Episode 13 - Wien 🇦🇹
The grandest city of Europe!
Welcome back to the second stop on Joe, Emma, and I’s amazing trip around central Europe. We’re in Vienna for three days, and I have found it to be the most beautiful city in the world. It is both grand and quaint, vast yet cozy, and full of so many neat shops, side streets, and history. It is truly a wonderful place to be.
Monday 10/30/2023
After a long and exciting night partying at the hostel, Joe, Emma, and everyone we met and played rage cage with went outside and I went upstairs to do some writing.
Our dinner the night before was amazing — Joe, Emma, and I befriended this very sweet Danish girl named Astrid (just like in How to Train Your Dragon) and we proceeded to spend 2 hours at a lovely restaurant that Emma found on TikTok called Amerlingbeisl. Astrid is traveling around Europe for a couple weeks after taking 4 (!!) gap years in Denmark and decided to head out with us for dinner.
She and I got burritos (that weren’t really burritos in the California sense but still delicious imo) and we were enjoying the extremely cheap drinks at the bar. I even went outside to call Mama and give her updates about Munich! I forgot to tell Emma, Astrid, and Joe that I was calling my mum and they were concerned when I disappeared for about 25 minutes. Lol
Around 11, we headed back to the hostel to play lots of pool, beer pong, and rage cage.
I quickly ran out of excuses as to why I was doing so poorly in pool. All my summer of training pool in the Chicago office of Kraft Heinz with Jerome seems to have been lost. Sorry, Jerome!
My usual excuses of the sun being in my eyes and the strong wind were used pretty quickly. I eventually settled on the fact that I’ve never played when not completely sober.
There is also the possibility that I just suck at pool now. There is that possibility as well, though I’m not quite ready to admit that just yet.
We then transitioned to beer pong, where Joe, Emma, Astrid, Luke (from Manchester, hey Luke!!, what a lad), and I were playing 4 Frenchmen from Lyon who were cheating so much. We still ended up winning, with me making the game-winning shot to finish it off. I have American blood flowing through my veins, what can I say?
I then proceeded to get a pitcher of beer and teach 10 people how to play Rage Cage. I have decided it’s my duty to spread the gospel of Rage Cage to as many people as possible and to enlighten everyone about the wonders of this game. Astrid called it Fireball because in Denmark you apparently play Rage Cage while blasting “Fireball” by Pitbull.
That is a lovely variation of the name. Much better than the Dutch “stack cup”.
I accidentally spilled beer all over another Danish dude (sorry about that!) and was slightly appalled to see this extremely drunk Frenchman trying to throw the ping-pong ball directly into the cups. No bueno.
Needless to say, it was an amazing time.
We finally made it back to the rooms at around 2:30 a.m. when we all went to bed. Astrid and I ended up whispering to each other for another hour, annoying Emma until she fell asleep and started snoring in Dutch.
Astrid woke up at 10 a.m. to pack up, check out, and head off to Budapest. I will likely never see her again. I honestly quite fancied her. It’s strange how these things end up happening.
Astrid, it was truly a pleasure to meet you. I wish you all the best in your travels and in your studies next year!
I fell back asleep, when Emma woke me and Joe up at 11 a.m. full of impatience. She would be a terrible doctor. She has no patients.
*briefly stops writing to chuckle in Dennis language*
She wasn’t very effective at getting me out of bed until she said she was getting hangry. That got me right up. Joe and I had a tickle fight, then I quickly took a shower using only hand soap (including for shampoo), then it was off to breakfast and Vienna sightseeing!
I won the tickle fight, in case you were wondering. Besides having 50 pounds on Joe, I also am less ticklish.
Tee hee!
We had breakfast at this lovely cafe down a relatively main-street-looking street that had yummy cinnamon rolls (Emma even said it was the best she ever had in her life) and yummy coffee. I also practiced my German.
Since I only know about 10 words, there wasn’t much to practice.
We then headed toward the center of the city, where we saw grand palaces, a beautiful Main Street, large museums, imperial palaces, amazing churches, and city parks.
We have come up with an interesting arrangement — Emma decides where to go, I navigate us there, and Joe provides comic relief.
The one exception is the Apple Store! We went to the one in Vienna, and it was very exciting. German keyboards are really cool.
