Sure, I’ve
been to Vienna quite often so far. With my family, with my school class, with
some friends. I dare to say that in 19 years of casual Vienna visits I’ve
already seen most of the sights that Vienna offers. I’ve admired the
pretentious interior furnishing of Schönbrunn, watched the lions and monkeys in
the zoo, walked with great respect through St. Stephan’s Cathedral and visited
a real Viennese café at the Opernring. Sure it was nice, but I have to admit: I
never liked it. I never had the feeling that I and Vienna had a “connection”.
For me, Vienna was just the capital of my home country, which I visited every
now and then to do some sightseeing or to visit my relatives living there. Of
course, it’s a very beautiful city with lots of points of interest, but I was
always happy when I was on my back home to Styria. I can’t really explain my
disfavour towards Vienna but it always had been like that. It was not because I
had been mugged there or if I were afraid of big cities (the contrary is the
case, thaha ;-) ), but I just didn't like it!! I never felt comfortable in this
city and I was kind of obsessed with finding more flaws there. When I was
there, I always started comparing Vienna with other Austrian cities I know –
and it always lost. Neither was Vienna as romantic as Hallstadt nor was it as
impressive as the old part of Salzburg.
But back to
how my difficult relationship with Vienna has changed: Two weeks ago I went to
Vienna with my family as my parents wanted to invite me to visit the musical “Legally
Blonde”. When we were walking through the city centre in what felt like – 20 °C
after we had seen the musical, I suddenly had the feeling that Vienna is not
that bad. We went for a walk through some narrow streets near our hotel and I saw
a lot of things I had never noticed before. For example, I found a street near
the Mariahilferstraße which seemed to be as steep as a street in San Francisco!
While we were walking, I came across more and more things that appealed to me:
Creative graffiti and drawings on the floor, small shops that sell almost
everything, exotic restaurants with a very unusual menu… I’m sure I would have
walked on for hours to encounter these to me unknown streets of Vienna if it
hadn’t been that could.
After this
experience, I have to say that I’m already looking forward to my next visit to
Vienna.. And I’m I will try to avoid the main tourist attractions and prefer to
go for a walk off the beaten track to experience the “real” Vienna!
Hope you
enjoy your last week of Easter holidays!
See you all soon!
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