☕️🎻🎶💋🧺👯♀️
For my time in Europe, I felt it was important to learn the basics of opera. Opera just seems like a very culturally significant part of the history and arts here, with many famous composers leaving their mark across a multitude of cities. In fact, during my first couple of days in Munich, I found a TV channel in my hotel room which only played the same two Austrian operas. I was discussing this with my friend Eva, as there was an upcoming event for students at one of Munich’s three opera houses but I unfortunately couldn’t make it. So when she told me her desire to see an opera in Vienna, a city known for its significant impact on opera and their theater scene, I was super excited for this little girl’s weekend.
We planned our trip for the weekend of Eva’s birthday in late April and chose The Phantom of the Opera as our show to watch. It’s not technically an opera, but was the best on a student budget and still had a connection to the opera. We took a Flix Bus to Vienna, the furthest east I’ve ever been, and changed at our hostel. We got all dressed up, which was fun, and I miraculously didn’t roll an ankle walking on the cobblestone streets in the tiny blue kitten heels I had bought just for this event. We first dined out for dinner, at this beautiful Asian restaurant. I had sparkling lychee juice, a sushi salad, and beef stir fry which was absolutely delicious.
The show was absolutly incredible. Phantom of the Opera is obviously a classic, and one of, if not the, most well known musical of all time. I’ve never seen it, but was familiar with most of the songs and had a rough idea of the basics of the plot. However, my jaw was on the floor for most of the show. The costumes and set were totally unreal and hearing that famous organ riff live was incredible. The show was, of course, in German and there were English subtitles but they were a little hard to read from our seats. I really want to see it in English now so I actually know what’s going on, but I think it will be hard to top the quality of this production.
After the show, we went out for drinks in Vienna. We settled on Cafe Podium, an aesthetic café and night bar with plants all around with an industrial vibe. We enjoyed a few espresso martinis, a classic and personal favorite of mine, and ended the perfect night back at the hostel.
The next morning, we packed up our bags and grabbed brunch at yet another cute café called Öfferl. It was so good, I was so full but didn’t want to stop eating. Vienna has a lot of great food spots and cute restaurants. Everywhere we went had incredible food and they were all so cute on the inside. I will say, as a city through Vienna didn’t really grab me. It didn’t seem to have a unique personality which would have made Vienna, Vienna. It was a short trip, though, so maybe if we explored a bit more I would have connected with it a bit more, but I will say it seemed like a good foodie destination.
We explored a bit of Vienna’s city center, seeing the outside of the State Opera House, Hofgarten, and St. Stephan’s Cathedral before heading to our scheduled ticket time at the Hofburg museum. The Hofburg is a large palace in the heart of Vienna’s city center. We didn’t realize how big it was until we got there but if we had we might have been able to explore more parts of Vienna. It’s alright though, there always needs to be a reason to come back.
It seemed like the main museum to visit at the Hofburg complex was the Sissi Museum, dedicated to the assassinated Austrian empress. I’ve heard of her and have a couple of movies about her life on my “To Be Watched” list, but I didn’t know a lot about her story. We also toured the imperial apartments which are there before continuing on with our visit.
We had some time to kill before our bus back, but not enough to really do anything else so we just laid in the Hofgarden grass soaking up the strong spring sun with hundreds of other like minded youth. After getting our baggage from the hostel, we ended the trip with an authentic Austrian meal. We of course had to get Wiener Schnitzel as we were in Wien, and I enjoyed a beer. It was also so good, I didn’t want to stop eating but we had to catch the bus back to Munich.
For such a short trip, I didn’t feel rushed or like we spent too much time on the bus compared to our time spent there at all. It was a perfect trip, everything went so smoothly and it was nice to be with Eva. I feel like this trip helped me enjoy the moment and not be worried about taking pictures to remember the experience later on, but actually experience the moment instead.
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