Vienna

Vienna "Wien ist anders (Vienna is different)" Country: Austria Links: Group Wikipedia Wikitravel

Vienna is the capital of Austria and has a large and very active couchsurfing community. Over 5100 CouchSurfers lived in this city as of June 2008, which makes it the fifth biggest CS community in the world.
In 2006 the European CS Collective was held nearby in the City of Eisenstadt.

Getting there

Vienna lies right in the heart of Europe. It's very easy to get to the City from the neighbouring countries. Vienna can be reached by plane, train, bus, boat or even by car.

For more information see Getting to Vienna.

Getting around

Vienna has a very good public transport system with several underground lines, a big network of tram and bus lines and good local railway service (called S-Bahn). There is also bike service called Citybike Wien. Those who prefer exploring on foot will find the city centre very compact and easy to get around in.

For more information have a look at Getting around in Vienna.

Orientation

Districts of Vienna

with locations from going out to historical sights
that were added by couch surfers.

Free Maps ("Stadtplan") are available at the Tourist Information Centres. How to find the main tourist info.

Online Map on the official website of the City Government. www.wien.gv.at/stadtplan Map

Printable Map (city spy, often found in hostels) with pubs, bars, clubs, hostels and shops can be found here

Online Virtual Tour with 360 panoramas from Vienna linked to a Google map with local information.

Vienna's Public Transportation Website provides an interactive timetable where you type in your address or station/stop and your destination. You are then provided with information on what buses, trams, undergrounds, etc.. to catch and maps of where exactly to find them. Just click on Go where you see From Vienna to Vienna at the very top of the web page.

Vienna is structured in a fairly logical way.

The centre of Vienna/Wien is the First District (Innere Stadt, "Inner City"), encircled by the Ringstraße ("ring street" metro lines U2 and U4, tram lines 1 and 2), which has different names at different parts, like Schottenring or Parkring, but always ends with -ring. Most of the main tourist sights are in this area (e.g. St. Stephan's cathedral, the Opera, the Hofburg, the Parliament building, the Town Hall, the University and the Votiv church).

Important streets run out from the centre, numbers of houses increasing the further you get away from the centre. The Gürtel ("belt", metro line u6 and tram lines 6 and 18) is the main street that encircles the inner districts from 1st to 9th with the exception of the 2nd. Westbahnhof and Südbahnhof (main stations for long distance trains) are along the Gürtel. The Gürtel, like the Ring, has different names in different sections (e.g. Mariahilfer Gürtel, Lerchenfelder Gürtel). In all streets that run parallel to Gürtel and Ring, houses are numbered increasing clockwise.

Tips

Wireless Lan Hotspots.
This is for the couchsurfers who like to travel with their laptops.

• Helge's list started off as a simple blog entry in 2004 but thanks to other people helping Helge add to it, has turned into a list of a very decent size. Every item includes address and website and/or a short description. Some cafes provide the possibility to plug in your laptop (recharge battery). Please let him know if you find any additional hotspots around Vienna :)
• Here is another link to a list some restaurants and cafes that are wireless lan hotspots in Vienna. Bring your laptop, buy a coffee and surf for free.
• Wifinder has a far longer list that has more information on the actual connection but does not provide clickable maps.

Markets

Impressions from Naschmarkt

• Naschmarkt (u4 Kettenbrückengasse). Do not miss Vienna's biggest market for food and vegetables. Flea Market on saturdays, morning till noon.
• Brunnenmarkt (in the street Brunnengasse, close to U6 stop Josefstädter Straße). A "real" turkish neighbourhood market, everything but touristy, good for a variety of cheap and "exotic" food, every day till late afternoon and early evening.
• Organic Market Freyung

1st District, Freyung U2 Schottentor. Open 9am-5pm first & third Fri & Sat in month. Buy exclusively organic products directly from the growers.

Places to eat

• Mensa (Students Restaurants) - In the area around the university (U2/4 Schottentor) there are several "Mensen", where you can get a cheap menu, even if you are not a student. KHG Mensa, Ebendorferstraße 8, behind the main building of the university. AAI Mensa, Türkenstraße 3, a side street of Währinger Straße near the university; African/Asian dishes.

• Mitzitant - (Seidengasse 39; U3 Westbahnhof). A nice restaurant at the corner of Kaiserstraße and Seidengasse. Its run by an elderly lady. Typical Austrian food. Menu €5 to €7. Mitzitant Oh and BONTOUR is also often there for lunch during the week :-)

• Der Wiener Deewan - (9. district, Liechtensteinstraße 10). A Pakistani pay as you like restaurant. You eat as much as you like, and pay what you think is fair when you leave. Drinks prices are fixed. There is always at least one vegetarian dish.

