Jamie Fehr

Vienna is an absolutely gorgeous city, and while we only spent two full days there here is what we saw/did:

City Center Area

When going to Vienna you need to spend a day or two marching around the downtown area on foot. As in, you need to take the Wiener Lienen to Stepahsplatz City and get off. Probably the first thing you will see is St. Stephans Cathedral. There are many tours of this building available and while our group didn’t go on any, the architecture was astounding. Of note is that this is the first cathedral that I have been to the included skulls and crossbones in it’s decor.

After St. Stephans Cathedral we went to see was the Imperial Palace. That place is huge, it has horse riding schools, imperial apartments, a plethora of museums, and some very nice gardens. We spent most of the afternoon viewing what could be seen for free(how very mennonite of us).

No trip to Vienna could be complete with out going to see the parliament, the university area, the Leopold museum, the Rathaus building, or any other of the sights that can be taken in while downtown. The only thing that I would do different next time is to rent a bike for getting around (you get one hour free in that city) and actually pay money to get into some of the museums.

Tiergarten

Another huge area of Vienna that you should make a point to see is the Tiergarten. It’s a big area with a zoo, another palace, botanical gardens parks and other things that I didn’t go see. The park really needs a whole day of exploration and we only arrived at 2:30 in the afternoon. Which gave us only enough time to take in the Zoo (Which was very good, it had tigers and elephants and penguins and some cheetah’s, you know all the cool animals). So when the Zoo closed at 5:30 we only had a half hour to clear the park before the big iron gates closed and locked us in, that and our feet were pretty tired. To get there you the U-Bahn train U-4 and get off at a stop called “Heitzig.” And it is the big fenced in area to your left when you get off the train.

Price: €12/Adult for the zoo, other attractions extra.

The Hofburg Orchestra

This is one of the best acts I have seen in a long time. Since when do you get to see pistols, rifles, anvils and suggestive magazines used in an orchestra presentation? Well these guys had them. Also there were six excellent opera singers that had been brought in to liven up the show, and they did (Download the Video, 18mb).

It was funny, entertaining, emotional, and professional, with the exception of that vocally talented, but getting along opera diva, who just had to try and accentuate her cleavage on every curtsy and and bow. She was gross and her old chest didn’t do much for me or the show.

Price: A mere €25 if you look under 26, the rest of you will have to pay €47

The Roncalli Circus

The Circus really might not be in town when you get to Vienna, but since this is a journal of things that I have done and not suggestions of what you can do it will stay in the Vienna section of this journal. The circus was really good. I was the only one out of the five of us that went that had actually been to a circus before and so what happened wasn’t really that big of a shock to me, but the other guys were really impressed.

It really wasn’t on the level of Cirque de Soliel, but it was very entertaining. It will probably stand out in my mind for a long time as a result of just how circus-y it was. The two male trapeze artists seemed to be gay, or at least the outfits they wore sure made a point to make sure their nipples were visible and they way they held each-other while up on the high wire, it was more than just an act. Also there were two other girls that did a juggling type act that were pretty much anorexic. Anyway, by the end of the thing I could pretty much just think, ewwwww carnies.

Hostel Ruthensteiner

The eating and sleeping we found in Vienna is probably some of the best luck I have had in my life. Everybody I talk to said, Oh… Vienna is nice but so expensive. Well that is just not the case, or at least it doesn’t have to be. We stayed at Hostel Ruthensteiner for a mere €16/night and ate at the nearby restaurants for 4-6 euro a meal. It was great both the hostel and the food.

All told Vienna is my favorite place in the world. I just need to visit Moscow yet to change my mind.