My Favorite Things, Vienna Style

I have thoroughly enjoyed the past semester in Vienna, so much so that I wish that everyone could experience Vienna the way I did, however I know that cannot possibly happen. Therefore I am giving you a run-down of my favorite places to grab a bite (Remember to walk everywhere first!) that I am going to greatly miss. If anyone is looking for a personal tour guide when they make their trip to Vienna, feel free to let me know, I can even speak a little German!

Cafeteria on top of a movie theater
A hidden gem, you have to get an access card and go up the back of a movie theater, but once inside you are rewarded with quick service and deliciously priced Wiener Schnitzel. No I don't know if there is a more official name, so unfortunately you can't just google it, I guess you will need me to lead the way!

Naschmarkt

I can't talk about this place enough, it has everything from delicious restaurants serving plates of hummus to saurkraut and pickles in barrels big enough to sit in.

Did I mention the stands of olives...
and spices?
Oh and the flea market that appears once a week?








Trzesniewski
This name looks complicated, but its a good thing it's food isn't. This little open faced sandwich place serves all kinds of scrumptuos open faced sandwiches, which are small and cheap enough to get a couple and sample several different kinds.

Cat Cafe
This is all the rage in Japan and has been brought to Vienna. Cats wander freely as you sip your tea or coffee and you can even offer them a treat! If you want you can even give them a pet, but be careful, they haven't been de-clawed....

Das Mobel

A clean and modern cafe where you can enjoy a good breakfast bar and check your email at the same time. An enjoyable place to study with a laid back atmosphere.


 Corns n' Pops

As soon as I walked into this small cereal bar restaurant I knew that this was my place. You can chose between a make-your-own-muesli bar or chose one of their wonderful blends which they create for you and can be topped with fresh fruit, yum!

Le bol
Ok, so this is a French café in Vienna, you got me. However, it is a cozy place to go have a mint flavored water and one large and fantastic salad and people watch in the first district. The only thing that could possibly make this better is a waiting staff that speak German, French and English, oh wait...

We are prepared to eat

Kurt

You don't know me very well if you don't know that I adore yogurt in all its delectable forms. Naturally I have tried just about every frozen yogurt place in Vienna and have deemed this one to be a winner. Not only do they have unique flavors like Lavender, but the cups are biodegradable! For a traveling Ballardite, this was a wonderful relief.






Siebenstern brau
This local brewery is well known in Vienna, so it is generally crowded, but well worth the search for a free table. The food is typical, hearty Viennese and they have seven home brews including chili (if you are adventurous, but don't ever try to American chug that beer!)

Julian and Gwen and Blaine raise a glass, er mug

Giulia's Yogurteria
 

I found this place by chance on my way to a quiet reading spot and of course I had to go in. You can order frozen yogurt or grab a fresh cup to go. I ordered all natural yogurt with muesli, strawberries and topped with a mango sauce, a great nosh for reading a book in a calm square.











Pickwick's English books and movies

When I walked into this cafe for a cup of tea I was immediately depressed that I hadn't found it earlier. The walls were coated with a thick layer of bookshelves stuffed with books all in English. I then realized the stupidity of bringing my own book "just in case", haha. The downstairs is like a typical American video store and all in English again! You can borrow books, rent movies and eat some typical English or American food. If you are feeling lonely for America it's the perfect place. Or you can still feel Viennese by sitting down and staring down the cutsy couple in the couch opposite you (guess who did that).








Cafe Central
If you are looking for a typical Viennese café experience, look no further! While it is overpriced, you can get the full experience. I have been multiple times and have felt like this is what it must've been like during the early 1900s to be an aristocrat in Vienna, sipping overpriced melange, reading a newspaper and chatting with your neighbor for hours on end...

Need a break from the city life?

Hiking anyone?

Try going outside the inner city and experiencing Vienna in a calm way. If you have the time, take a line of public transportation out to the end and get out into the countryside. There you will find typical Austrian "Heurigans" or wine bars that are generally outdoors and sit just on the outskirts of the Vienna woods. If you are up for it, go for a quick hike in the woods to work up an appetite, there are plenty of well marked trails to chose from and then pop into the Heurigan afterwards for another hearty Austrian meal and a glass of wine.

Ready to get our strudel on

I hope I didn't miss any place, but if I did, it is up to you to explore on your own!

A date here, a date there

For the first part of the program I traveled almost every weekend to different countries and spent my week days playing catch up in class. After spring break I realized that I was a) burnt out from traveling and b) hadn't done much exploring in Vienna. I decided to change this by canceling my later trips and have spent the last month enjoying Vienna. Now I can't go any further in describing these discoveries without talking about my roommate Jen. She and I have been an inseparable team from when we landed in Vienna in January.
So much credit goes to her for helping me readjust to first world living and reentry into American college lifestyles. This past month she and I took on Vienna, one "roomie date" at a time. If you are planning a romantic get away for two, just check out some of these ideas, they are great and all are college budget friendly!

