Teddy’s Diner isn’t a place one stumbles upon by accident as the location is seemingly hidden, behind the shopping street Mariahilferstrasse and right next to the Haus des Meeres aquarium, it’s where I went specifically to see if it lived up to its reputation. The interior design is amazing, the signs on the wall, the little booths, the bar-type place, and even the paper the food is wrapped in is true to its inspiration. It is a little small, but people usually stay up to 45 minutes inside so you’re sure to find a seat. The food was prepared fast, tasted good and was very filling. The menu isn’t very big but the typical diner foods are there, and even though it was a little pricey (we spent 18 Euros) the experience is worth the price. I wouldn’t go again for a regular meal, but I might take my visiting friends when I show them around, very Riverdale-esque if you know what I mean 😉
Waking up to the sound of rain trickling on your window is so romanticised in cinema, but in reality it’s just wanting to skip class to stay in bed, wearing 3 layers, a raincoat, and a hat, and lugging around an umbrella only for it to be raining to lightly to even open it and still getting wet. And honestly, Vienna on a rainy day is a difficult task as so many activities require the outdoors, so basically the whole month of May is a struggle.
Whether you like new European/German releases or want to be up-to-date with western cinema, Viennese movie theatres show a wide a range of movies. For European movies you can go to any cinema at all, but that usually includes German subtitles. If you want to watch an English movie in its true form (as in no subtitles) you should head to an English cinema. My personal favorite is Haydn, located on Mariahilferstrasse, as it’s super convinient to book/buy tickets online, and they also frequently have reruns of older classics so if you’re lucky you can catch one of those.
Tip: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are saver days so the tickets are at a discounted price (7-9 Euros). Students discounts are also always available, if you show a card.
The library is one of my favourite places to go to study in peace or read a good book, the rain outside is only an additional plus. The options for this are endless, but if you prefer a more scenic experience you should head to the National Library(which is also a museum), or the UniWien library (usually crowded). The one I like to go to is the Hauptbücherei am Gürtel as it’s very big and you’re sure to find a free desk, and at the back there’s couches with giant windows overlooking the street and you can spend hours curled up reading.
This ones an obvious one as Viennese coffee-house culture is in a league of its own, but go to any small cafe, there is one on every street, and you can expect kind and fast service and you can stay for a long time. Sit in the back and people-watch the wide variety of customers, read a book (a big hobby of mine clearly) or study, it doesn’t get very loud. Take this opportunity to go to a lesser-known cafe and order something new!!
A rainy day is the perfect opportunity to go see some art, imperial riches, or animal corpses ,and by the time you leave the rain might have stopped. Walk around and engulf yourself in the content, it really helps to clear your mind. Vienna is full of amazing museums and it depends on what you want to see, there is one for any type of person. My favorites would have to be the Naturhistorisches Museumwhich has many interesting showings, including a moving model of a T-Rex(a biased choice because of my major), and the Albertina which is constantly bringing in new exhibitions so there is always something fresh to see.
Buy a poncho
The last option is to suck it up and buy the wearable version of a plastic bag, throw it on over your clothes and enjoy Vienna in the rain. You can find a wide selection of ponchos in any store in the city center. The city is very serene when it rains, and the centre is relatively free so just walk around without a map, get lost, eat a Wurst, drink a Wiener Melange, and then find you way back home.
My final advice is to not let the rain stop you from enjoying the day, it might not end up being the trip you imagined but there’s still many things to do, even when its pouring :).
The only thing that makes getting through the many many 3AMs studying under the dim light of the lamp which only works in a certain position is the promise of a good breakfast outing the next morning. Well, also the vision of my hopefully incredibly successful future, but also the breakfast :). And its just so happens that i have coincidentally moved to one of the cities with the best cafes in Europe.
