Sunday, December 14, 2008

Things i'd like to own that i don't really need

A stormtrooper bobble-head and a cuddly plush Yoda. Ooooh. Really must-have items for me. But still, i did not buy them, so i resisted temptation. One more time.

In case you're wondering: they are on display at the fnac in Madrid. I've been to my favourite city one more time last week. At the end of my two-weeks-vacations-travelling. I'll blog more about it if i'll have the time. Was good fun, met a lot of great people. Thanks!

Cheers.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

LEGOLAND


So, if you follow this blog you might know that i like to travel. But i still haven't made it to Danmark. But at least i managed to see LEGOLAND, yippiiiiieeee! Not the original one, but the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre here in Duisburg. And i gotta say, that was good fun. So much for achieving your childhood dreams. Having grown up playing LEGO that was definitely one of them. Jejeje. Some more pics:

Posing with LEGO batman.

LEGO Spielberg. Sat just in front of their 4D cinema.

Ooooh i'd definitely like one of those for my flat. Unfortunately those are custom-built and don't come nicely packed with instructions :-P

That funny fellow was part of the medieval-themed area/ride.

LEGO Indy. They also have LEGO Sean Connery keychains.

Creepy, huh? Was part of the jungle-themed area, sinpired by Indy II.

Picture's not really good, but that was a really cute scene. When i put myself into that LEGO lion and my head through its mouth a little girl saw me and came closer, laughing. Really sweet. After a bit of laughing she asked me "hehehe so you can't get out of there?" =)

Just outside of the entrance. That fellow with the slightly sick complexion had quite a summery outfit for the end of November. Didn't look too happy.

That's all, folks! Keep on travelling. And smiling.
Jejeje.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Bled

Last weekend i went to Slovenia again, visiting old and new friends. Hehe. It was wonderful, we stayed in a hut somewhere deep in the woods, supposedly on a plateau. My Slovenian friends told me that i was close to 'the most beautiful place in Slovenia' or at least the one that is the most-visited by tourists and i really should not leave without visiting it. And definitely i should not miss the famous 'Cremeschnitte' there - yes, they used the German word.
Anyways, that famous site is the city of Bled. It has a lake with an island in it and a castle. And is surrounded by mountains. I went there on sunday before going back home and i have to say they were right: it is a really, really beautiful place. Plus, i was so lucky to have more or less perfect weather. Blue sky and sunshine. Damn, i enjoyed. And since sharing is caring i have made some pictures for you (more can be found on my picture page, link on the right side of this blog).

Added: Oh, something i forgot: they have strange tracks in the lake. Looks like they build underwater train tracks into it - literally. There are at least five parallel tracks there, visible from above the water. We could not find out what purpose they might serve. Maybe guiding the rowing boats that bring tourists to the island. But quite weird. If anyone knows what those tracks are there for, please, enlighten me!

The mysterious duck in the foreground. The famous island in the background.

Walking up through the woods to the castle.

Me right next to the castle (castle being behind the camera).

On top of those mountains there is the border between Slovenia and Austria - thanks to Schengen it's not really a border anymore :-)

Old&new: a jet 'diving' into the castle.

Enjoying nature that took some time to grow - note the little mushrooms inside the green!

Fun in the sun =)

The castle as seen from the side of the lake.

Beautiful, huh?

I like that one, too.

Model of the city, lake, castle and surrounding mountains for blind people.

The island as seen from right next to the castle - we didn't pay the 7 Euros entree fee but still enjoyed the surrounding view, hehe. Speaking of Euros: it was my first time in Slovenia since they also have it. So convenient! Less than two months more and Slovakia will also join, hehe.

Me enjoying the famous 'Cremeschnitte'. And a hot chocolate. Mmmh.

Blogger seems to mess up the size of the pics a bit so i hope they're visible good enough. I know i had great vistas :-) Thanks to my Slovenian friends for a wonderful weekend, and:
See you next time!


Monday, November 17, 2008

The Land of Haribo

Hey there,

in the beginning of this year i came back to Europe. Looking for a job. My original idea was to go to Germany but some way or another i ended up in my old city. Also wonderful. Nonetheless, tomorrow is the third time this year that i will go to the land of Haribo. Yummy!

So just in case you're wondering about my whereabouts - which you might if you are reading this blog - i'll be in Germany for almost two weeks and then i'll drop by my beloved city once again. More on that later.

