My grandmother was German and my father was born in Germany, so I have strong ties with the country, having studied the language to degree level when I spent a year dossing ahem, studying at a German university. I used that opportunity (not to mention the bargaineous student travel pass I was given) to venture all over Germany, from jaunts far into the former East down to the mountainous and more cloven-hoofed deep south.
One thing you notice about German cities, though, is that they’re not quite as picturesque as those in the rest of the region, largely due to the fact that they were levelled in the Allied bombing campaigns during the war. So whilst Germany was fun from a cultural perspective, and had many regions of natural beauty, I missed out on seeing the towering Imperial cities of old.
Enter Vienna.
Vienna is what Germany used to be like; imposing streets of fine architecture, like London on steroids. Fine culture available at the drop of a hat. German voices at every turn; wonderful beer and hearty food flowing from every corner. Sadly, Vienna, or indeed Austria in general, is most certainly not top of your list when you think of cheap holidays. Unlike Berlin, a shoestring traveller’s location it is not. So this was to be a real challenge for me.
I started off well, grabbing a cheap Ryanair flight at a time of crazy offers as I had done previously. It ran to approximately 20 euros, which was infinitely steeper than my infamous £0,02 return to Riga, but still a good deal. Why Bratislava? Well, despite being in Slovakia, it’s about 50 miles due east of Vienna; they’re almost twin capitals. The bus set me back a reasonable 10 euros (despite being half the cost of my flight). I secured a hostel for a reasonable 15 euros; it was a small walk into town from there, but worth it, as it was a bohemian, exciting area with plenty of decent shops and fleamarkets selling weird and wonderful things.
The tram network around Vienna is prompt, fast and fun to travel on, but in order to save on the cash, I only took it a couple of times, preferring instead to walk. I think you see more anyway if you stroll. Vienna is a stunning city, especially if you adore your architecture like I do, and so two feet is the way to go.
Food and drink… here, I had an issue. I like a beer or five, and it was NOT cheap in Vienna – at least, when compared to Germany. I think this was perhaps due to the “city centre of the capital” effect more than anything else, but I had to severely limit my beer intake to save my wallet. Wiener schnitzel did not come cheap either, so I sampled it only on one occasion as a splurge. Wherever possible I would snack out on wurst (sausages), kebabs, falafels, and other street food; hardly healthy, but cheap. Note that kebabs in Germanic countries bear no resemblance to the greasy bags of filth we get in the UK; they are actually edible in Germany and Austria.
Sights in Vienna are typically free: the buildings, certain museums, grand hotels… suck up the ambience of a beautiful city without paying a penny. The one thing I would suggest splashing out on (and it’s hardly splashing out) is an opera performance. I’m hardly an opera culture vulture; I can barely spell the word, let alone name any. But if you don your best attire (jeans are OK, if you don’t mind feeling like an underdressed tramp – I did) you can source extremely cheap tickets. Apparently you can get standing tickets for a mere 1 euro from the box office outside Vienna Opera House (a wonderful building in itself). I splurged in comparison to that price, spending 17 euros on a tiny seat in the back of one of the boxes. I had to look round someone’s head to see the stage, but it was money well spent, considering the opera was Wagner’s Lohengrin at a meaty 4+ hours. I could never have stood for that long given how weary my legs were as a result of all the daytime walking I was doing.
So there you have it. Vienna is NOT a shoestring paradise, but that does not mean you cannot see it on a budget. If I were to go again though, I think I would splurge a lot more. There is something faintly unfulfilling about visiting such a beautiful, decadent, romantic city and having to pass on all of its finer aspects and instead wander the streets nibbling a kebab.
SHOESTRING RATING: 3/10