Vienna (Wien) - Austria

After leaving Budapest I took the train to Vienna, Austria, where I couchsurfed with my new friends Jascha and Nora for two nights and played one concert.  The concert, at a cool DIY underground venue called Subterrarium, was amazing, and there was a very nice crowd of intent listeners.  I felt very fortunate to have such a great audience, since I am a nobody in Austria!  Below are some pictures I took while wandering the city in my spare time.


One of the main city center shopping streets, very alive in the early evening.


Up.


Part of the Imperial Palace, lovely at night.


My hosts took me to an art exhibit opening my first night in Vienna, and it turned out that the artist was Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Matt Cipov, who had just flown in to set everything up and be there for the opening.  His stuff is really cool, so please check out his website and catch some of his work back in Wisconsin if you get the chance.  Really great guy, as well, had a lot of fun talking to him, and I think we were both equally shocked to run into fellow cheeseheads that night.


A park with a giant statue of Maria Theresa, Austria's only Empress.

Vienna

Compared to Budapest, Vienna had a much more bustling, tourist-friendly, commercial scene. In one way it made Vienna more exciting since there were more people out and about, but I really loved how un-touristy Budapest was.

The American Bar with a really cool exterior! Had to go in for a (1o euro!) gin & tonic.

The central Palace for the Austrian Empire back in the day. In my next post you'll see where the emperors actually lived, Vienna's Versailles...

Vienna's plague column. Many European cities have one, and I ran into one in Budapest as well. They were usually built after the plague to give thanks to higher powers for sparing citizens.

Vienna's beer man is nowhere near as cool as the Polish ones.