No Kangaroos Here

We never expected to start our European adventure in Austria, and the city of Vienna turned out to be glorious, hunkering majestically on the banks of the Danube and offering glimpses of Sissi and Mozart in every festive window. One of my most lingering memories of that beautiful city will always be how musical it was; the strains of classical music floating from open doors, elderly men wandering past us singing contentedly to themselves, and composers watchful on high plinths in grand squares.

Australia Day in Austria dawned the coldest we’d seen, and being the intrepid young tourists we promised ourselves we’d be, we ventured out bravely into the frigid morning. Not even five layers prepares you for the cold of an early winter morning… but we were adventurers, adventuring! After a bracing round of Viennese coffee, we spent the morning with dead Habsburgs in the Kaisergruft, who while not the sprightliest bunch certainly tell an incredibly turbulent tale of a fascinating country.

Back above ground, our traditional schnitzel lunch (about quality, not quantity – Australian pubs take note) spurred us on through the overwhelming cold towards the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The place is breathtaking, worth every cent of it’s slightly higher than usual admission fee. Even the entry hall is wondrous, and if there is something Vienna knows how to do, it is unabashed grandeur. The place is crammed full of art, sculpture, artifacts and history – I lost myself in the eyes of the bust of a Roman Emperor, and felt the weight of soaring walls of portraiture.

Emerging hours later into the fading afternoon light, we were greeted at last with our first snow, floating gently across the beautiful courtyard. There is honestly no better way of describing our reactions than to say we ‘frolicked’. Two Australian girls, on Australia Day, in Austria, frolicking in the snow. It was magical. We walked about to our hostel through the Naschmarkt, snapping selfies sprinkled with snow.

Drinks in the Wombats Naschtmark Hostel’s lively and inexpensive bar, we sang and partied with fellow Australians a long way from home, including a rousing and mandatory chorus of ‘Land Down Under’. We later ended up in the Onyx Bar overlooking the incredible Stephansplatz (a window seat is recommended) drinking cocktails and feeling very cosmopolitan in such surrounds, having traversed both ends of the bar spectrum in one night.

I am very glad in the knowledge that Vienna will always wait for me.