Backpack Tales and Diaries from Vienna, Austria

After a quick but relaxed travel around Slovakia, I moved to the next country, which is Austria, to continue the rest of Eastern / Central Europe adventure.

To travel from Bratislava to Vienna, it only took me a short 1.5 bus ride via Flixbus. Actually, it’s the same bus company I took when I first traveled from Budapest to Bratislava. The ride was pretty much the same as my first Flixbus experience, which was great props to the bus facilities and smooth sailing ride.

Though I noticed that at the Austrian border, the police came up to check on the passengers’ passports and visas. I’m not sure if it was only a random check, but I just thought that it’s worth mentioning to travelers entering Austria by land. As a rule of thumb, always bring and prepare your passport, visa, and other documents especially when your travel includes crossing a border.

The weather wasn’t as good as I wished upon arriving in Vienna, the capital of Austria. When the bus stopped in front of Wien Hauptbahnhof, the central train station in Vienna, I hurriedly entered before the downpour. From there, I took the metro and hailed at Kettenbrückengasse station where my hostel, Wombat's City Hostel Naschmarkt, is located at.

Personally, I find transportation expensive in Vienna, so whenever I can, I just walked to move around. A single ticket in Vienna costs €2.40, which is valid for multiple transfers in the metro, tram, and bus lines but towards one direction only (which means you cannot go on a circular route returning to the station where you came from). There are also different transportation passes, but the most common are:

• 24h pass: €8
• 48h pass: €14.10
• 72h pass: €17.10

To buy a ticket, just go to any machine at the station. The main currency in Austria is the euro (€).

I stayed in Vienna for 2 days only. For me, it was enough based on my liking. I’d describe Vienna as an elegant city with A LOT of museums and theaters to visit. If you’re into arts and architecture, then Vienna is perfect for you.

As for me, I’m honestly not a museum person, thus I usually ended up just passing by the museum’s facade and stayed longer at the garden or outdoor part of the museum.

Sadly, the bad weather continued throughout my stay in Vienna. The rain usually stopped in the afternoon, thus that was the only limited time I could walk around the city. Though it was an all-gloomy wet street experience for me, I still find Vienna very elegant and beautiful. To me, Vienna highly resembles Paris for its class.

Also read: When in France: Paris for First Time Travelers

Here are a few places in Vienna that I was able to visit in 2 days:

• Karlskirche Church
• St. Stephen's Cathedral
• Mozart's Apartment
• Hofburg Palace
• Mozart's Monument
• National Museum Vienna
• Naschmarkt

Aside from transportation, I find the rest of my travel expenses in Vienna heavy in the pocket too. Well, this is in comparison with how much I spent in other cities in Eastern / Central Europe, where Vienna is probably the most expensive.

As a money-saving tip, I found out that food are cheaper at stands like this at the metro or tram stations. Common Austrian food include wurst (means sausage in English) and schnitzel, which is a German word for breaded deep-fried meat like veal or chicken, among the popular ones.

L: Mozart Monument, R: Mozarthaus

Austria takes pride of the great musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as one of its most famous citizens. In Vienna, there are several Mozart-related attractions, including the Mozart Monument where his statue was built inside a park and the Mozarthaus, which was his apartment that now serves as a museum and venue for exhibitions. To enter Mozarthaus, there's an entrance fee of €11.

Aside from the mentioned attractions, his merchandise is a hit souvenir item including these Mozart balls.

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