May 15, 2008
A Lion... Oh my!!!
This is the King of the Jungle, uh I mean the King of Schoenbrunn Tiergarten. This was taken a couple of weeks ago when we went to Vienna to visit family and friends.
Posted by Victor at 12:58 AM | Comments (0)
February 16, 2007
Back in Vienna
I sometimes find these oversea flights a bit magical, sometimes a bit long, but interesting none the less. The last time I flew back to Vienna from the US was last April and I must have forgotten about how bad jetlag can be. I could be mistaken or maybe I forgot but when we flew back to NYC in August I don't think it the jetlag was this bad Other than that it was a nice feeling coming to Vienna. I am surprised that I felt a warmth, a familiar feeling like home. Monika's parents picked us up from the airport and then we went to eat with them. I also forgot about the super portions you get when you go to eat here at normal Gasthaus. I had one of my favorite dishes from here, Schicken Fleckel. MMMMMMM. The first picture here is out of the plane window when we were about an hour away from Vienna, suddenly the dark sky gave way to daybreak. The following ones are of Museums Quartier, an area with many museums, restaurants, and performing Art spaces. It was the old Royal Horse Stables and now a place where all kinds of Art as well as Artist,students and tourist come to hang or be seen.
Posted by Victor at 07:54 AM | Comments (3)
October 29, 2006
Thinking of Vienna
Today our friend that has been staying with us over the past years on and off even when we weren't here is going back home to Vienna yet again. It leaves Monika and me home alone again and a void at home. Although we will have Ms. Victoria this weekend ( I haven't seen her in about 2 months. Her mom was pissed that I tried to have the child support ammount decreased.) after that we will be missing Martin. This is a picture I took last year in Vienna and this old lady being led across the street was suddenly alive and waiving her umbrella at me and angry because I was taking her photo. So also this week I was talking about the stress levels here in New York vs. in Vienna. I speculated and theorized that its a population thing. Lets say 1 in 10 people will every 1 in 10 times cut you off on the highway then in Vienna that would happen maybe twice a month in Vienna ( pop. 1.5 million)and here ( pop. 10 million ) it would happen twice a day. Anyway when I get stressed sometimes I think of the relaxing city of Vienna also I think of the tranquil mountains that I've hiked on or learned to ski on. and yes of little old ladies like this waiving their umbrellas at someone.
Posted by Victor at 08:13 PM | Comments (3)
July 20, 2006
Aufwiedersehen Vienna
A new chapter opens now, I leave Vienna with my wife and head back to NYC where it all began. I leave with a heavy heart but full of excitement. I will miss my family and friends that we leave for now but I look forward as well to spending time with Victoria and my family and friends that we left behind in NYC. Its hard to have two wonderful places with so many love ones. See you soon. This is probably my last entrie on this photoblog. Thanks for the few but faithfull followers. Keep in touch.
Posted by Victor at 01:04 AM | Comments (2)
May 02, 2006
Prater in the early evening with friends...
In just about two months I will return to NYC with Monika. It will have been about a year already when I set out on this journey. At times I didn't think I would return to live in the USA. I really like it here. The quality of life is amazing, the people are nice, the city is beautiful, and I've been really happy here. I will miss Vienna. I will miss the people I've met, the friends I've made, and most of all I will miss my family here. Monika's family is now my family and they have really made my stay here beautiful. They have shown me every aspect of their country, they have shown me the sites to see and the places to go. Most of all they have shown me love. These past weeks since I returned from my visit from the USA alot has happened. This decision to go back, and lots of wedding planning. Add now that we have to pack up things to take back with us. We have a honeymoon to plan and then a move back. Its been quite alot for both of us. For Monika especially because she will be leaving her home again. Well I just wanted to write this because its been on my mind. I'm not sure if most people think about all that is involved in these kind of situations. I never did until now. In the end I'm fond of saying to Monika that we are so lucky so blessed to have the choices that we have. To have friends and family in both countries there to support us in any of our decisions. I'll leave you with these thoughts. See you soon. ;-)
Posted by Victor at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2006
Opa Max, Going out in Style
For over 40 years Opa Max ,( Maxs Adamaszek ), who is in his 90's has been running the Moden Panorama at Praterstern Nr. 29. Now he is sitting watching as his Daughter who in her 60's and her son or sons load up a truck that was outside the shop. I watched Max and he looke very calm and he spoke nicely to me and smiled. I just told him Good day and asked him how he was doing. I told him that I was sure many people had come by to take his foto and he said it was ok for me to look around and take any fotos I wanted. There was something relaxing in his gaze as he watched his family packing up the shop he's run for so long. I told him , Danke fur die fotos and Ich wunsche dir Alles Gute. He smile and said auf Wiedersehn. Then I went to play basketball with my friends. Knowing that I wouldnt be playing again for some weeks It was an intense few games. I'll talk about that more tomorrow. I took some fotos too.
Posted by Victor at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2006
Alter Laa
Today I went with my friend Martin to Alterlaa. Its in the 21st or 22nd district and its quite away from the city. Martin told me this area could be called a bad area but that is by Austrian standard. Nothing close to what could be called a bad area in NYC. So any way we walked through this area and I could feel almost like I was in New York City. We even came across an abandoned car that had been in a bad accident. There neighborhood was made up of an industrial section and then there were these apartment buildings that looked like Co-op City with a shopping center and all. Martin told me when they first built this housing area there were problems with crime and even gangs but that now they are becoming quite expensive housing. They have swimming pools on the roofs. One of my favorite things I saw today was this kid with the Wu-tang Klan hat on. They Kare one of my favorite Hip Hop groups and to see some young kid wearing a hat with the Wu-tang Klan emblem is so funny and amazing to me. Martin is going back to work for Magnum in New York City again, this time they're paying him. It was an interesting walk today. Notice the snow around. Its been snowing about everyday this week since the weekend. I love it!! haha.