A first date
This is a perfect first date, we had already had many dates prior to this, but it was still wonderful! We met at the opera house and walked to the famous wurstelstand and ordered kaiser krainer's stuffed in bread.
With a warm wurstel in hand we meandered slowly to the side of the opera house, where a giant jumbotron has been set up and the opera of the night is broadcast. This is a new thing that they do during the summer months and is completely free!
We stood there and ate our dinner while watching a Mozart opera and enjoying the prime time people watching in front of the opera house. After we had had our fill of the opera, without English subtitles there is only so much that we can guess about the plot and so we continued on down the street to a gelato parlor called Zinoni and Zinoni. We sat outside and split a large chocolate, caramel and hazelnut sundae in a tall glass with two spoons, so perfect! We took the strassenbahn home, what a lovely first date, but who paid? The nice thing about Austria is that split checks is no problem, hooray roomie dates!

A casual afternoon

Feed the birds, er ducks

What if you have a small break in the day and all you want to do is soak up some vitamin d with someone special before heading back into the office? Well, bring a snack and go to Stadtpark! There are benches lining little ponds, statues, lawns and beautiful flower gardens to wander through or just laze around. It's free and a great place to enjoy a summer breeze.

Saturday picnic
This is for a couple that is a little bit more adventurous, perhaps not a first date, I would say 4or 5 or for a group of friends. Hop on a city bike (available all over the city and it is practically free to join!) and bike over to the Danube island. It is nice that the bikes have baskets, you can bring a picnic! We biked along the island and then sat on the grass to eat our lunch. You can even bring a frisbee and throw that around, or better yet your swimsuit and take a dip, but watch out for the swans.

I wasn't kidding

None of us escaped without a burn or two

Lets go to the movies!
Dinner and a movie, can this happen outside of the US? Yes it can! Don't worry, you don't have to speak or understand German cinema to watch a movie, there are several wonderful and offbeat English cinema's in Vienna. If you are going to Vienna and want to see one, glance at this website for a listing, all of them are actually cheaper then films in the US and show ones that are also in theaters in the US! http://www.wien.gv.at/english/environment-leisure/film.html
Jen and I made dinner together, although you can chose any number of wonderful Viennese restaurants (check out my top blog for ideas) before heading to the theater. We decided to go to the Burgkino, which is right along the Ringstrasse. We saw the movie "My week with Marilyn" which we didn't particularly enjoy as much as we wanted, but it was great to watch a movie with a tiny audience.You can also try The Loft, a theater where you can get a drink while you watch.

Festivals galore
As the weather gets nicer and nicer, Vienna starts having more and more festivals, I still have yet to figure out why. If you are at a loss for what to do, just go to the Hofburg, if you are there in the months of april and may you are more then likely going to find a festival with lots of free balloons and face painting to entertain you for several hours.

A bouncy house in the Hofburg

Dalton needed to spin his wheels

We teamed up with other students in our program for this date and went to the Prater area on the 1st of May, which is national workers day. The Prater area has the famous ferris wheel, lots of rides and is like an amusement park, but smaller and European.
On a gorgeous day we grabbed our free balloons, basked in the sun and people watched the day away, just like the Viennese!

I got my party favor

So many people

If you can't find a festival, well, the Hofburg has a huge garden that you can spend time wandering through, or even sit on a bench and try to blend in with the Viennese by intently staring at everyone who passes by. Hint: Try this, and maybe when you get up to leave someone will come up and ask you a question in German, they may think you are really Austrian!




Well, those are the some of the date ideas we tested out, turns out we are a cute couple after all! There are so many wonderful parts of Vienna to explore, you don't need a date to enjoy it, but a buddy is always nice to keep things entertaining!

Trip to the imperial treasury, dressed to impress

The Vienna diet

My experience in Vienna is largely centered around food. Whether I am organizing dinner parties, baking, creatively reinventing leftovers or trying new places, food is my numero uno! I thought I would share some of my favorite food-ventures, in no particular order.

Schnitzel Schnitzel Schnitzel!
I took part in a school program sponsored cooking class, we tied on our aprons, sharpened our knives and yodeled like real Austrians until the schnitzel came home. Not really, but I did learn how to properly beat veal into submission, turns out it is a great way to let off some steam!

Ready to eat a home-cooked meal

Progressive dinners
In the beginning of this semester I felt very overwhelmed by the amount of people I was expected to live with for 5 months. In an effort to get to know people I decided to go about this in the only sure-fire way I knew; food!

