An Open Letter to Vienna

Don’t worry, there will be cute cheetahs and pandas as a pallet cleanser after the rant!  Just skip the writing and go to the pictures if you want to not know the pains of visiting Vienna.

Dear Vienna,

You have been the worst traveling experience I have had in over a month of solo traveling across a half dozen countries.  Not only is the city highly over-rated, yeah the architecture is beautiful and the history is great, but when that is all you have going for you, I don’t see how you could be a great stop for long-term backpackers.  3 days is all one would ever need to see what Vienna offers.  And that is a pushing it.

So why was my experience so bad?  Let’s start with the hostel.  When you are traveling as long as I am you tend to book stays on a number of factors like security and facilities and social atmosphere, a must for a solo traveller.  A/O Wien Hauptbahnhof had barely any of these things despite having a decent rating on hostel world.  When you run a hostel, certain basic necessities, like not feeling like you are suffocating when trying to go to bed in a room that easily tops 90 degrees for a week with no air conditioner or fans or even free water, kind of ruins a trip for you.  Its’ “great” location near the main train station in Vienna also meant that it was near absolutely nothing, so unless you like taking a metro every single time you want to go out or eat, get used to train station food and no night-life.  The staff were genuinely rude, a common-factor amongst most of the people I met throughout Vienna with some semblance of hospitality involved, and the rooms were filthy and only cleaned when someone was checking out, or not at all.

I have only really missed one train in the time I have been traveling and it was in Vienna.  I was standing at the door, after already being on the train, switching cars, and they locked it in front of me and would not let me back on.  There was still time before the scheduled departure.  Transportation staff shrugged it off and looked on as I pushed the damn button for the door to open, only for the train to take off early.  I received no apology, no accommodation, just a “the next train is in 2 hours, it’ll be another 3.50 euro for your seat.”

All-in-all, see Vienna for the architecture and history as fast as you can, and then get the F#%& out even faster because there is not much else to do but get exhausted and sit in cafes.  At least the Zoo, Prater Park, Donauinsel and the FKK were nice to take my mind off of the abysmal experience of my time in Vienna.

Congratulations! You’ve made it through my rant, (or skipped to the photos), now for the pallet cleanser, some shots of Belvedere Palace, Karlskirche, Schönbrunn Zoo, Prater Park, the Naschmarkt and Café Sperl.