Monday 25th July
The train to Vienna. An overnight experience. Here we go. The train pulled into the station at Venezia Mestre at 18:41 and I hopped aboard, ready to head out of Italy and into the heart of Europe. The train was set up like those ones in Harry Potter, you know, compartments instead of airline style. Makes sense for an overnight train for sure.

I was in compartment 46 and after a couple of false starts, I eventually found the right one. Six seats in total, three facing the front and three facing backwards with a sliding glass door. I found my seat, F, and plopped myself down, storing my travel bag above me in storage rack. People were passing me by out in the corridor and occasionally another person would enter the compartment. It seems they had stuck all the inter-railing people together. I was gonna be sharing the night with:
- Michie (31), a German mathematician. He was quiet and kept mainly to himself, sitting with his head against the window. He did tell us a couple stories of his life, mainly one about when he had been poor student and had spent a couple months dumpster diving to find food! He now worked in a start-up his friend had started.
- Lillian (18), she was fun and chatty and British. She had dyed red hair and a lot of bangles. She was about to head off to university come September.
- Elna (18), also British, she was travelling with Lillian. Elna had a tonne of bags with her (Osprey, yay) and pretty much kept herself to herself, putting in music and falling asleep within a couple hours.
- Ludo (21), a wonderful Italian lady who laughed so much at anything and was fun to chat with. She had actually just finished an Engineering exam that morning and was heading off to Prague, Czechia to meet up with her friends who had started inter-railing without her and she was catching up with them. After an fun argument over something silly between us all, she proclaimed “Italians have a difficult relationship with rules, OK?” to which I will never forget laughing so hard at.
- Laurie (20), Finnish and the most chaotic person I have ever met. He had been travelling for around six months with no plans, resorting to sleeping on benches occasionally, hugging his laptop to make sure it wasn’t stolen. He was so hilariously funny.
With the companions for the journey set up, I was looking forward to a good evening! It turns out that all of us were vegetarian except for Ludo. We chatted tonnes, discussing where we had been, where we were going, various life stories and funny anecdotes and every single one of us being absolutely taken aback by how chaotic Laurie was. I mean, the guy had bought the ticket for this train a couple of hours before it had left Venezia and didn’t know where his destination was! Vienna he assumed. It was just such a wonderous evening and such great company and fun! There’s something exciting about travelling in an overnight train for the first time!
The train was going to be taking a big S shaped route. It was heading from Venezia round to Trieste, then into Slovenia at Ljubljana, before turning sharply and heading up to Salzburg and then turning once more and heading across to Linz and onto Vienna. The train made various stops throughout the night, stopping for random amounts of time in the wee hours of the night at random locations it seems, probably to let lengthy cargo trains past.

After chatting loudly for a while and upsetting the neighbouring compartments (whoops), we decided to try and get some sleep around midnight. The seats reclined, but I mean, there was no way anyone was going to be sleeping tonight in a comfortable position. I think the chaotic force that is Laurie had infected us all though. The events unfolded as such. First, during one of these random stops, Laurie got up to take a wander outside (read, a smoke). Elna was seated beside him and by the time he returned, she had sprawled herself across his seat too and fallen fast asleep. Nothing could wake her it seemed. So Laurie was left without a seat and so a big game of juggling started, each of us taking a turn sitting (and miraculously sleeping!) on the floor. When Michie got off at like 03:00 (± two hours, I wasn’t keeping track), then Laurie reclined my old seat and Michie’s (directly opposite) so that he had a nice bed across the compartment and he fell asleep. Ludo was on the floor at this point and had also fallen asleep, her legs under the suspended body of Laurie. That left me and Lillian sitting beside each other, still sitting, slouched in the uncomfortable chairs. Resigned to the point of not getting much sleep, Lillian got out her phone and headphones and we started watching Princess Mononoke, an earbud each. It must have worked a treat because before long, we too were semi-dozing, the film forgotten white noise.
Tuesday 26th July
I awoke with the end of the film playing in my ear, not understanding anything since it was a) in Japanese and b) I had missed the rest of the movie. I guess I just have to watch it some other time!
Elna and Lillian left at Wien Meidling, another train station from Wien Hauptbahnhof (Wien HBF). They weren’t planning on staying in Wien (Vienna) long but instead were catching another train that afternoon to go onto somewhere in Germany and then Poland.
That meant that when we did pull into Wien HBF, it was just Ludo, Laurie and me left. Laurie had no clue what he was doing (surprise surprise) and Ludo was catching a connecting train onto Prague to go see her friends. I therefore said goodbye, the previous evening and night forever etched into my memory. I found my way to the underground and found myself at my hostel a little past 09:00, my hands full of food I had bought from the nearby Lidl. I had my breakfast, dumped my bag in my room and handed in some laundry to be done (€12 for wash and dry! Most expensive yet!) before heading out into the city, feeling very sleep deprived but hopped up on some tea. I wasn’t wanting to waste my time in Vienna after all!


