Wien and a side of Bratislava

Street near the St. Stephan's Cathedral at Stephansplatz.

Slightly persuaded to visit a German speaking country because of my latest crush on this German and Swiss German speaking guy, I did a layover at the capital of Austria! What love can do to crazy gals like me... But wow Vienna, what an absolutely lovely place rich in its architectural grandiosity! Vienna, also known as the City of Music and the City of Dreams. I love classical music and I loooove to dream. Musical prodigies such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn and the Father of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud all have lived here before! I finally got the chance to touch the cobblestone roads that my idol, Mozart, once stepped on! My dream had come true! Uh,... no pun intended.


Hotel
My sister-in-law's sister decided to join me on this trip. For our four nights stay, I read on tripadvisor about Hotel Pension Continental, a family run B&B which seemed to have decent reviews. I'm so glad that I selected this place because it is truly at a great location that is easily accessible to all the main attractions. It is located on one of the main shopping streets so it's nice and lively! Our flight arrived to Vienna early in the morning so we popped in early for check-in. Because our room wasn't ready until hours later, the older gentleman, who I believe is the owner, offered us a room at an apartment complex that was 50 meters away! We got really lucky because the apartment was spacious and it made us feel immersed into the community living like the locals. The B&B also provides free daily continental breakfast every morning and free wifi. The price was also not too expensive, about a bit north of $100usd per night. (Because our currency exchange rate sux!) I would highly recommend this place to anyone if they decide to visit Vienna! http://www.hotel-continental.at/en/

Day 1

KarntnerStrasse

St. Stephan's Cathedral

We decided to take it easy on the first day. After checking in at our hotel, we had the whole afternoon and evening free. Our hotel was located on Mariahilferstasse, the oldest and longest shopping street in Vienna, so we decided to walk along this street heading toward St. Stephan's Cathedral, where it is considered the inner city center. The walk took only about 20-30mins and along the way we passed by the Museum quarters and then the Vienna State Opera (Wiener Staatsoper). From the opera house walking along the KarntnerStrasse toward the cathedral flanked plenty more shops and restaurants. It's very lively there, full of people especially groups and loads of tourists! After some souvenir shopping and a nice Austrian meal, we took the U-bahn 3 (U3) metro line from Stephansplatz back to our hotel stop Neubaugasse, which was conveniently 3 stops away!

DAY 2

The second day was a Saturday so I've read that the weekends would be a good time to visit the Nauschmarkt. The Nauschmarkt is like a farmer's market, a flea market, and a gastronomic dining world all in one. You can purchase fruits, vegetables, exotic herbs, cheese, baked goods, meats, seafood, flowers, old clothes, basically lots of variety of things. If you prefer to sit down and eat, there were plenty of restaurants to choose from as well. I really enjoyed exploring and consuming the edibles here. But when we walked toward the flea market area, it was like entering a dumpster. People sold everything and anything, from used electronics, old trinkets, kitchenware to even worn bras! It wasn't the best part of the market but we got a glimpse of the poverty side of the town. After our visit to the Nauschmarkt, we headed back to the Stephansplatz to try the famous Viennese Sacher torte cake at the five star Hotel Sacher located on Philharmonikerstrasse 4. My sister-in-law's sis decided to try one of the special cakes of the day instead. After taking a bite of the two, we both preferred her cake. Doh~! Finally, we finished off the evening with a wonderful classical concert at an old building that Mozart once performed briefly that our hotel kindly arranged for us!

Sacher torte

Small room where Mozart once performed.

DAY 3

Bratislava Castle

On Sundays, most stores in Vienna are closed. Because of that and the fact that I wanted to squeeze a visit to a nearby country, we decided to head to Bratislava, Slovakia on the third day. We took the train from Wien Hauptbahnhof to Hlavna Stanica at Bratislava. The ride took only about 1hr. We purchased the round trip train ticket. It includes all the transportation fares in Bratislava on the same day as well. We thought we would need our passport when we crossed the border, but they never checked but just checked our train tickets. We weren't entirely impressed with Bratislava and am sure it is just a small glimpse of what Slovakia is like. However, Bratislava does have its charm and is a good place for a day getaway. The town is very small and can easily be visited in one day. We should have picked up a map prior to heading there because when we got off the train station, the language barrier seemed to have been more difficult. I asked the lady behind the ticket counter at the station for a map but she seemed quick to bite my head off and just pointed her finger at one direction. We followed her instruction but could not locate any maps anywhere. Serendipitously, a group of Romanian gals walked right by us holding a map and were speaking English! We joined them and headed into the city center.  However, we all got off the wrong bus stop, a stop over. It turned out to be a good mistake because the bus crossed the ufo featured bridge, which is one of the sites to see. When we took the bus back, we were able to also see the Bratislava Castle from afar. 

Around the Main Square

One of the more prominent Slovak archaeological landmarks we wanted to visit was the Devin Castle. Unfortunately, we were there in March when it was not yet opened to the public. So we decided to spend our day around the Old Town Hall, mostly around the Main Square and St. Michael's Gate. I learned that St. Michael's Gate was built in the 1300s. It is the only gate that has been preserved from the medieval fortifications. And the building between St. Michael's Gate and St. Michael's tower is known as the narrowest house in Europe. It's a 3 story structure just 130cm wide! Another attraction at Bratislava is also the three sculptures scattered around the town: Napolean's Soldier, Paparazzi, and Rubberneck (Cumil). Given we didn't have a map, we decided to challenge ourselves to find those sculptures. Though we found three out of the two, I was glad one of the two was the one I wanted to find the most, Rubberneck (Cumil). Rubberneck (Cumil) is a sculpture of a man sneaking from a manhole. Other things we did at Bratislava were visiting Tesco to buy some Slovakia chips, checking out the Blue Church, and ate Bryndzove halusky, which is a traditional Slovak dish - small dumplings made of potato dough with sheep cheese topped with bacon bits. It was actually quite tasty.

DAY 4

Schonbrunn Palace

We saved the Schonbrunn Palace as our last visit during the morning of our final day. I definitely would recommend people to check out this place and do a tour of the rooms. The complex is so large that you can reach one end from one metro line station to the other end on the next station. Most people would get off the Schonbrunn stop, but we got off the stop after the Schonbrunn station so that we could walk through the park first. Walking through the park first not only was a refreshing start to our morning trip but it also showed us how much land this complex covers. I can only imagine how beautiful this park must be during spring and summer times. How luxurious were the inhabitants that once lived here! At the Schonbrunn Palace, we purchased tickets for the Imperial Tour which allowed us to see 22 rooms for 11.50 Euros, which I thought was perfect. You can opt for the Grand Tour which would be 40 rooms for 14.50 Euros. They have all other sorts of tickets too which you can view on the Schonbrunn website. 

FINALLY, a side note that we discovered during our visit to Vienna. Though I don't suggest doing this because I don't think it's right and honorable. We noticed that NO ONE checks whether you purchased a U-bahn ticket or not! So basically, it's an honorary system. That includes purchasing a U-bahn ticket from the airport to the city center. You can basically take the U-bahn rides for free.