It’s that time of the year again, where me and my parents head down south to the places that people don’t know what a snowblower is. But before we headed off to warm and tropical places, we had to make a special stop to Vienna, Austria. Our flight on November 2, 2022 was an eight hour flight from Toronto, Canada. Eight hours in the air means eight hours of sleep, right? WRONG. The plane seats were HORRID, I literally could not get comfy and get to sleep, and I even had a neck pillow. I was SO tired, but we got there safely. And that what matters!

A little bit of history. Austria’s official language is German, and for a while I actually thought Austria was part of Germany?? Like, for some reason I thought Austria was like Germany’s capital or something?? I can’t be the only one who thought this. Anyway, fun fact, Austria is NOT part of Germany, and it is entirely it’s own country. Austria is heart of Europe. It borders 8 countries, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph declared war on Serbia, which ultimately escalated into World War I. Then a year before WWII, Austria was annexed by Nazi German lead by Adolf Hitler. A really, really mean guy.

YouTubers told us which places in Austria to visit, but since we were extremely tired we didn’t do anything on the first day.

We woke up, had dinner, and we went to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, also called the “mosaic church”. The most recognizable feature of this church is the beautiful mosaic roof representing the double-headed eagle, symbol of the Habsburg dynasty (1282 – 1918). The church is beautiful if you want to see the interior, you can check out my vlog on my Tiktok and Instagram: @arielaonthego. I started a new account, so there’s one follower. Which is me. The one follower is my other account. BUT it’s gonna be my travel account where I’ll post travel and art videos :D.
St. Stephen’s Cathedral was built on top of a church that burnt down in 1137. Then they built additions over the years until the last extension in 1359. I’m glad churches in Europe survived the destruction of the war. For only 6 euros, you can go to the top and see the beautiful mosaic roof made of wooden panels. After visiting St. Stephens’s Cathedral for the second time, we decided to walk around Vienna. There’s this sort of pedestrian mall that we shopped around at, we looked around at the stores, and my dad was comparing prices. He calculated that products in Europe were actually cheaper compared to North America. We bought a customizable and personalized Victorinox Jetsetter, which is a multi-tool without a blade so you can take it anywhere even on the plane. We also bought some of the famous Manner wafers.

On our list of things to do is to try the iconic Austrian desert, sachertorte. It is a chocolate cake invented by Franz Sacher in 1832 for Prince Metternich in Vienna. It is a chocolate sponge cake with apricot jam filling and chocolate icing. We went to Sacher Hotel to try this desert original recipe since 1832. I personally didn’t like the cake, it wasn’t moist, it wasn’t sweet, and it came with a lot of whipped cream on the side to mask the sour tanginess of apricot they put in it. It also came with a piece of dark chocolate, which added some bitterness. So there were three flavors that you get, very tangy fruit, dark chocolate, and airy whipped cream. It was alright, but I honestly would not have it again, especially since I was expecting a nice fluffy chocolate cake with a hint of fruit. A HINT. This was more than a hint. 🙁

Third day of our vacation. We bought a two day hop-on hop-off bus tour. The buildings in Vienna are beautiful. Every building is a work of art, and each building is different than the last. It showcases the great wonders of architecture. A few beautiful buildings we saw are: Burgtheater, Austrian Parliament Building, Vienna City Hall, Vienna Star Opera, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Hopsburg Palace, and many more! Our hotel is beside Hopsburg Palace which is pictured below. Prepare to do a lot walking when visiting the palace.

We hopped off, and we visited Schonbrunn Palace. It was the summer residence of the Habsburg rulers. Founded in 11th century until its dissolution in 1918, the property was purchased by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II in 1516 as a hunting ground. Centuries later the widow of Ferdinand II built a mansion, and the following the other Habsburg emperor remodeled and redecorated the palace. You can’t take pictures inside, but I can tell you that it was a lavish palace with gold trim on the walls, ornate furniture in every room, and pretty chandeliers hanging from the ceilings. The property is huge! So make sure, you go there early so you can explore. There’s other buildings in the property to see beside the palace. There’s a garden, a maze, and a zoo.

