Travels to Vienna

So my travelling for this summer consisted of a week trip to Vienna. Whilst there, we couldn't not take advantage of the short journeys to Budapest and Bratislava, so we managed to cover 3 places (although Budapest was slightly rushed in a day). Each one was different in their own wonderful way, so I'll do separate posts for each.

SO, I shall start with Vienna! WARNING - excessive panorama shots  

The first thing we did when stepping out of the airport at Vienna was to buy our underground tickets. At the machines, the ticket options were for a person, or a person with a dog. A city with an appreciation for dogs? I was going to like it here.

With my last two holidays being India and Canada, I forgot that there are people that don't speak my language abroad. So it took a while to get used to the German, as well as a trip down memory lane to my year 8 German lessons. Our hotel was 5 mins from Prater, a massive fairground/water park which was so lively at night (although I would've appreciated if they stopped the music past 1am, was SO loud from our hotel on our first night). You could easily spend a day there with its rides, Madam Tussauds and chocolate museum, but we didn't have an entire day to spend there (although I did get a picture with a guy dressed up as a chocolate bar). 

We were walking distance from the Danube River (Europe's second largest river), which is beaaauutifffulll. There were ample cruise boats along it, but we decided to tackle it by foot. Crossing it via a bridge was the best idea- the views were incredible! The bridge itself was about 100m, and along the whole thing was a wall covered in graffiti. So much beauty in one place. I would definitely recommend walking along the bridge. There is also a church to see on the way, with the best view of it from the bridge (that's where the photo below was taken).

It's cool because when you're looking at the river from the bridge, the city looks like it's split into two halves- on your left the unspoilt nature, on your right the modern city. 

We took a day trip to the Wachau Valley, about 1.5 hours away from the city, and honestly it was my favourite day in Austria. From the town Spitz, we got an hour and a half boat to Melk. We thought the boat views were amazing, but they were nothing compared to the Melk Abbey. We got a guided tour there - the Abbey itself is gorgeous and there are artefacts from 800 years ago, as well as the fact that monks live there! The tour also takes you to the panoramic tower, which true to the name was the best place for a panorama. 

We had some free time so we walked to the Melk town itself. BUT BE WARNED- the cobbly stairs to get to the town may be fine on the way down but DAMN was it a workout to come back up- and the 26 degree heat wasn't helping either!! 
The cherry on the cake was the Baroque Garden Pavilion, which looked like Princess Peach's gardens (if you know you know). 

The city itself is ridiculously picturesque, with beautiful architecture and a lot of culture, not to mention good food.We didn't bother going into the museums because we're not really that interested in them and they were super expensive (definitely need to take advantage of the free museums in London). So I would say that you need 2 days max if you're not going into the museums. The best things to see by far were the palaces- Schönbrunn and Belvedre. 

At Schönbrunn palace, the one thing I really recommend is getting a ticket to the mazes, even if you don't go into the palace itself. Make sure you take student ID because you get a discount- I made such a rookie mistake. Getting lost in palace gardens was pretty cool (although slightly frustrated after running into dead end after dead end). 

And the Viennese food was goooooood- it was very meat-based. The speciality is the Weiner Schnitzel, which of course we had to try. It's essentially a big flat chicken nugget, but obviously tastes better than that! They have a loootttt of cakes, pastries and ice cream as well (I'm sure you can tell I've put on a bit of holiday weight- in my defence, we were walking in the heat all day).

So there is a short summary of my few days in Vienna. Overall, it was gorgeous (albeit  expensive) and we were super lucky with the weather. The one day it was slightly colder and rainy we had escaped to Budapest, so had hot and sunny weather all week. Just a bit better than muggy England.

Stay tuned for my Bratislava and Budapest adventures (which I actually preferred to Vienna) xxxxx