With no plan except to walk into the old town centre, I made my way there slowly. The colours of Vienna immediately leapt out at me. I can confidently say that Vienna is limestone white, copper green with highlights of brushed gold. That’s it, pretty much. Every single building was built from large, square blocks and the streets were clean and wide. It had a very self-assured feeling to the city. I trawled my way through the museum district, passing the twin buildings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Naturhistorisches Museum (art- and natural-history museums), facing each other across the Maria-Theresian-Platz.

I also knew that my favourite composer, Chopin, had stayed in Vienna for a while at the start of his career when he left Poland, and so I decided to try and find the place where he had stayed. Or, you know, something commemorating him. And I found one! By the way, this was just the beginning of this weird obsession. Since I knew now that my favourite composers, Chopin and Liszt, may have plaques and statues around these areas in the world since they lived here, then I was kinda really wanting to find them in each city I went to! So heads up, you’ll be hearing a lot more about Chopin and Liszt in future blog posts.


I was feeling knackered though. Brimming with a quiet happiness that I had seen the place that Chopin lived for a while, I decided to walk back to the hostel via a different route. Along the way, I passed the Rathausplatz (town hall place) and I saw advertisements for the Vienna Film Festival! And guess what, there was a live John Williams concert in a couple days! Perfect timing, I was gonna be going to that definitely!
I got back to the hostel and ate some lunch, chatting with an Argentinian guy who enjoyed making up the meals from whatever was left in the ‘free food’ cupboards. I never caught his name though, but he was super friendly and said hi each time he saw me!
Now that I fed myself, I headed to my room and, shattered, I fell onto my bed and fell asleep straight away seemingly. I had only had maybe three or four hours of dozing sleep on the train! I also hadn’t had a shower in over 36hrs at this point and so when I woke up, I had a (fairly cold!) shower. But my disappointment at the laundry service only grew – apparently my clothes were only gonna be ready the following morning! I paid €12, I was expecting them to be done almost straight away! Grrrrrr… Therefore, feeling the need to sleep more than anything else, I headed to sleep without pyjamas. Distressing. Ah well, worse things have happened.
Wednesday 27th July
I awoke, freshened after about 12hrs of sleep and ate some breakfast. I finally got my laundry back after more than 24hrs waiting for it. Slowest laundry service ever I swear! They had even missed out two of my socks which I only realised were missing when I was pairing up. They were eventually found, stuck to the side of the drum of the washing machine, still damp. Big boo, I wasn’t paying them again for them to dry my two socks! Therefore, I just hung them by my bed, hoping the warm summer we were having would dry them out.
Speaking of the weather, as a Brit abroad, I should note that since leaving the Mediterranean and heading into the heart of Europe, the weather had changed drastically. It was now cloudy, and not fluffy white clouds but heavy grey clouds, hinting at very un-Mediterranean weather! I want my mid 30s temperatures everyday again! Don’t think I have had a truly foul day (other than a bit of rain in Barcelona) so far!

I caught the metro to Belvedergarten shortly before midday where I saw some tourist get told off for walking on the grass. Careful not to make the same mistake, I sat and drank a coffee, reading, in front of the impressive Schloss Belvedere. I had booked a free walking tour for after lunch so I had a small while to chill and explore the city. Once again, the Schloss Belvedere is a white and copper green building with a spectacular set of gardens. Well, ‘gardens’, the front was cool but behind the Schloss were large pebble avenues with small upright trees lining them and a hedge maze at the bottom. There wasn’t much colour really. Very austere, very serious, very fitting with the rest of the city.

