Vienna After Dark

As a follow-up to this post, I decided to outline a little city guide to Vienna: After Dark. Someone emailed me with this specific request once upon a time and I'm just now getting around to posting it. So, should you find yourself making a trip to Vienna anytime soon, and you're looking for some fun late-night to-dos, come right back here and take a few notes.

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1. Wiener Badeschiff
The geniuses behind the Badeschiff ('Bad' means bath, 'Schiff' means ship), repurposed this cargo ship, transforming it into a swanky summertime hotspot. Visitors of the Wiener Badeschiff can wine and dine at the restaurant attached (called 'Holy-Moly', which makes no real sense, but if you are familiar with the Austrian sense of humor, it makes perfect sense) and then take a post-dinner dip in the pool. Grüner Veltliner is the Vienna wine, so if you're looking to wind down after a long day of sight-seeing, I'd recommend a glass or two of that. The restaurant serves food until 10:00, and drinks until 1:00 and it's really nice (not in an intimidatingly fancy way, though... more in an awesomely awesome way).

2. Platzhirsch
Platzhirsch is a club located in the heart of Vienna, directly on the Ringstrasse. It's ultra-popular amongst crows young and old, though I should warn you that the doormen are selective when discerning to whom admittance be granted. When I lived in Vienna, I went with friends one evening and we were all 'approved' by the doorman, save my friend Erica, who was rejected on account of her open-toed shoes. Stereotypically, this is a common rule of thumb for a lot of clubs and bars in Austria, but it still annoyed us (me so much so that I dramatically challenged the doorman, "Also dann was sollen wir TUN?!", which roughly translates to, "What do you expect us to DO ABOUT IT?!"...Erica quoted that all summer, mocking my overreaction.) It was also here that I met someone who may have been the love of my life; a handsome summer intern for the French Embassy, who made small talk with me as I was leaving one night, and then followed us out to the cab asking for my phone number. I didn't really give him the time of day (or night), which I now sincerely regret. I mean, I could be a Paris wife right now, living off of crepes and Macarons and just being really French. Hindsight is 20/20.


3. Vienna Opera House
Right across from Platzhirsch, you have the Vienna Opera House, which is one of my favorite sights in the city. The inside is magnificent, though I prefer touring it to attending shows there (I secretly think operas are a little boring). I first wrote about the Opera House here (how bees live on the roof!) and then wrote about another trip there here and then here. There are around 60 operas produced there each year and Paris Hilton attended one once, though I'm not sure why. If tickets are a little out of your budget, they sometimes broadcast them outside the Opera House on a large screen, around which audiences gather either on the sidewalks or nearby street cafes.



4. Kju
Pronounced 'Q', Kju serves a much younger scene than Platzhirsch. This venue, being that it's near the Embassy, was a very popular meet-up among the interns. One night, when the group of us were there, Erica noticed a pair of Austrian twin sisters and told them (in German) that they were really pretty. I will never forget the cold stares on their faces, as they rolled their eyes and walked away. Eva, my favorite Austrian in the whole wide world, offered Erica this piece of advice: "Oh, sweetie, you're not in America. You can't say things like that to strangers here."


5. Rathausplatz
During the summertime, Rathausplatz offers a free film festival 'til the late hours of the evening. With the gorgeous Rathaus (city hall) serving as a backdrop, this opportunity is a hard one to pass up. Also in the summer months, Rathausplatz hosts an amazing lunch festival in the afternoons daily. As it's near the Embassy, the interns and I used to take the Strassenbahn to Rathausplatz almost every day for lunch (only 2 stops away!) and indulge in some of the best food Vienna has to offer (we're talking Thai food, Spanish food, Austrian food, Vietnamese food -- it's all there!).

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Hope that helps! I've resorted to Formspring in hopes that it will facilitate a better question-and-answer system for people with inquiries about places I may have visited (rather than emailing). So far, I've found that I respond in a much timelier manner with Formspring than I do with emails (I think I have some sort of email handicap, which prevents me from replying to emails unless over 2 weeks have passed since the original one was sent), so I'd say if you have a not-so-personal question or travel inquiry, feel free to make it on Formspring.