"Vienna, Vienna, Vienna..." Vienna by Minashka

Vienna had long been on my list of European cities to visit and finally I made it there late Sept. 2008! I was actually supposed to attend a conference in Budapest but since it's only 3 hrs away by train and considering Austrian Airlines has direct flights from Baku, I just flew to Vienna :) I think that was the best decision I had made in awhile... I absolutely loved this fabulous city! Staying at a friend's house and discovering the beauty of Wien with almost a "local" made a big difference for sure. My first day there I came across lots of white tents around the center and found out that THIS was the day the very important party elections were taking place! Not many people were happy with the results though ;-) For me that day had a different meaning... I finally saw Vienna with my own eyes and knew right away that it wouldn't be my last time there!

the view from Glorietta in Schonbrunn

I am not gonna go into details of describing you the city since there are pages here on VT about Vienna that are so much better and written by the people who actually live there. I'll just mention a few things from my point of view. What I liked about Vienna was that it wasn't very expensive, it was quite safe and the people were really nice! Almost everyone there speaks English and are very helpful and polite. The architecture of the city is amazingly beautiful and makes it easy to get around. I loved the fact that you could walk everywhere, but then public transportation is almost perfect :) Oh yes, how could I forget? Vienna's location is perfect too... you can make a day trip to Bratislava in Slovakia, take the train to Budapest, Slovenia or Czech Republic - all of that within 3-4 hrs. Vienna has so much to offer to both visitors and the people living there, that you never get tired of it!

hanging out with friends

As I said, the reason I liked Vienna so much was also partly due to the fact that I was staying with really good friends. My Georgian friend Madi, her German husband Richard and their cute son Sandro made me feel at home. Mirko from Italy was also with us for the last day and all of us had such a fun time together :) We were also very lucky with the weather, it was sunny everyday and wasn't cold at all!
My friend Madi is opera singer and will be very famous one day... of that I am sure :) She has a voice like a nightingale and thanks to Madi I tasted the cultural life of Vienna upclose and personal. We saw operetta in Volksoper and I visited the Staatsoper number of times during my visit. I enjoyed every performance and even got to meet some of the singers - again thanks to Madi!
Well if you haven't been to Vienna yet, what are you waiting for? Visit it anytime of the year and you won't regret it :)))

• Pros:everything!
• Cons:nothing!
• In a nutshell:Just see it for youself!