A friend and I made a quick trip to Austria in July 2016 with the primary goal of seeing a band and with secondary goals of experiencing a small village's annual festival and catching a day in Vienna. I'm learning German, and my tutor had recommended that I start listening to German music. I found a band I liked, bought their CD while in Nürnberg in December 2015, watched a few YouTube videos of them performing, and came up with the hair-brained idea of trying to catch them live. An airfare sale made the idea a reality. It ended up being a really cool trip...
On Thursday, we departed from Atlanta and arrived in Munich on Friday morning. We then traveled on a separately-purchased Lufthansa ticket from Munich to Vienna; the combined tickets were $800 cheaper per ticket than connecting through Amsterdam/Paris. We grabbed our rental car at the Vienna airport and drove to Neunkirchen, a small town 70 km southeast of Vienna. The town is next to Ternitz, a small village that was having its annual festival, which included a night of bands headlined by the band I wanted to see. Of note, our hotel in Neunkirchen was automated -- an ATM-like machine spit out the room key after we inserted our credit card.
On Friday, we explored Neunkirchen, which has a nice little old town and a really nice city park. We ate dinner at a döner kebab place. The owner spoke zero English, so the German lessons were indeed helpful. He was soooo excited to have US Americans in his restaurant. He said that it was very rare for Americans to be in the town. He was extremely kind and good to us.
On Saturday, we explored Neunkirchen a bit more and then walked on a foot/bike path to Ternitz (about 20-25 minute walk). The festival was small but fun to wander around. It was held on the grounds of the village's picturesque Peterskirche. There were 6 bands for the evening show. Interestingly, 4 bands sang only in English and 1 sang mostly in English with a few German songs. The headline band sang entirely in German. Thunderstorms were in the forecast for the night, and I worried that we had traveled so far only to have the show canceled. I learned, though, that storms do not stop open air concerts on top of high hills in Austria -- the show went on despite lightning flashing all around. Before the headline act went on stage, I struck up a conversation with a lady at a table for an organization that helps with drug/alcohol addiction. To make a long story short, she ended up offering a ride back to the hotel to me and my (female) friend after the concert, which ended well after 11. We accepted! Another kind act! The band, by the way, was worth the trouble to come see.
On Sunday, we drove back to Vienna. The day was spent wandering the gardens at Schönbrunn and then hanging out with the locals in the Augarten, where we also admired the towering Flaktürme, enormous concrete structures from the WWII era with platforms for anti-aircraft artillery. I loved the Augarten -- it had such a nice energy to it.
On Monday, we caught a flight on Austrian Air back to Munich, and then hopped on a Delta flight home. I was back at work Tuesday, a little tired but able to make it through the day without much difficulty. Before the trip, I would have guessed the best memories would be centered around the band; after the trip, though, I can easily say the best memories were the acts of kindness by the Austrians we encountered.