I stumbled upon Cafe Melangerie on Lerchenfelder Str. 94-98 by accident, while searching for coffee and decided to sit down for breakfast. Their menu is very diverse, as it offered pre-made sets but also gave you the opportunity to build-you-own-breakfast. The sets were very well put together, with a variety of choices, whether you want a classic english breakfast(DAS ENGLISCHE), a viennese breakfast (DAS KLEINE/GROSSE WIENER), or the healthier option (DAS G’SUND UND FIT). You also have the complete freedom to choose what you would like to have, any type of egg, bread, jam, cheese, meat combination your heart desires. The coffee always tastes great , and the homemade lemonades really bring the whole meal together.
Cafe Melangerie isn’t the cheapest cafe for breakfast in Josefstadt, but in my opinion it totally makes up for its price(usually around 15 Euros for a full breakfast). Sometimes the service is slightly slow, but its understandable as the place is busy on weekends, but outside seating is offered and the sun shining on your face is always a good wake up. Even if it gets a little chilly you can wrap yourself up in the baby blue blankets placed outside (great instagram photo) and enjoy your food!
When you think of a typical monday morning student activity, the aquarium is never the first thing that comes to mind, or even one of the first ten things, but that is where our easter break boredom lead us, and honestly I am very glad it did. The Haus des Meeres is the public aquarium in Vienna, located in Esterhazy Park in the Mariahilf district (Fritz-Grunbaum-Platz 1).
We started off the day with waiting in a 45-minute line to get in, surrounded by kids of literally all ages. Once we entered the building we waited a bit more inside, but the line was moving
quickly and within a few minutes we were in. The tickets were quite pricey (14,10€ for students), but I think the one-time splurge was worth it.
Once inside, the trip begins with what everyone’s expecting to be the best part, the clear tunnel which is supposed to make you feel like you’re inside the ocean. The tunnel
was actually more like a small passage way, and not really surrounded by that many fish, so we just quickly passed through to get to the better parts.
After that came the snake and frog section, some of the snakes were hidden behind the plants and you could only the see the shedded skin but sometimes they would come really close to the
window and follow your finger making you feel like you’re in that one Harry Potter scene 🙂 There were also some iguanas and komodo dragons in the larger spaces.
he didn’t even blink !!
Following was the jellyfish and smaller fish section which was one of my favorites. There was one very big case with many many tiny white jellyfish and the whole room was dark so they were glowing and just swimming around and frankly it was mesmerising. If I wasn’t there with my other friends I might have stuck around by the jellyfish for hours.
After climbing a few stairs was the open monkey and bird space, which was probably the most entertaining part of the trip. There were small monkeys jumping everywhere, and by that I actually
mean everywhere !!! Besides their designated tree structures they would climb onto the parts of the sides of the building, and one of them even jumped right into the middle of the opening area, and you could see its cute little
face scrambling to find another spot to jump to. The rule was that you are not allowed to touch them no matter how close they come to you and everyone stayed at a distance and didn’t even try to touch the monkeys which
I thought was so great, a culture that I don’t think the people in the Americas have adopted yet. There were also colourful birds flying around but no one could pay attention to them when these tiny furry creatures were
jumping around. Some of them even had baby monkeys on their back literally the size of a human palm. This part of the exhibit was very humid and if you’re planing on going, dress lightly.
After that there was more stairs, and it was a lookout type space to very long glass sections which connected two floors, and it contained many larger fish, a very pretty giant turtle, stingrays, and smaller sharks. The turtle would come and go and everyone would just stare at how its movements were so gentle .They also would drop feed into the aquarium at times and you would see the fish all rush to one place and swim about frantically. At the very end back on the first floor was a koi fish which was hidden away so be careful not to miss it as they allow you to put your hands in the water and some of the fish latch on, its very relaxing.
We spent around two hours inside and it was really an all-around great experience. The only problem we had was that the organisation of the building was a bit confusing, so be sure to have checked out all the exhibitions before leaving. Haus des Meeres is one of the lesser talked about attractions in Vienna and I personally think it’s underrated, so if you ever have a spare few hours be sure to visit !!
ever yours, Rozi R
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Rozi's Life Abroad 