I wandered through the gardens and into the old city, heading towards the Albertina where the tour was due to start. I had myself some cheap lunch along the way. I found that my GCSE German was coming back to me and I was finding it easier to order food and understand people here. They may talk at me fast, but I could understand some of the words and can puzzle out the rest!
I got to the Albertina for the free walking tour, the guides waiting with the traditional coloured umbrella (lime green this time) it seems. The Albertina was a building in the centre of the city, by the way, which was now an impressive art museum, having been sponsored by one of the many Alberts that have had connections with Vienna down the years.
Whilst I was waiting for the free tour to start, the heavens opened. And I mean, like, floodgates opened and tipped all the water down on Vienna. Rain pelted down so hard that within minutes the roads were covered in water and turning into rivers. Ducks were better suited to the city than humans at this point. The drains were overwhelmed and the raindrops were hitting the pavements so hard that my legs and shoes got soaked despite being under cover! It was just an incredible deluge. People ran for cover everywhere, hiding under the Albertina like me and the rest of the tour group.
As a result, the tour guide turned to us and told us that it was off and if we wanted, we could come the next day for the free tour. I signed up there and then (I have enjoyed my free tours so far!) and waited for the rain to stop. I was only in a t-shirt and shorts! It wasn’t cold, just wet wet wet!
Therefore, since I was at the Albertina, I decided to head on in and have a look around. It was fairly cheap after all, despite being in Vienna where the prices seemed to have all increased by a euro or two from what they had been equivalently in Italy. It was super fancy inside and I ended going to a Monet and Picasso exhibition. I actually really enjoyed the Monet stuff, the impressionist paintings. But as ever, Picasso did not take my fancy and I wasn’t that impressed with his stuff. Picasso has followed me around by the way, there seem to be exhibitions for him everywhere! But yeah, I dig the Monet for sure.

After attempting to get some art culture into me, I headed out to see some more of this impressive city. Cathedrals are usually the place to start if you wanna be impressed and so I wandered along the streets of the inner city towards St Stephen’s Cathedral. Immediately I saw that it was a lopsided cathedral (and I would discover why on the free walking tour the next day), with one of the towers on one side being taller than the other! Inside, it was as impressive as most cathedrals are.


After walking around the inner city for a bit, I headed for a place where I had read Liszt had stayed with his uncle whilst he was also starting out as a young composer back in the early 19th century. And indeed, after heading into a private housing area out the back of a couple bars and restaurants, I found another plaque commemorating Liszt. This was exciting! I know, I know, doesn’t seem interesting, but I was getting to see wacky, nerdy monuments that most people would just pass by and I was cool with that. I also found it fun since it really isn’t advertised and only ever mentioned on a couple of webpages or forums and so it is like hunting for a weird treasure.

Inspired, I listened to some of my piano playlist as I headed out to go find a café. I had been speaking to my friend and she had asked if I had tried a true and genuine Sachertorte yet, the Austrian delicacy apparently. I hadn’t, and in order to rectify this, I found myself a table at a café beside an open window and ordered myself some Earl Grey tea and a Sachertorte, complete with whipped cream as it should be, all in German. Check me. Not gonna lie though, I was a bit disappointed. It was so incredibly dry and I didn’t get enough tea to wash it down with! Having reported back to my friend, she told me to keep this in mind so that when she next makes a Sachertorte, I can compare it with hers and see if she makes a better cake than a genuine Austrian Sachertorte. I am still waiting for that cake Ishbel! Haha

I headed back to the hostel via Lidl, picking up ingredients for a risotto, which I then proceeded to cook. Cooking in communal kitchens in hostels can be kinda scary, there seems to be a weird pressure to show that you know what you are doing! But I dunno, that may just be in my head…
I had plans to head to another jazz club that evening and indeed, I found one that I wanted to go to in a funky beer cellar which seemed to have a good band playing that night too. I caught the metro in, walked through the old, inner city, past St Stephens cathedral and when I got the jazz club down by the Danube, the doors were firmly closed and I could faintly hear some music down below. It seems I was too late! Annoyed, I hung around a while hoping the doors would open and found myself chatting to some Austrian teenagers who suggested I went to a techno festival instead. No thanks, not for me.
Thursday 28th July
OK. Come on, the walking tour will happen today! And indeed, when I got to the Albertina at 10:00, the sun was up and shining and not a cloud in sight. That’s code for suncream, by the way. The guide was a guy by the name of Wolfgang. He must have been close to retirement age. He had been a tour guide for his entire working life apparently, first in a paid company and now he was doing it for the free walking tour guides.
As a result, he knew Vienna incredibly well, along with all the intricate history involved. Austria used to be one of the main centres of Europe – still is – and so he told us all about the Empress Maria Theresa (different from Mother Teresa. Everything seems to be named after Maria Theresa since she was so influential. Education, free healthcare, better bureaucracy… Yeah, ahead of the curve for the 18th century. She also had like sixteen kids or something), the Habsburgs (you know, the inbred family with the funny jaws), the beginning of the Second World War and the tragic story of Sisi. Like seriously, go look up Sisi, her life was really not that great…


On the way on the walking tour, we saw many culturally important places. The Heldenplatz where Hitler held rallies on his way to power, Kohlstrasse the rich street, statues galore (the ones with the Habsburg jaws apparently being priceless) and then we spent a lot of time at the Hofburg, an ancient castle that just kept growing and growing as more emperors and monarchs added to it. I believe it is where the President of Austria has it’s official offices too. In fact, whilst we were there, a marching brass band came through, heralding the arrival of the head of state for Hungary in a large convoy of tinted out black cars. There were also rallies and protests being held around the Hofburg. Interesting times, I wonder what they were protesting about.


