A Weekend in Vienna

Wilkommen in Wien! For our first journey in Europe, my flatmates Emily and Curtis and I decided to grab a cheap night flight to Vienna from Rome. A hop, skip, and an hour and ten minutes later, we touched down in the City of Music herself, darling Wien.

We were a touch excited

Friday morning we really hit the ground running. We raced along the the Vienna subway system, the U-bahn, from our hostel to city center. My flatmate Emily has toured Vienna before and acted as our guide to the entire city and we really followed her lead.

We were blown away by Vienna's architecture as we wandered the streets Friday morning -- as an Architectural Digest fanatic I was in absolute heaven 

The first activity Em lead us to was a marvel through the Stephansdom cathedral. We gawked at the chapel's ornate beauty and each of us took turns lighting a candle in honor of a loved one. Stephansdom is one of the tallest churches in the world so you better believe we hiked up all 380+ stairs (compacted in the narrowest spiral staircase you've ever seen) to the very top of the former firemen's watch tower. The burning quads and heart palpitations were worth it -- the views of the city are absolutely unparalleled. 

One of the small windows jutting out from the spiral staircase featuring Curtis

The climb up and down this circular mountain left us all starved, not to mention suffering mild cases of vertigo, and we went in search of the other thing Vienna is most famous for: her pastries!

It wasn't a very long quest -- we stumbled into the first Aida that we found. Aida is this gorgeously pink pastry café dotted throughout Vienna that has two things very beneficial to the three of us, who don't speak German: friendly faces and a never-ending sweets case.

This towering platter of food isn't even all of the breakfast we devoured at Aida that first morning. We sat at our little table for over an hour, systematically dismantling this tower and the (un-pictured) overflowing bread basket. We all agreed: we love Italy but Italian breakfasts, with an espresso and cornetto at the bar, can't hold a candle to the Austrian tower.

My new mission during my time abroad is to try a hot chocolate in every country we visit. So far, Perugia's cioccolato caldo is the clear winner.

After our deliciously huge breakfast we (slowly) made our way along the U-Bahn towards the gorgeous Hapsburg summer palace Schönbrunn.

The palace is absolutely massive, enough so that it's completely overwhelming. The three of us decided on the expanded tour that included more rooms of the palace and off we set.

Unfortunately there are no photos allowed inside the pristine palace but believe me when I say the three of us walked around with our jaws on the ground. I mean, you get to stand in the very room where Mozart played his very first royal concert at age 6. There is no place better to play princess for a day than Schonbrunn. Well...maybe Versailles. In both places, you can play Marie Antoinette -- only, in Vienna, she was Maria Antonia and her head was firmly attached to her shoulders.

By this point, we were all properly exhausted and returned to our hostel for some much-needed naps. Night had fallen by the time we were ready to venture out again -- this time for more pastries! The most famous pastry in all Vienna is the Sachertorte. 

An apple strudel and a traditional Sachertorte 

The only true Sachertorte recipe exists in a vault somewhere deep inside the Sacher Hotel. Ever since its invention in 1832, the original Sachertorte recipe has been under heavy lock and key. Thousands have tried to emulate the iconic cake but even within Vienna itself its easy to taste the difference between a fake and the original.

The next morning brought another full day of exploring Vienna!

This is what qualifies as subway food in Vienna. These 2 euro pastries were just as delicious as any of the more expensive ones and we devoured them in the U-Bahn station before starting our day. Our first stop?

Zara! We have apparently also made it our mission to find a Zara in every country we visit. As Zara gears up to release its next collection, they are having some absolutely massive sales and Em, Curt, and I took full advantage of the 3-level Zara in the middle of Vienna's main square.

After we each stocked up on some gorgeous new pieces, we headed to the Belvedere -- one of, if not the, most renowned art museum in Austria. 

Housed in yet another imperial palace, the Belvedere is an absolutely massive collection of art that ranges from the Medieval period to Impressionism. There is also a rotating collection of visiting exhibits housed in the lower palace, the smaller of the two.

Thankfully pictures are allowed in the Belvedere so we got some real gems -- including our recreation of Emily's favorite painting, Gustav Klimt's The Kiss. We walked at least three miles just wandering around Belvedere alone and unfortunately the gorgeously fair weather became brutally cold on Saturday so by the time we finished Belvedere, we were ready for some warmth and comfort. Time for more naps!

Four hours, three naps, and some amazing Indian food later we were ready to explore again! (And as much as we love Italian food, we were ready to change it up with some spice so in Vienna we had Thai and Indian food that were honestly just hugs for the soul) The harsh cold of the day had died down so we headed back towards city center on our old favorite, the U-Bahn, and walked along the winding streets for a couple hours. We people-watched, enjoyed the very last of the Christmas lights, and even gawked in a few window displays of stores like Yves Saint Laurent, Fendi, and Dior. Just some light shopping, you know? 

We ended our final night in Vienna with the most fitting of tributes: a sampler of desserts! 

From Aida, of course, we tried their Mozart cake, their version of the Sachertorte, and that fruity pastry that was incredible but unfortunately I do not remember the name of. While the Aida knockoff Sachertorte was absolutely fine, after you've had an original Sachertorte you can never fully enjoy a fake. The Mozart cake was Curt's favorite, very light and airy, and the fruit concoction was mine. I've always been a fruit fan so anytime a dessert has fruit I'm pretty much guaranteed to be a fan. 

Vienna was a whirlwind of a weekend for sure. Collectively, we each walked about 20 miles, ate at least 7 different pastries, and gawked at approximately 200 works of art (food and architecture included). There is so much more to Vienna that we just didn't have the time to explore but this little weekend taste of Wien functions much like their beloved Sachertorte: one bite, and you'll always come back for more. 

xx

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