We arrived in Vienna about an hour before midnight. The train was in fact delayed but this didn't matter, we weren't in a hurry to get anywhere. Finding a place to stay here proved considerably easier than Prague. On my Mum's vague advice we hung a left out of the station and after passing one four star hotel we came to a three star that proved reasonable.
The room apart from being a bit small was fine and there was hot water 'a' plenty. Our first meal in Vienna proved somewhat disappointing as it was in Prague but all credit to the place we ate anyway for staying open until the hour it was. The Austrian's obviously don't take breakfast that seriously. Nothing wrong with the food it was just that the bowls and plate were so small I had to go up for fifths. The hotel manager was most helpful and provided us with maps and information.
The thing to do in Vienna on your first day is to just walk around and soak it up like we did. Sod guided tours and all that there's just too much to take in. The Rathaus, Palace, countless museums and some great big old cathedral in the town centre.
It was only when we had lunch that I made my decision that Vienna wasn't expensive but good value for money. Now my parents complained that it was a quid for a cup of coffee but it's the same in Pret a Manger here and that's a fairly mediocre cup. In Vienna you get a proper cup of coffee for a quid.
The Danube isn't as impressive as the river that runs through Prague. For reasons unknown to me the river doesn't actually run through the middle of the city and seems to be the centre piece of a big park on the north side of the place. By now it was late afternoon and we'd pretty much learnt not to tread in the horse shit any more. We sat in the central pedestrianised area of Vienna for a while reciving and sending April Fools text messages about people's flats catching fire before Tauf decided that we were going to go to a concert and act cultured. I was fairly game for this so we barged into the tourist office near 5pm after finishing some of the best ice cream I'd ever had and demanded that the lady give us a concert. Apparently if we'd run to some ticket office we might have been able to get standing seats but instead we decided to sod it and hit an art exhibition.
On the way however we were cornered by a guy in traditional dress who sold us tickets to a rather touristy Strauss concert. This was with hindsight probably the best option for acting cultured. We weren't exactly dressed for a full on concert, most art exhibitions were to prove a little too deep for the both of us and the light heartiness of the performance meant we weren't squirming in our chairs and thinking of dusting at the interval. My attempt to embarrass Tauf by acting like a seven year old in some of the audience participation sections of the performance only served to attract the attention of some fairly mediocre females sitting near us. The concert was all the same highly entertaining whilst at the same time being a good laugh.
We finished up the evening in McDonalds, had a debate about the doablilty of a bird and what young people did in Vienna and then headed back to our hotel where we decided that Austrian porn was shit.

The superior organisation of Vienna over Prague meant that if we had decided what we wanted to do the next day already we could just visit the tourist office and find out how. We started off by dropping our luggage at the station and finding out how to get to the airport. We then moved on into the centre of the city to do some shopping. Taufik bought cheese and posted some Absinthe off to America whilst I bought a kick ass lighter and some coffee.
With shopping just about done we went to look at the Rapid Vienna stadium. Football isn't taken as seriously in Austria as it is in England or even Malaysia for that matter but we only realised this after we found that we could enter the ground and run about the stands all we liked for free. Taufik really wasn't that impressed with the ground at all, I don't recall Rapid Vienna panning Arsenal recently so maybe he has a truly respectful allegiance to his London club.
The last bit of culture we experienced was an art exhibition. Whilst I was quite respectful of some Andy W's work I think both me and Tauf failed really to see the meaningful side of it, we really are better off sticking to music as a whole instead of having it mixed in with art and films of two blokes snogging. After getting some dinner in the city we started to head back home. Vienna airport is all right. Tauf fell asleep, while I wore in my new trainers in by burning around the duty free. What was good was Austrian Airlines. Economy class again but the food really did look and taste like real salmon. The air stewardess served me as much alcohol as I wanted right until she had to sit down and the flight was 15 minutes early. The only complaint I would have was that neither of my bottles of Absinthe survived the flight back but the debate on whether Absinthe is illegal in Austria or not prevents me from writing a letter to salvage their unfortunate loss.

Seeing as Vienna was the main reason I went to Europe this Easter I think I was bound to enjoy it more. For a start I have an elementary knowledge of German but what really makes Vienna as a city is how sorted it is. The town centre being pedestrianised made it easy for dizzy tourists such as me and Tauf to wander round without getting hit by a car (something that nearly occurred a couple of times in Prague). It was also quite a tourist orientated city. Our hotel manager was obviously no stranger to young travellers and the number of concerts and exhibitions provide a similar amount of entertainment to London.
Backpackers don't seem to regard Vienna as the ideal destination. The one we saw on the train seemed to be just passing through bound for destination he felt was easier on the pocket. I wouldn't really regard this as the right attitude to have. Up front yes you would pay the same amount for a cup of coffee as in London but you would get a seriously decent cup of coffee and it was pretty much the same with everything we sampled.
There was culture for all. The concert we went to was incredibly light hearted and just what we needed. The art exhibition thought was a bit too much and should be left to more appreciative people.
For the second time on the trip we were treated views of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. For the first couple of hours in the city we were wondering whether the historic architecture so apparent in the centre of the city was actually the way Austrian's built their cities anyway. Although a trip to the suburbs soon made us realise that it was really a normal place.
Embarrassingly I don't really have much more to say about the place that would be of any use. Sure I could rave on about how sorted I thought the place was but I believe a second opinion is required here to give a seriously practical opinion.
Whilst I said I wouldn't go back to Prague for a while I would go back to Vienna tomorrow I think like most developed cities in Europe it provides a very attractive break away from London providing that certain Je ne sais quoi that England's capital lacks.