Cheers.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Flex ausziehen

Hey there.
Since July i go to work on bicycle. On the way i pass the Flex - and club that started as an illegal underground club in 1989 in an unused sidetrack/-tunnel of the Vienna metro line U4. If i remember correctly they became legal in 1995. Long time ago, when i was still young and completely unspoiled, haha. Anyways, that's the club in Vienna if you like clubs and alternative music. And they do have a lot of live concerts there. I'm myself in the process of adding more furniture to my flat, mind set on moving in and so on . Last week i passed the Flex in the morning and there were people moving furniture out of the side entry. Sofas and stuff, into a truck standing in front of it. Looked like someone was moving. But who lives inside a club? Confused me for a moment. Till i realized it must have been one of the trucks they always have, with stuff from the bands or whatever. Funny moment.

Way more interesting about passing the Flex every morning is the fact that the walls near it at the 'Donaukanal' are the most sprayed-on walls of Vienna. Every couple of days there is new graffiti at some places, so it's interesting to follow the development. Mainly because there is some quite creative stuff, at least fun to watch the outcomes.
Something not-so-totally-on top but it still surprised me:
Looks familiar? Looks like a portrait of the recently deceased Helmut Zilk - former mayor of Vienna and media person. And it was done right after his death, quite up-to-date art. I'll keep on watching while passing those walls on bike.

Other than that not much to write. Life is good. One more pic i took last weekend next to a restaurant just outside of Vienna:

Der CGA, die Sau, die.
Say that out loud a couple of times and think of where i've been working at the beginning of my last job. Ha-ha.

Cheers.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Decline of Western Civilization

Ha! Always wanted to have a blog entry with that title :-) the motive for blogging it now is that last Wednesday i finally got to see the documentary of the same name. It's a bit hard to track down. Segments of it can be easily found on youtube, but unfortunately not the whole thing. Luckily now it was part of a retrospective at the Viennale. The Viennale, that is the annual international film festival of Vienna. Just started, so in case you are close, i can highly recommend it. But you might have trouble getting tickets, most of it is usually sold out pretty fast.

Anyways, enjoy!
Hooray, the sun is shining. Life is good.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Wake me up when September ends

Maybe you know this melancholic song from Green Day's 2004 album. It was quite in my head in the last two years:
  • In 2006 i was sitting at home all summer with a splinted leg after my knee accident in that year. The end of September was when i started regaining my physical abilities and was able to travel again. So the song was in my head all summer.
  • In 2007 i went back into the KSA in the end of June, knowing that i wouldn't get out of there for at least three months of continously working - so i was really looking forward to the moment when September ends. And in the end i even could leave the KSA for good.
Back to right here, right now. September 2008 is ending. But nothing special - i am back to having a life and good fun. Oh yeah. Had a good summer, working in my new job including weekends.

Life is good, keep enjoying.
Cheers.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

They've gone mad with power

So i'm sitting here in my office and trying to work. And suddenly i hear music - really loud "Blasmusik", you know, brass instruments and all. Strange. As if they were playing right in front of my window. Well, they did:


Quite noisy. But strangely interesting. On that ugly building behind all those people there is a small commemorative plaque because the first Slovak National Council was founded there on the 15th and 16th of September 1848. So that was the reason for all the Slovak flag-waving of all the youngsters that are in the bottom right corner of the photo.
And then, about five or ten minutes later, they all disappeared almost as fast as they got there. Guess they would've stayed longer if the weather was nicer these days.

Speaking of unexpected noise at work: in the end of the last week the church around the corner here suddenly started to ring all its bells and did not want to stop. For quite a while. Dunno why. I'm not into religion. If you are still looking for one, try this or that.

Not much news otherwise. It got annoyingly cold last sunday and it's been raining permanently since monday. Quiero irme a Lesbos inmediamente...

Alternative title for this blog entry: Brassed off =)

Monday, September 08, 2008

My little green friend

Darth Sidious: I have waited a long time for this moment, my little green friend.

Indeed, i have waited a long time for this: to have my own flat with my own balcony. And so it happened that i had this little green visitor. Seemed kind of confused, it took him a while to get off the balcony again. But he managed. No idea if he then fell down four floors. But it seemed he could fly so i guess he's doing fine. If he actually is a he.
Other than that i enjoyed some culture last weekend. Like this:
If you are a German speaker and have some people around you, please do me the favour and read this text out aloud right now :-)
It's one of the paintings in MuMoK's current exhibition "Bad painting, good art". There were far better and more impressive ones. But not for reading them out aloud. I also saw some other stuff like this or that and might blog about it later.

