In the summer of 2021 I visited Vienna with one of my best friends. Since we live in Budapest we decided we are only going to take a one day trip there, because it takes only around 3 hours by train to get to Vienna.
It was one of my best trips so far.
Master tip before I continue: The key to enjoy a trip with a company is to choose someone who has the same interest as you. I didn’t actually think about this when I asked my friend whether she wanted to join me. We only realized it there, that we basically agreed to everything the other one wanted to do, and I’m absolutely sure that’s one of the reasons why I really enjoyed this trip.
Now let’s get into what we saw there and how the whole thing went.
Visiting a city for just a day is absolutely worth it. You don’t have to pay for a place to stay and you can actually do a lot of things in only a day. Just prepare that you are going to move a lot. (If you want to make the best out of the experience.)
We got on the train.
We woke up early to catch a train that would be at Vienna at 9 in the morning. On the road (besides sleeping) we made a plan. We already gathered places we would like to visit, we just made the order there, so when we got off in Vienna we already knew what we wanted to do.
We took a little walk to soak in the vibe of the city.
From the railway station we took a walk to the center of the city. We loved how colorful Vienna is. It actually looks a lot like Budapest, but people are so open-minded there. That’s mainly because of the random cute quotes we saw and the adorable traffic lights. We actually started to collect pictures of these.
We went to the Hofburg palace.
Most of the things we wanted to do were located in this area, and after our walk we decided to drink a coffee next to this beautiful building.
As a big bookworm, we had to go the National Library.
That felt so good for my little book loving soul. Seeing those old books with beautiful murals painted on the ceiling. It was absolutely beautiful. It’s definitely a must see if you are a reader…
Even if you are not.
We found the Museum of Illusions by accident.
When we were just wandering around the city center and shopped here and there, we found the Museum of Illusions which turned out to be a pretty fun place.
There are all sorts of illusions. Once they trick your eyes, other times they trick your brain making it think that you are going to fall. And they also have illusions which you can catch with your camera. They even marked the spots to let you know where you can take the best shot from.
After all of this, it was time for lunch… and a walk.
Now I’m really picky when it comes to where I want to eat so we actually took a big walk before I decided, but it’s fine! We actually discovered some great spots along the way. Like an Italian church and (if I can recall it right) the garden of roses.
The place was magnificent. Our favorite part was that when we went into the garden there was an older man playing Bella Ciao on his accordion. That was like a movie moment.
In the garden, we also discovered a Greek styled temple, with a maze in it which was made out of strings.
So after all of these adventures, I managed to pick a place where I wanted to eat.
After lunch, we went to Prater.
Prater is the theme park in Vienna and even though this was not my first time in the city, but we always went there during winter, so I never actually had the opportunity to experience the wild rides of Prater.
It was insanely good, since we don’t have a theme park here in Budapest for a couple of years now. The last time I went to a theme park I was like 12? Something like that.
Took another walk.
Our time in Vienna was coming to an end so instead of searching for something new to try, we decided to just check out the Danube and we took a walk there in the sunset. That was beautiful. A great end to our long day.
Went back to the railway station.
Since we only went to Vienna for one day, and we already had our train tickets, we didn’t want to risk missing the train. And we also wanted to eat something there.
So this was our one day adventure in Vienna. As you can see you can do plenty of things in only one day. It was an experience for me that I will never ever forget.
If there is a city close to you, and where you’ve never been to, give it a try. Just one day. Wake up early. Go and spend the day there. And then come back home. I’m telling you, it’s amazing.
What’s a city that’s worth visiting even just for a day?
