Tell me about Vienna!

*hides*

A weekend ain't enough.

(thank you very much! More please!)

Definitely do a heurigen. All I can add really: eat sachertorte (chocolate cake with fruit filling, better than it sounds) from Hotel Sacher; go up the spiral staircase in the cathedral tower in Stephansplatz but walk SLOWLY or you'll get dizzy as fuck -- but the view's worth it; drink a coffee mit schlagobers (spelling?! whipped cream, basically - yum); go to the modern art museum in the MQ (hoping the Fluxus exhibit is still there, but this was 3 years ago), and also the Kunsthistorisches Museum and look UP. When we were in Vienna we got to see Isaac Hayes perform at the Opera House, which was a trip... A Viennese guy shouting out "Chocolate salty balls!" amidst all that gilt and red velvet.

Enjoy...

Any useful German phrases I need to know? Any relating to chewing things up and spreading the paste between two further examples of said things would be most handy.

© 1998

(haha looks like I didn't like it much, but what does an 18 year old know about these things?)

postsparkasse:

http://www.vhs-radebeul.de/galerie/galeriebilder/05wien.jpg

http://hdri.cgtechniques.com/~postspar/references/ks_oben2.jpg

sezessionist house:

http://passages.ebbs.net/galerie/5Europe/sezession1G.jpg

hundertwasser:

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/h/hundertwasser/hundertwasser_house.jpg

http://www.utip.info/cheesetoastie/images/artists/hundertwasser_bldg.jpg

gasometers:

http://www.cse.polyu.edu.hk/~cecspoon/lwbt/Case_Studies/Gasometer_City/pic04_coop.jpg

http://www.wiener-gasometer.at/images/gasometer/b/plan-gasometer_b-schnitt.jpg

There's yummier Sachertorte in less snooty and expensive surroundings at many other coffeehouses. Find one you like the looks of and go in (should look like a 50s cafeteria or a classy old lady's living room).

Most important German phrase is "Sprechen Sie Englisch," obviously. Austrians tend to be more shy about their English than Germans, but the Viennese are less shy than the average Austrian and if you ask politely, they'll give it a try (I assume, anyway -- I've never actually asked).

Standards in Austria are high, by the way -- if you like the looks of a place, it's a fair bet the food will be at least pretty good.

Some food-related phrases:

"Beisl" -- Viennese version of a pub. A good place to drink and eat the typical Viennese cuisine. Look for this word as a part of the place's name.

"Haben Sie eine englische Karte?" -- do you have a menu in English? Many do, but sometimes the translations are poor (to be fair, there are about a million words that we can only translate as "dumpling") or they've left off some of the good stuff or the day's special. Again, feel free to ask.

Late night Würstlstand (sausage stand) advice: "Leberkäse" is neither liver nor cheese but a sort of sausage loaf -- there's actually no way to describe it in English with making it sound disgusting, but it looks entirely like something normal people would eat and tastes yummy. A "Semmel" is both a lovely roll and a sandwich made with that roll, so you might order a "Leberkässemmel". The word for horse is "Pferd", by the way, and if you see it on a Würstlstand menu, it is not to be understood figuratively (I like it, but some are grossed out by it).

Beer words: the typical Viennese beer is a Märzen and is good. A dark beer (sweeter than a stout) is "a Dunkles" and a mixture of the two (quite good) is "a G'mischtes". A Zwickel is a yummy unfiltered beer and usually worth odering. .3 litres of beer is "a Seidl", and .5 is "a Krügl". If you want a litre, go to Munich.

hope yous have fun!

Austrian Riesling is lovely. Go for older vintages, they have a kerosense like taste. Sounds awful, tastes like angel tears.

Angel tears?

Is that a bit like the Monkeemobile?

Wie komme ich am besten zum Bahnhof, bitte?

I signed up a few days ago after lurking for ... years I think :)

AND they are snotty and think they are the only actual urban people in austria, while everyone else is either provicial or rural and 20 years behind everything ;-)

What's new Vienna for the '10?

This Viennese laundromat has wi-fi. Amazing.

We're here til Saturday, rented an apartment on Mariahilferstrasse in the MQ. Will investigate suggestions upthread, anything new for 2013? Budapest is next, also welcome ideas for there.

