I've been taking it easy this week.
So I don't have anything really exciting to show or talk about.
But it's been nice to be able to take a break for once.
I did go to a Ballet of Motzart's Requiem, which was really cool. And a tour, more on that later.
So, a word about where I live.
I live in the 21st district, which is on the outskirts of Vienna. It's a great place to live, it's a 15-20 min ride to the center of town. But there are no tourists here. There are 5 grocery stores withing walking distance, Penny Market, Merker, DM, Sparr, Billa, Hofer and if you feel like taking the Strassenbahn, InterSparr. We are right between two really nice, fairly big U-Bahn stations, Kagran or Kagranerplatz and Florisdorf. The river is a 5 min walk away, and I usually walk there once a day, listening to podcasts. Vienna DC, or Donau City, is right by where we live, and the Donau Tower is visable from the doorway to our apts. DC is the part of Vienna with actual high rise buildings, so it's really home-like to me, because high-rise buildings are more of an American thing than a European thing. It's really hard to get the building codes to build them here. Anyway, this part of town is not a place where if you only have 3 days in town you would come to see, but I'm really glad to live here. It's a great neighborhood.
So, here are some random pics just to kinda catch things up.


The building on the right was part of the headquarters for the Germans during WWII, the fountain straight ahead was commissioned by the Russians after WWII. Some back story: after WWII Vienna was a divided city, much like Berlin. It was divided between Russia, France, USA, and England. So it was unique in that during the begining of the cold war, all 4 police/army people were working together in Vienna. You couldn't go anywhere in Vienna without ID papers and lots of people were kicked out because of that. Anyway, the point of this picture is that the statue commemorating the Russians killed in Vienna during WWII was made out of bronze busts of Hitler that were melted down.
One of my favorite streets to walk down, it's just so pretty.

I love this building.
The rathaus not at night. However, there is now a circus in front of it.
The Imperial Hotel. The Russian's headquarters when they occupied the city, the place were celebs stay, and of recent fame for giving the Rolling Stones a room over George Bush.
Does this window look familar? Ever seen the Third Man?
Ok, so I went on a Third Man tour. And it was really interesting. Here's the building that the famous shadow is cast on. Also, I would like to say that since this movie was shot on location, weird for a film back then, and Vienna had been hit pretty hard during the war, there were a lot of places we got to see where they made it look like it was across the street or something, but it was actually miles away. But it what was really cool was that because of this you got to see which buildings had been rebuilt after the war. You really wouldn't be able to tell. They tried to rebuild to look like they had originally.
That car is not just painted to look like fur, it is fur. Fuzzy and everything.
Hey look, it's the place where Harry Lime died. Ok, so a few words on The Third Man: first off if you haven't seen it you should, it's an amazing movie. Vienna was a really fascinating place after the war, and the whole movie is loosely based on a real person and the real Vienna and what was happening. So there's a lot of small details in the movie that have a lot of background to them. But, it's also just a great movie, good sound, lighting, camera angles, and of course acting. Also, Pinky and the Brain has a wonderful spoof on it, called The Third Mouse, and it's always been one of my favorites. It's on their DVD. Anyway, they talked about that on the tour, and what's crazy is that there are scenes on the Pinky and the Brain version that were cut from the real version. Crazy.
A Real WWII, American Jeep.
So here's an alley....

And here's a movie poster. Look familiar?

The square where Harry Lime disapears to the sewer. To shoot this scene they put a kiosk up, and then just made sure that the camera angles covered the fountain. Down by the river. I just took this picture to show how clear the water is, it's pretty amazing.
The river at Dounisel. It's not where I normally walk at, but I never bring my camera with me on my walks...anyway this part of the river is pretty too.
Vienna DC