So long,

Cheers
CGA

Friday, September 05, 2008

Livin' here

If you have read this blog for a while, you know that i really like going to the cinema and i don't take it for granted that i can simply go to the movies. So anyways, since this is kind of a diary blog, a couple of words of living in my old home city again. I really liked the first part when it was released in 2005 so i eagerly awaited its sequel. It has become common practice to release blockbusters on the same day worldwide since Episode II and the LotR trilogy. But for some unknown reason the 'clever guys' somewhere up there in the movie industry decided to not do that and delayed The Dark Knight for a month in German-speaking countries. Well, they never acted logically or anything. Was quite hard to not read anything about the movie that whole month and i was really tempted to go watch it when i was in Belgium in the first week of August - but in the end i didn't (lots of other things to do there, plus i don't really like subtitles in two different languages...). Blablabla long story short: i finally got to see it here in Vienna and quite liked it. Here's a shot from inside the cinema:
I saw that 'classic look'-Joker PEZ dispenser and just had to buy it =)
Other than that, about living here: last weekend i did a nice trip to the Alps, to be more precise to the Schneeberg which is a mountain quite close to Vienna. I stayed overnight at this hut which has a big rock next to it. One can climb up that rock and see the beautiful landscape all around. I sat up there watching a gorgeous sunset. If it wasn't for some airplanes above your head you could sit there and think you're the only person in the world, nobody else in your view. Great. Take a look at this picture i took:

Marvellous, innit?

Cheers
CGA

Monday, August 25, 2008

Villacher Kirchtag

Hello there,

so, what have i been up to? In the beginning of August i took my first week of vacations - in my new job. To start i went to the south of Austria. Since i'm now back to living in my old home country i thought i might as well enjoy some of the local culture here. So i did what i had in mind since a couple of years ago: i went to the Villacher Kirchtag. Austria's biggest "traditional festival". So, lots of drunk people in traditional clothes running around an area full of fun fair stuff. Blablabla i'll show you some pictures.
Mmmh, beer.
Since i started to talk about food: out of the belly of this giant corn man you could get exactly that - sweet corn. With different sauces. Quite allright.
Biiig frying pan. Conker would've loved it.
Revolving chicken and Spanferkel. Yummy!
Carinthian Reinling. A traditional cake, here in its cute little form, so one cake per person. On Kirchtag, this goes with the following:
This traditional "Kirchtagssuppe" is a little sour. And made with five different types of meat. Tasty as well. So much for the food, now on to entertainment.
I was told that this is the "most famoust cover band" of Carinthia. How impressive. People there liked it, nice atmosphere. One of their own songs consists only of the following line: "Allee, Allee, eine Straße, viele Bäume, ja das ist eine Allee". Crowds went wild, i preferred it when they played songs from other bands. Whatever.
The Hoff was there! Looked a bit sick, though, with that green-yellowy face.
More 80ies: those ones actually made funny movies.
I don't have any pics of the small roller coasters, but here's one of those stands where you could 'win' - you had to buy a big amounts of 'lottery tickets' and assemble some words with the letters on it or something similar. Guess it's way cheaper to get a plush animal by buying it in a toy story but 'less of an experience'...
And here's two little guys who won a big blue playboy bunny logo. Whatever they shall do with that.
On sunday there was a parade with lots of people dressed up funny. The dancing groups were more fun, though, than these fake army people.
Here in the back you can see the biggest "Villacher Kirchtag"-poster i could find this year.
Not really related to the Kirchtag, except for the fact that i ate this in Villach at the end of the Kirchtag. Mmmmh. Nice ice-cream spaghetti. Always fascinates me. Plus, they taste yummy!

So that's that then. Now i'm a little hungry, guess i'll go for lunch.

Cheers.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Summer update

Hello there,

just in case you were wondering what i was up to these days: not too much. Basically working here in Vienna. Oh, and now i try to go to work and generally move around on bicycle. Good fun. I started it out of curiousity - and to do something like sports again on a more regular basis. Was funny when i read about another good reason: i help the environment. Nice.
A road sign i discovered while going home by bike. Honestly, i have never noticed it before. Zebra crossing for bicycles.

