Vienna has three mountains, “house-mountains” as we call them in german, in fact they are more like 3 connected hills that house the famous viennese vinyards, beautiful forests for scary winter midnight visits and restaurants for autumn walks. one can find cheap wine and great traditional food in the green. for me and my friends, taking the bus from the city to go up there has become a ritual in a way, a symbolic voyage to clear our head up there in the fresh air while watching vienna from above. the names are Kahlenberg, Cobenzl and Leopoldsberg. The bus 38A accesses them all, (start from station Schottentor) in summer picnic is a good idea. if you happen to have a car or take a cab at night, the stars are bright from any meadow and you can watch and listen to the city youth drift in their cars on the big public parking space.

The Werkbundsiedlung in Vienna is one of those places where you can study how people (aka famous architects) in the past imagined the “modern way of living”. While walking through this housing estate you can soak up the unique atmosphere of something that is both historic and thought-provoking for the future at the same time. (Photo: Bwag/Wikimedia)

This thermal bath is located a bit outside of vienna but you can find a train to get there and its well worth it. there is 5 different basins, the one pictured being called forest-basin. There is no chlorid in any of them, the architechture of the entrance and the grand basin is amazing and you can see a most peculiar rest of a fomally rich culture of bathing traditions: cabins, that are permanently rent to guests that spend most of their summer there within the bath’s area. While you swim and dry you will walk by a family having their lunch in one of these 25 square meter universes, or watch men playing cards on the balconies, before taking another swim. The pools are located on different niveaus and you will have to find your way through a pretty little forest to reach some of them.

Although in possession of a very convincing white-cube space, Hoast adds flavour to their exhibition program with a generous portion of socially-minded neighbourhood events: be it a flea market as a way for artists to raise money for their proposed projects or a communal election-watching night with chilli con carne and vodka.

Smartly curated and art savvy, Mauve has been putting together reliably excellent shows with a focus on contemporary painting since 2012. Mauve’s bar features a neon cactus, a choice of favourite drinks and a crowd of artists in their natural habitat.