German word of the day: Österreich
Österreich is the landlocked country in the southern part of Central Europe. When many Americans hear ‘Austria’ they immediately picture Julie Andrews frolicking through the Alps in her dirndl singing “The Hills are Alive.” However if you spoke to a German or Austrian and mentioned ‘The Sound of Music’ they’d probably cock their head to the side and say “Was?”
It’s a country that is a little underrated and often Germany gets more attention. What is there to love about Austria? Around every corner in Austria, you’ll find something just as beautiful and unique as the town before. I’ve been to Austria now about six times visiting various places. I’ve been to Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna, and Hallstatt, but I have more places on my list.
Vienna:
Wien [: Vienna] is the capital of Austria and often draws most of the tourists’ attention. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again that I’m not a big fan of cities. I’ve visited Vienna on two separate occasions and each time spent a good amount of time walking around downtown. The St. Stephen’s Cathedral is beautiful and the tiling on the roof is eye-catching. Austria is known for its countless composers specifically the infamous Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. You’ll find people outside the cathedral selling tickets for Mozart concerts happening in various cathedrals around Vienna.
I attended a string orchestra concert in the cathedral of Karlskirche as a gift from Ben for my birthday and it was a dream. Although we ended up running because we had trouble with parking, the ushers showed us to our seats and gave us blankets to keep us warm in the cool cathedral. It was a lovely concert and I have a thing for orchestras. My parents’ first date was the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in D.C., so I happen to think orchestras can be the start of a great relationship. Seeing as this was just two months after Ben and I started dating, I think this stands true.
Vienna is filled with museums and endless things to do, but a museum is the last place I want to be when the sun is out and shining. So we spent our sunny day in the palace gardens at Schönnbrunn. The gardens there are massive and one can enjoy the many architectural features of the palace without ever going inside. We found a few labyrinths that we paid a small fee to be able to go through which made me feel like I was in Mazerunner, minus the death traps. We ended up enjoying the palace gardens so much that we went back for a short walk on our last day.
The gardens themselves with the bountiful vegetation were beautiful. I especially enjoyed the Wisteria hanging over the paths. The weather was hot, hot, hot and we saw a small ice cream cart that had conjured a line. We figured it may be worth it to join the line for a quick sweet cooling treat. We ended up getting kaiserschmarm ice cream and it changed our life. To this day (almost 3 years later) Ben and I still talk about that ice cream. We often say that if we every drive near Vienna again, we would stop to see if this ice cream cart was still on the palace grounds dishing out scoops of heaven.
Our time in Vienna was short, but still worth it to be able to experience Austria’s capitol. Due to the fact that we came from Germany we weren’t looking to try authentic Austrian food, but I can assure you they have some dishes that you can’t find in Germany! The restaurants we visited were anything but traditional food. We visited an authentic Spanish restaurant and shared tapas and margaritas. We also visited an overpriced, very modern restaurant where you weren’t waited on unless you pressed a button to summon a server. All ordering was done via a tablet. Definitely one of the weirder restaurants I’ve visited. I enjoy trying local food but being in bigger cities means finding authentic food representation of other countries. I had been missing Spanish influence, coming from Florida, and was craving some authentic Spanish food so that hit the spot!
We originally drove to Vienna which took longer than the 5 hours projected by Google Maps. I’ve had many people tell me they took a nice pleasant train to Vienna and honestly should we ever visit again in the future, I would be willing to take my chances with the good ol’ Deutsche Bahn. Although I feel much more confident about driving in Europe now, hitting a Stau [: traffic jam] is never fun.
Vienna is a beautiful city that only begins to touch on the beauty of Austria. There is so much more to this smaller country that I look forward to sharing with you from my travels!
Kassel Expat 