Alright, slowly making a little progress with the backlog in editing; the Vienna gallery is live…
Since I was starting this continuous travel around the the holidays I searched out the best Christmas markets and Vienna was consistently on top. I wanted to fit it in a little later when they were all on full swing, but that wasn’t going to work… so I worked it in the best I could and was able to see a few of the markets. Seeing the others would have been nice, but completely unnecessary; there are just so many! I think seeing the few I did was just fine.
Vienna has quite a reputation for being a beautiful city and I could see why; such great architecture and the Gothic churches are just amazing! I really loved the light display they did inside and out of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The Christmas Market just outside of the cathedral was also a very nice one, I’m glad opened while I was there. This area is pretty central and it was great to see and feel the extra energy the market brought; I arrived a couple days before it opened and definitely noticed a difference.
I was blown away by the location of the Airbnb I had here; I mean I knew I had splurged a little to be close to the center, but I was right in the center… I’m just not so used to that I guess. LOL But the really great part was it wasn’t crazy expensive. It was actually competitively priced with places much further out. This was definitely why I booked early though. When I was looking there was only this place and one other anywhere close to the center in the price range. So I’m sure this one would have been gone if I had waited. I’ll add a link to the place next to my paid referral link below. The referral link will give you a discount if you haven’t used Airbnb before.
Another great thing about Vienna is the public transportation. There were trams everywhere and the subway way also very convenient. Ticketing through the machines was a bit confusing though… there are the typical flat rate one time tickets and options for day, 24hr, 48hr, 72hr, weekly, and monthly tickets. The confusing, or maybe better yet; frustrating part was the ticketing machines seemed to usher you to the single use, when they are by far the worst pricing. I mean yeah, if you only want to go one way one time that’s what you should buy, but I have to doubt it’s the best option for most, plus most of us expect those other options, but they were definitely not clear, kind of hidden from the way I’m recalling it… I saw/heard people confused by this a few times too, so this one wasn’t just me being a dumb-ass. LOL I think it’s really just a language barrier thing that’s working itself out though. They do have an app (WienMobil) that at first was problematic for me, and a little tough to get setup, but after I got through that it worked fine. It’s actually much easier to understand the options with too. Another kind of odd thing about the transit system to me was I never saw a single person checking tickets in stations or on trams or subways (those are the only things I used)… I have to imagine they do, but never seeing one was weird, especially when there were no turnstiles or automated checkpoints, just open doors. In pretty much every other place I’ve been they seem to constantly be checking…
There was just one thing that I flat didn’t like; this is one of so far only two places I’ve been where they charge over $2 for a little .5 liter bottle of water, while a soda is only around $2.50-$3. I just don’t get it, and definitely do everything I can not to support it. So luckily there was one store nearby that sold water for decent prices (under $1 for a liter), the only thing was it closed early.
Lastly I just want to say the food in Vienna was great! But then again I don’t think you can go wrong with the rich comfort food type dishes they’re known for…
Now for something new; I’m going to breakdown some of my costs for this stop below… I’m tracking these things to a certain degree for myself anyway and thought some of you might like to see too. I’d really like to know if this is something you like and/or would like me to expand on though. You can leave me a comment here, through social media (this will go straight to Facebook too), or drop me a DM. Thank you!
This was a short stop at just 5 nights, but actually one of the more expenvise stops per night so far…
Accommodation – $494.89
Getting around locally – $20.46
Living expenses (food entertainment, etc.) – $186.06
There are some misc charges that would vary greatly so I’m leaving these out (phone, ins., inbound transport, etc)
Total $701.41 / 5 nights = $140.28 per
Without the misc. cost, mainly the inbound transportation, this is definitely leaving a big expense out. But as I go, if this is something you all want to see, I think it will show a decent comparison of locations. There are a lot of variable still though, witch is why I’m not sure if it’s worth going through the trouble with… that’s where you come in, so let me know. I really appreciate your feedback!
*Some of these costs are approximate as I converted local currency to usd after the trip.
