City Post: Vienna

We both were excited to visit Vienna. We knew people who worked in Vienna during the Cold War, and we'd read about how much went on in that city during those times, so we wanted to get a glimpse of what that might have looked like. Unfortunately, that was not to be our experience, albeit for good reasons on the Viennese's part.

The Vienna is full of history. The Hapsburg palace sits prominently in the historic city center, the Ringstrasse circles the former city wall, it was the city of spies in the 1980s, and it was the site of Gestapo torture during WWII. On top of this, the Venice Opera House serves as a synergetic force for musical performances, with cathedrals and bars surrounding it providing their own live performances in its shadow. The café scene is vibrant and plentiful in the historic city center, and there is plenty of shopping along the main pedestrian walkway.

Unfortunately, to us, it was all a bit forced, and it was missing that je ne sais qoi. The words on the Gestapo memorial (which memorializes the victims, not the actual Gestapo), probably sum it up best: Austria has risen again. While these words commemorate triumph, they also obscured something else: leaving the dead past behind. The history we saw in Vienna was what the city wanted to be celebrated: the seat of the Habsburg empire, the grandiose St. Stephen's Cathedral with its 136.44-meter tall tower, the opera house, and its bustling city center. Little fanfare was made of its Vienna's unique history and culture, which we found to be a bit disappointing. While our audio tours were informative and interesting, they lacked that impressiveness that we'd experienced in other cities.

However, there was to be a bit of redemption in all of this. It turned out that our hostel was situated firmly in a section of down dominated by Middle Eastern and Central Asian culture. Arabic and Pashtu were commonly spoken in the streets, and friends greeted each other with the traditional As-salamu alaykum. There were open-air markets for meats, fruits, vegetables, spices, tandoori, and falafel all around. For us, it was a nice cultural return to our times in the Middle East years before. We had Turkish food one night, Lebanese the next, and Afghan the next. Certainly not what we expected in Vienna! Jo was ecstatic to once again be eating Afghan food made by Afghans, and Jack loves the flavour combinations (and we might have let our eyes get the better of our stomachs once or twice), so it was culinary heaven. While the shops and bakeries closed promptly at 8 (or even earlier if their stocks had run out), the community would sit in the streets talking and drinking tea just as they would have back in their home countries. We both shook our head at the cafe scene one block ahead where hostel-goers and the Viennese youth were enjoying their bar-menu meals when they had this fantastic cuisine just a few minutes away. But that just meant more for us!

We were fortunate to have a pretty nice hostel. There were multiple common areas, from the kitchen to the outdoor seating to the hammocks and beanbag chairs, in which to relax. While neither of us really wanted to admit it (but Jack eventually did), we were both getting pretty tired by this point in the trip. Jack ended up wrapping himself in a hammock for a morning nap (literally, wrapped in it so much that Jo couldn't find him!) and Jo sipped her wine at the tables going through photos. It was a quiet, respectful atmosphere all around, which we appreciated. We also had our first stereotypical hostel experience, a sort of right of passage, if you will, of hostel life. There was a couple staying in our room, and on their last night, they decided they'd go out, come back, and, you know, do some cardio on the bottom bunk. Hey, if you stay in hostels long enough, it is bound to happen eventually. But at least they were quiet about it!

We had a 2 a.m. wake-up for our flight back to Spain to follow a torero around, so neither of us got a lot of sleep our last night. That alarm came WAY faster than either of us expected.

Where We Stayed: Stadtaffe - Chic Hostel VIE

Jo's Favourite: The Afghan district and food

Jack's Favourite: The Gestapo Memorial (and reflecting on what "never again" means)

Top Lesson Learned: Don't over-hype a city in your head before you get there

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