Vienna: City of My Dreams

Emily Goodwin

Tucked near the borders of Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary rests Vienna, Austria. The Danube River slips through, a blue ribbon across the map of the country. Many people pass through Austria’s capital, en route to a winter skiing holiday in the northern mountains or briefly stopping for a river cruise on a summer’s afternoon. A lucky few properly witness the majesty of this central European city.

Recently, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released their rankings of the best cities to live in. They analyse economic and political developments globally, identifying trends, opportunities, and risks on a global and national scale. This is a scientific approach to defining the best cities in the world to live in, comparing financial stability with healthcare, culture, education, the environment, and infrastructure. Vienna scored 100% in all categories, bar one, easily cementing the firstplace ranking.

The city is known as the ‘City of Music,’ owing to its classical legacy (Beethoven and Mozart both lived here) and the ‘City of Dreams,’ as psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud called it home. It is the land of imperial palaces, gilded cafes that make the Ritz look squalid, pink Manner wafers, and horse-drawn carriages. The city is probably most famous for its Christmas markets, which flood every square and street during the winter months; the regal neutrality of the white buildings reflecting the kaleidoscope of colourful polyester stalls. It is easy to fall in love with this city.

However, Vienna means more than this to me.

Early on in our relationship my fiancé moved to Vienna for a year to work. Neither of us had been there before. It is only a two-and-a-half-hour flight to Austria’s capital, but the gulf that opened between us felt vaster than the 1,000-mile distance.

Long distance relationships are really difficult. There is no tiptoeing around that fact. But there is also no denying how much stronger our relationship is now – not because of the long time we spent apart, but because of the fleeting time we spent together.

Eight weeks after our (quite frankly) traumatic farewell at Stansted airport, I landed in the ‘City of Dreams’ for the first time. I didn’t realise then how it would become the city of my dreams. Every second with each other matters when you’re in that situation. Every visit I made was jam-packed with wandering around the grounds of the Schönbrunn Palace, or ice skating in the shadow of the Rathaus, or watching the dancing horses at the Hofburg’s riding school.

If I hadn’t gone to Vienna, perhaps I would have begun to hate the city and see it as the place that stole my boyfriend from me; somewhere cold, far away, and expensive to visit. I think that when you associate a place with a person that you love then you view everything in a rosier hue.

It became impossible to hate this city. Like palaces and history? There are the Hofburg, Belvedere, and Schönbrunn Palaces. Museums and art? Hit the MuseumsQuartier, the district of the city named for the number of galleries and museums. Music? The Musikverein sells £5 standing tickets. Coffee and cake? Viennese culture centres around traditional cafes. Shopping? Mariahilfer Straße is a 1.6km long shopping street in the centre of the city. There were always new places to go, cultural differences to experience, cakes to eat … and my boyfriend was there, too.

So that was the pattern we fell into; eight weeks apart, a few days together, in an amazing city. It was the first place we travelled to when the lockdown restrictions were lifted, and a city we will visit and cherish for the rest of our lives.