Day one:
I'm pleasantly surprised by how smoothly things went today transport-wise on the journey from Prague to Vienna. I found my way painlessly to the tram at Malostranka, Prague, went 5 stops along to the station and found the platform easily and then the correct carriage and seat in no time at all. Then I managed to figure out the underground pretty quickly and arrived at my hostel in no time at all. I've been using an app called Moovit (I'd totally recommend it if you're in a new city, pretty much anywhere in world) which did all the work and map-deciphering for me but I'm still really proud of myself all the same.
Vienna is the city that I had the lowest expectations of. Obviously I'd done my research and knew it was a big, beautiful city with lots to do but nothing had really been jumping out at me making me reeeeeaaally excited to visit. I had a couple of hours at the hostel to get myself and my thoughts together before I left to explore. I tried to do a little bit of planning for my next departure to Budapest, hoping that some forward-thinking would put my mind at ease about the next leg of my journey. After my stay in Vienna, I plan to go from Budapest to Ljubljana. However, unlike my other trains, I'm not able to book this one online which is really worrying me because all my trains so far have been so busy and this particular journey, being 8 hours long, would not be particularly fun without a seat. In the end I've decided to just stick to the original plan and hope I can book my seat reservation the day I arrive in Budapest. If not, I may have to decide on a plan B.
I've never really been the one to start a up conversation with a stranger and I'm aware that I don't 'put myself out there' enough in day-to-day life but since travelling alone, I've found myself working really hard to overcome this. I made a really conscious effort to have good and interesting conversations with the girls in my hostel dorm tonight and it made me feel much happier. Not talking to people just isn't an option in solo-travel unless you want to go crazy from the loneliness.
Day two:
Today has been seriously intense. I've taken 27160 steps today, according to my app. That's more than I did even on my busiest day in Berlin. I've taken in the art scene of the city today, starting with the Museumsquartier where I went to the Leopold museum and the MUMOK. I've studied Fine Art so seeing such a huge collection of Egon Schiele's work (the largest in the world, in fact) was SO COOL. I really loved it. I was a bit miffed about the MUMOK collection to be honest. Not many pieces stood out to me, I couldn't see any correlation between them or understand why they had been chosen to be exhibited and I do get that modern art is supposed to be a bit abstract (or just plain weird) but there wasn't really a clear enough explanation of what each piece symbolised so that was frustrating. If you were looking to visit an art gallery in Vienna, I wouldn't recommend that one. A tip to anyone who might visit in the future: under 19s get in for free. I'm 19 but I don't feel like the man selling me my ticket would have questioned me if I had said I was 18 and I would have saved 16 euros! Either way, the student concession is still a fair discount.
After stopping for sushi, I headed to the Stadtpark to soak up the sun and do some reading. There were people sunbathing in swimwear and the whole atmosphere was really chilled out. I love finding peaceful little areas in the middle of big bustling cities. Then I headed to the Hundertwasserhaus. Initially I was a bit underwhelmed by it but I made the most of my time there by browsing through all of the souvenir shops and stopping for a delish pizza. After that I went to the MAK gallery which offers free entry to all on Tuesday evenings 6-10. I'd been waiting to visit all day so I was keen to get inside and see the exhibits. I was really impressed with this gallery the most out of all three today which is great since I didn't even have to pay to get in! I was lucky enough to get to see a Helmut Lang archive exhibition there which I hope may come in useful at some point during uni next year. I also saw an exhibition on an Austrian eyewear designer, Robert La Roche, who I had never heard of before but loved the work of.
I could have really saved my feet today by making use of the metro and tram system here but instead I walked and walked and walked, following main roads back to the hostel to save myself from getting lost. Vienna's city centre has a large ring road through the main tourist sites so it wasn't too hard to navigate, although the map I was given from the hostel is looking a bit battered from me using it so much.
Day three:
Day three:
I'm quite surprised by how much I've enjoyed Vienna. It's been an expensive few days though. In Berlin the majority of sight-seeing could be done for free, but here, going to the museums and galleries relies on paying quite a hefty sum of entrance fees even with a student discount. To save some money, I took in the views of Belvedere Palace and Schoenbrunn Schloss and walked around their gardens which is free to do and also went to the Rathaus for a free guided tour. Then I splashed out on an unplanned visit to the National Gallery, somewhere that inititally I wasn't too concerned about visiting. I am so glad that I put aside my frugal ways and resistance to spend yet more money on museum admissions, as well as putting aside the pain of my aching feet so that I could explore the incredible artwork inside this beautiful building. I'm a huge fan of Rembrandt's work and I was so impressed by the iconic pieces in the collection here - the biggest collection I've ever seen in one place. I have big dreams of visiting Amsterdam's Rembrandt museum!
The differences between Vienna and Berlin are quite interesting. Obviously the same language is spoken but even as a tourist I recognised a few things in my 72 hours there. Berliners take crossing the road very seriously, God forbid you should cross when the the Ampelmann is not on green. In Vienna the same rule still seemed to generally apply but it was a bit more relaxed when at a road where there was no traffic and standing still would be completely pointless. I know I'll love a city when common sense is used to cross the roads - I have no patience for standing around for no reason! I bloody LOVE the traffic lights in Vienna, where some of the usual red/green crossing lights are replaced with same-sex couples rather than a typically seen hetero one. I'd heard about these before on the internet but it was still such a cool way to see homosexuality integrated into everyday.
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