Salut, moikka, hi, hallo!

I am currently halfway through my journey, and leaving the Eurozone for the next week. As of now, it has gone pretty well, I’ve discovered so much!!!

I’ve seen that now most people have started (or soon will) to study/work again (- or both). I wish you all good luck and hope you’re having a great day☺️! (Do not worry, my AY starts in three weeks, so it is coming for me too 😬)

If you want – and have the time to read my travel diary, you can, as always, find below 👇 my latest article.

(I do apologise in advance for not proof-checking this one. Probably not my best piece of writing 😅)!

Vienna

Vienna is a city of power(s). Former de facto capital of the Holy Roman Empire and thereafter of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (being the seat of the Habsburg dynasty, which ruled for nearly half a millennium over large parts of Europe). It is now the capital of Austria (recent Austrian political stage being both worrying and interesting at the same time), one of the biggest cities of the continent (>2m inhabitants). It now hosts numerous international organisations such as the OSCE or the UN!

Vienna is a city of culture. Cultural hub for centuries, meeting point of culture, birthplace of an incalculable number of world famous artists, such as Mozart, Beethoven or Klimt, Vienna is definitely a city of culture!

Hence, Vienna is a city of history, due to its part in both Europe’s and the World’s history, (including modern history), as well as its role as cultural hub for years. It has made history and is still doing so!

I thought Vienna was a lovely but not very lively city. The centre is almost dead in the evening, and is really expensive. However the artistic life is just awesome!!

4.0. – first night

I arrived in Vienna late enough so that all grocery stores were closed, so I went to explore and find something to eat (vegan ice cream has an interesting taste 🙂), and then went to get some sleep in order to charge my own batteries.

4.1. – resting day

I allowed myself to have a long night sleep, to recover from the past days which had been really busy and left me exhausted. I woke up at 11, went to do some groceries (« meals in bottles » or however you want to call those are really tasteless, fyi) and only started my day at 3, when I went to visit the Belvedere(s), one of the oldest public museums in the world.

So yeah, I saw Klimt’s The kiss in person (amongst many other incredible pieces;))! .

4.2. – history day

I decided to go see the Habsburgs’ summer palace, a must see place in Vienna, basically Vienna’s Versailles. This is notably where Khrushchev and JFK met in 1961. It is also referred to as Sisi’s castle, referring to the Empress Elisabeth. Other noteworthy residents are Maria Theresa of Austria and her husband Francis I, Franz Joseph I, Napoleon II…

I ended my visit by wandering around in the park, the maze, the Gloriette, etc. for some time.

I then went back to the city center, and ended up visiting the Albertina, a mix between an historical palace and an art museum. (One of the exhibitions included plenty of cathodic TVs, so this one became quickly unbearable, but otherwise it was extremely interesting and some pieces really moved me.)

Whilst exiting the museum, I realised that there was some kind of trendy afterwork party going on in the museum’s terrace, with reasonable prices. However I would have been really underdressed and the queue was incredibly repelling, so I just passed around it before slowly getting back to the hostel..

4.3. museums day

The exhaustive list of museums and places I’ve visited these past few days :

• The Lower Belvedere
• The Upper Belvedere
• Belvedere 21
• Albertina
• Albertina Modern
• mumok
• kunsthalle wien
• Foto Arsenal Wien
• Schloss Schönbrunn
• Imperial Treasury
• State Hall / National Library
• House of Austrian History (hdgö) & Ephesos Museum
• Alongside several churches 😉

Some interesting tips (money wise) if you ever visit Vienna:

• The children fare applies to people up to 18 inclusive!!!, and most museums are free for children, which is far from being the case either for adults or students. This is the reason I went to so many different museums, otherwise I clearly wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
• Some museums are open until 9 (and free 6-9) one day of the week, for instance I went to Albertina on Wednesday evening and to both hdgö and kunsthalle on Thursday evening.

As you can see, I really took advantage of both of these. However, had I been one year older, this crazy day would have never been imaginable, which once again shows how inaccessible culture can be, thus being reserved to an elite. I consider culture and art to be some of the most important things we should all keep acquiring, because of all the changes it can bring us! So if you have the opportunity to see art, to feel it, do it! And make use of those students reduced or free rates whilst it is still time!

I will cite only three of the exhibitions I have seen, even though I could give my comments on all (but I don’t have all the time in the world, yk:)).

• The House of Austrian history is a public interactive and ever changing museum about Austrian history since the fall of the Empire, so of the last century. It could have been politicised, but it didn’t feel so much like it. The way it is built allows us to question many different things, but also to take only what we want from it. It is well done and I left with more interrogations than when I entered. Highly recommend, but to be looked at with a critical state of mind.
• The kunsthalle exhibition « Ohmmm age Oma je ohomma mama » (Laure Prouvost) is composed of different installations, most of them made for the occasion. The piece « Here Her Heart Hovers » has been to me one of those pieces of art letting me flabbergasted, a bit groggy, almost drunk… I honestly could have stayed in this for hours if the museum wasn’t closing.
• The other kunsthalle exhibition, « No feeling is final », made in collaboration with the Skopje modern art museum, was so interesting. I didn’t know Skopje’s architectural history, and it is just incredible… You should definitely Google the « Skopje 2014 » project.

Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier was so lively that evening! I bumped into two artistic performances and the opening of the Foto Arsenal’s new exhibition (where I was once again underdressed)!

4.4. last day in Vienna

The next day, I went to explore what was happening on the other side of the train’s station before leaving, and I really liked what I saw, as it seemed less like a city-sized museum and more like an actual city, with real people living there, but still being beautiful!

OnI then took the train to Bratislava, and for the first time during my trip I had no delay!

Bratislava

5. well…

… basically this city can be done in about a day or so. It is quite small and there are only two noteworthy monuments.

However, when I got there, I quickly realised that nearly everything (especially grocery stores) was closed. It was in fact the Constitution Day of the Slovakian Republic, thus a national holiday. But I got enough time to do all the necessary sightseeing and then checked in at my hostel. In the evening I had a couple beers with a guy from my room and went to sleep.

Today, I woke up, had breakfast and went to check the « Slavín » monument, and then quickly got back to the station, where I unsurprisingly discovered that my train was delayed 🤪…

Anyways, as I am heading towards Budapest, I wish you, dear reader, to have a nice day 😉