Other than that: In case you want more pics, i uploaded some more in the usual place, link on the right. More with comments will follow here on the blog. And something interesting i saw on my way back home from work:
Yeah, i know, just a regular building here in Vienna you might say. But i am talking about the penguin. Can't see it? A little zooming:
Looks like one of those two penguins that one Austrian photographer took on a trip around the world a couple of years ago. Sometime in the 90ies, i think. Funny pictures, two penguins, one with a camera, all over the world, in front of famous or just gorgeous sights. Later on he could even sell that to the Austrian tourism agency - he made a campaign for them with the penguins in all kind of nice places in Austria.
Anyways, funny little detail in the city. Keep your eyes open.

Cheers
CGA

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Metropolis, the real thing!

Hello there,

just in case you haven't heard yet: they found a copy of the original Metropolis. Finally. In Buenos Aires. Can't wait to see it. Digitally restored and all. Yummy. Even without the missing quarter of the movie it was just impressive. And now, even if it might not be in such a good quality, it'll be back. Some minutes might still be missing, but almost all of it is finally here and will be made available for us. Good news.

Here's the original article in Zeit Online (English version here). Or Y! if you prefer.

Cheers from summertime-Vienna
CGA
-movie aficionado

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Clear colours

So the football madness has started in Austria. I'm not really interested, like always with football, but anyways. I got some good friends to visit me in here in Vienna, and that's a good thing. And i understand that this is a big event so people want to go there (public viewing at least) and enjoy fun in the masses. After all, i've been in Germany two times during the worldchampionship in 2006. Great atmosphere, excited people. Though, admittedly, Austria won't make it that far. We are the underdogs, hell, we just organize the whole thing so we can finally participate in a European football championship. Whatever.

Funny for me: today i walked through the inner city. Lots of Polish people, most of them wearing the Polish flag. I didn't have the heart to ask them why they are running around wearing the Viennese flag. They wouldn't have understood it anyways. But nice of them to show their affection for the city they're in =)
(in case you didn't know: the Polish national flag is identical to the flag of the city of Vienna - half white, half red. Compare this and this)

Plus, a nice summary of Austria by a British journalist: read the Austria part of this article. A quote:

Let's face it - Austria's a hard country to love. It's not like Australia, or Ireland, or crazy old Iceland - those razzy, feel-good nations anyone would invite round for gin and Pictionary. Austria's image is a bit, well - “slightly off-putting” would be wildly understating it. This is the country that started the First World War, invented a fascism so regionally specific they called it Austrofascism and gave us Hitler. And since the war Hitler started - in which, sadly, 70 million people died - the only time Austria's been in the news has been whenever one its citizens is discovered to have fashioned some novel underground prison and hidden an unfortunate child there.

On top of all this, Austria has wine that tastes like fox urine, a selection of wholly irredeemable cheeses and manufactures the world's most disgusting, unenvironmentally friendly sweet, PEZ; a Tic-Tac that comes in a miniature animal-headed tank made of pure asbestos.

Hilarious, innit?
:-)

Cheers
CGA
-going to watch football, ayayay que aburrido, now with his Croatian and Greek friends.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Die Woche der Freien Bildung

#German, sorry

Hallo allezusammen!

Wie üblich: Habe noch immer sehr viel zu bloggen, Carnavales, China, und so weiter, aber dazu später. Wollte einmal spontan was bloggen wie das so die meisten tun. Also.

