My relationship with trains in European cities can be a bit of love and hate. I love their efficiency and affordability, but considering how infrequently I get to use them, I never seem to get completely comfortable. Perhaps it was the end result of an already long travel day. One would think getting from a terminal station at the airport to the city center should be easy. Yet after thinking long and hard about which platform and which train to take, we still had to get off midway, to switch to the correct one.
We planned to spend a few days in Vienna, and our minimum requirements were very simple: confirm if they really do have the best schnitzels. It was more difficult than I envisioned, because the first cafe where we decided to try them only accepted cash, so we had to scramble for an ATM. Verdict on the schnitzels: affirmative. Same goes for the apple strudels. After lots of testing work, I now have a favorite place for Vienna apple strudel.
With that out of the way, we spent the days walking around, trying to stay away from the hoards of tourists. There are countless world class museums and beautiful historic churches in the city, but most of them were simply overfilled with visitors during all reasonable hours of the day. We peeked into the popular St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and it gave us an opportunity to take excellent photos of tourists taking photos of the cathedral. On the bright side, we also managed to stumble into Church of the Jesuits, which looked very unpretentious from the outside, but turned out to be stunning on the inside. Most surprisingly it was completely deserted of visitors.
We heard that the Palace of Justice had a rooftop cafe with great views of the city and inexpensive food. Getting inside required passing through a metal detector, a bag search, and leaving behind any drinks. Once past the guards, we realized the cafe was closed today, with no warning other than a handwritten note by the elevator. Disappointed but not giving up, we came again on another day and boldly ordered from a handwritten menu. To this day I have no idea what 90% of the things on our plates were.
Another memorable meal came with a fun side of foreign tourist discrimination. The menu in the restaurant was in both German and English, and trying to play it cool, we studied the English pages, then flipped back to German and ordered off of those (e.g. pointing to second entry from the top on page three). The joke was on us, as the German version had entire pages that were unique and not present in English! The dish we pointed to was not what we expected, and it took a while to figure out what happened. Regardless, our accident was a happy one because the dish was delicious, and we declined the waiter’s offer to replace it with what we initially intended.
One of the things we spotted from our hotel room windows were the golden onion domes of a Russian Orthodox church. Curious to see what’s up, we strolled towards it. It was beautiful and completely empty. The space was not large and our presence must have been felt in the back rooms, as an elderly woman came out to greet us. She became very animated upon learning that we spoke Russian, and proceeded to give us a thorough tour of the place. Apparently it was recently renovated, with brand new murals on all the walls. The most prized possessions were the various historical jewels and saints’ relics, hidden away in glass drawers. We got to hear all the details of when and how each one was gifted to the church. It turned out this particular Vienna resident was originally from Kherson, a fact we all found very curious, as that city sits less than 70 km away from where I was from.
As much as we wanted to avoid overdone tourist hot spots, I did want to visit the Belvedere Palace and see some of the notable artwork on display there (including the much publicized Klimt’s The Kiss). The tickets were timed entry, which in theory should reduce the crowding. As we came up towards the entry I got suspicious at the incredibly long line snaking out the door. Maybe those people didn’t buy tickets in advance, I wondered to myself. When we got to the door, the smiling attendant glanced at our tickets and pointed to the end of the line. Marvelous! The line started moving pretty fast at the assigned time, but in the 7 minutes we spent waiting Alex threw me at least a dozen irritated looks to signify his discontent at having to stand in line like a lame tourist.
Once inside, it didn’t feel terribly crowded, and we actually quite enjoyed it. As for The Kiss? I suppose unlike with Mona Lisa, nobody could complain how small the canvas was, being a square 180 cm on each side. It was a zoo of people desperately trying to get a photo of it. We quickly moved on to have a more private experience with other works.
Another activity we joined in on was the live performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in Karlskirche. It too required waiting in line, but the other patrons were much more respectful of the location and others around them, compared to the museum.
Frankly, my favorite thing to do was simply to roam around, looking for whatever odd thing may pop up behind the corner, be it an unexpected architectural detail, a vintage scooter, or another tempting cafe.
On our final morning we headed out at sunrise to see the majestic Karlskirche in solitude. The tourist district definitely did not wake up that early, and it was pure bliss to enjoy the serenity of a fresh new day starting in this beautiful city.
