“We came to Vienna to celebrate the end of what had been a few very busy months. I reach for my phone to check the time and immediately feel uneasy. E-mails, messages and breaking news.”
This is what I wrote in my recent post “Time Off“ about a trip to Vienna in February. It’s about the burden of being constantly reachable and the difficulties of separating work from pleasure when both are connected by one device that never leaves your side. As I made this rather annoying realization on my first morning in Vienna, I spent the weekend counteracting: Phone on silent, buried deep down in the bag and only checking it when necessary for travel purposes. Since this weekend wasn’t about work, I also did my best not to look for possible pictures and stories everywhere and all the time, but to actually discover the new city with my travel companion instead of through the camera. Don’t get me wrong – I love my camera, but I do think the actual human relationship should take priority on a trip like this.
The result: Very few pictures and facts – but a fabulous weekend with open eyes and priorities in order.
I did, however, take out my camera every now and then to capture interesting details I noticed here and there. You can see some of them in the small collage below. My impression of Austria’s capital?
Vienna is elegant, interesting and stated a little in the past.
A romanesque and gothic cathedral – dark and fascinating – leading to a large shopping street where even chain stores are situated in majestic buildings. Luxurious boutiques lead to the Spanish Riding School, the National Library and the Hofburg Palace. Walking around the center of Vienna is always accompanied by the sound of hooves, as horse-drawn carriages in different shapes and colours pass you by constantly.
The horse-drawn carriages and classical music define Vienna in the way I experienced it – a city so full of culture and atmosphere that a weekend, without a doubt, isn’t enough to take it all in. The buildings, the museums, the music and all those little details… But even though exploring all day every day, I still feel that I’ve seen next to nothing of Austria’s beautiful capital and I cannot believe it took me this long to visit it. Exploring more of Austria will definitely be on the to-travel-to list in the future.
There really was more to that weekend trip than that annoying realization.
