Believe it or not, the last time I had properly visited my home country’s capital was when I was in kindergarten. So, in late August of 2017 (yes, I am still catching up with bringing this blog up to date), I decided to head to Vienna for a weekend to have a look at what it had in store – and whether it was over-hyped by the hordes of tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I made the mistake of going to Vienna by train. Berlin, about 600 kilometers north of the Austrian capital, has a night train connection. My cheap ass purchased a second class ticket, so I would be sitting all night – which was fine and actually quite enjoyable throughout the afternoon and evening; a relaxing train ride which allowed me to take in the landscape of eastern Germany, the train stations of Leipzig and Dresden, and then us crossing into Czechia. In the middle of the night, however, I got company in the form of a group of large Czech men to whom the concept of personal space was apparently rather abstract. The second half of the night was thus not quite as enjoyable, and I got only very little sleep. The silver lining was that I did get to see a very nice sunrise while we were waiting in a train yard not far from the Austrian border in B\u0159eclav. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I arrive in Wien Favoriten on Saturday morning, where I met up with my friend. After a quick breakfast, the first stop on our walking tour was the Belevedere palace. Like the others scattered throughout Austria, this was owned by the former imperial Habsburg family. Today it houses an art museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n