Keeping up with Beth

Vienna is gorgeous. In my head I imagined the sound of music hills, with long hikes, mountains and figured it’d be a little bit colder if I’m honest. Luckily we chose the European heatwave to be in Europe rather than England- right on the edge of the heatwave. We arrived late in the evening and were welcomed to the sound of a busy bar- always comforting to know the bar in a hostel is popular, and were swiftly checked in and told of all the amazing extras. If you are ever in Vienna Hostel Ruthensteiner is the place. Not only does it have a the bar, but the whole aesthetic just feels travell-ey and very chill, and everyone is easy to get on with.

Our first day was spent pretty chilled out, started out doing the necessity’s- food shopping, and managed to fit in some clothes shopping for the half hour we could stand it for (Clearly neither of us are big shoppers) before heading back to sort ourselves out and get familiar with what was happening in the hostel. Neither of us really knew what to expect from Vienna, I had gotten some suggestions from a relative who had recently been and managed to fit those into our itinerary, and we just as outside, stared at the map to figure out what sounded good and realistically we could fit in- there was so much, there’s no chance we could have done it all in the 3 full days we had. Most of the day we just relaxed-its a holiday after all. Late afternoon we decided to take a quick trip out to the schoenbrunn palace about a 30 minute walk, or swift 10 minute tram away from the hostel and marvelled t the incredible building, gardens, and all the art and statues that were going on all around the building. We didn’t get too much history so I couldn’t tell you much about it but its an amazing day trip and you could easily spend a day there, wandering the grounds, the palace and appreciating the stories of all the statues and water features.

Holidays also means making the most of happy hour, so we did that, sitting outside enjoying the 30 degree heat, sat outside with a lager each having dinner. It felt like a classic British summer evening but not in a pub and even hotter, the dream really! Most people had similar plans to enjoy the heat and cheaper drinks and we chatted to quite a few people. The night may or may not have gone on from there…

Our plans the following day were absolutely to make the most of the sun. There were supposedly some beaches along the Danube island, although after we arrived realised most of the sand was imported into beach bars rather than actual beaches, nevertheless we found a nice spot on the river bank and were able to sunbathe and swim in the river a little. There were plenty of people around so it seemed like a popular location and time for it! It was super nice to find a spot to just relax and lie in the sun as if we were at the beach in the centre of a fairly popular city, and we stayed for hours! There was a lot- but perhaps not enough suncream involved, and lots of good chat, tunes and swimming! While perhaps not the most typical tourist choice it was definitely a good shout while the weather was nice. We did stop by one of the beach bars to grab a drink and meet someone, before we wandered back to the hostel to sort ourselves out before more happy hour antics.

Our third day was spent exploring more of the central city and the typical tourist attractions, such as St Stephans Cathedral with a slight gothic theme- a beautiful building as all European cathedrals are, heading round the heldenplatz for a little bit, then venturing up towards the canal to walk along, and see all the the street art that they have decorating the pathway. It was windy as Vienna was due a storm, but we survived. Something about the city felt so open and free, it was so relaxed, maybe as it was a Sunday but it had such a good vibe walking round despite the wind blowing everyone in all directions. The afternoon was spent relaxing again, catching up with probably so needed rest and embracing the relaxed timetable we had despite the millions of things we wanted to do there.

Our evenings again were spent by the bar embracing happy hour, and catching up with people, meeting new people and sharing stories of the day and from our trips. It was a really nice atmosphere and everyone instantly fell into this comfortable conversation with everyone sat around outside.

Our final day in Vienna we were busy, we said goodbye to our room mates and spent the morning relaxing, sat outside doing some small errands before we headed out to the Freud park and wondered around that area just to see another uptown part of Vienna for a couple of hours. We found another beautiful church and just sat and appreciated the city before we had to leave the next day.

Vienna was an amazing experience and we made so many friends, a couple of who we are in contact with and will meet up with further along in our trip, which is very exciting.

Next stop- Venice!