vienna

We did not take Billy Joel’s advice.

Despite recognizing the value of slowing down, it has been something incredibly challenging to achieve so far on this trip. Having just come from a major city during its epitome of tourism and going to another one, there’s been too much to do and not enough time to do it.

Vienna wasn’t initially on our itinerary, Katarina and Philip having seen it briefly already. However, after accommodation for our next stop fell through, we had to pivot to somewhere we could find a place to stay on short notice.

In a way, I think my visit to Vienna was fated. Shortly before leaving for Europe, I watched Before Sunrise on a whim. When I saw that the opening scene was on the Eurail, I knew I was watching the movie at the perfect time in my life. I retraced some of the steps Jesse and Céline took as they spent one romantic night in Vienna, dragging Katarina and Philip around with me. Our stops included the Albertina Art Museum, Teuchtler Recordstore, and Café Sperl.

a brief weigh-in to the tourist vs. traveler dilemma

There was a certain fatigue we were experiencing beyond being on the move all day. It came from the feeling that we couldn’t get much out of the cities we were in beyond what was commercially accessible. The line between tourist and traveler isn’t any bit clear, and I have the feeling it’s largely a difference in mentality. The amount of time helps as well. Two visitors at St. Stephen’s Cathedral may see it entirely differently; one sees the remarkable architecture just enough to take a quick picture, and the other walks around to absorb the energy of the millions of people who have worshipped there, trying to understand what could drive a community to build something so unearthly. Not entirely sure where I fall.

It also doesn’t make sense, economically, for cities to be arranged in a way that makes local culture easily accessible. Our visit to Naschmarkt, a flea market, demonstrates that pretty well. Walking through the long and narrow city block, all we could see were,

• at first, several high-end restaurants and cafés;

• which gave way to souvenir stalls that sold the same mass-produced magnets, t-shirts, and lighters;

• which finally gave way to the actual flea market at the very end of the block.

I got—and somewhat bargained for—this interesting little necklace:

a moment of serendipity

We weren’t particularly interested in going to the Kunsthistorisches Museum until we realized admission was free for those under 19 years old. Only when I came across it did I realize this museum hosts Bruegel’s famous Hunters in the Snow, the sticker of which I happen to have on my computer (thanks Lorie). It has a whole new significance to me now.

Something I’ve recognized quite quickly about being a backpacker is that it’s just as much about getting to know the traveler community as it is about getting to know the local community. We visited the Travel Shack in Vienna, the first and only bar in the city for backpackers and international students. Already having two travel buddies, I haven’t as readily been interacting with the people we meet in hostels or places like these. I definitely need to: the insider recommendations are fantastic, but you also get to learn about some incredibly interesting individuals from all over.

Next stop: Innsbruck, Austria! We also met up with Katarina and Philip’s mom for a day in Bratislava, Slovakia—an hour from Vienna. Stay tuned for that post.

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