As a ginormous Billy Joel fan, naturally I spent all 36 hours in Vienna singing, humming, and listening to his song of the same name. It was remarkable how much the tune of the song and the message about "the rest of your life" helped me to better understand the city and embrace it in such a short amount of time.
Vienna is beautiful and obviously reminded me of The Sound of Music (yes, I know it was shot in Salzburg). It is rich with history and food. My only qualm with Vienna was...coming from Prague and Budapest...back to the Euro was a struggle (Prague and Budapest are wonderfully cheap cities). But just walking around Vienna was enough for it to make a large lasting impression on me.
Vienna is beautiful and obviously reminded me of The Sound of Music (yes, I know it was shot in Salzburg). It is rich with history and food. My only qualm with Vienna was...coming from Prague and Budapest...back to the Euro was a struggle (Prague and Budapest are wonderfully cheap cities). But just walking around Vienna was enough for it to make a large lasting impression on me.
Not only was it the home of emperors and empresses, it was forced to be resilient after World War II and Hitler's vendetta and has come back from destruction. The palaces and gardens are stunning and the National Library was a dream....fairytale stuff. A quote in a handout that I received from my hostel describes the city perfectly:
“Vienna wasn't just a city, it was a tone that either one carries forever in one's soul or one does not. It was the most beautiful thing in my life. I was poor, but I was not alone, because I had a friend. And Vienna was like another friend. When it rained in the tropics, I always heard the voice of Vienna. And at other times too. Sometimes deep in the virgin forests I smelled the musty smell of the entrance hall in Hietzing. Music and everything I loved was in the stones of Vienna, and in people's glances and their behavior, the way pure feelings are part of one's very heart. You know when the feelings stop hurting. Vienna in winter and spring. The allés in Schönbrunn. The blue light in the dormitory at the academy, the great white stairwell with the baroque statue. Morning ridings in the Prater. The mildew in the riding school. I remember all of it exactly, and I wanted to see it again...”
― Sándor Márai, Embers
"The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt."
-Karl Kraus
Vienna was spectacular. That's really all there is to it.
“Vienna wasn't just a city, it was a tone that either one carries forever in one's soul or one does not. It was the most beautiful thing in my life. I was poor, but I was not alone, because I had a friend. And Vienna was like another friend. When it rained in the tropics, I always heard the voice of Vienna. And at other times too. Sometimes deep in the virgin forests I smelled the musty smell of the entrance hall in Hietzing. Music and everything I loved was in the stones of Vienna, and in people's glances and their behavior, the way pure feelings are part of one's very heart. You know when the feelings stop hurting. Vienna in winter and spring. The allés in Schönbrunn. The blue light in the dormitory at the academy, the great white stairwell with the baroque statue. Morning ridings in the Prater. The mildew in the riding school. I remember all of it exactly, and I wanted to see it again...”
― Sándor Márai, Embers
"The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt."
-Karl Kraus
Vienna was spectacular. That's really all there is to it.