We finished at St Stephens cathedral where Wolfgang talked to us about the reason the cathedral was lopsided. Apparently the myth is about a master and apprentice builder having a competition of who could build the tower first, with the apprentice making a deal with the devil and dying early as a result. The real reason was the fact the Habsburgs ran out of money. They may have been the richest and most influential families of all time, but they still ran out of money. Fools. Heard of budgeting??
I was now gonna head off to the Habsburgs summer residence out of the city, the Schloss Schönnbrunn, one of the most stunning pieces of architecture and impressive palaces ever built. On the way was the hostel, so I stopped for a convenient lunch before walking on down to the palace.
It was breath-taking. No other word for it. The gardens themselves were beautiful. I didn’t realise that you had to book tickets to go inside ahead of time, like the Colosseum, so I didn’t go into the palace but I spent a brilliant time walking around outside in the gardens. I actually really wanted to head on into the palace, so I may have to come back here one day to do just that!



I got myself a cup of tea from one of the many coffee stands and sat and read for a small while, basking in the beauty of the place. There was a guy sitting on a bench close by, singing Don’t Let me Down in a thick German accent on a ukulele as people walked past, occasionally placing coins in his open ukulele case. By the way, he played that one song over and over again. Nothing else. It was stuck in my head for literally the next week. An ohrwurm! I also saw the aviary and the Gloriette at the top of the garden which presented me with a sweeping vista of the city. On the Gloriette was a funny way of writing Roman numerals by the way, with backward C’s etc. trying to represent capital Phi’s. Look it up, it’s kinda funky and cool. Unique. But yeah, I then headed to the palm houses and boy they were so Victorian! Like, the beautiful iron frame buildings fitted with glass. Apparently that also cost an absolute fortune when the Emperor demanded it built.




I caught the tram back into town and after a quick dinner, I headed back into town to go to the Vienna Film Festival and the John Williams show! It was superb. The Rathausplatz was covered in “Gastronomics” – basically just the largest collection of food trucks creating an avenue to the seats and the big screen. The seats themselves were made of springy plywood, allowing me to lean back in awe when the music started! It was just a video recording of the last concert John Williams gave when he was last in Vienna, so it wasn’t live. But it was really good! So many iconic theme tunes! In the recording, in the orchestra, there was a Sylvester Stallone lookalike on the trumpet and a Jim Parsons lookalike on the cello. These are the sort of details I notice, by the way if you hadn’t figured by now haha
It was just a superb evening. I sat and had a wonderful time, picking away at a plate of chips I had bought (plain, I know), enjoying this music. I actually forgot how much John Williams had done. Like, he has a whole classical repertoire outside of film music which ended up getting played as well, so that was fun to listen to for the first time! One of the surprising ones that I really enjoyed was Flight to Neverland, purely for the horn calls throughout it… Although John Williams is known for his prolific use of horns to make his music sound epic and glorious. Yeah, go listen to that on full blast, highly recommend! It feels like you’re flying!


After a great evening and once the show was done, I headed on back to the hostel, ready for the train to Prague the following morning. The journey continues!
Impression
I really liked Vienna, but it felt like a very solid, very serious, very self-assured city, entrenched in the heart of Europe’s history. Culture was everywhere. It was also hella expensive
Al’s Facts and Random Statistics
- Days spent: 3 really
- Bakeries and cafes visited: about 3 or 4. Austrian bread is good. Sachertorte… The jury is still out
- Jazz clubs: 1, and I failed to get inside boooo
- Number of things that went wrong: None! Unless you count failing to get a Schloss Schönnbrunn ticket… But that’s just an excuse to come back!
- Memorable moment: The overnight train ride… But that wasn’t really Vienna. Within Vienna, it would have to be seeing Chopin’s memorial in the midst of Kohlstrasse.
- Music suggestion based off of city: Mozart, Piano Concerto No.21 in C Major, the Andante (second) movement. Or Flight to Neverland, John Williams.
- Postcards sent from here: 0. Evidence stacking up that I suck at postcard sending
- Vienna straight up has the most wholesome crossing lights
- Cool composers I came across: Chopin, Liszt, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven… Yeah I think I saw evidence (street names etc.) for at least 10 well known ones, maybe more.
- There are a tonne of vegan and vegetarian restaurants around! Like, so many. Streets of them!
- Burnt-o-meter: 4/10. Not on the Med anymore
- Items lost: has stabilised at 3. Althought I nearly lost 2 socks!
- Hostel rating: 6/10 – let down by the laundry service.