simply sleeping, I decided it was a perfect time and place for my favourite activity, siesta!. So I put my backpack in pillow-mode and rested my eyes (definitely not napped) for half an hour or so.

My next target was Albertina modern museum, because the ticket I bought earlier included entrance here too. I entered one of the exhibitions, looked at some bent pipes that expressed nothing and some weird other sculptures and remembered why “modern” is usually shit. Spent about 12 minutes in this museum, including the wee break.

I then crossed the street to see the St. Charles’s Church (Karlskirche), because it looked quite nice from far away. Upon arriving in the area, I spotted the Wien Museum and its lovely third floor terrace. Without any shred of doubt, I took the elevator, went upstaris, got a cherry cake (Kirschkuchen) and a Hugo cocktail, which I assumed had no alcohol. Since I was there and the weather outside was so very hot, I decided to visit the museum as well. It shows an exquisite collection of items from the city’s history since its foundation and it’s properly documented and explained (even in English!) so it was a very good visit.

And because it was getting pretty late, I decided to point the Maps app towards home and walk in that general direction until the places seemed familiar and I encountered the parkour course and went home to get ready for a new day.

Part Three: The one where it gets better than expected

A new day, a new aimless trip. I knew I wanted to go to the MuseumsQuartier (MQ). I mean, if they have so many museums there, I’d definitely find something. So after a really nice stroll up and down the streets of Vienna, I arrived at MQ. This place is so packed with culture, science and art, that it’s very easy to lose track of time, yourself and what to do. So I went to the Architecture Museum. It’s small, has some really nice scale representations of cool buildings, but that’s about it. I then went to the other exhibition, to see various hotels and how the accommodation industry evolved and changed, but there was a lot of text in German and not too much in English, so I quickly got bored and went for a coffee.

While sat at the table, basically hidden behind some umbrellas I saw the “designforum”. I got in there and found a small but really interesting exhibition named “Best Austrian Design” featuring innovative and future-oriented projects in various categories, like consumer goods, interior product design, spaces & environment, city planning and others. This made the architecture museum seem like a bad joke and the entrance was only €5, so cheaper than a cappuccino!

I wanted to visit the mumok building, which houses some modern art shit, but I checked the current exhibition online and it wasn’t really my cup of tea. I went inside the building, took some photos of the nice architecture and of some of the details, and then just went to the Leopold center to take some photos from the rooftop terrace (which was overpriced and pretty crammed), so I left to roam the streets some more, while taking photos of all the nice things I’ve seen.

So what does a rich man do? He builds a huge palace. What does a filthy rich man do? He builds an identical one across the street! Maria-Theresien-Platz is right between the identical buildings that host Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Natural History Museum) and Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Art History Museum). As both of them were nice, but contain things I’ve seen in countless other museums, I decided to go on and walk towards Hofburg (another big museum), and the Heldenplatz, a nice big square with grass and statues. As all these museums are fairly expensive (€15+ each), and are not really my cup of tea, I went towards Volksgarten, a really nice garden-park filled with roses and then walked towards the Rathaus, the Mayor’s building.

The park around the mayor’s office was walled, once because there are some construction works being done and second, because of the annual Filmfestival Rathausplatz, a film festival that starts on 29 June and ends on September 1st.

As it was soon starting to rain, I thought about going into a restaurant, but because the area was filled with tourist traps or places with shit staff, I decided it’s better to take my hoodie on and walk through the rain. The weather wasn’t that hot anymore and the rain was actually a very mild drizzle.

One thing I only realized now is how annoyingly clean this town is. I was walking on a street with some pavement, no vegetation for a few meters to the side and it just felt like someone swept the floors minutes before, the trash bins weren’t overflowing, there were no cigarettes on the sidewalk. It’s actually amazing up to the point it’s annoying that all other places can’t keep this level of cleanliness. I’ve noticed it in the park too, but now it really struck me.

Having my target on Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral), I got into the Innere Stadt, streets filled with all kinds of shops, from Rolex to Apple, and others and it was cute to just roam around there. At some point, because it was getting hot again, I found a super cute pub named Francis. The pub was so welcoming and the staff was so friendly, I decided to have a platter of goat cheese with olives and a grilled sandwich next to my beer.

I don’t know if it’s the general happiness of the city, the lack of stress of the residents, or the passion of the employees, but food has such a great taste here! I enjoyed them with a pint and a half and then went on to walk the food off.

Once again, I’ve put my compass to generally point in the direction of Prater, and it was a nice half an hour walk between residential neighbourhoods, some nice parks, on the bridge over the Danube’s canal, all this because I wanted to see the park and also wanted to attend the Prater-Picknick Der Wiener Symphoniker. For the third time, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra is inviting the whole family and guests of the city to the Kaiserwiese in front of the spectacular backdrop of the Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel just in time for the start of the holidays and is staging the Vienna Prater Picnic as a musical homage to Vienna, its residents and their everyday stories. Not going to say too much about this, just that the atmosphere was brilliant, the attendees were very respectful and polite and it was a beautiful experience, made me feel like I was in a movie. 10/10 would totally recommend! Btw, if you’re in Austria, you can watch the entire show

