Having one extended weekend completely free, I was wondering what I could do with that much time. And so, naturally, I asked my brother to go on a trip with me. Welcome to what started as a weekend without any real plans and somehow turned into an intense speedrun of Vienna.
Departure
From Dresden, we departed with FlixBus on Saturday at 02:20 AM and arrived in Vienna on time at around half past eight. I thought I’d be able to sleep somewhat comfortably on the bus, but that was, in fact, not the case here. After arriving, we dropped off our luggage at the hostel and went straight to the first main attraction of the day: Schönbrunn Park.
Formerly used as a summer residence, the whole park area can now be entered for free. It’s huge and perfect for a nice stroll, or even a run. There are also some paid areas, which apparently you can enter either by buying tickets or using the Vienna City Pass (see viennapass) .
In the afternoon, we went to the city center to prepare for the Vienna State Opera. The opera offers standing tickets, which are sold online on the day of the show at 10 AM, for a surprisingly reasonable price (see reddit).
The show started at 7 PM, and we arrived at around 6 PM. The main entrance wasn’t fully open yet, and I was wondering whether we were actually allowed to enter, seeing all the people dressed up nicely while we looked like some hobo tourists in normal clothes. Eventually, we found another entrance on the side, showed our tickets, and left our jackets at the wardrobe. We were among the first people to enter and there was still at least half an hour left, which gave us the chance to walk around and explore the old opera building a little. When we came back, our standing area was already packed with other people, both tourists and well-dressed opera enjoyers eager to watch the show.
There were two breaks and technically you could leave whenever you wanted. We stayed until the second break, then took a stroll around the building for some photos and finally left the opera. Although we looked very out of place, the staff was professional and really nice. The show itself was a ballet, which wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, although my brother seemed to enjoy it.
Day 2: Heurigen Hike
For the next day, our big event was going to Kahlenberg, where a friend of mine had recommended doing a Heurigen hike. From what I understood, this basically means wine tasting and walking from one local winery to the next one.
The weather was perfectly balanced: warm, sunny, but not too hot. Probably also the reason why we saw so many people at the winery stands. We took a bus and started at Nussdorf, then slowly made our way through the vineyards and ended in Grinzing. From there, we continued to Setagaya Park.
In the evening, we had a good share of original Viennese food before heading back to the bus station. Our bus to Dresden departed at 22:05, and we arrived back the next day at 04:25.
And that was already our short Vienna trip. Not super planned (one day before), not super relaxed (overrated), but very efficient. It was also the very first trip with my brother, just the two of us, and hopefully the first of many more to come.