Translation: Socializing in Vienna
After the mega posts about sightseeing, I will keep this one delightfully brief (or as brief as I can be).
When I travel, whether for work or pleasure, I do try to get out to some of the local haunts, and since I was in Vienna with a group, of course, going out to drink and carouse was a big part of the trip.
We all had tickets to the Thursday evening’s second Eurovision Semi Final, but that meant that we needed to find a place to view the first on Tuesday and the Grand Final on Saturday.
I had been monitoring the re-opening of bar called Why Not as a possible place for us go. While the rest of the Vienna gayborhood was not too far from us, this bar was within reasonable walking distance from the flat.
Jerrad and Viani went to meet a mutual friend who lives in Vienna, and Steve, Tony, and I went and took a look at the Eurovision Village at the nearby Rathauplatz to grab some dinner and then move on to What Not, which had announced it would be reopening on that very Tuesday.
We made our way to What Not and arrived at 7:59 for an 8:00 opening, and we were able to snag a good seat to watch the show. After Jerrad and Viani joined us, we spent some more there before moving on to City Bar across the street, which became our home away from home during the rest of the week.
At City Bar, we met Nicole, the bartender, who is originally from New York with stays in other parts of the United States, and she treated us so well, we made sure to go back on Friday night for her next scheduled shift, and while she wasn’t set to work it, we were delighted to find her there on Saturday after the Grand Finals, too.
We met so many great people from all over the world at City Bar, it really was a highlight of the trip to Vienna. There has been a lot of think pieces about the demise of gay bar culture, but it is instances like this where it proves how important it is for that sense of community in a safe space where people can cut loose without having to worry.
We ended up at What Not a couple more times, too, but since it is more a dance club than a bar, it was not someplace we would spend the whole evening. Plus, it had just reopened on Tuesday, and as you can imagine, things went wrong, but they weren’t such an issues, but they did a great job all week.
On the other days, we did venture into the gayborhood, specifically The Hive for dinner a couple times, and we also went to the Eagle, which has the usual amount of grit for such establishments, and we did pop into Village Bar, which was crowded and not that great. We kept gravitating towards City Bar, which is much more our usual speed.
It was hard to put a finger on the LGBTQIA+ community in Vienna, because so much of the population was swelled by Eurovision visitors, but nearly all the native Viennese were kind, helpful, and welcome, which is a lot more than I can say for many places in Europe.
As with many places in the world, the business of bar ownership is in constant flux, and there is a story there as to why Why Not is under new management and just reopening, but I was not able to find out much about it. Inquiring minds want to know, and I might still do some digging.
All in all, I had a great time socializing in Vienna, and I would highly recommend City Bar and Why Not to those looking for options for a weekend in Vienna.
Note: I did not take too many pictures – oops.
