Vienna waits for you. I’m not joking; come on you crazy child–listen to Billy Joel, hop on a plane and head right over. Vienna during the Christmastime is magical. Last Friday night, ball season started. Yes, you read correctly: ball season. As in Cinderella, ball gowns, and waltzing. Okay, there was no Cinderella, but I sure felt like a princess, especially because a week before the ball I had no dress and had to go on a ball gown shopping spree (move to Vienna now because this is the life Austrians lead).
We spent the early part of the night of the ball getting ready, curling our hair and taking a bunch of photos on the spiral staircase that leads up to our apartment (seriously, what is my life?) and then we were off to the Rathaus for the ball. The Rathaus is their city government building, but it looks like a castle. Once we got inside we walked up the staircase which was covered in a red carpet. On either side of us were men and women in Red Cross uniforms bowing to us and thanking us for coming. The ball we went to was for the benefit of the Red Cross organization, but I felt like it benefited me because they kept giving us gifts and taking our picture as we walked up the stairs including free golden earrings. Then the magic really began. We grabbed some champagne and stood around the dance floor to see the opening waltz and tango. There we saw all the men in tuxedos and the ladies in white ball gowns waltzing with their red fans. Then the floor opened and it was our turn to waltz, or more correctly stumble awkwardly around the floor because we weren’t brought up with waltzing in our genes. And then I got to play Cinderella. My friend was visiting for the weekend so when she called me I had to leave the ball early, run down the red-carpeted stairs while holding my dress and head out into the Vienna night to catch the U-Bahn to meet my friend. Unfortunately I didn’t lose one of my slippers, maybe because they weren’t glass, so no Prince Charming.
Picking up my friend then led to her attempt to do Vienna in 24 hours. Not an easy task but one that I attempted to make happen for her and I think we did really well. We woke up early on Saturday and walked along Mariahilfer Straße, the main shopping street behind my apartment, into the city center where we passed all the fancy museums and ended up at Hofburg Palace. Hofburg Palace is one of the landmarks of Vienna and actually home to the balcony where Hitler made his take-over of Austria speech. We explored the grounds and then walked over to the stables to see the famous Lipizzan stallions. From there we walked to the city center, saw the Opera house, the giant cathedral, Stephansdome, and walked along another shopping street Kärntner Straße into the large Viennese park, Stadtpark. Then we were onto the Belvedere Palace and its gardens and from there to the Prater which is a giant amusement park and home to what was once the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, the Wiener Riesenrad. There we took a break from our busy schedule to see Vienna from above on the Riesenrad and to get a snack at the Prater Christmas markets.
This past weekend was probably the perfect weekend to visit Vienna because not only was it the opening of ball season but it was also the start of the Christmas markets or in German the Christkindlmarkt. If there is one thing Vienna does well besides the Opera and balls it’s Christmas. Halloween doesn’t exist in Vienna (kids don’t even dress up and go trick-or-treating), but Christmas has already started here. We already have Santa hats and gingerbread cookies. Saturday was opening day of the Rathaus Christkindlmarkt, the same place I had gone to the ball the night before, and lighting of the Christmas tree. We got there early to browse all the vendors in their wooden stalls and to grab some Glühwein and Punsch, traditional Viennese winter drinks. All the surrounding trees in the park were decorated with different lights, some with hearts, others with violins, and even others with little teddy bears. There was even a train ride around the square for little kids and families. Basically my biological clock is completely thrown off because it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but Thanksgiving hasn’t even happened yet!
My friend and I stayed for the lightening of the giant Christmas tree before we sped away to finish the last few items on our Vienna-in-a-Day Bucket List! First was the summer palace, Schönbrunn, which we sadly arrived to as the last visitors were leaving the park. We decided to try our Hopkins charm on the security guard and we sweet-talked him into letting us inside after hours for just a couple pictures. After our quick pit stop, there we headed off into the edge of Vienna for a traditional dinner of schnitzel and kartoffel at a Heuriger, a traditional Austrian wine-tavern. We then finished the night enjoying my personal favorite Austrian tradition, the Kaffeehaus, coffee house. We spent an hour and a half sitting and relaxing under chandeliers with our heiße Schokolade, hot chocolate, and little cakes and pastries. Vienna does a lot of things right, balls and Christmas markets being two of the big ones, but I think the thing that I am going to miss the most will be the Kaffeehaus. But then again, I’ve been craving a Carma’s chocolate chip cookie since I left and that might just be enough to tear me back from this magic into Baltimore.
Here’s a link to Billy Joel’s video for “Vienna Waits For You”