Ciao!
My second week in Italy was relaxing, yet also busy because I went on my first out of country trip to Vienna, Austria to meet a friend from Whitby who was already in Europe travelling around. I have a list of places outside of Italy (and also within Italy) that I want to go to within my time here, strictly because it is so cheap to fly/train within Europe and I want to take full advantage of that while I am here. Vienna was actually on my list, so my first city is already checked off the bucket list, however, there is still other places in Austria that I would love to go to (such as Salzburg – where the Sound of Music movie was filmed😍 and Innsbruck – which is pretty close to the border of Italy). Overall, I spent my week “living like a local” and then exploring beautiful Vienna with Rachel.
May 13-15:
Relaxed at home these days and had slow mornings, which I have honestly have really been enjoying because I did not have many while I was at university – with two jobs in my last semester, almost everyday was an early morning because of work or because of class/needing to work on an assignment. In the evenings, I went on walks with the dog and Alessia. Made the girls lunch for when they arrived home from school (around 2pm). Mostly I just make pasta, piadina’s or basically just whatever my host mom asks me to make. Everything is later here, lunch isn’t until around 1-2pm, and we usually don’t eat dinner until 7:30-8:30pm. I’m not sure if this is the case with majority of Italian families or it is just them, but it has taken some getting used to from the norms of eating times in Canada. On the evening of the 14th, I went to Ilaria’s music concert at her school (she plays the saxophone) and it was quite good! Afterwards, I had the best gelato that I have ever had (I swear I am not being dramatic – even my host mom says it is the best), I got pistachio and coconut which are two of my fave flavours.
May 16:
Today went to a café in my town (not sure if I’ve said yet – but I’m in a small town about 10km outside of Verona called Pedemonte) called Pasticceria Rossini with Kiara and Julia. It was super delicious, they have a bunch of mini pastries that are 0.70 euros each, so I got 4 of them and a cappuccino (see below for a mouth watering picture hehe). My pastries were the 4 that are on the plate alone – the mini tart with fruit on top was my favourite for sure. Next time I will try different ones, there are so many options – I’ll be sure to get more pictures of the café next time. We will for sure be going back for more pastries and coffee dates!
May 17: Vienna Day 1
I had booked my flights to Vienna a couple months prior when Rachel asked me if I wanted to meet her there this particular weekend. My flight from BGY (Bergamo – outside of Milano) return to Vienna was only 20 euros with Ryan Air – which is roughly $35 CAD. Super cheap when then I had to pay to bring a carry on, crazy I know, but overall it only ended up costing me roughly 35 euros roundtrip. I took a bus from Pedemonte to catch another bus (Flix Bus) to BGY, which is roughly an hour and 20 minute ride. While it is kind of annoying having to take such a long bus to the airport, flights are a lot cheaper from BGY than the Verona airport so it is definitely worth the extra travel time. I originally thought I was arriving at the airport kind of late because my bus from Verona was delayed a half an hour, but turns out I still had lots of time to spare. It only took me literally 5 minutes to get through security and then I was on my way to the gate where we boarded the plane (via stairs) shortly after. I arrived in Vienna around 3:30pm and Rachel’s flight didn’t get in until around 4:30pm, so I hungout at a café by the arrivals, had a drink and food and Facetimed my dad.
Once Rachel arrived, we somehow managed to take public transportation into the Vienna city centre to where our hostel was (very proud of myself for this haha). The hostel we stayed at for our 3 nights in Vienna was the Wombats City Hostel Vienna – The Naschmarkt, and both Rachel and I thought it was great and felt like a hotel more than a hostel. I wish I took more pictures of the hostel and our room, but of course I did not, however, I would definitely recommend staying here! It was a great home base to explore around Vienna, especially cool being across from the Naschmarkt. Side note: coincidently the other two girls in our room (we stayed in a four bed dorm – two bunk beds) were from Montreal! After we settled into our room, we walked around for a bit and realized that our hostel was in a Chinatown area because almost all of the restaurants around were Asian😂 I looked up a traditional Austrian food restaurant (it is called Kaiserwalzer 2.0) and we headed there, where both Rachel and I ordered the pork schnitzel. It was delicious and the restaurant itself was also adorable and our waiter was super friendly and gave us suggestions on what to do with our short period of time in Vienna. We then headed back to the hostel and checked out the bar that was in our hostel – it was quite nice, however, filled with a lot of older people which was strange. We were definitely the youngest people there. We decided to get to bed relatively early in order to get an early start on our big day of touring Vienna the next day!
