(Vienna, Austria and Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

My Vienna hotel was located just across the Schwedenplatz bridge from district 1.   It was an easy walk to get to the Stephansdom – the epicentre of Viennese tourism.   And the Stephansdom is just as big as I remember it as a young backpacker.

Revisiting my 1991 impressions, Vienna is still orderly and clean.  Perhaps not to the extreme extent I remembered, but the roads (just to pick a random example) were definitely much more orderly than what I had experienced further south.   In fact, I found Vienna much more orderly than Stuben, an Austrian ski resort I visited last year where there was more of an “outlaw culture”.

What struck me most about Vienna this time, however, is the obvious inspiration for many of the cities I had visited on this trip.  Being the centre of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vienna’s 19th century buildings are a lot like those found in the former Yugoslavia…just bigger.

I also don’t remember seeing so many people on the streets in 1991.  Maybe I wasn’t there on a Saturday night last time, but it was almost too busy on the touristy Kaertnerstrasse; after checking out some of the required downtown sights, I decided to return to my hotel’s neighbourhood for dinner.  I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to eat, but in the back of my mind I was hoping to find a place that had a unilingual menu.

Back in District 2, I passed a “shabby chic” café that had lots of streetfront seating.  I don’t often eat outside in Canada, so I certainly wasn’t opposed to continuing the al fresco dining I had enjoyed so much on this trip.  I took a look at the (happily German only) menu and saw that this place specialized in perogies.  I hadn’t anticipated eating Polish food on my last night in Europe but I went with the flow and grabbed a table.  I had the “Pierogi Max” plate, gefüllt mit Steinpilzen und Kraut, as well as a Polish draft beer.  With a fresh salad lightening the meal, it was a perfect way to end my culinary adventures.

After dinner, I went back to the downtown to do some final exploration.  Foregoing the main streets (still clogged with tourists), I wandered the side streets and found a fascinating assortment of unique stores and restaurants.  I don’t know whether the “Gulasch Museum” is a good place to eat, but what a great name!

There was a great energy on those side streets of downtown Vienna – yes, it is a big city, but it is not totally anonymous and taken over by international brands.  There was clearly wealth too, but not so much that I felt out of place with a backpack.  Although I hadn’t planned to visit Vienna at all on this trip, I found myself wishing that I had allocated some more time to it.  I even found the German spoken here easier to understand than in other parts of the German-speaking world.   Finally, I also thought that a further stopover here at some point later this year would be a good idea.

Alas, I was now out of time.  And so, just 14 hours after arriving at my hotel in Vienna, I was en route to the airport for my flight home.   Looking  back on the trip, there is still quite a bit that I’d like to share.  Accordingly, you’ll see a couple of related posts over the next couple of weeks, as I enjoy some time back in Kingston and prepare for my next adventure at the end of May.