Vienna: The City Of Dreams, Freud And More

Anwesha Rana always imagined Vienna as a city of historic and cultural grandeur. Visions of its museums, grand cafes and theatres shaped her assumed idea of the city. It rarely happens with her that reality replicates her expectation. Many a disappointment has come her way because of that. But in the fourth part of a series on Europe for TravelEquipped, Anwesha tells us how Vienna proved to be an exception and as grand as she imagined it to be

Vienna is called the city of dreams. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Anwesha Rana
@RanaAnwesha

SB, my friend, and I are obsessive planners and list-makers. Predictably, therefore, we had a list in June 2018 for what we wanted to do in Europe in October 2018. Armed with our lists, maps, and friends who joined us at different points from Hasselt, Groningen, and Berlin, we were ready to dive deep into the sea of promises that the European autumn held.

Although this series began with Budapest, our first stop had actually been Vienna. I had always imagined Vienna as a city of historic and cultural grandeur. Visions of its museums, grand cafes and theatres shaped my assumed idea of it. It rarely happens with me that reality replicates my expectation – many a disappointment has come my way because of that – but Vienna proved to be an exception as grand as its beauty.

The Freud Museum in Vienna. Photo courtesy https://www.freud-museum.at

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As with the entire trip, we were operating on a strategy – visit museums, walk as much as possible, eat locally recommended food, and thus save big on transport and such expenses. We had a few places in mind that were top priority – we had to visit the Freud Museum, go to the Albertina, and discover Kaffee Alt Wien, an old fashioned café in the heart of the city centre, yet hidden in labyrinthine lanes. We had an advantage in the form of our friend AD, who is an expert of European cities, having travelled all across (and several times) and was an excellent guide. His insights took us deeper into the Belvedere, bringing alive its history and politics, and the city itself became a more tangible, real being through his narration of its intellectual past, concentric geography, and rich cultural heritage.

 Freud lived in Vienna's Alsergrund district for 47 years starting 1891. Photo courtesy https://www.freud-museum.at

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As students of literature, Freud had been a major part of our university education and occupied a central spot in our understanding of 19^th century intellectual discourse. It was therefore imperative that we visit his house in the Alsergrund district of Vienna, Berggasse 19, where he began to live in 1891 and lived for 47 years there. That house saw the creation of most of his seminal works and was also the site of his practice. It has now been converted into the Freud Museum, documenting his life and works. 

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We visited the Museum on our last day in Vienna and our friend had already left for Groningen. That, perhaps, added to the trouble we had in finding it – although the address had sounded fairly simple to locate on paper, reaching there proved to be quite a task. Interestingly, most people we asked for directions – and we had asked at least about ten – could not zero down on the place we were looking for! It could have been due to the difference of language – we could not speak anything but English – but we were taken aback nonetheless at the fact that very few people seemed to recognize either the name or the location.

The Albertina Museum houses about 65,000 drawings and an immeasurably number of old master prints. Anwesha Rana 

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The Albertina Museum is a grand, sprawling architectural marvel besides being a place of awe and wonder that houses about 65,000 drawings and an immeasurably more number of old master prints. It is also known for hosting beautifully moving temporary and touring exhibitions, one of which our trip fortunately coincided with. At the time, the Monet Collection was on display at the Albertina, along with works of Chagall, Munch, and Picasso. 

If I were to pinpoint a central theme of our tour, I think I would point to the long stretches of silence and streaming tears that occurred every single day. Budapest certainly was all about that, as you see from the large number of words I have spent on the previous posts, and this feature of our trip that became a regular began there in the large halls of the many museums of Vienna. Whether it was Klimt’s The Kiss at the Belvedere or Monet’s Water Lilies at the Albertina, nothing was, or could be, devoid of context, and as we always say, context brings heartache, which leads you to a box and leaves you there with too many thoughts running through your head that refrain from framing themselves into words and sentences. That space in that box is a special one, and despite the burden it may add in the form of knowledge and context that you perhaps did not ask for, I would say you are fortunate if you have ever walked into that box of your own volition and taken the time to stay there for a while, savouring the crowd of thoughts and the absence of words.

Kaffee Alt Wien was Freud’s haunt for many years and he found many of his cases and patients here. Anwesha Rana

SB had heard of Kaffee Alt Wien somewhere and had included it in her meticulous list because it had seemed to her a place that could be of the old Parisian kind, where philosophers meet to host a discourse on the meaning of it all, and which gladly opens its doors to the flaneur.

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I, of course, needed no convincing to visit it. Anything offering an old-world thrum is right up my alley, and after the Albertina, we moved straight ahead to locate this café that sounded full of the promise of memories of eras bygone. It took us some work to reach, and when we finally did, it was like walking right into a scene from Midnight in Paris. The café could as easily have been in the Paris of the 1920s as of Vienna, and it could have been occupied as simply by Hemingway or Stein as by Freud or Mann (although both frequented Café Landtmann; it was Freud’s haunt for many years and he found many of his most significant cases and patients there). 

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For anybody identifying with the themes that this blog runs on, Kaffee Alt Wien is for you. You could sit there for an entire day and you would be lost to the world spinning outside, such is the lost-world charm, immersive bass of conversation, and vibrance of characters it offers. is for you. You could sit there for an entire day and you would be lost to the world spinning outside, such is the lost-world charm, immersive bass of conversation, and vibrance of characters it offers.

Vienna is indeed a city of dreams. It is every bit as magnificent and romantic, in the academic sense of the term, as I have read about, and it lived up to its imagination that I had harboured. To fully immerse oneself in all the majestic and vast historic and cultural offerings it has, perhaps even a week in the city is not enough. Every minute spent in the city is a reward in itself. We came back poorer – the food is incredible and the desserts are all that you will want to live for, but they cost a pretty sum – but also incredibly richer – in sight, smell, and sound. Vienna gave me a full hour to stand still in front of Klimt and Monet, and I am thankful for it every day.

As ever, if any bit of this strikes a chord with you, you know what to do on your next trip.

Also

The subway passages in Vienna (Innere Stadt) displays a variety of data on its glass panelled walls. Most of it, in keeping with the spirit of the times, reflects numbers that speak of the terrifying state of humankind in the 21^st century. The numbers are updated each second, changing the data each moment, and make one wonder all over again about the evil genius that humans are. To bypass accusations by friends of only documenting morbidity, here is a snapshot of one wall of data that speaks of relatively lighter things: seen here is the number of schnitzels consumed in Vienna since January 1, 2018 – 18088061 (till October 15, 2018).

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