The Various Vibrances of Vienna

As we drove into Vienna, the modern buildings around the outskirts of the city thinned out, and in their place, the ancient arches and domes became more abundant as we entered the historic city center. Later, after we checked into our hotel, we decided to explore the city, and we found some very cool things around the ancient city center, such as the Spanish Riding School, the theater, and the opera house. The theater is an enormous building that was black, but with gold trim and an enormous, tiled roof. It also has fountains and arches all around it, breaking up the design into segments with broad, sweeping entranceways on each of them. At first glance, the Spanish Riding School was only a way into the central square, but once you came out of the tunnel separating the two halves of it, you could easily tell what it is by looking at the famous statue of a man on a stallion outside the entrance. We did not see the horse show, but it is said that it is an amazing event to watch. The opera house is an enormous building near our hotel, that is around the size of a city block, with doorways all over it at regular intervals, leading inside to the enormously lavish theater room. In Vienna, the wonders of the old city center are nearly infinite!

Another one of my favorite sights in Vienna was the state library, an enormous building with tons of domes around the inside, and giant bookshelves towering into the air like skyscrapers in a skyline. As I walked into the library, I immediately felt the calm and peaceful environment inside cause all the past (albeit minor) annoyances of the day leave me. The library also featured enormous enormous murals carved into the roof and painted over in vivid detail (these were my favorite part). This library was also a treasury of historical information, as the oldest book dated back thousands of years into the past. The library also was my second-favorite one I have been to, surpassed only by Strahov monastery, and this is saying a lot!

Another amazing sight from around Vienna was St. Stephen’s Cathedral, one of my favorite churches on this trip. When you come into the square that the cathedral is situated in, the first thing you will see is its roof, blazing in the sun like an enormous mirror. When we went inside, the thing that caught my eye immediately were the enormous pillars around the church, carved into sharply detailed mosaics of ancient stories. Near the end of our visit, my parents suggested doing a tour of the catacombs, but I was slightly overheating and decided not to go in, as I wanted nothing more at that moment than to be in our air-conditioned hotel room until dinnertime, when it would be less hot outside. In retrospect, I probably should have gone into the catacombs, but the heat was screwing up my judgment, which is probably why I did not realize that it would be a cooler temperature under the church than inside of it. As we were leaving the cathedral, I noticed an enormous organ above the door, and although half of it was being restored, the half that was still on the wall was enormous and gleaming like a gold medal. Overall, St. Stephen’s Cathedral was very worthwhile, although, in retrospect, going into the catacombs would have been a good idea.

In Vienna, the food was almost as diverse as the sights. This city is home to thousands of mouth-watering flavors, such as schnitzel, bratwurst, and tortes! For breakfast, we went to cafes all over Vienna, such as Cafe Central, Cafe Museum, and Cafe Schwartzenberg. At Cafe Museum, I got a Mozartkugel drink, with chocolate layers and pistachio cream on the top. As you can tell, this was basically dessert for breakfast, but it was so good! Overall, I think Cafe Museum was the best breakfast we had in Vienna! At Cafe Central, I decided to try ham, but I did not like it, so I had to ask mom for some of her croissant and fruit bowl to tide me over until lunch, but the croissant was spectacularly good! At Cafe Schwartzenberg, I got a bottle of pear nectar and a plate of sausages, which are very good complimentary flavors. Before we left Vienna, as this cafe was our last breakfast spot in the city, we decided to treat ourselves with a marzipan torte that the cafe owners had in the display case, and it was so good! Overall, breakfast in Vienna was positively scrumptious!

Around lunchtime on our first day in Vienna, we stumbled across a sausage place near the opera house called the Green Rabbit, which made gourmet sausages such as kasekrainer and bratwurst, and they were so good! My parents always got kasekrainers, but I got a bratwurst every time, as its flavor was amazing in a subtle way! At first sight, the Green Rabbit did not look like much, but it was so good that we ate every lunch in the Vienna city center here! I 100,000,000,000,000,000% guarantee you that if you try this place, you will love it (unless you are vegetarian, of course).

For dinner, we went on the schnitzel grand tour of Vienna, trying distinct types of it, including pork, veal, and even homemade chicken (we had this at our friend’s house). As you can probably tell by now, my favorite meal on this trip was schnitzel, as it was the perfect combo of tender and flavorful. Schnitzel also had a breaded exterior that was satisfyingly crunchy when you bit into it, and it was also a filling dinner that was very common in restaurants around Vienna! If you go to Austria, you should at least try schnitzel, as it is so good that it would be almost impossible for me to say no to eating it after I tried it the first time on this trip. If you like schnitzel, dinner in Vienna is extremely enjoyable, so I suggest you at least try it if you are even in Vienna.

To fully enjoy Vienna, you must also have the treats! The list of treats I had in Vienna included sour kittens, gelato from Gelateria la Romana, and the Imperial Torte. As for Gelateria la Romana, some of you may remember my Verona post, in which I said how much I loved the gelato this place had, and if not, I will tell you now. This place has the best gelato we had on our three trips combined, and that is saying a lot, as we have had a lot of really great gelato on our trips! This place tops almost all gelato places by a considerable margin and leaves most great shops in the dust! When we went to Gelateria la Romana, the day was so hot that I almost overheated in the tram on the way there, a perfect thing to happen before I had ice cream, as it tasted even more refreshing on a hot day! Another amazing treat we had in Vienna, was a perk of staying at the Hotel Imperial that we got every night when turndown service came. It was a delicious confection made of chocolate and orange that we had every night before bed. The sour kittens, on the other hand, were a souvenir we got at a store when we decided to get a sparkling water to quench our family’s thirst until lunchtime. Overall, dessert in Vienna was worth every Euro we spent on it and more!