I will be in Vienna in just over a week, for a bit over 24 hours. What should I make sure I do in that time?

friend of mine just came back from budapest, he went to this park full of massive old communist statues, looked amazing:

http://www.mementopark.hu/

matt DC, why not visit the fairground that's featured in The Third Man:

http://www.wienerriesenrad.com/de

statue park is rubbish

I'll suggest the obvious for Vienna:

Schatzkammer (crown jewels, relics, etc)
Kaisergruft (imperial crypt)
Belvedere (19th / 20th century art)
Kunsthistorisches Museum (art, mostly pre 20th)
MAK (applied arts)
MUMOK (contemporary art)
Leopold Museum (mostly Schiele, Klimt, Moser, etc)
Naturhistorisches Museum (nat. hist)

Maybe the Secession for the frieze in the basement. Couple of cafes, perhaps the zoo...

MAK (applied arts)

This is my favourite museum in Vienna fwiw

It's great. There's also a nice (1950s?) cafe, Prückel, practically across the road. MAK is free one day of the week too, or at least used to be.

Mumok had three floors of Albert oehlen on display so that kinda sucked. The Secession was great, the globe, esperanto and papyrus museums were 4 euros for all three and all entertaining. The Viennese tourist trap fin De siecle cafes were worth every penny.

Schönbrunn Palace too. Don't bother with going into the palace itself but walk through the lovely gardens up to the café at the top.

Gardens were really nice! And then we went to the excellent zoo.

Dope rhino

Very good bats too, iirc.

I always and up spending about 150 Euro on coffee each time i visit Vienna and never regret it, despite never drinking the stuff at home.

Always like the Vienna u-bahn's attempt to get people to give up their seats to the elderly and infirm through the use of terrifyingly creepy signs.

http://i.imgur.com/RE6qR3r.jpg?1

What is a good area to stay in Vienna?

Got a recommend of twitter. Some good stuff in this thread.

After a long weekend spent in Vienna I would like to report this thread is great and holds true. More than Stockholm and Berlin its the place I'd be in a hurry to get back for.

I stayed near the Leopoldstadt/Prater so of course went to the Prater but didn't feel like getting on the wheel, otherwise nothing amazing about it but kinda worth passing through for the disconnect. I went there for the art and cafes so it was great to not start with that starightaway.

There is just so much in terms of museums. Went to Belvedere on Saturday. The gardens are a trip. Schiele and Klimt but also enough delights in the space itself (my only time in a Palace-y place). I got to have a feel for the many other artists. Gerstl made the most impact of the people I didn't know much about. Then there is the Messerschmidt busts, and Anna Maria Punz's still lifes (those apples were drawn 100 years before Cezanne, its not as good as him but impressive to see).

Tram 1 is excellent, definitely go to catch the imperial sites which are a marvel from a distance. Vienna's centre is quite spacious, compared to London I guess anything would be. But its much more impressive than Stockholm's old town.

The one thing that wasn't mentioned that should be is Cafe Bräunerhof, which was one of Thomas Bernhard's favourite places. I really could hang out there in my retirement (or now tbh). You could do so much relaxed reading *look up now and then* back to your book in that atmosphere. Those old blokes in suits at the back weren't even looking up from their newspapers. Just nothing whatsoever like that in London. I went to Kleines in my last morning and I can't say I could do that there its too cramped. So Bräunerhof might be a unique place to Vienna.

The other thing is the area, so more towards Nestroyplatz there is a backstreet full of just really nice laid back bars, in one side street after another people nicely drinking till whatever o'clock. So you can get the vibe I found in Berlin a few months ago there too.

Sunday was MAK - possibly one of the most exciting museums. Their main exhibition was old arts and crafts on the first floor, from the early 20th century. Just when you think they are stuck in that era the downstairs has some great politically charged craftmaking. Rooms showing cups made of other materials (frozen animal blood, cardboard, fungi, 3-D printing). Downstairs at the MAK is an ideas factory, it was the first time in a long time that I felt absolutely positive in a political sense and I'd say its the one must do thing in Vienna. Seeing a statue of their old anti-semitic mayor Karl Lueger full of graffiti with the word NAZI nearby afterwards was even better!

How to top this? Somehow thinking 'oh fuck it' and paying a ticket for the Kunsthistorisches Museum with only a couple of hours left did it. It has an incredible collection of Renaissance art and the Brueghel room will be one of the great experiences of museum going in my life. Seeing those paintings will stay with me for a long time, for all sorts of reasons that I am still processing. Their collection just trashes anything in London really.

Only disappointment was the food. Ok but didn't find anything too special, though the Schnitzel at Bräunerhof was lovely.

found the kunsthistoriches underwhelming, found the brueghel room *specifically* underwhelming tbh!

the canalettos were great, the velasquez/caravaggios second rate, the vermeer the best thing in the whole place except for the staircase entrance ofc

spend a lot of time in Vienna - mainly in Döbling, but it's such a wonderful city to wander around and get lost in. Going out to the vineyards is always a good time.