Vienna, Austria

Vienna was a whole new experience. True I'd been in cities before, cities with cinemas and shopping malls etc, but compared to cities in New Zealand where Im from, Vienna was the biggest city I'd ever visited. Before I started my travelling, somehow I never imagined any of these places to be so huge, even Vienna, capital city of Austria, I didnt expect it to be so big and as well as the size, I didnt know if I'd love Vienna as much as I did because, in my mind, it was just another city. Of course I knew that I'd enjoy my time there and would love seeing all the awesome things that Vienna had to offer, but Vienna had so much more to give than Id originally thought and I loved that.

For the week that I was in Vienna I stayed with my friend Julia (more like a sister) who lives in Vienna with her family. Together we did touristy things. She took me to Schonbrunn Palace (top picture), the Kunsthistorisches Museum (art history museum. 2nd & 3rd pictures), Naschmarkt - the largest food market in Vienna, we also went to the zoo, we ate at Figlmueller which is the best place to eat Schnitzel with cranberry jam and we also spent a day at Prater, Vienna's local themepark which included rollercoasters, log rides, tandum bikes and Madame Tussauds wax museum. One night I even went to my first ever Cirque de Soleil circus with Julia, and her mum and sister, it was incredible, unfortunately we were not permitted to take photos during the show.

I loved Vienna so much. The people, the vast amount of shopping places, the beautiful buildings and even the subway, which I got so used to taking every day that I kinda miss it. The time spent with Julia and her family was wonderful, they made me feel at home and even took me away for a weekend to a small village (which I'll write in another post). Their hospitality as well as the city of Vienna itself makes me want to go back and see it all again and everything else I might've missed out on. When I do get the chance to go back, I wont hesitate for a second, but hopefully before I do return, I'll have been on a few more trips to other places and maybe even have learnt a little more German (sometimes not speaking the native tongue can be difficult, especially when wandering the streets alone).

I have a big list of cities/places that I wanna visit, but for now Vienna most certainly makes the top 5 so far. Now onto the next place, wherever that might be..