I was consistently amazed by Vienna for so many reasons. It has some of the most grand architecture I have ever seen in my entire life — you look at massive buildings that have survived hundreds of years, dozens of empires, and entire world wars. You feel small and insignificant compared to them, and I cannot fathom that men built these buildings.
Then there are quiet, quaint streets, full of mysteries and hidden secrets waiting to be found. A German bookshop down an alleyway. An unseen shortcut between two homes. The mysteries are there waiting, waiting to be found.
It is lovely what you can find if you just look. I love it!
We then headed over to a restaurant where they make schnitzel, a quintessential Austrian food. Even better, this restaurant was where schnitzel was invented! Our table was in a well-lit cozy basement, where Emma revealed that “Rotterdam it’s the ugliest city I’ve been in my life”.
We were at the restaurant for quite some time (about an hour and a half), then we left to go get apple strudel but the line for the famous shop was quite long. Joe and I went shopping while Emma was on the phone getting an internship (hooray!!). I then took the metro back to the hostel for an important top-secret meeting while Joe and Emma walked around (and got apple strudel elsewhere).
The metro system in Vienna is extremely efficient and clean. It is as nice as Munich’s, and nearly tops Moscow’s.
I’ll say that again.
It was almost as nice as Moscow’s.
Emma and Joe made it back to the hostel eventually (stopped at a few churches along the way), then we met up with Melody and Soille (some friends from Paris also in Vienna and staying at the same hostel) for some delicious German food (including a sauce that almost killed Emma it was so spicy for her). The waiter was super nice and Greek, and I practiced the three Greek phrases that I googled during dinner so that I could say them to him. He was very impressed.
We headed back to the hostel to see if Emma could bartend (the other bartenders were sick, so the bar was going to be closed that night in the hostel) because she has an EU pouring license. They said no so we went to eastern Vienna to a pub that Joe was recommended, which also had the BCG Vienna office right nearby in the most unassuming building ever.
At this time, our new friend Carlo (HI CARLO!!) joined us. He’s from Chennai and doing his master’s in EE in Canada, slaying it in sensor research. He was in Vienna for a research conference that he was presenting in, and he fit into our group perfectly!
At the pub we all went to, they only took cash.
We had no cash.
So we left to an ATM that was “a right, a left, then another left” away, though it ended up being about a kilometer away. The waitress underestimated the distance just a bit.
After chilling for a bit at that pub, we walked over to Charlie P’s an Irish pub in northern Vienna that is where Killian (the Austrian guy I met at the Normandy/Brittany trip a few weeks ago) works at and is owned by his dad. Along the way, we stopped for some pictures :)
It was one of the nicest pubs I’ve ever been to, and I even met Killian’s dad there, too!
The booths were straight out of Peaky Blinders. It was amazing.
We walked back when the pub closed at 1 am and hit up a McDonald’s that had a broken ice cream machine, rendering my dream of getting a McFlurry null and void. I honestly am surprised that I thought the machine would work lol.
We walked by the Austrian Parliament building at 2 am, then made it back at 2:30 am. I fell asleep immediately, exhausted from a wonderful day in Vienna!
Tuesday 10/31
Tuesday was one of the funnest days (Yes, Ms. McClain, I know it’s most fun) I’ve had ever, accompanied by the fact that I pulled an all-nighter and only fell asleep when we were on the train to Venice. Nice!
We slept in super late today and only left the hostel at 12:30, much to Emma’s chagrin. I showered again with hand soap, then won another tickle fight with Joe. This time he teamed up with Emma, but I quickly dismantled her before she gave up. I then turned my attention to Joe.
Borat would say “Great success!”
We headed over to a cafe near where we ate breakfast the day before which was such a cute find. Beautiful interior decorations and delicious food. We all got omelets, several pots of coffee, and apple strudles. Yum!
My favorite part was that they had a bunch of international newspapers, and it was fun to read them. I wonder where they got them from in all the different languages. It had been a while since I’ve read a printed newspaper.
Emma grew up in Vienna, so we left the cafe and took the metro to see her childhood home and school in Heitzing! It was in Woop (middle of nowhere), though it was very cute and cozy. It honestly reminded me a bit of Pravdinsk (my grandma’s village in Belarus) with its gravel roads and houses. We got some waffle crackers and Milka chocolates, then hiked up Emma’s super steep childhood street to see the view of Vienna from the top.
