Wiener Prater’s unexpected charm

It’s ugly, it’s shabby, it’s outdated. Wiener Prater, world’s oldest amusement park, has an unexpected charm to it.

Looking for a bench to eat my Indian take-away-curry, my curiosity led me to Wiener Prater, or ‘Wurstelprater’, how the gigantic fair is originally called. Cause you don’t have to buy a ticket at the entrance, I walked straight through the gate where I passed ‘Big Fat Kebap’, heard both Mozart and DJ Tiësto echoing through the speakers and watched a family buy tickets for ‘Hotel Psycho’.

Five minutes later, while eating my lukewarm curry on a quiet green lawn somewhere outside, I realised I forgot to take a picture from ’the gate to hell’, that was supposed to be the headline for this blog article. But when I came back, I got really intrigued by the beauty of forgotten glory and couldn’t stop taking pictures.

Wiener Prater (2nd district, Leopoldstadt)