Vienna, Austria
Although I was only in Vienna for a couple of days, I highly enjoyed the varying architecture of the city. Friedensrich Hundertwasser's Expressionist buildings playfully used color and mosaic in the undulating facades, with buildings scattered across the northeast side of Vienna breaking up the monotony of the classical streets. Otto Wagner's Postal Savings Bank was fascinating on its own; I marveled equally at the pattern of the rivets that hold the marble plates to the facade as I did at the incredibly simple and expressive frosted skylit interior. The main consumer of my time in the city was Joseph Maria Olbrich's Secession Building. I visited it several times at different times of the day and during different weather, which resulted in significantly different lighting and atmospheres around the magnificent gilded golden dome. The dome glistening in the sunlight against a perfectly blue sky was worth the multiple treks down there it took to get the perfect weather.