TRAVEL GUIDE: A WEEKEND IN VIENNA

If you ever want to feel like a princess, go to Vienna. 

About two weeks ago my friend and I decided to abandon London for the weekend and visit the beautiful city of Vienna. We timed it extremely well in terms of weather, as it was right after the heatwave when apparently it was rainy, cloudy and miserable in the UK. In the meantime, we were lucky enough to enjoy blue skies and 27˚C whilst drinking iced lattes and yummy pastries.

We left on Friday noon and got back on Monday afternoon. However, we spent the entire Sunday in Salzburg (a post about that to come very soon...) so we only spent about two full days in Vienna. Which turned out to be the perfect amount of time to visit everything without being rushed.

WHERE WE STAYED

Vienna is known to be quite an expensive city so I recommend you go for Airbnbs if you don't want to splash the cash. We stayed at a lovely apartment just outside the city centre, it was about 10 min away from the underground station (U-Bahn) and about a 20 min to the city centre. The host, Pietra, was super accommodating and helpful which is always a plus. 

This is obviously not sponsored by Aribnb (I wish lol) but if you are new to Airbnb use my personal link: www.airbnb.co.uk/c/ariadnam173 to get £25 off your first stay! Gotta love a good discount. 

WHAT WE DID & WHAT WE ATE

Vienna is the perfect city to simply walk around and enjoy the beautiful architecture and stunning parks. We arrived in the late afternoon on the Friday so we just dropped our stuff at the apartment and walked to the city centre, where the St. Stephen's Cathedral is. We then just wandered around and had a look at some shops and restaurants. 

We ended up having dinner at a really cute restaurant called Cafe Diglas. I had Viennese Goulash which was absolutely fabulous and also tried the famous Schnitzel (which is basically breaded pork) which was also really good. The restaurant had live music and a really great vibe, you should definitley check it out if you are int he city!

On Saturday we decided to have an early morning and go to the Naschmarkt to have breakfast, they have a wonderful selection of very exotic fruit, great pastries and looooads of baklava. We then walked to the Belvedere Palace, which was about 25 min away walking. This was the first palace we saw in Vienna and it was breathtaking - not only was the palace as majestuous and grand as you would expect but it also had breathtaking gardens with perfect flower arrangements, it even has a small lake.

We then went to a Middle Eastern restaurant in Naschmarkt called Neni. The food was great, and their hummus is simply delicious. However the food is quite heavy and I did feel a bit off for the rest of the day. So make sure you don't overeat if you go! After lunch we went to the famous Sofitel Hotel to have a couple of drinks with the city skyline as our backdrop, this was definitley one of the highlights of my holiday! 

After drinks we had a quick outfit change (gotta keep up with our Instagram) and went to the Hofburg Palace and walked around the surrounding gardens before heading to Cafe Central to have some cake and coffee. We had to queue for a bit, only about 5-10 min, but it was definitley worth it. The cafe was so elegant and beautiful, and they had a great selection of cakes. We had the Cafe Central Cake (orange chocolate cake with marzipan) and the apple strudel, both of which were pretty good. However, you are mostly paying for the venue and the environment rather than the food as it is just slightly above average. Definitley worth a visit though. 

On our way home we walked past the Vienna Opera House and, whilst it was too late to get last-minute tickets (which can be as cheap as 4€!!) they live streamed it outside so we watched it for a bit before going home.

We spent Sunday in Salzburg, I am going to write a separate post on that so stay tuned! 

The most famous palace in Vienna is the Shchonbrunn Palace, which we visited on Monday morning.  I have never seen such a massive and grand palace, probably only topped by Versailles. However, it turns out that if you don't book tickets in advance you will have to wait for literally 4 hours to be able to visit the inside of the palace. Nevertheless, you can still visit the surroundings and the gardens. 

We were SUPER unlucky and they were planting the flowers when we went...like I'm sorry but no just no I did not come all the way to Vienna to see a garden without flowers. Still pretty though. The gardens are massive and you can literally walk around there for hours.

And finaaally, we went to the Sacher Cafe. Literally a lifelong dream. I obviously had the Sacher Torte, which is essentially a chocolate cake with apricot jam in the middle, but better. Apparently the recipe is kept in a safe that only a few people have access to and it hasn't been changed since it was first invented. It is on the pricier side - 7€ per slice is a bit unreasonable, but treat yo' self.

And then sadly headed back to the airport and came back to good old England.