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.

This tiny family-run Japanese restaurant right at the Naschmarket serves great authentic Japanese food. No matter which dish I tried, I loved every single one of them. Plan a little waiting time, they have only 6-9 seats, but it’s worth the wait.  By the way, take a look at the building, it’s the famous Majolica House by the famous Jugendstil architect Otto Wagner.

There is one thing finally that is good about vienna’s small size, to reach the river danube and its two side arms in summer, when its boiling hot, takes only few minutes. All the life is transferred from the center to the river banks, swim and barbecue in summer, ice skating in winter. If you exit the subway at Neue Donau station you will see the small tower of viennas biggest mosque that is located on the danube island. You can go there and visit, if you are lucky, you will be offered dryed figues and dates and you can watch the prayers repose themselves lying on mattrasses in the cool.

The Donaukanal is a regulated water channel running through Vienna. During summertime the canal banks are filled with after-workers, creatives and party people strolling up- or downstream or grabbing a drink at one of the many bars.

The edges of Vienna are striped with forested roads that canopy villas between the trees. One such 'mini palais' belonged to the famous Austrian architect and urban planner, Otto Wagner. To know Vienna, is to recognize the hand of Otto Wagner virtually everywhere in the city. His own self designed family residence would perhaps have been demolished or forgotten had it not been acquired from certain desertion by the artist Ernst Fuchs in 1972. Now pause, and imagine what would happen if a renowned founder of the Viennese school of Fantastic Realism happened to possess such a historical Jugendstil gem; and then decided to outfit it completely with his own imagination, while still maintaining the original visual emotion of the late 19th century. That is The Ernst Fuchs Museum. Even from the street, beneath its' awning of green, the bombastic entrance demands more than a glance. The interior is no less nor different. (The place is so trippy that even my tripped out kids tripped out in the most beautiful way). It's a haze of opulent romanticism married to parasomnia and aesthetic wonder. Simply put, it's a dream.