I’ve never been diagnosed with SADD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) or anything, but I recognize that at times my mood can almost be dictated by the weather. So if you’re like me, rain is not something that you want when you’re on your spring break. Well, it was raining when we arrived in Vienna, and it was raining when we left. Because of the rain we didn’t do much except shuffle under our umbrellas from indoor exhibit to indoor exhibit. The only time I was dry and warm was when I was literally bundled up in our hostel.
Once it became clear that the forecast remained bleak for the duration, I knew I had to find a way to enjoy myself despite the rain and cold. Did I get to sit outside and enjoy a coffee at a bistro? No, but I pushed through the weather and actually accomplished quite a bit during our three day stay.
Natural History Museum in Maria-Theresa Platz
My friends and I toured Freud’s childhood home, which I wouldn’t recommend since the museum there is tiny and overpriced considering it’s just a few walls with pictures. During a particularly stormy hour, we ducked into the Sacher Hotel for their famous Sachertortes, which are chocolate with apricot jam between the layers.
The gardens of Belvedere Palace
We even toured two separate palaces: Belvedere (the winter palace, AKA the one on the vodka bottle) and Schönbrunn (the summer palace). Belvedere has been converted into a museum, which houses Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s famous gilded painting, “The Kiss.” (Fun fact: Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds star in a movie about Klimt’s paintings called The Woman in Gold, out this month).
We were lucky that our hostel, Wombat Hostel, which I highly recommend for it’s convenient utilitarian design, was next to the Naschmarkt, an outdoor food market with fresh produce as well as cooked foods. I tried Israeli food there for the first time at a restaurant called Neni and also bought dragonfruit, which I’ve determined it’s basically a less flavorful kiwi.
Dragonfruit at Naschmarkt
My favorite of our excursions was our only outdoor excursion to Prater, the Viennese amusement park. Even rain couldn’t keep me away from a Ferris wheel. I’ve mentioned this in past blogs, but I am obsessed with Ferris wheel and must ride every one that I see. In a strange way, the amusement park was comforting, because it was nearly identical to any American amusement park with its unfair games and run-down rides. Nonetheless, I enjoyed seeing it even if just for the fact that I can say that I’ve been to a Viennese amusement park.
Ferris Wheel at Prater
The real story of Vienna though was our trip to the Orchestra. Everyone tells you that you simply must see a classical concert while in Vienna, home to the great Mozart. What they don’t tell you is that everyone and their mother is going to try to sell you tickets on the street, and some of those tickets just might be phonies.
We were outside Stephansdom, the famous Viennese cathedral when we were approached by a bubbly German man (I know, sounds like an oxymoron). He look something of a cross between Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner, especially since he was wearing a cape. That part actually wasn’t too weird, all the concert ticket sellers wore capes. He was so nice saying that we were among the best people in the world that he’s met. I think he was just grateful that we didn’t flat out ignore him or scoff when he solicited us.
I think we were so quick to buy tickets, because it promised a night inside a dry, warm venue. So we bought tickets, and he even wrote down his phone number, name, and offered to take us around the city the next day. We figured if someone was trying to sell us fake tickets, they wouldn’t write down all their contact info. That night we got all dressed up and headed to the concert hall. You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to find because how many concert halls could there be in Vienna. To answer that question, dozens. Nearly even building we passed was a concert hall at least part-time, but none of them were our concert venue. As the time neared the start of the concert and we were still completely lost, we started running from building to building frantically asking each porter for directions. Every one of them pointed us in a different direction. Running in heeled booties on cobblestone is not for the weak, let me tell you, so pretty soon we were resigned with blisters forming on our heels. We figured we’d been duped, sold fake tickets after all.
But then we saw another group of confused French people and a young Indian couple. They too were lost trying to find the concert, but they weren’t ready to admit they’d been tricked. We followed them around for a while aimlessly until the Indian man called the number on the ticket and was told that the location had been changed. This by itself seemed sketchy, because we’d only bought the tickets that day, but we decided to have a little faith and follow them. Sure enough, the venue had been changed. We got in around intermission and tried to enjoy the second half, but the fact is that it was a D-class concert probably filled with all the players not good enough for the big stage. So we hadn’t really been scammed. There was a concert, but it was pretty low quality. But the quality almost didn’t matter, because we could sit in warm velvety cushioned chairs instead of traverse the city and its puddles.
So two lessons learned from Vienna: don’t let the weather bum you out, and don’t buy concert tickets from men in capes no matter how much they may resemble Johnny Depp.