VIENNA

i spent this past weekend in vienna, austria, and it was absolutley as perfect as i could've imagined. the city is beautiful and the people are kind. everything revolves around music. i usually fall in love slowly, but with vienna i fell fast and hard.

as soon as we got there on friday, after checking into our hostel, my roommate bella and i immediately sought out finger sandwiches which were on every block and had weird toppings likes egg salad and pickles and minced meat. i had bacon by accident because my german is poor. we went to see salome at the vienna opera house and it was incredible. we wandered around the streets chasing the music which was easy to find because there were wind orchestras performing on every corner. we walked the same streets as beethoven, mozart, and brahms. we drank austrain wine and watched people eat brautwurst and wienerschnitzel on street corners. we visited palaces and pretended we were royal and then ate apple strudel.

this city is different from rome in every way, but i really, really loved it. people dress and act much differently. they wait for pedestrians to cross the street and give you directions if you're lost. they wear bright colors and patterns and shorts when it's hot outside, which is absolutely unheard of in rome.

what surprised me the most was that this cold-cut and frankfurter obsessed city has quite a big vegan scene. we wandered upon a vegan festival in the city center where people were advocating animal rights and selling vegan ice cream and hot dogs (would not recommend). there were vegan and vegetarian restaurants in every neighborhood as well, which was a pleasant surprise.

i loved vienna and am already planning a trip back to austria to be super touristy and see where the vontrapps lived.

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favorite places

buffet trzesniewski we indulged in finger sandwiches and cute little 1/8 liter biers for €1,20
vienna staatsoper we saw a life-changing performance of salome here
sacher café the fanciest, if not best apple strudel and chocolate torte in vienna (we ate all of it)
if dogs run free where all of the hipsters in vienna hang out
praater a cute amusement park just outside of the city center. bella rode all of the rides and i had very confusing and delicious fried naan
mayer am pfarrplatz we drank wine and ate strudel in the wine garden where beethoven spent his summers
museums quartier's courtyard where every youth in the city hangs out at night to drink bier and wine and play hippy music on colorful plastic chairs

tips

the opera is super ritzy and expensive, but if you get there 80 minutes before the show you can get standing room tickets for € 3 or 4

the schönbrunn palace has an entrance fee, but the gardens are free to enter! these are alledgedly the only palace gardens in europe that rival versailles