Day 11
Location 2 & 3: Vienna & Bratislava
Nov. 11, 2022
Today's blog has been in the works for a while. Since 1995 actually. Sorta.
On day 4, I mentioned: my favorite romantic movie, Before Sunrise. The movie follows two strangers who meet in Vienna and–while exploring the city and conversing throughout the day and night–fall in love, all before sunrise.
What I didn't mention: a good chunk of my time in Vienna was spent visiting local spots from the movie.
Cafe Sperl
This was first on my list, and I couldn't believe everyone inside wasn't freaking out that this was the cafe. But as it turned out, no one gave a shit. Which was fine, I guess.
Zollamtssteg
I biked along the Vienna River (it was more of a sewer) and crossed this bridge from early in the movie. Literally no one was there. I couldn't believe it again.
The bottom photos are screenshots from the movie.
Kleins Cafe
Next up was Kleins Cafe. Also, I found out the current owner of the cafe happened to be in one of the early scenes of the movie, completely unrelated to the cafe. You can see the sign and umbrellas match the scene from the movie.
Alt & Neu
This record store is cool, even without its film allure. The walls are lined with vinyl albums and covered in Before Sunrise posters. I really really hate the photo of me below, but for the sake of showing off the store, I've kept it in. Just for you.
That's the end of my Before Sunrise tour of Vienna. If you enjoyed it, check out the prequel (which is just watching the entire Before trilogy. All three films are beautiful and almost as fun to watch as it was for you to read this blog.)
Growing up in my hometown, everyone knew Gennaro's Pizzeria. Gennaro was born and raised in Italy and pretty consistently grumpy . If you didn't grow up eating his pizza, it was notoriously burnt and tasteless, otherwise you loved it. I happened to love it. A few years ago Gennaro sadly passed away.
I always had this idea that some alternate, Austrian version of him lived on, still making mediocre pizzas and yelling at customers to this day. Turns out I was right!