Mir gehts super und ich bin dabei, mich in Wien niederzulassen. Wie anno 1980. Ich hab einen Job, den Traumjob in dem Sinne, das das meine erste Wahl war, und auch schon eine eigene Wohnung (wieder) gefunden. Und bei meiner Arbeit werd ich garantiert mein Hirn wieder einmal benutzen, voll und ganz.
Na jedenfalls: ich bin ja ein Sommermensch, soll heißen, der Sommer ist mir viel lieber als der Winter. Bin dem Winter durch Um-die-Welt-Reisen ja jetzt mehr oder minder zweimal entkommen, aber das sonstige Umfeld war ned so deshalb wieder Europa. Und jetzt in Wien hatten wir schon wieder, wie auch vor zwei Wochen, geniales Wetter. Sprich, es fühlt sich so an, also ob der Sommer da ist. Man kann in kurzen Hosen herumlaufen, auch nachts, ohne, daß einem kalt wird.
Doch zurück zur titelgebenden Woche der freien Bildung. Wurde wieder einmal veranstaltet. Sprich, gratis Vorlesungen im freien, gleich vor meinem Arbeitsplatz. Im sonnigen Park. Schon das alleine sehr interessant. Aber diesmal hat die Hochschülerschaft auch noch gegrillt, sprich, es gab Würschtln und Koteletts dazu. Gut und günstig, und vor allem genial bei dem Wetter. Habe so jetzt drei Tage in Folge meine Mittagspause verbracht: mit Würstl in der Sonne sitzen und eventuell noch ein bisserl bei den Vorlesungen mithören. Sehr fein. Eine davon hieß glaub ich "Klavierspielen" oder so. Jedenfalls hab ich schon beim Würstlkauf Musik zum Mitschwingen gehört. Bin dann nach Speisenverzehr in der Sonne hingegangen - da war ein Prof, fragts mich ned wer, der hat Musik gemacht. Mit allen zusammen. Hat mir auch gleich so ein blaues Plastikei zugeworfen, mit Zeugs drin, das scheppert. Sprich, jeder, der dabei war, hatte irgendein Trum in der Hand und zumindest im Rhythmus mitgeschüttelt. War fein, mitreißend. Und danach hab ich noch ein paar frustrierte Harmonikaschnorrer gesehen, also die nervigen Pseudomusiker, die einem sonst hinterherlaufen auf dem Platz. Die hatten aufgegeben für die Dauer der Vorlesung, weil, so gut wie jemand der wirklich Musik machen kann - eben dieser Prof - waren sie halt lange nicht, insofern Zwangspause. Haha.

Sommer, Sonne, Sonnenschein. Und einen neuen Bernhard hab ich auch grad angefangen. Welch ein Spaß!

Cheers
CGA

Monday, April 21, 2008

Mirrors

So i have found a place here in Vienna where they have security checks that are more or less the same like in the living compounds in the KSA. I incidentally came across that place - the one here in Vienna, not the KSA... i was going to an electronics store picking something up. One of those small shops that give you almost 25% off just because you purchased online before coming there. Anyways. Got out of the shop. Saw a nice inscription on the building next to it. Was in Hungarian, that is why it surprised me. Old building - by which i mean 100 to 150 years old. Something about some Hungarian person that had been living in there. And next to it was another old building. I had been slightly aware of the security around it - a big fence and when you go into the first one by car you are stopped by these things that would even stop your regular tank. And then they have these mirrors to look under the car and check if someone forgot a bomb there. And of course lots of policemen standing around the whole area in general (in the KSA those were way-more-lazy-looking army men, waving all cars through most of the time...). But anyways, i am in Vienna, in what i like to call a free country so i basically ignored these guys and looked at the building. It had some interesting ornaments, well, not directly ornaments, but little statues and stuff. One particular head caught my interest. Funny face. So what i do, obviously, is the following: i take out my camera to take a picture of it. Of that head. Even though the zoom on my compact camera is not that strong, but good enough to get it. Lighting was also good, about five o'clock in the afternoon, beautiful sunset light. Just when i'm about to shoot, i mean, take my picture, i hear "sorry sir, no pictures here" in plain English. Caught me by surprise. I was so stunned that i actually put my camera back into my pocket instead of taking that picture. The voice was of a woman standing there, apparently she had come outside to smoke a cigarette. I took a closer look at the whole setting and saw the reason for all the fuzz: that building hosts the US embassy.
Really pissed me off, someone in Vienna telling me that i cannot take a picture in public. Fuckin' hell, i'm not in Lomography since '98 and back out of all those stupid places where public photography is forbidden in whole countries or people are scared of cameras so that someone in the middle of Vienna tells me that taking pictures is forbidden. So there you have it, one more thing that is bad about terrorism (besides all the obvious ones, like, people who think they have the right to torture and/or kill others because of some higher spirits or whatever madness). It created a ban on photography in my home city. Bollocks to that.

And since i did not make a photo of that funny head i will now leave you with some nice and harmless tourist pictures, taken here in Vienna, at the Strudelhofstiege, Schönbrunn and Steinhof.











Oh, and just in case you were wondering where you will find me during the next two years: i'll be working here in Vienna. And finally using my brains again, lots of it.