Being Empress Sissi - Vienna

Taken from the Hofburg Palace

I am a seagull, of no land, I call no shore my home, I am bound to no place, I fly from wave to wave.

- Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Vienna, our first European city in Chapter 2: European Diaries. Vienna, the capital and the largest city of Austria, In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Art and culture had a long tradition in Vienna, including theatre, opera, music and fine arts. Numerous musical luminaries including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Robert Stolz, and Arnold Schoenberg have all worked in the city of music. Notable artists from Austria also include Gustav Klimt, a prominent member of the Vienna Secession movement. His most famous work of art is "The Kiss", a simple portrait of love and lust. Vienna is a true city of arts and culture, and me being an Art Nouveau and Baroque art fan, honestly Vienna was the perfect place for me to be in.

Look at the embroidery!

My visit to Vienna also includes a tour around the Hofburg Palace. The palace is the imperial treasury, it holds the imperial jewels of the Habsburg dynasty. We went to the Sisi Museum, a museum devoted to Empress Elisabeth of Austria, it features more than 300 items that belonged to the Empress of Austria who died in an assassination, including her death mask, her traveling medical chest, parasols and gloves and much more. I also get to explore the imperial apartments as well as the silver cabinets. This exquisite plate is an English dessert plate Manufacturered by Herbert Minton & Co launched in the The Great Exhibition of 1851.

By this time, I've already been SUPER HUNGRY for cake. Visit Cafe Central, the marble columns and painted ceilings, and huge paintings of Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Sisi makes it one of the most elegant Viennese coffeehouse. It has been a legendary meeting spot for Austrian artists and writers such as Oskar Kokoschka and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. I have ordered a simple chocolate cake plus my favourite traditional cream-based coffee beverage, the Viennese coffee. Also visit café Sacher, which is best known for its signature Sacher Torte. You can expect elegance and top service. Go and taste this legend of a cake in its original place.

Outside the palace, you can live like Empress SiSi, take a carriage ride.

If you're a culture fanatic like me, never miss out on the Museumsquartier (museum quarter), they were former Imperial Stalls which were then converted into a museum complex and a cultural hub. It houses several museums like the Museum of Modern Art, or as known as MUMOK, the Leopold Museum and the AzW (Architekturzentrum Wien) Vienna's Museum of Architecture. There's a museum for everyone, no matter what your age and what your interests are. Here's a photo of me pretending to be a masterpiece:

I did also manage to visit a CAT CAFE in Vienna, I did write about the Cat cafe in Tokyo maybe I should also write about this one in the city of music!
Bonus: Get yourself a Winer Schnitzel map to look for the best schnitzels in Vienna.
Fun Fact: I love the work Schnitzel so much it is my Facebook URL.

Cafe Central:

Location: Herrengasse/Strauchgasse , A-1010 Wien, Austria

Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 7.30am to 10 pm; Sunday and public holidays: 10am to 10pm

Hotel Sacher:

Address: Philharmoniker Str. 4, 1010 Wien, Austria

Phone: +43 1 514560