One food they said to try was street hotdog. We had street hotdogs filled with cheese, and wrapped in a thick hotdog buns. It was very juicy and delicious and there was an explosion of cheese and ketchup. Once our stomach was full. We went back to the St. Stephen’s Cathedral for a tour of the catacombs! We almost did the catacombs in Paris, but I was small and scared so we didn’t. In my defense I was like 6 or 7 and I wasn’t too keen on going into a massive dark basement with a pile of bones on display. YeAH. But that’s what we got in the catacombs in the church. I was brilliant enough to bring a flash light with me so I could see the bones in max brightness 🤪😎 I shone my flashlight into one dark corner and the shadows were gone, revealing three skulls atop a pile of long bones. The guide told us that prisoners would come down to the catacombs and they were made to stack the bones, nice and neatly.

Before went back to our hotel, we stopped at the Aida Bakeshop for macarons, my favorite little treats. There are other pastries so if your not into macaron, you have other choice.

For dinner we went to a restaurant and we ate on the patio. They have heaters to warm us up because the temperature at night was around 15C (59F). It was comfortable, and the pizza I ate was really good. The draw back was, the patios in Vienna are smoker-friendly. So if you don’t want to smell like an ashtray, you have to eat in the dining area.

Pro: there are a lot of cafes/patios in Europe where you can sit back, relax, have a nice dessert and a coffee with heaters when it gets cold.

Con: you are allowed to smoke in said cafes/patios, and it is unavoidable because in these cafes it’s all outdoor so you can’t go inside to escape the smoke. A girl beside me held her cigarette close to ME so that the smoke wouldn’t get on HERSELF, like geez, thanks a lot, now I smell like cigarette smoke 😀

Day two on our Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour. We went to the amusement park! Prater! Prater is an amusement park that used to be the private land of the emperor, where he would go hunting in this little slice of land that housed many animals. But then he like, didn’t want it anymore and then he gave it to the public and then the people built an amusement park with it. Prater is more like that carnival that comes into town once a year in the summer than a six flags type of amusement park. If you’ve ever been to Fun Spot in Orlando, it’s very much like that. I loved amusement park. I got to go on three rides, and you only pay for the rides that you want to go on rather than getting a pass to the whole park.

We went on the Ferris wheel, which is the world’s oldest Ferris wheel of its kind. A passenger car can hold 8 people, and it’s a 10×12 foot cabin. These cabins can also have certain cars where afternoon tea is served! I didn’t know I could have afternoon tea on a Ferris wheel, because if I did obviously I would’ve done it, but we didn’t know so we couldn’t do it. But know YOU know, so if YOU go to Prater, YOU can book in advance and enjoy an afternoon tea on the world’s oldest working Ferris wheel.

On our last day in Vienna, we went to Hundertwasser Village. Across the village was Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s house. The artist didn’t like straight lines, as you can probably tell, or reason, apparently. I like this because it’s something unique, and bold. It reminds me of the house I saw in Barcelona designed by Antoni Gaudi. But this house also has a village attached to it, and they have gift shops and souvenir shops showcasing the talents of the “master of creativity”, Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

For our last dinner in the city, we went to Central Cafe. It’s an institution. The café was opened in 1876. Many well-known people have been to this cafe. Does this mean I’m famous? Maybe not! Dad has a schnitzel and I had sausage and for desert we had an apfelstrudel. That’s the German spelling, but I’ll bet you can guess what it actually is 😉

Cafe Central

And that’s all for my trip to Vienna! I hope you enjoyed this post, and consider travelling to Vienna! It was an amazing experience, and I loved every bit of it! Yay!

That’s all for now, Bye bye! 😀 Don’t forget to check my social media account @arielaonthego