Let's just say. It was awesome. I really enjoyed that city.
Tuesday we walked over to Prater Park to get a feel for it. Then we went back to the apartment to sign up for city bikes. We rented two bikes and rode around Prater. After that we cleaned up, grabbed some lunch from Anker, got on the U-bahn and headed to the summer palace.
Much like the winter palace, it was large and gaudy. Apparently the Hapsburgs had some money. I don't have much else to add. Perhaps Shannon will have more thoughts on the palace. That's her department. It looked like a cool place to jog.
We headed back to city center and found an old school beer hall. We drank some beer and wine and listened to the accordion player. I feel like we went somewhere else after that, but I don't recall. I know we ended up getting food from a street vendor at Schwedenplarz and going back to the apartment. Wiener schnitzel for Shannon. Falafel plate for me both pretty mediocre. Why do I keep ordering falafel?
Most of the late night was spent dealing with Chase. Our crazy renter lady decided to tell us the day we arrived that she wants 400€ cash. 250 for the rent and 150 as a key deposit. Well, that's more than $500 so we couldn't take it out at one time. We ended up giving her the 250€ and telling her to suck it on the key deposit. We didn't lose the keys. It's all good.
Wednesday we went to Bratislava. I'll cover that in a different post.
When we returned to Vienna we grabbed a beer at a sausage stand near Prater Park. It was in a glass, so we couldn't walk around. Next beer we got in a can so we could walk around through the amusement park.
The Viennese love their amusement park. There were dozens of rides many duplicates like monster houses or bumper cars. Not sure how they stay in business. Apparently they are each individually owned and operated, so you can get into the park for free and pay per ride. We didn't ride any rides.
Had another beer at our sausage stand and headed to Swedenplatz. We did much better on our food selection this time. First, kasewurst and two beers for something like 8€. That was a delicious sausage. I don't eat or desire cased meat much anymore, but this brat was so tender and juicy. So good. I still think about it.
After that, we went for a dunur kebop two more beers, and french fries - which were totally unnecessary. Well, all that food was unnecessary, but especially the fries. And we got them from Pizza Kebop, the same place we got the mediocre schnitzel. They then wouldn't let us sit at their outdoor tables cause we bought the beers elsewhere. We gave them the stink eye and ate our dunur elsewhere. We vowed not to eat at Pizza Kebop on Thursday. Yes, we were already planning the next nights drunken food. Don't judge, were on vacation.
Anyway, the dunur was good. It's like a like a shawarma burrito. So good.
After that we were drunk and full, so we called it a night.
Slept in a little on Thursday. Headed over to Prater (sensing a theme here?) for a little exercise. Needed to work off some of last nights food. Shannon rented a bike, I jogged. Ended up going 8 km. that's a good run.
Cleaned up and headed to Vienna woods on the western outskirts of town, at the foothills of the Alps. We were tired, so we took the bus to the top. From here, you can see all of Vienna and as far as Hungary and Slovakia. That's what we were told. Slovakia and Hungary are basically hills on the horizon. I took their word for it.
We sat in the grass and drank the beers we brought with us. We decided to follow a sign for a hueringer, or wine bar. Basically ended up walking back down into town through the vineyards. Quite pretty.
Had wine at a couple wineries in Grinzing. One of which is where Beetoven composed part of his 9th symphony. We didn't know what to do next, so we randomly rode the tram to different locations, found a pub and had a drink. Cool way to explore the city. Had a toasted ham and cheese. Pretty good.
Went back into town to see Stadtpark, the cities first park. It contained statues of famous composers. We had a drink at the wine bar near our apartment. Had to navigate the language barrier at these non- tourist places, but it worked out. Basically because they all spoke English.
Went back to Prater for a cheddar wurst langos and some walking around beers. I preferred the regular kasewurst, but the langos version was good as well. We didn't stay at Peater as long. Eventually made our way back to Swedenplatz. Only had drinks and a pretzel, we weren't quite as tubby drunk this evening. Had to end our final night in Vienna after that.
Overall, Vienna was an amazing city. Full of things to do. Awesome architecture, lots of outdoor activities, efficient public transit, good food, good drink, and an "enjoy life" attitude. You can even take your dog on the train for a half price fare. It was basically everything I might want in a city.
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