Vienna, Austria, is a beautiful city with a colorful history, it is a cultural center especially for classical and opera music and the arts. As a former capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there are countless imperial monuments and palaces, many spectacular museums and ornate churches and cathedrals. It is a city with many concerts, a city of dignity and pride. This colorful city has always been one of my favorite destinations.
Wiener Riesenrad is a giant Ferris wheel found in the Wurstelprater amusement park in Prater, one of the many parks in the city. A ride on this majestic wheel costs only € 8 euros (or about $ 10 US dollars or £ 6.50 British pounds), but exploring the park and surrounding area is free and gives you a great feeling for the city.
For fans of classical musicVienna is famous for its classical and operatic musical heritage. Vienna saw the development and popularity of the "great composers", CPE Bach, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Salieri; and paved the way for Schubert et al's romantic period. Vienna is very oriented towards this musical tradition.
One of the main attractions of Vienna is the Mozart, the composer's ancient residence on Domgasse which is now a museum and a small concert hall; definitely worth the student price € 8 ($ 10.40, £ 6.50)! Mozart-themed venues and events are all over Vienna, and there is a chain of gift shops called Mostly Mozart (which sells Mozart chocolates). The Mozart statue at Hofburg Palace which is a must see due to the musical note made of flowers in front, cafes and restaurants named after him, and the Mozart / Strauss concert at the Kursalon which has reasonably priced tickets and many exhibition options. Haydn, Schubert, Strauss and Beethoven also have houses / museums dedicated to them throughout the city, classical music is not lacking here!
The Wiener Staatsoper, the Vienna State Opera offers tours for less than € 5 ($ 6.50, £ 4). It is a beautiful place that hosts some of the best operas and ballets in the world (and the Vienna Philharmonic takes its musicians from its orchestra!). Nearby is the Haus der Musik, the House of Music is a unique museum exhibiting on the Vienna Philharmonic, the city's most famous composers and other multimedia musical topics - for just € 9 ($ 12, £ 7), this place offers so much that you can't get in. any other part of the world.
For fans of history, art and architectureIf you are a history or architecture enthusiast, the huge Hofburg palace will take your socks off. It is not only close to some fantastic Viennese restaurants and cafes, but it is beautiful and huge. You can visit the Imperial Apartments and the Schatzkammer, the treasure, which houses the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. Also take a look at Austrian National Library and its four museums and the Spanish riding school which houses the famous Lipizzaner horses.
There are the sister museums Ringstraße (Ringstrassa or Ring Street) commissioned by the emperor to protect the formidable art collection of the Habsburg dynasty.
The first is the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Museum of Art History, is one of the richest and most massive art museums in the world. It houses numerous 18th century paintings by ancient masters, collections of Renaissance and Baroque art and superb collections of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities.
The second is the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, the Vienna Natural History Museum, another of Europe's most important and huge museums, is truly spectacular.
Pay attention to the admission prices to the Hofburg area complex and museums as reaching so many places will add up. But spend unhurried time in every large museum and see some of the treasures of our human existence.
For something free, the Burggarten and the Volksgarten (parks) on the premises are really nice places to relax from all sightseeing.
The Museumsquartier Museum Quarter is a section of the city that is one of my favorites. Here you will find the MUMOK and the Kunsthalle Wien (for modern art), the Leopold Museum (for Austrian art) and the Architekturzentrum Wien (for architecture and urban design). The Museum of Applied Arts (the MAK) is also quite nice to see, and it's free on Tuesday nights!
The Schönbrunn Palace it's far from the city center, but definitely worth the trip out there. It is a bit like Versailles, a large palace with vast gardens behind it. Even if student tickets are between € 10 and € 15 ($ 13- $ 19, £ 8-12), you can go to the garden for free and spend some time there - it's a great picnic spot , jogging or reading a book surrounded by nature.
Tiergarten Schonbrunn, is the oldest zoo in the world and is close to Schönbrunn Palace.
To the Belvedere, a complex of palaces closer to the city center, you can visit a free park (in a formal French way) between the Upper and Lower Belvedere palaces and admire the incredible skyline of the city. There you can also see the Belvedere museum.
The Freud museum in Alsergrund it was the home of Sigmund Freud and costs € 5.50 ($ 7, £ 4.50) a ticket. For this you will learn all about the life and work of the psychologist. However, his famous sofa is not there. He's in London. What could be more interesting are the many really trendy cafes and restaurants in that area which attract students from the nearby university.
St. Stephen, St. Stephen's Cathedral, in Stephenplatz, in the city center, is in Gothic and Romanesque style and offers concerts, guided tours of the church and catacombs and breathtaking views of the city from the top of the south tower: it is definitely worth climbing only 343 steps.
Karlskirche, St. Charles's Church, on Karlplatz is baroque and has concerts. (I saw Mozart's Requiem there) and tour; instead of going up the steps, however, you can take an elevator to the observation deck on the dome to see Vienna. Take advantage of Karlsplatz while you're there: the park is beautiful and the surrounding area has many other museums (such as the Clock Museum) and good restaurants and cafés.
Viennese cuisineVienna has its own cuisine, although it is often treated as equivalent to Austrian cuisine. Sometimes it is mistakenly thought to be a variant of German cuisine, but not to mention it for an Austrian. And indeed, Vienna's cuisine is unique in many ways that you will find enjoyable.
Some of my favorite dishes include Rindsuppe (beef soup), Milanese cutlet (fried pounded and breaded veal), Goulash (a hotpot similar to the Hungarian stew of the same name), Tafelspitz (boiled beef with apple sauce and horseradish ) and Selchfleisch (smoked meat) usually served with sauerkraut and dumplings. Auf Geschmack (At pleasure)!
As for the desert, although the Danes are proud of the "Danish pastry", the Danes also call it Wienerbrød, "Viennese bread", because it was born in Vienna and not in Denmark. This is the type of pastry used in several ways, including strudel such as the Viennese specialty, Apfelstrudel (apple strudel) and Topfenstrudel (a Topfen dessert or quark cheese stuffed strudel) often served with vanilla sauce. But there are also many forms of binges such as the famous Sachertorte (a chocolate cake) with its many variations. There is no shortage of magnificent bakery creations in Austria.
Unfortunately, when you leave Vienna, one of the things you will miss most will be the food.
Viennese coffee cultureWhile there are countless pubs throughout Vienna serving Austrian beer and wine, the Vienna cafes, the cafes, are particularly interesting places to experience various blends of coffee served with a variety of strudel or tort delicacies. But the Vienna Café goes beyond the simple refreshments served, because it is an institution in its own right. There is an interesting culture surrounding Viennese cafes: many have literary readings or live piano music (usually classical, sometimes jazz), and there is a particular aspect and atmosphere associated with Viennese coffee that attracts the customer to sit there for hours, partly in amazement and partly contentment. For a truly magnificent restaurant and cafe, I recommend Café Greinsteidl near the Hofburg Palace. But there are many, many others in the city.
In summary:Visiting Austria is like traveling through time, going back to history, it's like no other place I've ever been. Vienna is the perfect place for the young traveler because his unique way is so unique, even exotic and particularly beautiful; and even a high school backpacker will find it strangely enchanting and an invaluable experience. But don't worry, the prices are reasonable, its attributes are staggering and there are so many things to remember that you are no longer at home. Even when you leave Vienna, its qualities and character will somehow become part of you.