Wien, Austria

I think Austria is great. I don’t know why I decided to come here but I am so glad that I did. I like traveling this way because it seems when you just let things happen they work out in the best way. Vienna was a really great city. There is so much art and history, great food, and lots of people to meet. Every single person I met was incredibly friendly even when there were obvious language barriers. I was staying at a pretty famous independently owned and operated hostel called Hostel Ruthensteiner, which was very accommodating, and in good location. The first day in Vienna I probably walked 10 miles at least. I first journeyed to Schonbrunn palace. Schonbrunn is an amazing palace and national park that was once occupied by Napoleon and has housed many great historical noblemen and leaders. It was enormous. The grounds have a huge forest surrounding the main garden and palace which all center around a small hill which overlooks the entire city. Breathtaking. The grounds also have a Labyrinth, Zoo, small lake, and many intricate fountains. This was such a cool place to spend the day and especially because the weather in Austria was amazing. Hot all day and quite cold at night gave it the best of both worlds. Austria has a very good public transportation system so I took the metro to the city center and walked around Karlsplatz and got to see Stephansplatz church and the bustling center with loads of shops and restaurants and things. I know these things may not mean much but they are fairly historical centers in town. So I kept going and made it through Petersplatz, Michaelerplatz, and Josefsplatz to end up at the Volks Garten and the Neue Hofburg. I lounged in the Volks Garten, which is quite big and very green starring up at the Neue Hofburg which is pretty famous museum and tourist spot. Just next to this area of town is the Natural History Museum and the Kunst History Museum which are probably the most famous museums in all of Austria. I was approached by some people and was informed that tonight was the Lange Nacht Der Museen, which translates to the Long Night of the Museums. It only happens once a year, so why not especially when an 11 Euro ticket grants you access to 94 museums all over Vienna. I went to seven museums: The Naturhistorisches Museum, The Kunsthistorisches Museum, designforumWIEN, Kunstlerhaus, Leopold Museum, Museum Moderner Kunst, and Choco Vienna many of which were at the Museums Quartier. I think my favorite was the Natural History museum because it has all these cool little tables set up with microscopes or live animals so it was very interactive. It also had a huge collection of birds, mammals, fish, and invertebrates all on display. I had never seen so many butterfly species in my life. They also had jewels, all sorts of minerals, and a large collection of fossils. My second favorite was definitely the Kunsthistorisches because I got to see a large collection of art history. I also got to see “The Art of Painting” by Johannes Vermeer, which has been my favorite painting for a while now because I did a project about it in school. This was amazing to see I was literally in awe and felt like I should be talking to everyone around me about what was in the painting. It was so great to finally see this painting. I also got to see paintings by Bernardo Beletto, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Rembrandt, and many others. I really enjoyed this museum. The Modern art museum was pretty cool a lot contempory paintings and sculptures. In the Leopold I really liked an artist named Theodor Van Hormann. At the Kunstlerhaus there was a Darwin Evolution exhibit that was small but interesting. I took that picture of the two birds at the Kunstlerhaus Museum. The Choco Vienna exhibit was really cool too, I got to try some samples and see chocolate art. There was also a spirits and chocolate exhibit at this museum. I am glad I made this trip.

Schonbrunn Palace

Stephansplatz church

Neue Hofburg

Kunst History MuseumNatural History Museum

Giuseppe Arcimboldo

The Art of Painting

Overall I am very glad I got to do such cool things revolving around art and history in Austria. The next few days I walked around and saw Parliament and Rathaus Park and just spent time relaxing and checking out the city. This was a great weekend visit.