Now I’m going to quote Billy Joel, who once sang, “Vienna waits for you” in his song Vienna. To give you guys context, I went to Prague (Czech Republic) with two other people that I met, who were also studying abroad in Rome. This trip to Prague only filled up half of the week we were given for Spring Break. Before leaving to go to Prague, I was trying to figure out where to go in order to make the most of my Spring Break because my two other friends were going to meet up with their parents in Salzburg (Austria), and I did not want to intrude. That’s when I decided to book a train from Prague to Vienna with no one else but me.

I’m going to be honest, I was very anxious at first because of the idea that I would be traveling in a foreign country whose primary language is not English. In addition, I am used to solo exploring in the Bay Area (where my school is), but this was on another level of solo exploring.

One of the things that helped reassure me in buying my train ticket is that, besides Vienna being one of the most livable cities in the world, it is also one of the safest countries for female solo travelers like myself. When I was in Vienna, I did not feel threatened or have that feeling of turning my head around every 30 seconds, including at night.

During my time in Vienna, I explored some of the major tourist attractions, such as seeing Klimt’s “The Kiss” at Belvedere Palace, exploring Ringstrasse, taking a tour of Schönbrunn Palace, and walking around St. Stephen’s Cathedral which I was in awe the entire time. In addition, I got to meet up with a family friend for dinner one night because he was doing his medical residency there!

When three nights in Vienna passed, it was a bittersweet moment because it was my first solo international trip and I loved everything about the city. From the infrastructure to the diversity to the overall vibes of the city, everything about it made me fall in love hard about the city. Safe to say, I still don’t regret buying that train ticket on a whim. Everything is going in a full circle now because I will be studying at the Central European University for an LLM in Global Comparative Constitutional Studies from Fall 2026 to Summer 2027!

Written by: Katriel, JCU Alum from St. Mary’s College of California