Vienna is a handsome, lively city, and pleases me exceedingly.

 Finally! As of Wednesday I am a happily free woman, having finished all of my exams. Of course this is just one step closer to leaving Nottingham, but in the meantime I have two weeks to enjoy free of studying, so I can't complain. In an ideal world I'd now be spending all of my time outside in the sunshine, frolicking in meadows and what have you, but unfortunately this is England, and the weather is not that kind, so I guess there's no excuse not to spend my down time stuck inside catching up on my Europe travels.


We had timed our arrival in Vienna to coincide with Easter Sunday, so that we could enjoy markets outside Schonbrunn Palace. Our first morning we headed into the city centre to explore before heading out to the palace. We visited St Stephen's, the main catholic cathedral in Vienna, during their Easter service. The church was huge, and really beautiful on the inside, and it was interesting to see a little bit of a European catholic service. Of course, it was all in German so we couldn't understand anything. We then walked towards the Museumsquarter via the Spanish Riding School. This area was just surrounded with amazing buildings and statues, so it was great to explore.

The rest of the day was spent out at Schonnbrunn Palace, a former summer residence. When we arrived it was teeming with tourists, so we had a few hours to wait around before our tour. Luckily the weather was great, so we got to enjoy the easter markets and have a picnic in the sun.

 
It really was a beautiful setting, and we also had a chance to explore the gardens behind the palace. The gardens were huge, and filled with greenery and flower gardens, not to mention a zoo and a hedge maze, which we certainly made the most of. We had an audio guide for a tour of the palace, which was quite a nice way to go at your own pace but still take in a lot of information. There was so much history behind the palace, and its various residents, but probably the most entertaining point in the tour came when everyone realised they were in the room where a 6-year old Mozart played, and simultaneously flipped out. After the tour we returned to the gardens and walked up the hill behind Schonbrunn, past the beautiful Neptune Fountain to the Gloriette. From here we had an amazing view of both the palace and the city of Vienna.

Having completely exhausted ourselves, we finished the day with the all-important Wiener Schnitzel.

Our second day in Vienna we took a walk along the Danube river, where we encountered some amazing street art. The walls on both sides of the river were covered in a huge variety of art, some of it very cool and plenty of very weird stuff. 

From the river we walked towards the Museumsquarter, with a detour to the old home of Sigmund Freud, which has now become a Freud museum. Once at the Museumsquarter we spent some time at the Natural History Museum. The place was huge, with so much to see, so we didn't get a chance to get around all of the exhibitions, but we certainly saw a lot. Probably amongst the most popular displays would be the dinosaur fossils, which were very impressive. One of the other most famous displays has to be the Venus of Willendorf statuette, which I found surprisingly tiny. The whole museum was great, and it was only a shame that we were short of time, not to mention exhausted, and couldn't see everything there. Having exhausted ourselves out from days of walking around, we had a very laid back afternoon, which mostly involved deciding where we should stop to eat next. Austria is particularly well-known for its cakes, so we took it upon ourselves to try some of the most famous ones, particularly the Mozart Cake and Sacher Torte. These were 10/10 would recommend.

 

Once it got dark we also got the opportunity to see Vienna at night. Walking past the Opera House they had an outdoor screen to get to watch and listen to the opera for free, which give the area a great atmosphere. The buildings in the Museumsquarter and surrounding looked even more impressive all lit up, especially the Rathaus (town hall), and the parliament building.

Our final morning in Vienna I thought I should take the chance to visit the Hundertwasserhaus, especially to enjoy a little link with home. It did not disappoint, with a whole set of apartments designed in classic Hundertwasser style. There was also a gallery with some of his artworks and images of other buildings designed all around the world. There was also an underground bathroom with fountain, but of course not as great as the toilets in Kawakawa.

It was great to see something that was both a part of the country I was visiting, and of New Zealand, and also to see a part of Vienna a little out of the central tourist area.

I felt like we saw such a range of things in Vienna, from the historical palace to brand new street art, and everything in between. The city had such a lively feel, bustling with tourists and locals. It was a great place to explore, not to mention Vienna's great cafe culture (to rival Wellington even). Having very much enjoyed what Vienna had to offer we hopped on a train to our next destination, Budapest.

Byyyyeeee!