Long weekend in Vienna, 2019 - day 1

Time for another trip - Vienna! I like to try and go away somewhere for a few days around my birthday at the end of March (except last year), and this year one of my favourite musicians was doing a European tour and would be in Vienna on the day. To be honest I was a bit nervous. While I spent a few days by myself in Guernsey last summer and again in Singapore and loved both, my last solo European city break was two years ago in Amsterdam, where I had felt down and bored and lonely, wasn't really taken by the city, and just didn't enjoy it very much. I was a bit worried that would be the case again. But Vienna is lovely! :)

Friday 29th March

After leaving home at 3:30am, I finally arrived at my Airbnb in Neubau, the city's seventh district, at about 2pm. I've rented a room in someone's home, and the place is gorgeous - one of those old buildings built a couple of centuries ago, with huge wooden doors, high ceilings, tiled hallways, wide stone stairways, and a courtyard. Something straight out of a Parisian scene - funnily enough exactly like Celine's apartment building at the end of Before Sunset. (For those who don't know that film, it's the second of three films, each set a decade apart, following a young man and woman who, in the first film, meet while travelling and spend a night wandering around Vienna - Before Sunrise. The second film sees them reunite in Paris.) It also reminds me of Zenhouse in Canada with its smell of spices, houseplants on the countertops and windowsills, an eclectic variety of items on display, and a general eco-friendly and bohemian vibe. Anyway, it's old and dated but in a lovely, charming way, and while my room is basically furnished it's quiet and peaceful and warm from the afternoon sunlight streaming through the tall, wide windows.

After resting and enjoying the peace and quiet in the apartment for a few hours, I left around 5pm and made my way down to the edge of the city centre, only 10-15 minutes away. I passed the Museumsquartier and into Maria-Theresien-Platz, which is flanked by the Kunsthistorisches Museum (art history) on one side and Naturhistorisches Museum (natural history) on the other, with a statue of Empress Maria Theresa in the centre. Across the street was a big square with a few grassy areas, a couple of man-on-horse statues and another huge impressive building which I later realised was the Hofburg Palace (duh). Next to one of the statues was a little temporary exhibition celebrating the centenary of women winning the right to vote in 1919; nine lit-up boards about nine particular influential women in the early 20th century feminist movement. Hungry now, I went to find a restaurant I'd seen on Tripadvisor, but that was packed so I headed back to another traditional gasthaus (tavern) I'd passed earlier.

Hofburg Palace

I was the only person in there, apart from three or four locals who were evidently regulars. Thankfully they sat me in the main dining area, a room to the side of the entrance area, so I was away from the locals and didn't have the staff watching me as I sat there. I ordered Wiener Schnitzel, albeit pork instead of the traditional and more expensive veal. It was huge! Like, it took up the whole plate. It came with some fried potato cubes and a side dish of pickled cabbage, carrot, cucumber and tomato, which was really nice and crisp and refreshing contrast to the fried breadcrumbed meat. It was all nice enough! Nothing special but it's not meant to be, it's just an easy and simple and filling meal. The locals had a big, docile bloodhound with them and it kept coming over to the doorway and looking at me with eyes that said it wanted to come and say hello and see my food but also didn't dare, haha.

It was still only 7:15pm by the time I left so I retraced by steps back to a gelateria I'd passed earlier, La Romana. It was a modern and trendy place (evidently evolved somewhat from when it was established in 1947) that sold a range of interesting creations. I chose a cone, which they then lined with molten chocolate (I chose white), and had one scoop each of two different flavours: "Sacher", a rich chocolate one with chunks of chocolate cake and ripples of apricot jam running through it (after the city's famous Sachertorte), and "Crumbles", a delicious almond gelato with crunchy pieces of crumbled chocolate biscuit and caramelised almonds. Yum! Alfresco eating seems to be a big thing here, as in France and Spain and Greece and many other European countries, and every café and eatery in the city has tables and chairs out the front, so I went and sat on one to enjoy the gelato; it was a pretty quiet street so it was nice and I didn't feel awkward as I probably would have if it was busier. After that I just walked back to the apartment, and finished the evening by wrapping myself in an old knitted blanket, made in subdued earthy colours, and sat writing in my notebook at the desk, the high-ceilinged room warmly lit by the lamp in the corner :)