Vienna. Vienna waited for me, just like Billy Joel said it would. And I’m going there this week! 😍 But to be completely honest with you, Austria and Vienna in particular have NEVER been on my bucket list. I’ve never experienced the need to visit there regardless of the country’s breathtaking sceneries, beautiful buildings, and interesting history as well. With so many amazing destinations in this world, I just always felt like maybe it would be a little… meh?

Until a few months ago I started following some Austrian creators (such as @nicorauchenwald) on Instagram, and through his content, I somehow fell for the Austrian nature. Just shortly after that, I received a one-way ticket to board “the wild ride of the Instagram algorithm”, and so we rode in Austria! I then developed an urge to go and see it myself. Now, the time has come and I couldn’t be more excited!

This blog post is dedicated to my future itinerary for the trip of 5 days. I hope that after my visit I will be able to provide a more proper guide for anyone else who wants to visit Vienna. For some of the tips and suggestions, I have to thank the kind women I met on Instagram. There is so much power and value in community, and people I’ve never met in real life. So if you’re not making friends on social media yet, consider this as my heartfelt recommendation to do so.

Coincidentally enough, I have a story regarding this, and I’m gonna tell it before getting into my Vienna plans.

A story of meaningful encounters

A few weeks back I went on a date with a Canadian tourist here in Barcelona (long story short, it did not become the love story of the century but at least we enjoyed each other’s company during his short stay). We wanted to see the Gràcia street festival and after walking around for a while, we ended up choosing a random restaurant to eat dinner at. When it comes to restaurants, I always say that a spontaneous choice is never a good one: you gotta do your research to avoid disappointing big time (or food poisoning). But this one blew both of us away! (If you’re in Barcelona, I can highly recommend Lata Bern@: Michelin-awarded food, cute cozy place, funny and friendly waiter).

Having finished dinner, we then decided to see more of the festival and ended up at a plaza which was in full party mode, in the middle of the small streets. As we went to grab drinks in one of the bars by the plaza, I ended up talking to a girl in the queue to the bathroom. It turned out she was actually from Vienna! We exchanged Instagram handles, and she ended up giving me a bunch of good tips the next day.

The moral of the story and the reason why I told it is this: never ever underestimate the power of what other people, just strangers on the street can teach you; Just a few days after this, I met a guy who gave me a tip of a useful resource for my work. And most importantly, never ever underestimate your own value, worth, expertise, and knowledge! You are capable of so much and you can possess skills and information that is exactly what someone else out there is dying to learn about.

And now, back to my Vienna plans!

My Vienna itinerary (by category)

Suggestions I’ve got of restaurants, bars & cafés to visit

• Wirr

• Cafe7Stern

• Burggasse 24

• Café Central

• Kaffee Alt Wien - to try their tafelspitz (a traditional Austrian food)

• Amerling - for dinner

• Hiddenkitchen - brunch or lunch-worthy spot

• Vienna City Beach Club - lunch or nighttime drinks by the water

• Krypt - a hidden bar

• Fitcarraldo Speakeasy - we love a good speak_easy

• Wieninger am Nussberg - an outdoor winery on a hill with a view of the city

Streets & random places

• Burggasse - cute street with cafés

• Donaukanal - river that flows through the city

• Michaelerplatz - historical square with beautiful buildings

• Graben - one of Vienna’s most famous streets because of its beauty and shops etc.

• Vienna Prater - an old-school amusement park

• Spanish Riding School - a historical building where they train horses and do shows

• Naschmarkt - food market, go here for “lunch” aka eating the whole day

Parks, museums & palaces

• Volksgarten - beautiful palace(s?) and garden(s?)

• Schönbrunn - a museum, touristy garden, hike up to Gloriette for a city view

• St. Stephen's Cathedral - an old cathedral in the old town of Vienna

• Hofburg - another palace?

• Burggarten - a garden and a palm house

• Justizpalast - Parlament, the House of Justice (another beautiful building)

• Rathausplatz - a palace and a garden (again?)

• Belvedere Palace - museum and a garden (surprise)

• Albertina - museum… and a garden as well

So to conclude, Vienna will be all about beautiful buildings (mostly palaces, of course, we’re not settling for anything less), gardens, and cafés. And THIS is absolutely perfect. Simply because my main goal for this trip is to relax a bit, focus on the now, find beauty, and photograph it - that’s it. So I won’t mind just walking around the pretty streets and taking pics of one palace after another. Instead of mindfulness, I will try to channel mindlessness. That means trying my best to release pressure and silence my mind from stressing about the future or thinking about schedules - just. live. a. little.

It's easier said than done for someone who has a tendency to stress a lot and mostly stays in their head. Which only confirms how much I need this. Even still, I want to have a little bit of structure in my visit, just so that I get to see at least half of the beautiful places I have encountered on social media when searching for information about Vienna.

As I don’t yet know that much about the places, I don’t exactly know what to expect nor can I offer any relevant information about them. But I will, after my visit - so stay tuned for a perfected Vienna city itinerary 😉

Either way, this is how I imagine I could split the days according to the locations I want to visit:

• Day 1

  • Justizplatz

  • Volksgarten

  • Rathausplatz

  • Exploring the city on foot

  • Probably tired, going to bed early?

• Day 2

  • The Hofburg

  • Burggarten

  • Albertina

  • Michaelerplatz

  • Café Central

  • Graben

  • St. Stephen's Cathedral

  • Dinner at..?

• Day 3

  • A day by the beach (Vienna City Beach) and the Donau River

  • Working day in a café

  • Prater

  • Maybe check out one of the rooftop bars and one hidden bar in the evening?

• Day 4

  • Naschmarkt

  • Schönbrunn palace

  • Dinner, maybe with a handsome Austrian (or non-Austrian) man?

  • Maybe check out one of the Hostel bars in the evening?

• Day 5

  • Belvedere Palace

  • Working day in a café

  • Visit the winery in the evening?

Another funny coincidence regarding the places on my list. One night an inspiration hit me and I started writing out something that ended up seeming like the beginning of a novel. One of the locations was pure figment of my imagination supposedly located in Vienna. A café to be specific. The kind I have never been to, never seen, or never really imagined before. I wrote it down on pages quite descriptively, creating the space as I wrote.

To my surprise, one café that I came across by accident looked almost exactly like I had written. It felt almost surreal to look at some of the pictures of the place and see how my own vision was actually real somewhere in the world. Just another reminder of how some things we imagine and dream about thinking they don’t exist, actually might. All I know is that now I absolutely HAVE TO visit this café, maybe write a few pages more just for the sake of it.

I’m excited to see what Vienna holds for me but I’m sure this one will be one for the plot - I can almost feel it in my bones.

With love, Stiina