Throughout my whole entire trip of Europe all I have heard about were a family called the Hapsburgs. Now they were a massive family who ruled Europe for about a million years (ok about 600) and were really influential throughout history. So while I was in Vienna it seemed appropriate to visit their Palace.

The Schonbrunn Palace was their summer palace which was located about 10 mins away from our hostel. We spent the morning walking around the most amazing gardens you could ever find. It had a big arch walkway full of roses that when you walked down you could smell the strong scent. I actually saw a lady going for a jog then stop to smell the roses they were that beautiful. We then walked up to the top of the hill which provided a really good view of Vienna from the top. The gardens were so stunning they even included a zoo (which is the oldest zoo in Europe) and a maze. We didnt go into either of them as they cost money and the weather was looking slightly iffy. We decided that we would come back and go inside the palace the next day as it was forcasted to rain so to make the most of what time we had we decided to have a walk around Vienna city.

This walk turned out to be the scaffolding tour of Vienna as nearly everything had scaffolding on it. The opera house, the university, the library, the museums, the Hapsburgs other palace. It was a beautiful city but with a the rainy weather and the scaffolding it was starting to get a little bit miserable. We solved that problem by having a yummy viennese coffee ( better then Italy!) and cake at a little cafe in the middle of the main street and people watching. The ladies dressed so nicely it was almost old fashioned the way they had their hair done, nice clothes and high heels on. You could definately tell the locals from the tourists.

The afternoon was spent back at our hostel which was really cosy and friendly. It was two little courtyards (one with a giant chess set) and two big lounge rooms that you could laze around on with free wifi and stuff. They also had a piano, bongos and three guitars that were available for guest use so we got treated to a bit of a show by a couple of people walking through. It was really cute but a little intimidating as I felt extremely uncool not being able to play either even though I had both piano lessons and guitar lessons. But this is coming from a girl who spent eight years speaking German and didn’t do much of that in Austria either. It was nice to spend a rainy afternoon inside snuggling down for a good reading session. That evening we visted the girls at their hostel and decided to head around the corner to a bar for a couple of drinks.

The bar was an Australian themed bar and I was excited to find that they had Bundy rum, Arnotts Shapes, meat pies and vegemite and cheese toasties on the menu. I have to admit that I was missing meat pies so I tucked into one straight away and washed it down with a Bundy and coke. It was A-MAZ-ING. The pub was pretty fun and there were a few people down there watching the World Cup so it was pretty rowdy.

The next day Caroline and I went back to the Palace to check out the inside. It was exquisite! I dont know how else to describe it. It just had the most beautiful furnishings and decor. We only went through 40 of the 1000 rooms in the palace (that doesnt even include the kitchen – which was held offsite) and it took an hour and a half just to see those rooms. We got a guided tour so we learnt a bit more about the family history and the era when the palace was built. I was a bit apprehensive at spending 12 euro to do that because we had already seen a few palaces and castles along the way but I’m definitely glad I did it.

We had planned to try and catch an opera while we were in Vienna as you can line up for an hour beforehand and get standing tickets for 3 Euro. The only problem was by this stage the weather had decided to be against us and it had poured down for ages and ages and ages. It was basically just a rainy miserable day and we were not interested in standing in line outside a venue for an hour. It was a shame really because I would have loved to have seen one but sometimes things just aren’t meant to be. We decided to take refuge in a cafe and we grabbed another coffee and cake before heading back to the hostel.

While Vienna was beautiful and had a lot to offer the weather definitely put a dampener on it. Im hoping that one day I can go back and visit and see all the buildings and truly appreciate how pretty they are with the sun shining and scaffolding taken off. I would also love to explore more of the musical side of things as Vienna is the home of classical music and there are some really famous places around the city that would be amazing to see.