vienna!

i know it's late, but here's my blogpost about vienna, my favorite city from my spring break, or perhaps even europe in general.

on the morning of april 7th (wow, can't believe it's been that long), i took an early morning train from prague to vienna. absolutely beautiful 5hr train ride. traveled through rolling hills and mountains, and by little streams. it was the european landscape i had hoped to see and admire. I was also able to figure out that i'd be closer to my hostel, if i got off one stop before the one i originally intended. love being able to adapt my plans accordingly and effectively!

Day 1

as soon as i dropped off my stuff around 1, headed out to go sightseeing!

st. stephansdom cathedral

unique tiling

aerial view, very similar to prague but bigger, more open and slightly more modern.

neo-gothic + colorful geometric tiling.

graben, which is the main plaza/cafe-lined street near st. stephansdom.

cafes!

view of hofsburg palace from kohlmarkt.

platz with 3 museums: art history museum, natural history museum and museum quartier for more modern/contemporary art.

museum quartier!!! great space. wish nyc had something like this. i only got to see one of the three spaces here

leopold museum, where i learned a lot about the vienna secession. it's an viennese art movement/artist group that emerged at the end of the 19th century, seeking to bring viennese and austrian art into the mainstream and elevate it to the level of french, german, and british art. its most famous founding member is gustav klimt. strayed from impressionistic and naturalistic art, towards a more abstract one. almost a precursor to the german bauhaus (maybe?)

egon schiele. though not one of the founding members, a very important secession artist. newly learned about him upon my visit to the leopold, and absolutely love his art. dark content, but uses of primitive styles and colors.

beautiful space with spacious display of art, which i really appreciated.

detail from one of the few photographs left of an allegorial mural that gustav klimt did for one of the universities in vienna. unfortunately, the building (or maybe just the portion with the mural) was burned down. beautiful nymph figure. thought of ophelia from hamlet when i saw the figure.

tree-lined walk ways. one of the many things i adore about vienna

royal opera house!! didn't go watch an opera because i don't particularly like it.

schonlaterng. little curved side street off the main plaza.

main plaza around sunset.

Day 2

first stop, hofburg, one of the many many palaces in vienna!

royal silver collection

looked through the silver collection, and the sisi museum, learned a lot about the sad princess of the austrian empire. afterwards, I saw the morning exercises at the spanish riding school. beautiful horses trotting and exercising to beethoven and bach, no biggie. but, something about watching humans train animals always makes me slightly uncomfortable.

ah! love love love this market (or all markets). endless row of small restaurants with tables outside. fresh seafood and a surprisingly wide variety of cuisines/foods. i even saw a korean grocery store here! right next door to the restaurants are stalls selling fresh produce

foreground: semi-chaotic, humble stalls. background: majestic, colorful neo-classical buildings.

after the market, i spent an hour at one cafes with a melange, reading my book!!! enjoyed the great coffee and relaxed ambiance of the cafe culture.

at 6pm i arrived at the kunsthistorisches museum, art history museum. there's no admission fee for teenagers, and i'm 19! so i got in for freeeeee

filled with sooooo many incredibly famous works!!! including those by rembrandt, peter paul rubens, titian, raphael, and pieter bruegel the elder.

definitely appreciated the comfy sofas that are in most of the rooms.

the museum has one of the best collection of bruegel's work in europe. it has 3 of his seasons, one of which is at the met in nyc, and so many others, such as this one: the peasant wedding.

the flemish painter, bruegel is known for his genre paintings showing the lower class, most often peasants going about their daily lives. his paintings usually marginalize the main event, bring to the forefront the grind of daily life. for example, in this painting, the peasant bride, the woman of the hour, sitting in front of the green curtain is barely noticeable, despite the fact that she's in the near center of the composition. instead we focus on the waiters bringing soup around, and the boy in the left corner washing dishes. brilliant use of warm earth-tones.

charming detail. spent three wonderful hours in the museum until the museum closed, and took the tram back home.

Day 3

since I had spent two full days walking around like a maniac, i was considering spending my last day in vienna sitting at a cafe at graben, and relaxing, but i couldn't let myself slack off. especially, after hearing about the beautiful wachau valley, which is considered the most beautiful section of the danube river that runs through austria. I would have loved to take a cruise down the danube, making stops at all the small towns and vineyards on the valley but those didn't start until the day I leave. So, i decided to take a train to melk, the closest town to vienna.

view of beautiful european country side on my train ride to melk.

so much greeen, which happens to be my favorite color.

melk train station.

cute little town

the famous stift melk, or melk monastery

view of wachau valley/danube river from the monastery. made me speechless. no wonder it's a unesco world heritage site

you can see how the river curves from the middle of the horizon line towards the forground.

it wasn't the sunniest of days, but it was still incredibly beautiful. cleansing, fresh air. this beautiful landscape was a nice break& contrast from the european cityscape. spent a good 20 - 30 minutes taking in the view.

monastery library

cathedral!!! sooooo much gold it almost hurt my eyes.

after a quick lunch, i took to the train back to the city center to....

belvedere

belvedere museum to see the famous gustav klimt's the kiss. pretty much the perfect way to end my perfect 3 days in vienna.

vienna isn't huge, but it's packed with things to see, so I only got to see half the things i could have. so many palaces, gardens, and it has an INCREDIBLE art scene. so many museums i wanted to see. also, great food, pastries and coffee. sweet people. clean. honestly, there's nothing not to like. another reason i liked vienna so much is that i had the best weather during those three days.

i miss vienna.