Greetings from Vienna! I visited Vienna with my friend from Tulane Dani during our Fall/Midterm breaks. We were in Vienna from October 25th through the morning of the 27th, but we really only had one day in Vienna to explore since we took a day trip to Salzburg. But, for the sake of including more "greetings from" blog posts, I will be separating them in to two separate posts:) Friday: My flight from Milan to Vienna was early Friday morning. Dani was arriving a little more than an hour after me so I left the airport and checked in to our airbnb while I was waiting. Once Dani arrived and dropped of her stuff, we headed in to the city center to walk around and see as much of Vienna as possible during our only real day to explore the city. We hit most of the major sites within the city center including: St Stephan's Cathedral/Stephansdom, Hofburg Palace, Belvedere Palace, Rathaus/Town Hall, and the Museums Quartier. We happened to be in Austria the weekend of a holiday, Austrian National Day, so there was a huge military fair set up within a section of the city center. We had no clue that Saturday was a holiday, but it was cool to see all the different tents set up celebrating all things Austrian military. We got french fries as a snack at one of the stands since we had not eaten that much yet. After we walked around, we headed to the Jewish Quarter to walk around some more and eat lunch. We had lunch at a vegan/vegetarian bakery/cafe called Simply Raw Bakery which was such a refreshing change of pace from the food I eat in Milan. I had a stuffed avocado with quinoa and hummus and a smoothie. After lunch, we stopped by the square where the Jewish museum is and the Holocaust memorial which is located where the former synagogue stood. We then visited the Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens. This estate was absolutely stunning, amplified by the fact that it was golden hour. The whole area felt similar to Versaille with some clear differences. As ornate and over the top that Versaille is, Schonbrunn is the exact opposite. Instead, Schonbrunn is classy and grand. I loved walking around the outside of the Palace and the Garden area. My newfound appreciation for Fall also grew since the reds and yellows of the trees were stunning against the yellow palace and setting sun. After Schonbrunn, we visited the Naschmarket, a famous outdoor farmers market within Vienna. Honestly, it was a little underwhelming compared to other food markets I have seen, but we also were there around / right after sunset so it might be better during the day over the weekend. At this point, Dani and I were hungry again so we went back into the city center for dinner at a 400 year old restaurant called Zum Schwarzen Kameel (The Black Camel). At the recommendation of the older American couple sitting next to us and the waiter, I had Beef Tafelspitz, a famous Vienese boiled beef dish served with an apple horseradish. My dish also came with creamed spinach, potatoes, and a chive sauce. It was very delicious and I'm glad I was able to try a traditional dish other than schnitzel. After dinner, we went to Cafe Central for coffee and dessert. Cafe Central is a beautiful, historic Austrian cafe with live piano and the most insane architecture. We had the cafe's take on sachertorte and apple strudel. The sachertorte was a little dry for my personal chocolate cake taste, but still good since thats how the cake is supposed to be. The apple strudel was delicious though. Dani and I still want more of it. After dinner we went back to the Airbnb and fell asleep watching The Sound of Music in anticipation of our day trip to Salzburg the next day. Best Moments:
The whole city of Vienna was absolutely beautiful. The atmosphere is classy and grand so you can't help but feel classy walking around the streets. Schonbrunn is one of my favorite sites of abroad so far and seeing locals go for their jogs around the grounds made me miss Sands Point even though the grounds are incomparable. Our time in Vienna was short, but enough to make me love the city and want to go back.
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