We left Salzburg for Vienna early in the morning via the train which took about two and a half hours.The views were splendid and we checked into our Airbnb accommodation once we reached Vienna. It was quite a walk to the place but we were happy to explore around the places and the rent was affordable so we could not complain about it.

Day 1

Votivkirche (Votive Church)

Being the second tallest church in Vienna, the Neo-Gothic Votivkirche was built as a symbol of gratitude for a failed assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Joseph. It was located not far from the Rathaus and the entrance was free. The cathedral had beautiful architecture, notably the impressive flying buttresses as well as the pretty stained glass windows.

Virgilkapelle (St Virgil's Chapel)

One of the interesting things about this church was that it was an underground chapel that was accessible directly from the metro station Stephanplatz. In addition, the chapel was actually discovered by accident during the underground excavations! With just 5 Euros per person, we could get entrance tickets and an recordings, not to mention videos about the history of Vienna!

Aida Cafe Konditorei

We had to go to this shop as it was claimed serving the best ice creams in the world! The Aida ice cream shop had a very pinkish vibe. After browsing through the ice creams, we picked the sacher torte flavour, which was a type of chocolate cake that was invented by fellow Austrian, Franz Sacher. It tasted really chocolate-ty yet not too sweet to consume. I was really impressed and did agree that it might be the best ice creams I ever had.

Graben and Kohlmarkt

We went to Graben and Kohlmarkt after that to walk around and did some window shopping. Both were great pedestrian streets with shop windows being artistically decorated by the owners. At Graben street we managed to stumble upon the Pestälee or the Plague Column which commemorated the end othe plague in the late 17th century.

Kohlmarkt originated from the charcoal market that was once opened in the area but was not home to upscale restaurants and cafes, as well as branded shops including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Chanel, Armani, just to name a few. Furthermore, Haydn and Chopin, the famous composers also happened to live in houses here.

Centimeter

One of the best dining places we had accidentally found while strolling around Vienna was definitely the Centimeter. The restaurant was pretty cosy and most importantly the food was scrumptious. They were also big in portions with a very affordable price (very suitable for students). We ordered most of the things on the menu, ranging from a foot long sausages, burgers, chicken wings, shots, and the likes.

State Opera House

The opera house was gigantic and beautiful at every angle. It was one of the top opera addresses in the world, offering some of the very best first-class productions. However, we did not bought any tickets to watch the live operas on that day as we were tight on budget. #studentlife

Ringstrasse - Rathaus and Parliament

One of the must-do things in Vienna was to visit the Ringstrasse, the most beautiful boulevard in Vienna that spanned 5.3 kilometers long, encircling the Inner Stadt (Inner City). It was once acted as Vienna's defensive wall until Emperor Franz Joseph ordered it to be demolished. It then turned into a busy boulevard with numerous classic buildings, museums, palaces, opera houses city hall (the Rathaus) as well as the parliament.

Day 2

Schonbrunn Palace

On our second day in Vienna, we went to visit the magnificent Schonbrunn Palace, former summer home of the Habsburgs. It was said that Maria Theresa, Emperor Franz Joseph, Empress Elisabeth and the likes had once stayed in the palace. The Baroque complexes was really massive with a beautiful park. We walked up the garden to the top as it was slightly hilly to the Gloriette. There, we sit on the grass and enjoyed the full view of Schonbrunn Palace with it's organised garden which was really lovely and relaxing.

Hofburg Palace

We skipped both Belvedere Palace Museum and Belvedere Garden as we did not realise that it would be so exhausting to visit just the Schonbrunn Palace as the place was so big as if it were a city on its own. So we went to the next destination, the Hofburg Palace. Hofburg had been the centre of the Habsburg empire for centuries.The palace looked wonderful and it contained three museums with a lot of interesting histories. The whole area was so large that it would take days to explore everything in detail.

Theseus Temple, Volksgarten

Stumbling upon Theseus Temple. a replica of Athenian temple in the Volksgarten was a great surprise. There was a huge rose garden surrounding the temple and we could see various kinds of roses with variety of colours! 

Mozart Cafe

Of course, we had to stop by at a cafe in Vienna to truly experience the chill European lifestyle, sipping tea or coffee while eating cakes and just watching the surroundings.Out of all the cafes in Vienna, we picked Mozart Cafe as it sounded grand (just because the word Mozart) and classy and there were lots of customers at the cafe.

After browsing through the menu and had a hard time choosing all the delicious looking desserts, we settled on Sacher Torte, Mozart Torte and Apfelstrudel. They were so yummy and my friend ordered the Turkish coffee which was really cool!

Peterskirche (St Peter's Church)

We also had tons of fun taking the tram and decided to make it as a tour by going through all the stations as we were too lazy to walk around and it was the quickest way to explore the whole Vienna without putting much effort. Then we had simple dinner before getting back to our accommodation to get a good rest for our next adventure, Budapest in Hungary! Stay tuned! :)

Vienna Itinerary