At the end, being fairly tired by the long walk, the crowded place and overwhelmed by the long day, I decided to take the subway home, instead of walking 50 more minutes. On the way to the subway station, I met one of the things I love most in this world, a fucking DeLorean arrived at the stoplight. The driver noticed my BTTF shirt, opened (raised?) his door and waved at me. I asked him if he wanted to trade, but he wasn’t thrilled about the offer. The Viennese underground reminds me a lot of the London one, everything is well connected, well signed and everything runs like clockwork. I was amazed to see that they don’t have any gates when entering the subway, although you need to buy a ticket and validate it at the entrance, there’s no one to stop you from simply walking in. This brutal display of honesty reminded me that I am in Vienna, not in Vaslui, and I quickly paid the €2.50 for one trip, as I didn’t need a day pass. From the closest underground station to my house there’s a 10 minute walk (without counting the parkour!), so when I got home, I just took a shower and hit the bed to write these words.

Part four: The one where it’s hot

Saturday came and as I was planning, I left in the general direction of Schönbrunn Palace, passing through an area with a lot of records shops. I spent my time a bit in some of them, but because it was very very hot outside (33ºC in the shade, about 92ºF in Burger™ degrees), I decided to pop into a café for a bowl of hot tomato soup and some reispudding (rice pudding).

After that, I took the tram and/or buss towards the Technisches Museum, which is of course, The Technical Museum. Here you can find all the things you’d expect to see in a technical museum: train engines, cars, bicycles, engines, mine scale models, planes and helicopters in full size, but what was the star of the show wasn’t the space module, it was the Mercedes-Benz W 196 Silberpfeil (Silver Arrow), a masterpiece of technology. The museum itself is super nice, the exhibits are properly marked and also explained in English, but the mood there was ruined by a ton of kids let loose running through the museum like it was a park and the terrible heat. However, it was still a nice visit and could have spent more time there, if it wasn’t such a torrid day.

I then started to walk to the nearby Schönbrunn Palace, without any intention of visiting the rooms, as I’m not a huge fan of this kind of museum, and I’ve already seen the State Rooms a couple of days ago. However, if you want to visit the gardens (who were actually on my list), you need to pay the full admission price, and because it was so hot outside and there were so many people, due to being a Saturday, I just grabbed a taxi, went to a nearby shop and then went home, to stay inside and relax. It was both a short and a long day, despite staying so little outside, I still managed to do over 10k steps, which is a lot.

Staying at home and sorting photos and whatnot, I was hoping for the weather to become less hot so I could go out, but at 6PM there were still 34ºC outside (that’s 93ºF in Freedom™ units), so I went to take a nap.

Part five: The one where it’s still hot

Sunday was the second day of Severe High Temperature Warning so I took the opportunity to do what most people do when they’re on vacation and I rarely do: to sleep. Having slept in quite late, I woke up, went around the neighbourhood (where it was so damn hot!), bought some groceries and came back home, to watch Formula 1 (who, coincidentally, was held less than 200km away, in the Austrian city of Spielberg). I then took another nap, finished some tweaks to the site and then I left for a walk as well.

As the sun hid between the clouds, it was still hot, but at least more bearable than yesterday, so i went for another walk to find something nice to eat. Apparently, life in Vienna stops during Sundays, as most of the restaurants were closed. Despite of the weather warning, at some point it even started to rain, a light summer drizzle that made all the heat from the asphalt go up. I was lucky enough to find an open pub with a good kitchen, where I ordered some Holzhackernockerl, which seems to be some pasta with egg, cheese and onion, and regardless of how it looks, the main ingredient here was the onion. I seasoned it properly with a pint and then took another walk to home, to let the food sit. Once arrived home, I had a coffee and enjoyed England getting their light turned off by Slovakia in Euro 2024. Regarding Austria and Euro, I’m a bit sad that I leave one day before Austria will play their next gane, it would have been nice to watch the match in their capital in a big public space.

Part six: The one where conclusions are drawn

Woke up at 8 in the morning, tidied up the room a bit, then left to take the 13A bus towards the train station, to catch the 9:12 train to the airport. I would have gone with a taxi for the sake of convenience, but it was €60 for the trip and there was no car that would arrive in less than 15 minutes. Fuck that. So I got the train, arrived safely at the airport, grabbed a coffee and I’m reflecting over the last few days.

Vienna is a beautiful city, it’s old buildings look really nice and I could understand why Timisoara is nicknamed “Little Vienna”. It’s clean, its residents are welcoming and kind and everyone seems to be so relaxed and friendly over here.

If you come here, don’t bring a film camera, you will have to use hundreds of rolls of film, as I took more than 1000 photos, averaging one picture ever 62 steps taken. Yes, Vienna is that beautiful. You can check a lot of the pictures in the photo dump page, at the end.

With its nice museums, streets and gardens, it’s a nice place to visit, but it didn’t struck a special chord with me, so it’s one of the first places I’ve actually visited where I wouldn’t move. A four-five days vacation was enough and I seem to have seen pretty much all the important things. A nice return reason would be to experience the Christmas Market, but that’s for another time. Maybe next time I’ll also see the kangaroos, which were supposed to be all over the place, but of which I didn’t spot any.

Until then, “auf Wiedersehen, Wien!”

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