May 18: Vienna Day 2
Our first full day in Vienna started relatively early. Instead of going out for breakfast we decided to go to the grocery store next door (super convenient) and buy some stuff for the weekend. We only spent 12 euros and got cream cheese, 2 avocados, a loaf of bread, cheese & ham slices, bolognese pasta sauce and a mini smoothie. Pre-warning: this was the cheapest part about Vienna… it is definitely on the higher end for cities in Europe (not that I’ve been to allllll that many yet..) but I found it quite pricey, which I will explain more later. After we made our avocado toast in the hostel kitchen, which was very nice and clean, we headed out for the day.
First, we wandered through Naschmarkt, which is a massive market with lots of food vendors, stores and sit down restaurants – super cool that it was just across the street from us! Next, we kept walking towards the city centre and came across the Opera House (Wiener Staatsoper), which is absolutely beautiful. We kept wandering and eventually came across Hofburg’s Palace, which is also stunning – just like every building in Vienna. It is a very picturesque city, almost magical feeling with the horses with carriages everywhere and the beautiful white/beige coloured buildings. It is definitely a much different feel than Italian cities (the ones I have been to thus far anyways). We then wandered past St. Peter’s Catholic Church, which is pretty neat because it is off a main street and kind of down an alley. Also, the street with all of the expensive stores was one of my favourite parts of the city and the view down the street of the Hofburg was amazing. For lunch we got sausages from Zum Goldenen Würstel (which are all over the city and are delicious). My sausage was a cheese sausage so it had cheese ooze out of it when you bit into it. Afterwards, we made our way over to the famous Café Central, where Rachel got the chocolate cake and I got apple strudel – both were delicious. After a long day of exploring, we headed back to the hostel to relax for a bit and then made pasta in the hostel kitchen for dinner. To celebrate my birthday, we then went to get a couple drinks at the hostel bar and then we went to a nightclub called U4 (it is right off of the U4 subway line – which was right by us so it was very convenient). Overall, we had a great day exploring beautiful Vienna & then experiencing the night life – which is apparently quite tame compared to other European cities. However, we were looking through clubs nearby before we decided where to go and I came across a place that OPENED at 3am… Europe is wild.
May 19: Vienna Day 3
We woke up kind of late this morning from our late evening, but nonetheless we still made the most of our final full day in Vienna. We went to Schöenrbunn Palace & Schlobpark, which is a beautiful palace and the massive gardens that surround it. It was spectacular and definitely a must see if you go to Vienna – probably my favourite attraction of the city. There is a big hill that you can go up and get an amazing view of the palace and just Vienna in general too. After walking around for a couple hours (you could seriously spend all day long here, it is so beautiful), we took the U back to our hostel to decide what we wanted to do next. There is these scooters that you can rent literally all around Vienna (and apparently in many other European cities too) so Rachel and I decided to rent one. You had to download an app and then you scanned the barcode on the scooter, then you paid per minute in which you used it. Since we could only rent one because Rachel didn’t have cellular, we took turns riding it through the closed Naschmarkt (it is closed on Sundays). After working up an appetite we went to a restaurant down the street from our hostel and got cordon bleu schnitzel (chicken schnitzel with ham & cheese). Then we wandered back into the city centre to see it one last time & stopped at Café Mozart to get a treat. Our night ended pretty early since I had to be up early for my flight the next morning, so we just hungout in the hostel for the rest of the evening.
May 20:
My flight back to BGY was at 7am, so I was up bright and early to head to the airport. My flight landed on time, however, I booked my bus back to Verona an hour and a half after my landing time just in case, so I had to wait a little while to catch the bus. By the time I got back to the house it was about 12:30-1pm and then I just chilled the rest of the day – I was super tired from a long weekend.
Overall, Vienna was a beautiful city – but pricey and as a broke young gal, I probably will not go back but I do not regret going at all! It was a great first out of country trip while living in Italy (PS. I am hoping to do an out of country trip at least once a month – money dependent of course). Next up: celebrating my 22nd birthday in Italy!!!
Ciao for now,
Wanderlust morg xx