We also saw some goats. Emma said they were wild boars (at least that’s what she remembered) but they were just goats lol.
We later checked out her school, then took the tram to see Schönbrunn — the former palace of the Habsburg Dynasty.
If there is one thing I would recommend doing in Vienna, it is to see Schönbrunn. It was one of the coolest places I had ever been and I was completely blown away. It was like Versailles, but better.
The rooms were gorgeous, the audio guides were great, and I stood in the room where Mozart played for the Habsburgs royal when he was 6 years old.
Being in the room where Mozart played more than 200 years ago was probably the coolest part of this entire trip so far.
After the palace tour, we walked up this hill overlooking Schönbrunn and the rest of Vienna and had tea and apple strudel in the cafe at the top. I also called my uncle to tell him I was in Vienna!
Joe said Russian is more of a fake language in Dutch.
I digress.
We took the tram to the multicolored Hundertwasser House, though it was closed and not too exciting.
Emma and Joe then went to a restaurant reservation that we had coming up (under the name Bob, of course) while I took the metro to check out the Danube River. I had really wanted to see it.
The Danube! The greatest river in Europe! It was amazing. So grand.
I checked it out, then walked back to the metro station while calling my sister (hi Emily!!).
The restaurant reservation we had was super cool. Basically, all the food and drinks are delivered by model train! There is 600 meters of train tracks in the restaurant, and after you order food from the servers, the model trains drive all around the restaurant to deliver your food. It was all tremendously exciting until I accidentally derailed one of the trains carrying trash back into the kitchen.
I also recorded the entire track by putting my phone into the train as it was leaving the kitchen until it choo-chooed at the way to Emma and Joe!
Tuesday was Halloween, which meant costumes!!
After dinner, Joe, Emma, and I headed back to the hostel to figure out what to have our costumes be. We wanted to be the famous trio of Lenin, Stalin, and Marx, but didn’t figure out the costumes in time. Emma scraped together a Harry Potter costume with my Zara shirt, her jacket, and a mascara-drawn scar.
Joe and I went with the more creative, dramatically more low-budget option of Greek gods (or Roman senators) wearing togas made from bedsheets. Our mate Carlo was a cow!
The Halloween party at the hostel was a ton of fun! Pints were flowing and many games of pool were played. I was doing a lot better than the night before. We met a large group of Australian exchange students and played a game of spoons with 12 people in it.
I won! My training with my sister was well spent.
At midnight, the hostel party had a contest to see who had the best costumes. Some guy wearing a Roman general outfit (bought at a store) won the contest and with it, a free trip to Budapest. Joe and I got 4th, and with it, a free pitcher of beer!
A ton of people loved our costumes and how low-budget they were. I was telling everyone that I was spending all my money on travel and beer. Not far off! A lot of people asked for pictures, so I’m now in a bunch of random people’s camera rolls.
Joe and Emma went to sleep around 3, but Carlo and I had a much more productive night.
We met three middle-aged Polish guys and proceeded to drink a bottle of vodka over the next 2 hours. They were in town for a Polish volleyball game, and it was such an amazing time. Turns out Polish and Russian aren’t too far off from each other, and we have a lot of common words and phrases.
I was relieved when we finished the bottle of vodka because we didn’t have to drink anymore. Then one of the Polish guys pulled out a bottle of Scotch, and we proceeded to finish that as well.
Around 4, the Poles invited Carlo and I up to their room to meet their grandpa and wives.
Naturally, we accepted.
We proceeded to eat Polish chocolate and play some cards until 4:30 am, at which point the Polish grandpa needed to go to sleep and we were politely kicked out.
Carlo and I went back to the party room to play another 2 games of pool (I had lost the bedsheet at this point and was wearing Carlo’s shirt). We had a great time. I miss you, Carlo!
Joe came down at 5:15 and told me to pack up or else we would miss our train to Venice. I quickly showed all my things into my bags, almost knocked over the lockers in our hostel room, and we walked to the metro station to make it to the train terminal on time.
I barely made it to the train, and fell asleep immediately. Off to Venice!
Thoughts on Vienna:
Top 3 most beautiful cities I have ever seen in my entire life. The architecture, history, and grandness of the city is unmatched.
Must-dos in Vienna: Schönbrunn, St. Stephen's Cathedral, Parliament Building!
Wombat Hostel is amazing. Highly recommend!
Some more pictures:
