Montag, 23. Juli 2007

Time stands still here..


Photo-0269
Originally uploaded by yhalmudt
I was seeing a doctor today, and it was the most strange experience, the whole place looked like from a 1930s movie.. Have a look at 2 more pics on my flickr.com space!

Ah, and he wants me to take heavy medicine again.. :-(

Sonntag, 22. Juli 2007

Vienna, Day 7. The Outer Districts.

Vienna is segmented into 3 huge pieces: First, there is the "Innere Stadt" (inner city), surrounded by the "Ringstrassen", and is named District 1. Then there are 8 more districts surrounding it, the so-called "inner districts", where those live who were fortunate enough to find an appartment in one of the beautiful houses there. And then, lastly, there are 13 (I think) outer districts, surrounding the inner parts, named clockwise, starting in the south of town.

Simmering, the district where I live, is "der 11. Bezirk". It does definitely not have the feeling of joy, luxury and easy living. It is, as I said before, a district with a fairly low social and housing standard, but I feel quite safe here, people are friendly, and there are most surprisingly less drunken or drugged people on the streets or in the trams than there are in Zurich - my latest direct comparison apart from Saarbrücken, where the scum has decided to pile themselves in front of the central station.

Anyway, you may live here fairly content and happy for quite a while.

Today I decided to take another way back from the Donau-bath, a way that also included the tram, because I thought it may be nice to see something of the neighbouring 10th district, called Favoriten.
It wasn't nice. I've never ever seen such depressing buildings, darkbrown, grey and shabby, standing at the very edge of the streets and taking away every sight oh the sky. Most surprisingly, the people where not in any way depressed or so. Well, you can grow used to almost anything I think.

Note: don't visit Favoriten, except for a glance at the Dark Side of town ;-)

Samstag, 21. Juli 2007

Previous posts from my Myspace-page

In order to have all my Vienna blogs together, here the first blogs from my Myspace-page from this week:


Day 1

Arrived after a tiresome 12-hour train-ride. My luggage would have exceeded every weight-limit of any airline, and so my arms and neck hurt like hell.

My first impression is that of a picturesque, kind of crammed town, with an odd feeling of old, old heritage, with an at the same time fragile yet powerful heartbeat. I like the trams, they seem to belong where they are, their tracks are like the veins of the streets, not artificially superimposed.



Kleine Österreichkunde: Plus heißt hier Zielpunkt, Aldi heißt Hofer.



Day 2

So Vienna is BIG. I mean, really BIG. Maybe not comparable to Berlin in sheer surface size, but it feels more packed, crammed, and full of buildings, people, stores and so on. 

I went to the "Institut für Schallforschung" in order to attend a recording today, and I got my first impressions of the Tourist-Vienna, the Ringstraße, at which many of the main attractions are located, e.g. the parliament, the Opera House, the Burgtheater and some more. I haven't seen all old capitals of Europe so far, but as far as I can remember, none of them except Paris rivals Vienna in the sheer Grandezza of its architectural highlights. The buildings from the old days are made from a very light, almost white limestone (?), not the grey or brown-reddish sandstone you may find in many other towns. The size of the opera-house almost struck me when I first saw it, and the parliament and other buildings don't really have to hide either..



Not all of Vienna looks and feels as grand and powerfull as this though. The part of town I live in for example is a a little bit shabby in comparison. Not really a bad area or dangerous or something, but more ordinary, with many people of turkish and asian origin, whose generally lower social standard also may explain the density of Zielpunkt (=Plus, 2 stores in appr. 200 meters), Kik (also 2 stores), several other low-budget markets and Kebab and Asian Restaurants around here. There also is a quite big shopping mall about 200 meters away from here, and a McDonalds and a Burger King (Yey!!)
So the infrastructure is really great - I have a tram-stop and 2 underground-stops just a few steps away from my door. To be in a nice part of the town though, one must travel by tram for about 15 minutes or so.



Sadly I have no flatmate at the moment. The flat has been empty for 2 weeks now, which means that I had to buy almost everything necessary for a household, including glasses (only 1 left) and toiletpaper ;-)
I just met a guy from Hongkong who seems to be quite nice, he's been here for 2 weeks only, that may be a good point to start from.. 



So far I could not find a broad offering of vegetarian or even vegan food so far - but I will keep looking for it, I promise!!

So much for now, more to come!

Photo-0260


Photo-0260
Originally uploaded by yhalmudt
The fountain I told you about in my previous post appears to be a monument in remembrance of one of the great pest-epidemics during the medieval times. 

But still. Decide for yourself: beautiful or hideous?

Vienna, Day 6

So here I am, sick again. For 3 weeks in a row now. I got Penicillin since 2 days ago, but still I cough and spit dark yellow mucus. What's that supposed to show me? Additionally, there's an infection in my left eye, after the one in the right eye has just calmed down a little bit.

weird. going to see a doc on monday then..

I guess that means I'll have to spend a most quiet and boring weekend sweating in my hot appartment, watching TV and trying not to think too much about everything.

On Thursday I've been to the cinema, watching Harry Potter V, it's a nice place near the Stephansdom, where they show the original versions of the movies only, and without subtitles, yeah! I found one of the most hideous (or beautiful, I can't decide yet) fountains there. There's a stupid server error so I can't upload any picture of it, maybe later.

It's still extremely hot here, they say it has been up to 40 degrees celsius yesterday, and they expect the visitor's record at the Gänsehäufelbad to fall tomorrow. I would be there too, if I wasn't ill.. Damn it!

For now there's nothing left to do but wait until I feel better. That sucks big time.

Hejdå,

Michael