Posted by Victor at 11:22 PM | Comments (2)
February 07, 2006
Let it snow!! So do you think this was the last time this season ??
For those of you that don't know, I LOVE the snow!!! So when I woke up today to see already the streets and side walks had a few centimeters of snow ( about 1 to 1.5 inches for my american readers ) I was really happy. I was going to run some errands and grabbed my camera knowing that there would be many photos to take today. I thought to myself, will this be the last snow fall like this? It was fun to see the looks on some people that screamed how they were so done with winter. Not only that I got looks like " What is this iddiot doing taking pictures of the snow." So I took pictures and here are some of my favorites. Hope you like them. If you want to leave a comment like I know you do, you'll have to send me an email at victor@jouvert.net my comment link is going to be fixed this Friday or my photoblog may blow up. Me and Martin are going to be working on it. Martin is my main man in Vienna. He's a badass from the Bronx. Actually he's from Vienna but he lived in NYC for 6 months and stayed in my apartment.
Posted by Victor at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2006
Tante Inge, Klara und Die Neue Donau
Today Monika and I went to vistit Tante Inge who lives in Floridsdorf not far from "The New Danube". We ate a wonderful mittag essen, had coffee and dessert and then went to take Klara (her beautiful dog.) On the train ride over much to my surprise we saw people ice skating on the river. The New Danube is a part of the river that was created when they made the Donau insel. It created three arms of the Donau, The Alte Donau, The Neu Donau and then The Donau. So people were ice skating, walking dogs, and I even saw one guy riding a bike, if you look closely at the photo above with the bridge you'll see him. The weirdest and a bit scary is that when you look down into the ice it didn't seem so thick, it actually felt like it would crack open and in to the river you would go. There were even cracks that went on and on as far as one could see. I jumped on several areas half expecting to cause a crack to go all the way down and split the river open. I think I must have seemed like a little boy playing to Monika and Tante Inge but i really found this an amazing thing. Just this past week my friend Mattias Cremer who is a photographer for one of the big News Papers here, Der Standard, took some photos of the Danube that had lots of Ice. You can see those and his other photos from his blog here. -->click here<-- They have icebreakers there to let the boats use the river. So we had a wonderful day with Tante Inge, Klara and Ana. Ana is her 18 yr old cat but I didnt get any photos of her and she didnt want to join us for our walk. ;-)
Posted by Victor at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2005
Lugner City
Lugner City is a place where you can go shopping all day, go watch a movie and then have dinner afterward. Its like a mini mall. These places arent so common in Vienna but are popping up more and more these days. They have a late night, on thursdays, when the shops stay open as late at 9pm!! Its really radical changes usually the shops are closed by 6 or 7pm the latest.
Posted by Victor at 11:36 AM | Comments (2)
October 22, 2005
Albertina
Went to Albertina today to see a Janus Kounellis exhibit. It was very interesting and fun to go see his photos. There was also an exhibit of photos taken in Wien from 1850 to 1914. There was a Rudolf von Alt exhibit. There was a preiview of an exhibit that will come in December of Egon Schiele.
Posted by Victor at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)
October 21, 2005
Stadt Park & Johan Strauss
So today in German class there was a picture of a statue of Johan Strass in Stadt Park. So I decided to go and take pictures of the tourist taking pictures of the statue. I have to give credit to Martin Fuchs because I saw him do things like this on his blog. Martin is a friend of mine who in NewYork currently though he is originally Austrian. Any how I thought this would be more interesting than taking a photo of the statue itself.
Posted by Victor at 03:15 PM | Comments (2)
September 27, 2005
HC Strache
On the way home from Registering for german courses I almost signed up for the Freedom Party. There was this charasmatic man, who was dressed in a sports jacket and shirt with jeans, i couldnt understand what he was saying but he sounded good and I had seen his ads through out the neighborhood. Hmmm... I thought let me look in to this first. Turns out the " Freedom Party, is Austria's Neo Nazi Party.
Read more about the Freedom Party here.
Check out his website too. http://www.hcstrache.at
Posted by Victor at 11:23 PM | Comments (2)
HC Strache
Posted by Victor at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)
August 31, 2005
Westbahnhof
Wow, I've been a little busy and I haven't been posting or taking photos but after seeing Martin's current posting I am inspired to focus and get busy. You can see Martin's current posting at www.newyorkphotoblog.com
Posted by Victor at 11:01 PM | Comments (1)
August 24, 2005
Man Down
Today was my first attempt at getting some photos of these guys that congegate at the subway station across the street from me. They also hang out down the street where there is a big shopping street. Any way, today when one of them approached me for money I asked him it i could photograph him and very politely he said no. Usually I am the type of photographer to shoot first ask questions later or even ask no questions. Well I will continue my quest to get up close photos of these sought of homeless, gothic, punks. I think they are the old punks that used to be everywhere in europe and the U.S. back in the 80's. As a poor substitution I give you this photo of a man that looked like he was in another world.
Posted by Victor at 12:14 AM | Comments (1)
August 19, 2005
Riesenrad
Posted by Victor at 12:01 AM | Comments (1)
August 13, 2005
A Vienna Sunrise
This was the view this morning when I woke up and looked out side the window.
Posted by Victor at 08:51 PM | Comments (3)