• Weltcafe - (9th district, Schwarzspanierstraße 15). Nice breakfast, but they also have normal food and cocktails. They show short films at 9 p.m during the summer months. All products are 100% organic or fair trade.

For more locations see the info at WikiTravel.

Going out

Stadtbahnbögen

Flex

A variety of pubs, bars and clubs of all styles have opened in the last few years in the midst of the Red Light District. Situated in the arches of line u6 (Stadtbahnbögen) there are many nice places to go out between the u6 stops Thaliastraße and Lerchenfelder Straße (Gürtelbräu, Loop, Chelsea, Mezzanin, Rhiz, Cafe Concerto) and U6 Währinger Straße and Alser Straße (soho).

CLUBS.

• Flex (U2/4 Schottenring) is situated next to the Danube canal. It is the main alternative club in Vienna. Sit outside, enjoy a drink and the smell of weed in the air till dawn breaks or dance through the night inside. Although capitalism has overtaken flex philosophy and it is now forbidden to consume drinks you have brought yourself in the outside area (you may get controlled by security) its still worth a visit. (beer €2,90, admission to inside the club, week days €3-6, weekends €10-15, from 3am normally free).
  
• Fluc (U1 and S-Bahn Praterstern, tram 5) is the new cool alternative place to hang out. The upper level is built of containers and has a dance floor (free entrance) and the bar, down in what used to be a passage under the street is the big dance floor (fluc wanne) with a great view of Vienna's giant Ferris wheel (beer € 3,20, admission fluc wanne € 5-7, free from 3am or sometimes all night).

There is a thread in the Vienna group that lists a good number of bars. Sorry, not much time, so I added just the link... to be continued. --Tomvienna 09:13, 19 July 2007 (EDT)

Meetings

There is a monthly meeting (called "Stammtisch") on the 8th of every month. There is also at least the plan to do a free hugs campaign on a monthly basis.

The CS Vienna Group is extremely active and there is some spontaneous gathering of some sort quite often, in 'active periods' pretty much every day. Those are usually not planned more than a day in advance. If nothing seems to be planned, join the group and post that you're in town and want to meet people. It's very likely to work!

Also, there is a calender of CS events and other events that CSers are planning to attend. It does definitely 'not' cover all that's going on in the community, but it's an overview of most of the stuff that's planned in advance.

Last minute emergency couches

We all know there are times when it's too late to send regular couch requests, be it because you can't reach your host, or because you had to change plans, or whatever. Sending a mail (no content necessary) to cs(dot)vienna(dot)emergency(at)gmail(dot)com will result in an automatic reply with phone numbers and/or email addresses of people that are willing to offer last minute couches. Please only use this in real emergencies, in case there is no other chance to find a host, and if you need a place to stay right now, not next week. Please be aware that the people on that list are already active and dedicated hosts anyway, and there is no guarantee that they will actually be able to host you, they might be busy/"booked out"/suffer from temporary hosting fatigue... Good Luck! (idea for this list by citizen428) --tomvienna 12:49, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

If you can not find a host, check this list of Hostels in Vienna.

Housing/Rentals/Shared Flats

If you want to stay a bit longer in Vienna - search for your room/flat in our CS flat hunting subgroup. You will also find a list of flat hunting websites there.

There are various tips and information on things like prices, contracts, rental terms, required documents, etc. for people who want to relocate to Vienna on the virtual vienna website. The information there also includes various flat search links. If you have decided to come and live in Vienna the living guide on the virtual Vienna website will give you well researched information on various aspects starting from how to set up a bank acount and getting car insurance to where to eat out, study programs and emergency numbers.

Guides

Trivia

Perception of the City

Vienna has been described as quiet, boring, conservative place with grumpy people by some, and this perception is understandable if you are in a weird mood and miss out on meeting the good people ;-), but at the same time Vienna is a place full of culture, sophisticated as well as alternative, it's full of life if you look in the right places, it's the city of cosiness if you want it to be, it's full of young people with visions and old people with stories to tell. It's beautiful for sure, but also raw. It's definitely rather a "slow" city, a place with steadiness, which is probably one of the reasons why so many people get stuck here for longer than they thought when travelling through, to take a rest from the road. But that doesn't mean this place is not exciting. Like with any place, it all depends on the people you know, the mood you are in, and at which particular point you entered the chain of events. You'll have to find out for yourself.

• To read more, there's a thread in the Vienna group discussing people's perception of the city. Please feel free to also leave your comment there!

Other wikis

• Vienna on the Hitchwiki
• Vienna on Wikitravel
• Vienna on Wikipedia