Last-minute trip
Have you ever seen those movies or sitcoms where people show up at the airport, and buy a last-minute plane ticket? Whether it’s for kicks or love, the last-minute plane ticket scene always gave me this feeling of excitement (cue Love Actually/Yes man/The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). Now, in real life, I too had the chance to book a last-minute plane ticket some years ago, and by last-minute I mean I was leaving for Europe the next day!
Just dooooo it!!!!!!
It all started in late August 2017. I had been interning at a company, and for the first time in 6 years, I had disposable money to actually do anything I pleased. Around that same time, a couple of friends were talking about an upcoming business trip to France that was also going to be turned into leisure; “we might as well, we’ll already be there”. My 2017 summer had been bittersweet, to say the least. So, in my case, I was also looking for something joyful in order to start fall with a good disposition. What to do, what to do…. A couple of weeks went by. Thursday, August 31st was my last day as an intern and I was wrapping up logs and whatnot when suddenly, I got an email. I don’t remember if it was from Travel Pirates, Vayama, Kayak or TripAdvisor…, but it was a price drop alert for Vienna! Ah Vienna, what a magical city. It was a ~$500 deal and I immediately felt that warm rush. It was a mixture of excitement and doubt, I was almost light-headed 🤯. It only took me a few minutes to realize that I’d never seen a cheaper fare for Vienna; “It’s a no brainer!” E-swiped my card and sat down to wait for the confirmation email….📧!!! Ok. It’s real now! Going for a week to Vienna, whoop!
Layover? Kein Problem!
The catch about this flight was a 7hr layover in Munich. However, the circumstances could’ve not been better. An old friend happened to be traveling around the area and another good friend lives in Munich, so I guess that the layover could’ve been just a little longer. After a quick shower, we headed to the city!
What is it that people do when they’re in Munich? Right, Oktoberfest! Unfortunately, it wouldn’t take place for a few more weeks, so instead, we headed to the Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. Like a good tourist, I ordered Bretzel, Weisswurst and a Mass, yum! While sitting there, listening to the live Oom-pah music band and catching up with my german friends, my eyes managed to catch a familiar face. It was Jonathan, a friend who also lives in Boston!!! And at this point I’m seriously wondering about the odds of not only coinciding with my old german friend, who happened to be traveling around the area, just by chance, and also, at the same time, the same day, bump into a friend from Boston in Munich, at the same place, of all the places he could’ve gone in the city, at any given time, he was there too 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯. So, I naturally stood up and ran to catch him and invited him and his friend to join us:
After a good late lunch, hugs and promises to catch up in Boston or by phone, I thanked my friends and headed back to the airport.
Wien, Wien, nur du allein!
Vienna, you’ve got to love it. Everywhere you go, there’s history, there’s great tea, great desserts, delicious chocolates and fantastic Cafés with lots of character.
Bars aren’t scarce either, and on this occasion, I decided to check out the 25hours hotel bar, mostly for the view, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The nice thing about Vienna is that you can easily walk it. I usually get myself lost on purpose (it doesn’t take too much effort) in order to explore parts of the city I wasn’t planning on doing. This stupid strategy has paid most of the time except for a sketchy situation in Barcelona, but that’s another story. In Vienna’s case, I started wondering around here and there and bumped into cool graffiti, interesting bars, neighborhoods and various landmarks!
Vienna has been in the top 10 of the most livable cities in the world for a while now, and it’s no accident. Vienna has so much to offer, from museums to culture, to nightlife. In my case, I visited the Haus der musik, where I virtually conducted the Vienna Philharmonic!
I spent my time walking around the city, finding different cafés or bars. Doing some people watching while downing a pint or munching on a delicious apfelstrudel.
On my last day in the city, I chose to stick around Museumsquartier and visit the Mumok. You see, that’s the nice thing about Vienna, you can always find something to do, except for grocery shopping on a Sunday 😅, just kidding… but seriously, supermarkets are not open on a Sunday.
To end my last-minute trip in the right way, I sat down in Café Leopold and enjoyed a Café Melange while trying my best to cram into a postcard what I’m basically writing in this post. For Carloti la alemana más maja
I obviously knew I had to be back for a longer period of time, and fortunately, I managed to be back, but that’s also another story.
For now, Prost to a new year, hoping for the best, for wonderful things to happen and for more trips!
