The weekend began on Thursday, April 11th when one of my roommates and I made our way to Bologna to catch a flight to Vienna. We arrived that night around 10:30, checked into our Airbnb and got ready for bed to get ourselves ready for the next couple of days.
Friday morning our day started with coffee and breakfast at a place called Joseph Brot which had one of the best chai lattes I've ever had! I tried a dish called Turkish eggs and we grabbed pastries before we left. This place was a 10/10, I highly recommend! After, we made our way into the city center where we saw St Stephen's Cathedral which absolutely took our breath away. The architecture on this cathedral is unlike anything I have seen before. We then headed to the Sisi Museum where we got audioguides and walked around for an hour and a half, learning all about "Sisi" also known as Empress Elisabeth. She is apparently the most famous female in Habsburg history. Additionally, she escaped the bindings of reality to become an iconic figure of beauty and legend. After the museum, we went to the State Hall of Hofburg where visited the greatest library I've ever seen with my own eyes. It felt like a fairytale and something straight out of Beauty and the Beast, it was absolutely incredible! We were hungry at this point so we grabbed lunch before walking around the city center and doing some shopping. We headed back to the Airbnb to freshen up before heading out to see a ballet in the famous opera house! We got last minute standing tickets in the back of the theater for $13 and it was so worth it! The ballet was three hours with two intermissions but it flew by. Afterwards, we grabbed dinner at a nearby bar style restaurant where we had delicious burgers. It was a packed first day but we wouldn't want to have it any other way.
April 13th, Saturday, our day began by walking through a huge outdoor food market before finding a restaurant to sit down at. We ordered coffees and bagels with cream cheese, eggs, and avocado for breakfast. After breakfast, we walked to Mozarthaus which is one of the apartments that Mozart lived in, his only apartment in Vienna. Mozarthaus Vienna presents the life and work of the musical genius Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, with particular emphasis on his Vienna years from 1781 to 1791, in a unique setting in the heart of Vienna close to St Stephen’s Cathedral. We walked around the apartment for about an hour before heading out to explore the city a little more. We walked around until we found somewhere to eat before heading to Kunsthistorisches Museum. This museum was absolutely massive and we didn't even walk through the whole thing. We saw various pieces of art, sculptures, and artifacts from all different places. After, we walked to Haus der Musik, aka House of Music, which is the first museum of sound and music in Austria. The house of music has interactive elements to introduce the world of music, from the earliest human use of instruments to the music of the present day. They had dedicated rooms to different composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Strauss. That night we got dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant called Santos which was so delicious. It has been super hard not having Mexican food so this hit the spot!
Our last day, Sunday April 14th, started with us packing our bags and making our way to a breakfast spot called Rare Goods. On Sundays, they do an all you can eat buffet for 23 euros so we took advantage. We had different yogurts, fruits, breads, eggs, french toast, and we finished with a brownie covered in cinnamon cream. It was so good and we left very fulfilled! After, we dropped our bags off at a luggage storage place before heading to Schmetterlinghaus which is the butterfly house. This green house is home to hundreds of butterflies housed in a tropical rainforest setting, remindning me of Hawai'i! Afterwards, we relaxed in the park for a little bit before heading back into city center to do some souvenir shopping. We somehow ended up at a rooftop bar called Sky so we enjoyed a drink before making our way back to the luggage storage place to head for the airport. Everything went smooth on our journey home which was a huge relief. Going into this trip, I had no expectations of Vienna and honestly did not even know what it was going to look like. However, Vienna was even more beautiful than I could've imagined and I cannot wait to come back!
