Visiting Vienna: first impressions & second chances

If you’d have asked me a few months ago which was the most overrated city I’ve visited, the answer would have been simple: Vienna.

But now, I want to give the city a second chance.

Hofburg Palace

First impressions

In early January 2011, I was flown out to Vienna for a job interview (possibly one of more impressive-sounding moments of my travelling life) and while I didn’t get the job, I did get three days to explore the city. Expecting a bustling, thriving capital like Berlin, what I found didn’t impress me. Sure, the buildings were beautiful, the architecture was impressive and I enjoyed my trip out to Schönbrunn Palace, but overall, I was underwhelmed.

There are a few reasons I might not have connected with the city: it was absolutely freezing, there was the pressure of a looming job interview and I was travelling alone for the first time and staying in a particularly unwelcoming hostel.

It really was kalt.

But there is, of course, another reason: perhaps I simply didn’t like the city.

So why do I feel compelled to give Vienna a second chance?

A new perspective

What really got me thinking about Austria’s capital again was an article posted last year by the BBC about Vienna in 1913. At one time or another in this year, Hitler, Stalin, Tito, Freud and Trotsky all lived in the city.  While this fact alone is a huge claim to fame, what I found remarkable was that just a century ago, Vienna was one of the biggest and most important cities in the world, drawing people in from all over Europe. At the beginning of the year, the BBC posted another article on Vienna, highlighting the role Vienna found itself in in 1914 – at the centre of an outbreak of war.

The old and the new in Vienna

While I knew this history at the time of my visit, the real importance and gravitas of Vienna’s role in relatively recent European history never really hit home.

This new perspective, coupled with some rave reviews from family and friends, really made me open my eyes: had I been looking for excitement in the wrong places?

The importance of second chances

Of course, seeing the city in a new light didn’t necessarily make me think my original opinion was wrong, and it didn’t make the time I’d spent there seem more enjoyable, but it did make me want to go back to see the city with ‘new eyes’.

First impressions of a city can be influenced by a number of factors – weather, length of stay, company (or lack thereof) – so should we trust our natural instincts about the ‘feel’ of a city, or always endeavour to go back under different circumstances?

While it’s a nice idea, let’s be honest: travel can be expensive and there are a lot of places out there to see without going back to places you didn’t like. And let’s not forget, we can’t all like every place we visit.

Schönbrunn Palace

But for me, I really feel the need to go back to Vienna. And I very much doubt that Vienna will be a unique example – I’ve been to a small number of cities I wasn’t overwhelmed by, but hopefully I will have the chance to go back and with a fresh perspective.

Of course, there’s every chance I might return to Vienna and have exactly the same experience. Admittedly, I have no concrete plans to visit again soon, but when I do, I will be looking to find historic Vienna, not contemporary Berlin.

What do you think; have you visited a popular city and found it to be overrated? Have you ever gone back to a city that underwhelmed you only to won over? Comment below!