What do you know about Vienna?

Vienna is considered as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Its gorgeous streets have a very specific atmosphere brought to life from the allusions of waltz, architecture, history, art, galleries and food, and that whole ensemble makes the Austrian capital one of the most desirable places to live in.

Music
How many balls are held in Vienna per year? We don’t need you to guess the exact number, just a ball part will be fine (see the pun we did there?). Here is the answer you were looking for: around 450! What a great place to be cinderelling, right?

Vienna is the city of Franz Schubert, Johan Strauss II and Mozart. Even though Mozart is actually born in Salzburg, not in Vienna, he is probably the first association when it comes to musicians + Vienna. That’s because the composer spent 10 years of his life in the Austrian capital (where he got married, established a family and died). So it is actually pretty convenient that the merchandise of Mozartkugels (those round chocolates with pistachio marzipan and nougat) is so big in Vienna.

Art
Mozart might not be a true Viennese, but there is one artist that absolutely and unequivocally belongs to the city, and vice versa. We’re talking about Gustav Klimt, one of the most iconic presences in Symbolism. His emblematic piece The Kiss could be found in every single souvenir shop in the city: on coffee mugs, pencils, umbrellas, pocket mirrors, T-shirts, book covers, tablecloths, picture frames, flip flops. It could be also found in the art collection displayed in the Österreichische Galerie (located in the Belvedere Palace) – this time for real, as in the original painting.

Ice Dream
Vienna Ice Dream (Wiener Eistraum) is one of Vienna’s most popular attractions – not only for tourists, but also for locals. During the cold months in the beginning of every year, visitors can enjoy ice skating on a long ice rink built right next to the City Hall (Rathaus) of Vienna. And by “long”, we mean around 8000 square metres! Not too shabby, right?

Fashion
First thing you ought to know: fashion stores are not working on Sundays (and all kind of stores, for that matter). So if you are planning to do a major shopping tour, you have to go for it from Monday to Saturday. In the historical centre of Vienna, you can find all the big players in the haute couture game: Christian Dior, Burberry, Dolce&Gabbana, Michael Kors, Fendi (on Kohlmarkst street), Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo (on Tuchlauben street) and many more.

True Bulgarians as we are, we have to mention two more designers that are shaping Vienna’s fashion.
The first one is Petar Petrov (born in Hungary, raised in Bulgaria) whose eponymous women’s wear brand was found in Vienna in 2009. Its focus? Dynamic, elegant aesthetic that fuses feminine fluidity with precise tailoring. You can find his collection here – we know Rosie Huntington-Whiteley did!

The second one is Anelia Peschev (born in Sofia, raised in Vienna). Her label is all about dreaming with a little bit of humor and her dresses are appreciated by fashion lovers, magazine editors, influencers and models.

Coffee

The Viennese coffee house culture definitely deserves a separate blog post. It’s not about a specific coffee house, but about the institution of coffee houses and what they represent: a place where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the billl.

Instead of visiting a typical coffee house, we decided to go for one of the third waves coffee sports: kaffemik. “Kaffemik” is a Greenlandic word which literally means “via coffee”. So here is a preview of our sensual kaffemik experience.

We hope that you enjoyed our klein Vienna tour. We know we did! 🙂