Austria

It had been three weeks non-stop travel and activities so 4am bar night turned into Sunday rest day. This included physical rest by not leaving the hostel but also food rest (aka taking a break from eating local food). We got some much needed Vietnamese Pho back into our life. Mary napped all day while Kieran researched Japan and played video games. We ended the night chatting with our hostel mates Irvin and Woo-bin from Taiwan and Korea for two hours.

Monday, however, became the best day ever because we dedicated our time to the Austrian Military History Museum. We knew we were headed into more discussions/Mary facts on the Hapsburg Empire, Central European conflicts, and World War I. What we didn’t know is that the Austrian Military History Museum contained the original car that Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in as well as his jacket with the original bullet holes AKA THE CATALYST FOR WORLD WAR I.

BOOM the museum becomes 60 times more amazing and now Kieran is sucked in. We got to see a 38 cm howitzer, field cannons, U-boat, and spy planes. Mary went into expansive detail on how 1) before World War I the great powers had been itching to test out their new weapons/tactics so the assassination was really an excuse; 2) the UK Royal Navy prepared military strategy assuming France and Russia would align to attack them on two fronts so the assassination took the UK completely by surprise; and 3) from previous wars, Germany was absolutely confident the French would invade so they created the Schlieffen Plan to capture Belgium and northern France ASAP. Of course this backfired because after the assassination Austria declared war on Serbia, Russia declared war on Austria and Germany was like “I DECLARE WAR ON LUXEMBOURG, FRANCE, AND SERBIA” and then invaded Belgium (Schlieffen Plan in action, but prematurely and unwarranted); everybody was like “WTF GERMANY”.

TLDR: US history will simplify that it was all about “entangled alliances” when really the Great Powers had been executing arms races and devising battle plans during peace time so they were more than excited to test their strategies. Let’s just say all of Europe was trigger happy leading up to World War I.

After spending several hours at the museum, we grab a Redbull and hit the Schönbrunn Palace which was 3 times more expensive, way more crowded, and less interesting than the military museum. It was amazing to hear Kieran say that he would have paid the palace price just to go back to the military museum 🥹😍❤️

To encapsulate the day, a quote from good friend Tom Landis: “Mary’s on a tour of the world and her favorite day is seeing a car someone died in. Classic”

Restaurants:
HANS IM GLÜCK - WIEN Am Belvedere
La Massa

Food:
Burgers
Pizza
Nerdy History Facts

Spots:
Heeresgeschichtliches Museum
Schönbrunn PalaceRead more