Adventures in Budapest: A Weekend in Vienna

A group of friends (Irene, Allie, Katrina, and Dillon) and I took a train to Vienna for the weekend. I found out the hard way that not securing a seat on the train means you get to stand for most of the way. I should have figured that would happen, but I was being frugal and optimistic. Eventually, the seats cleared so I could sit for the last hour or so, so it wasn't terrible. It took about 3 hours to get to Vienna from Budapest. Once we got there, we found our hotel to drop off our stuff and wandered around. We stumbled upon the beautiful Church of St. Charles. A performing group was playing, so we stopped to listen and watch. After that we were super hungry, since it was pretty late. We ended up at T.G.I.Fridays (who knew they had them in Budapest and Vienna?!) since our other nearby options were McDonald's or pricey restaurants. After dinner, we wandered around some more and found the Soviet War Memorial, which was gorgeous at night.

The next morning (Saturdy), we went to an interactive music museum. It was a lot of fun. The strangest part of the museum was a room that was supposed to simulate the noises you hear while in the womb... I thought the best part was watching a recording of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

We had lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant. I had a falafel and pita sandwich...best falafels I've ever had! The group split up from there, some to the torture museum, and the rest of us to the Belvedere, which used to be a home, but is now an art museum. We toured the Upper Belvedere. There was a nicely sized collection of art, including "The Kiss" and other pieces by Gustav Klimt (my favorite room of the museum!). The original ballroom was stunning. The courtyard was also beautiful, with the fountain, sculptures, flowers, and view of the Upper Belvedere complex.

That night, we waited in line to get standing room only tickets for the opera "Otello". Tickets were only 3 euros...how crazy is that? Our feet were extremely tired from walking around all day, but we couldn't pass up the opera. "Otello" was dramatic and had a sad ending, but the singing was amazing. We snuck out during the clapping to beat the rush (and also because the clapping was going on for 5+ minutes!).

On Sunday morning, we went to Cafe Demel and had pastries for breakfast! Next, we went to the Hofburg Palace and saw the dishes and centerpiece collection as well as the apartments. It was interesting to learn about the lives of the people who lived in the palace and their families' lives. We still had a few hours left before we had to catch our train, so we explored St. Stephen's Cathedral, which was stunning. Allie and I decided to see one more museum with our remaining hour, the Wien Museum, which had cool models and maps of Vienna in the past and other art from many time periods.

I would say that our trip was very successful!! We were able to see a lot more than we had expected!