The S2H World Tour!: Grand Vienna

Rok & Scotty hanging out in Vienna.

As much as I would have truly, deeply, thoroughly enjoyed journeying to some random local Czech village to participate in the greatest of all holiday traditions ever, I had plans of my own. They sadly didn't involve any spanking, but they did involve a lot of gorgeous architecture, copious amounts of glorious sunshine in parks and gardens, and some pretty cute company.

I had a four-day weekend for Easter, and so I travelled down to Vienna to meet my good friend Rok who hails from Slovenia. Besides getting to enjoy some Western comforts that I've been without for a long time (a real hotel room, sushi, and STARBUCKS,) I got to explore a lot of the Austrian capital in a short amount of time.

Vienna has got to be one of the prettiest cities in Europe, as she certainly is a grand ol' dame. Vienna is a very obviously wealthy city, and from first sight one can tell that it always has been a wealthy city. (But hey I guess that's what being the centre of a huge empire that sucked in all the money and pretty stuff from all corners of Central Europe will do to a city!)

Everything is rich and grand and opulent and designed specifically to impress to the max. From top to bottom the city is ornate and ginormous - grand boulevards, massive palaces and royal living spaces, lush gardens and clean streets, more Luxenbourg-size museums than you can count, and fabulous restaurants and cafes everywhere. There's a lot of "oh wow's" happening when you explore the city, and despite it's size at more than a million and a half the city feels calm, relaxed, and manageable. In fact, maybe a little too calm, relaxed, and manageable.

Although I did really enjoy Vienna, I have to say that it was rather sleepy for a major European capital. This is especially true when the sun goes down. If Vienna has any nightlife to speak of, Rok and I were unable to find it. The one night we did attempt to 'go out on the town' was met with a meager selection of less-than-inviting pubs, all of which seemed to lack any real atmosphere or party-vibe. Where do all the young people hang out in this city?

And as impressive as all the palaces and museums are, one can only see so many of each before they start to crave something else. You can't do all palace/all museum/all day/everyday without experiencing some "Big Opulent Building Fatigue". Vienna's fine for a couple of days, but after that you start to feel a bit bored. And I definitely wouldn't want to live here. Unless I was 65 and retired or something, but even then...

Unlike Prague or Berlin, Vienna just seems to be lacking that energetic vibe that one feels when you're in a major city. As Rok put it, you can feel that the city has already peaked (in it's capital of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire days) and has since declined. It's still an important city, but it ain't what it used to be. As mentioned above, Vienna is a city was specifically designed to look grandiose and impressive. It was well-planned with a purpose in mind. In comparison, Prague feels much more 'organic', it's a beautiful city that just sorta 'happened' along the way. It grew in a more natural way and although it's also full of some impressive monuments itself, it doesn't have the 'mega royal capital' feel that Vienna does. I prefer Prague's style instead - it's gorgeous without ever having really tried to be so.

That being said, Vienna is consistently ranked in the top five for World's Most Livable Cities lists, (guess who's number one - Vancouver of course!) and does offer a very high quality of life for its residents. Still, having a high quality of life perhaps equals to one that's a bit boring...? (Well, in Vienna's case anyway, certainly not in Vancouver!) Something else that is interesting about Vienna is that it's one of the only major European cities that is actually not growing. So stable is its population that it's barely changed at all since the 1950's. Quite unusual from an urban planning/demographic point of view.

Rok and I were blessed with some really bright warm weather the whole weekend, which worked out well for all the gardens and parks we saw. You can see in the pictures below how nice and blue the skies were! We ate really good food, and enjoyed a whole lot of fantastic coffee (both Starbucks, and in the traditional Viennese cafes as well.) Once again it was a little bit excrutiating being in the EuroZone, where the price of a coffee is equivalent to the GDP of say, Malawi or something, but luckily it was just a short trip.

All in all, I thought Vienna was a bit sleepy but very beautiful, and one definitely worth visiting. Don't stay too long though, and don't plan on rockin' out partying everynight, doing lines of coke off the backsides of cheap hookers in run-down back-alley bars, if that's your thing. (You've got Amsterdam for that!) ;-) I've a whole whack of photos of the pretty Austrian capital below. Check 'em out!

One of the palaces used by the Hapsburgs.

Horse & Carriage Ride = Guaranteed Tourist Trap!

Big and beautiful.

Glorious!

St. Stephen's Cathedral in the heart of Vienna.

Check out the cathedral's cool roof!

I like the contrast here of the new with the old.

Some statue I found tucked into a quiet corner behind a church.

The odd and unusual Kunsthaus - a block of apartments redone by a creative architect.

Not sure if I'd like to live here, but the colours are pretty anyway!

He also liked to use chess board-like pieces as supports for this buildings and balconies.

Rok in front of the Kunsthistorisches Museum

Me in front of it's exact twin - the Natural History Museum.

The funky-looking Modern Art Museum inside of the Museumquartier.

In one of the tunnels out of the u-bahn (subway) they had all these cool digital counters racking up the numbers for various stats. Here's the current world population - it was a bit scary to watch it grow by one every second....

And here's the amount of people in Vienna who are in love (supposedly!) This number kept jumping up and down as people fell in (and out of ) love...

Some interesting street graffiti outside the u-bahn. Rok and I crossed the line in eager anticipation, yet both felt the same. Hmmm....

Vienna at night is a real treat for the eyes, as all the major monuments are brightly lit up.

Rok outside the Scholl Schunbrunn.

Wow this Schunbrunn is one huge palace!!

And with Versailles-like beautiful gardens in the back too!

Rok takes a (brief) moment on the grass to enjoy the view of the palace ground and city skyline.

Scotty with the palace behind.

Our moment of peace was soon shattered as The Grass Nazi came around to shoo the 200 or so people resting on the grass. He shouted angrily and waved his little sign around in fury. Man, talk about a party-pooper!