10 Tips for your stay in Vienna (Part 3/3)

Hello and welcome back – it’s time for part three! We hope you enjoyed part 1 and part 2 of our series with tips for your stay in Vienna. Today, we will focus on some cultural highlights you can discover in this beautiful city, places to have brunch, lunch, dinner, and drinks, and we will also share some ideas for how to spend your free evenings and nights.

7. Culture

Let’s start with some museums and palaces you might be interested in:

• Sisi Museum: In the unlikely case that you’ve never heard of Sisi: Elisabeth of Bavaria was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, married to Emperor Franz Joseph. In the museum, you will be able to learn everything about her life and her tragic death (ticket prices vary for each package, so we recommended to check the website to find the perfect bundle for you). If you don’t have time to visit the museum during you stay in Vienna, there is also film trilogy from around 1955 about Sisi’s life. It shows a romanticized version of the story and is less educational than the museum.
• Schloss Schönbrunn, or Schönbrunn Palace, was the main summer residence of the Habsburg emperors. Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning emperor of Austria, was born in Schönbrunn, spent much of his life there together with his wife Elisabeth (Sisi), and also died there in 1916. Behind the palace lies a beautiful garden and the Gloriette pavilion, which houses a beautiful café.
• Albertina Museum: Even before you enter the museum, you will be stunned by the impressive architecture! And it’s even prettier on the inside. The museum offers a permanent exhibition, “From Monet to Picasso,” and also a temporary exhibition (until January 2020) about Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), an eminent German painter and printmaker of the Renaissance period. His most famous works include “Young Hare,” “Praying Hands,” and “Great Piece of Turf.” Tickets for adults are around € 17.90, and tickets for young adults under 26 are € 11.90.
• Museum of Illusions: “Trick your eye and entertain your mind,” they say on their website. Let your senses be fooled and take home some fun pictures you can take right on the spot! Tickets are around € 12 for adults and € 10 for students.
• Museumsquartier (MQ) is a complex located between the subway stations Museumsquartier and Volksgarten, home to a cluster of museums and cafés. For example, the Leopold Museum houses the trendy Café Leopold. During the wintertime, the open space between the museums is populated with small tents selling mulled wine.
• The Belvedere: This museum is spread out over two baroque palaces located in a beautiful park and one new building. With the exception of the new building, the Belvedere complex is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Belvedere palaces served as the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736). Nowadays, it is one of the most visited art museums in Austria. The Upper Belvedere displays world-famous works by Klimt, Schiele, Funke, Monet, and Van Gogh. In the Lower Belvedere, the former residential palace of Prince Eugene, you will find exhibitions covering different periods. In the Belvedere 21 museum, you find contemporary Austrian and international art, film, and music.

8. Food

Now let’s finally talk about some places where you can enjoy great meals!

Student-friendly places

• Ebi: This is an all-you-can-eat sushi place where you order à-la-carte – so you can choose your favorite sushi and maki, which is then prepared on the spot – and it tastes really good! On weekdays, it costs around € 14/person until 5pm (you have to order everything before 5pm, so it is recommended to go there at 3/3:30pm at the latest). In the evenings and on weekends, the meal costs around € 21. Be sure to reserve a table in advance, even on weekdays. You can to that conveniently online.
• L’Osteria: You may already know this franchise from your home town: an Italian place that offers huge pizzas for a fair price (about € 7.75 for a Pizza Margherita).
• The Naschmarkt market: Here you can get fresh vegetables and fruits but also great falafel, hummus, and kebab if you are only looking for a quick snack.

Fancy places

• Das LOFT (restaurant, bar, and lounge) at SO/VIENNA is a very fancy restaurant and bar with a great view over the whole city.
• Motto am Fluss is a restaurant next to the river (the German word “Fluss” means river) which offers fantastic food, a great interior, and a unique flair.
• Mochi: The Mochi Ramen Bar offers a combination of Japanese and international cuisine.

Typical Austrian food and general recommendations

• Schnitzel! If you want to taste a good Wiener Schnitzel (which, by the way, is traditionally made from veal meat), take a look at Figlmüller or at the Hungarian place Ilona Stüberl.
• Knödelmanufaktur is a small, cute place to try some famous Austrian dumplings (aka Knödel). They offer potato dumplings with different fillings, like Sauce Bolognese, spinach, or chili cheese. For your sweet tooth, there are dumplings with vanilla-raspberry or nougat fillings and much more.
• Brunch: On weekends, you can choose from a large number of places to have a great brunch. (You can get some ideas here). We especially recommend Sneak In (7^th district), which offers an amazing buffet! Or you can check out “Das Eduard” (15^th district), which offers great breakfast combinations.
• Sachertorte cake: At the Hotel Sacher, you can try the famous (and quite sweet) Sachertorte, a famous Austrian chocolate cake filled with apricot jam.

9. Drinks

Wondering where to have a drink around the city? Well, you’ll have no trouble finding a lot of great places. Here are just a few recommendations for you:

Drinks with a view

• Das LOFT (restaurant, bar, and lounge) at SO/VIENNA: As mentioned above, here you can enjoy a great view. This makes the bar more expensive than others, but a spritzer (white wine with sparkling water) is still affordable for students, and it’s worth it!
• 25h: We already included Dachboden in our list of cafés, but it is especially recommended as a bar. Sundowner tip: It’s most beautiful during sunset!

All-around nice bars to go to

• Donautechno: Really cool mix between a bar and a techno club. They offer a great light show, places to lounge and relax – but the music is rather loud. It’s a perfect place to go before or after partying in a club (also, they offer sausages in there). Tip: From outside, it’s just an unmarked door without a sign – so just be bold and go in!
• Sneak In: Not only a great brunch place but also a good choice for enjoying a drink in an easy-going atmosphere, with only some background music that allows you to have some nice conversations.
• Botanical Garden: A really cool new cocktail bar in Vienna. Check out their Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/botanicalgardenvienna/)!

10. And finally: Going out at night

The “keep it classy” night

• If you are interested in seeing an opera performance at the Wiener Volksoper, you can snatch up some last-minute student tickets (age limit: 27) for performances that are not sold out. Check at the box office 20 minutes before the performance starts to get tickets for € 6–12.
• The same applies to the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera): Students (up to 27 years) can get a last-minute ticket for performances that are not sold out for € 9–30 (depending on the seat category) 30 minute before the performance starts. You can also get standing room ticket for € 2.50–10. Please check for availability online!

The “Good Girls (and Boys) Gone Wild” night

In general, we recommend checking out the various clubs and the events they offer for your specific date. Prices for entering a club are usually somewhere around € 10–15. However, some clubs offer free admission on weekday nights.

• One club that’s very popular with a lot of WU students (and, of course, CEMSies) is Volksgarten. The music is usually a mix between house and popular party hits. When the weather is good, the outside part and the lightshow there are really worth checking out!
• If you are really into techno, we recommend you check out Grelle Forelle.
• Another cool place to go to is Pratersauna (the music the is mainly electro and techno)
• Vie Ei Pi is a club located right next to Pratersauna, and it focuses less on electro and more on hip-hop.

We hope you’ll have a great stay in Vienna and an even better ceremony with all of your fellow CEMSies!