Apartment 4 with desserts

Our apartment building had 5 apartments with students in our program. Therefore, for these dinners each apartment would pick a course (drinks, appetizers, main or dessert) and prepare it for everyone. We did this once a month roughly, so once a month our poor Austrian neighbors would listen as their American neighbors stamped up and down the stairs. We really should've called it progressive noise night (sorry neighbors, but quiet hours don't start until 10pm). These dinners were a great success, at least everyone was well fed, watered and tired by the end, and our apartment building grew very close. Food to the rescue!

Oh the Strudel you will eat
As we all know from the Sound of Music, Austria isn't complete without "crisp apple strudel". Since my room mate and I are doodies to the end, we decided to do something a little touristy and go to a strudel show. We meandered over to the palace of Schonnbrunn ( what will life br like when I can't take public transportation to the nearest palace?!) and seated cozily with a thick slice of strudel and a steaming mug of hot chocolate, listened to the pastry chef. She demonstrated the proper way to stretch out the dough, wrap up the apples and bake it, presto! We even took home recipes ( I grabbed one in English, French and German, who wants to bake with me?) and the smell of strudel on our clothes.

Markets, markets and more markets!
In Vienna, in is safe to say that there are at least a dozen markets scattered throughout the city. If you want a complete list, check out this website. http://www.tourmycountry.com/austria/markets-vienna.htm

The one closest to my apartment is the most well known, the Naschmarkt. Smashed with tourists even on cold days, you are hard put not to sample all the falafel, olives, hummus, cheese and nuts that are everywhere. My favorite snack there? Wasabi beans! Spicy! On Saturday's you can even check out the flea market and barter for some useful junk (7€ ball gown? Ja bitte!)
A more recent market discovery was that of the Brunnemarkt and Yppnmarkt. These two together form the shape of an L and are far more local and less touristy. Here are stands of fresh produce, bread, honey, Fungus and fruit from the Austrian farms.

I want my spice!!

Call me food obsessed, but everyone has to eat, so if you have the means and the stretchy
Pants, why not eat well (and often)! My secret to not gaining 50 kilos? Do like the Viennese and walk! I have never seen such an active city, even the older Viennese who hunch to walk can nimbly navigate the subways and street cars. On average I walk about an hour a day, but generally I would say it's closer to two or three. So if I eat a lot at dinner, I just walk home! If that doesn't work, oh well at least you know the food you ate was delicious!!

Are the hills really alive? Salzburg!

I couldn't possibly say I have lived in Austria without having gone to Salzburg! With limited time and means left I decided to go just for one night for a quick taste trip.
We left at a leisurely time on Friday afternoon and breathed the warm fresh air of the countryside of Salzburg.

The hill where we stayed

A view of Salzburg

Best tour guide ever! He even photo bombed!

To say that Salzburg is incredibly gorgeous is a bit of an understatement. No matter the weather or season this city with a small town feel is a place that I would go back to for an extended period of time. All we managed on this short weekend trip was the famous Sound of Music tour and some wanderings in the city.

I am sixteen going on seventeen....oh wait

A lake that was featured, yay!

While the tour was hokey, it gave us an excellent view of the countryside and a resolve to come back for a more in depth tour of Salzburg ( and maybe sing to the hills to keep them alive).

It began to rain after the tour, and so we made a quick go around of the old town, including Mozart's birth house.

Me and my travel buddy, Julian

Life goal: Live here

After a hearty meal of the traditional Austrian variety and a beer, we hopped back on the train to Vienna. What a lovely little adventure!

Bathing in Budapest

 One evening my friend Lissa came up to me and said " do you want to go to Budapest tomorrow?". The next morning found us eating penny pastries next to the Danube river, soaking up the sun and views of Buda and Pest. I love that you can take a train and be in a place with a different language and currency, ah the life of a student in Vienna.

On our way

Now Budapest is a beautiful city, but not a place that can be easily absorbed in a day. The intention of this spur of the moment trip was not to speed tourist through it, but beeline it for the Bathhouse!

Quick lunch before the Bathhouse

Cool Bikes

Here's a little history lesson, Budapest was once controlled by the Turks and when they left certain customs of theirs stayed as well. One of these were the Turkish baths (I don't think there were any complaints about this).






We dusted off our bathing suits after the cold Viennese winter and joined hundreds of Europeans in one of the bath houses.
 We chose one where your bathing suit can stay on without being rude and spent the day lounging, swimming, chatting and tanning.

Nothing like a get away to a spa to get rid of your cares from the
week!

Girls day

I came home to Vienna that night feeling rejuvenated and relaxed, not bad for a day trip!