I’ll be heading to Vienna soon to do another round of archival work for my thesis! As always, I’m trying to make plans for activities when I leave the archive in the late afternoon/evening. From experience, it gets rather depressing just going from my hotel room to the archive and back again every day. This time, I have another thing to look forward too because Phil will drive to Vienna at the end of my stay so we can spent a few days together there!

FOOD & DRINK

No trip to Vienna is complete without a visit to a coffeehouse. My personal favourite is the Hawelka, a meeting point for artists in the sixties and seventies. I make it a point to visit one new coffeehouse per Vienna visit. This time I’m thinking of going to the Café Central.

For dinner, I have my “regular” haunts in Vienna. On my archive days, I’ll probably keep it simple and go to freshii, Maschu Maschu and Akakiko. Once Phil is there, we want to go to more traditional Viennese restaurants. I definitely want to go to Plachutta with him because their food is sooooo good. I ate a Zwiebelrostbraten there last time that was simply DIVINE. Other restaurants that sound good are Meissl & Schadn (apparently their Wiener Schnitzel is fantastic, plus their desserts sound amaaaaazing), Figlmüller, and Zwölf Apostelkeller. The first two are a bit more pricey as well, so we’ll have to pick and choose, but the last one is more budget-friendly and they offer lots of different Strudels and Palatschinken.

I haven’t been to many bars in Vienna, because I’ve mostly been there alone or for work. First Floor, a bar in the style of the golden twenties, sounds pretty cool, and The Birdyard with its giant bird murals(?) on the wall looks awesome. I kind of want to see the Loos Bar just for its architecture, designed by the famous and eponymous architect Adolf Loos.

SIGHTSEEING

Since I’ve been to Vienna several times and have done most of the general tourist stuff already, I wouldn’t normally plan on doing any of this again. Phil hasn’t been to Vienna yet, though, so we definitely have to do some of these things! I’m thinking either the Hofburg or Schloss Schönbrunn, and St. Stephen’s or St. Charles’ obviously. We’ll have to see how much time we have, you could spent more than a day at the Hofburg alone!

MUSEUMS

I visit the Albertina every time I’m in Vienna. It’s a must-see. They always have interesting exhibitions about artists that I didn’t know for the most part. For example, I quite enjoyed their Niko Pirosmani exhibition in January this year! Right now, you can see one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of Albrecht Dürer’s works at the Albertina in decades, which is double the reason to pay them a visit.

In the Aztec exhibition in the Linden-Museum in Stuttgart (which is fantastic, I absolutely recommend going there if you have the chance!) I noticed a couple exhibits on loan from the Weltmuseum in Vienna. I haven’t been there yet but often enjoy ethnographic museums because they deviate pleasantly from the Euro-centric nature of most museums around here. When Phil is here, we’ll definitely go to the Leopold Museum. They have the largest Egon Schiele collection in the world, an artist he likes a lot.

SHOPPING

I discovered the Wiener Moderne Forever collection from the Dorotheum jeweller yesterday and I may just splurge on one piece. They’re inspired by the work of Gustav Klimt, Otto Wagner, Koloman Moser et al., and I just can’t resist the Viennese Secession style. I also really want to visit the Kunstsupermarkt. It’s an unconventional art show that picks up the presentation style and prizes of supermarkets to exhibit works by young and renowned artists. There are four prize categories (59€, 110€, 220€, and 330€), which makes the artworks accessible for those of us (um, me) with low budgets.

In January I visited a few vintage and secondhand stores in Vienna. I definitely want to go back to Catrinette. I follow them on Instagram and covet all those beautiful vintage pieces. Since we’re driving back to Germany this time, it’d even be possible to buy something larger … depends on what I find and how much money I have left! I also want to check out FLO Vintage and Vintage Fabrik, both clothing stores that come highly recommended in several Vienna guides.

I’ve also looked for fabric and yarn stores (of course I have), although I don’t actually want to buy any new material … I have enough in my stash for now. For the sake of completeness, I’m interested in going to Komolka and to Wollsalon Sunshine Loop.