"Gentlemen, you are beasts!" (a phrase from the movie "Slave of Love")
A huge, fat plus sign for the entire sky. Cast in bronze and elevated to heavenly heights.
Slideshow:
I'm adding photos to the gallery, little by little.
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Vienna. The city is interesting, multifaceted and beautiful. For us, it was clearly segmented into two parts. What we went through on the first day (we walked clockwise, carefully avoiding entering the center), and what we managed to see on the second day.
The first day. "The guides are going to the Vienna Woods - I need to touch the towers, " I said, and we went to Aufgarden. Walking distance from the center. True, after the towers there was an amusement park, a university, parks, the second towers and Bilvider, an opera and folk park (we stomped a ring around Vienna for about 20 km).
Towers
A dream came true - to touch the "udder" Flak turm. Not everything is clear, but those in Vienna worked out. One. But by hand.
The first pair of towers I wrote about back in 2010 year, preserved in Vienna in the Aufgarden park. On the right bank of the Danube, on the skeleton between the Danube itself and the central part of Vienna.
When I saw the first tower in the fog, sticking out from behind the trees, I confess, I experienced a lot of feelings of satisfaction - I finally got to delight and admiration.
Here it is, the true symbol of the War - the gloomy gray Moloch. Absorbing into its insides thousands of sacrifices brought to it, spewing flames and shaking the world.
The base of the first (in fact, the second tower) is surrounded by a grid, so unlike graffiti artists who were especially isolated, I didn’t manage to break through, but what I saw was enough for me.
The tower strikes, stomps, crushes to the ground, asserts itself over the surrounding world and waits in the wings. It is clear that this is a poetic metaphor, but in the event of a nuclear war, this is the only place I would rush to when I heard about the launch of missiles.
Walking around it, I noticed that the top of the tower looked rather deplorable. As it turned out, in 1946, the “everywhere-pissing” boys set something on fire inside and blew up the ammunition that had not been shot during the assault and defense of Vienna. He jerked so that the upper ceiling, designed for a direct hit by an air bomb, jumped up and collapsed down, sweeping the lower floors. It is clear that today there is porridge, and no one will be engaged in clearing. We tightened the top of the tower with reinforcement rings and left it as it is.
The second one - the command tower - stuck out at the other end of the park. I must say, the park is interesting. Tall trees cut ten meters up by special machines, creating long galleries in the body of the park. Children, squirrels, mothers with strollers - a kind of twist of reality, in which this place roared with sirens, the bark of rapid-fire guns and volleys of main guns.
I imagined for a second how it really was: a black sky, flashes of explosions, the howl of bombs, sirens and the face of Moloch, stealing the lives of his own and enemies.
So - the second - the command tower was also surrounded by a grid, behind which communications were visible in some places, stretching to cellular antennas. Walking around it, with my head up in the sky, got tired quickly, and I drowned in the next bush of towers - closer to the center in the thick of houses.
These towers also live in a tiny park filled with mothers of all nations and their children. At the foot of one of them - the one that I did touch with my palm - a children's playground with carousels-swings was built.
And on the second, a very ambiguous phrase at a height of 20 meters.
I didn't go to the third bush. There is an army computer center and an amusement park.
"Not that! " – as the great classic would say.
From the legacies of the "thousand-year Reich" there was (in my opinion) a stunningly beautiful colonnade in Volks Park, transparent and eternal. Why Reich? There, in front of her, a bronze fellow stuck out, apparently symbolizing with his perfection how a real Aryan should look, and at the entrance gate to the complex with Prince Eden on a green horse hung two stone eagles, very reminiscent of those eagles that hold a swastika on various symbols. And that's all. Before the Reich and after it, a lot of buildings, symbols and views. Instead of the Reich, it's empty.
On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised by the attitude towards our fallen soldiers-liberators. Mature, measured, respectful.
Belvedere
Through some gate in the fence of the botanical garden we got to the threshold of the castle. Well, if not a castle, then something sublime.
The view that opened was from the side, so I had to sniff the building from all sides. It was worth it.
It was then that Google Map rang out where we were. But first. . .
In short, Alupka is resting! Both in size and scope. Yes, and in beauty - ten times so! Since the guide was not running around hungry for money and spamming, I had to soak it up.
Soaked in. It is beautiful. From all sides, especially in the setting sun. Still, there is beauty in the absence of guides. The director himself, he invented it for himself, he went where his feet were. And with you only your impressions. Yours, those that cannot be cut.
Third day. And still there.
Transport
The red S7 torpedo, scurrying between Vienna and the airport, is silent, beautiful and comfortable, like death itself on the Titanic. Moreover, it flies past the cemetery where the greats of this world rest.
The subway is rustling, confusing for me (which is one Shuttentor station spread over a vast territory). It's like going out on Pochtovaya, thinking that you are on Kontraktovaya.
The taxis weren't very noticeable, except for a pretty lady over 65, the driver of one of them.
Motorized scooters lying around and standing here and there are something. I saw it, I took it, I went. There is a QR code on the steering wheel, by scanning which you can take a scooter for 1 euro (0.15 euros per minute).
Ride until the batteries die. Then you can put it anywhere, from where a special service will pick up this marvel and drag it away for charging.
True, there are nuances. If you leave such a scooter in the red zone, you can get a fine of 25 euros.
Flocks of bicycles with baskets and bright colors are everywhere. 1 euro hour. At one time, the city authorities flew in with such an initiative - the citizens, despite their upbringing in the spirit of "Ordnugr er shissen", managed to steal more than a thousand bikes. Who actually stole is a separate issue. Then the procedure became more complicated and now, in order to take a “ride”, you need to register a credit card, from which 600 euros are temporarily deducted as a deposit.
"Legs are ours". An ideal transport that gives healthy sleep, a lot of impressions and impressive costs for snacks in various taverns, of which there are a lot.
20 km a day around the center of Vienna + 20 km the next day - what a feat? Though not Hercules, "but there is something heroic in this too. "
A carousel is something that takes off half a hundred meters up with screeching, screaming and a ban on filming (if someone drops a mobile phone, it won’t seem enough), 5 euros is cold.
Smoking
On every corner and even more often there are trash cans with built-in ashtrays in the form of a cigarette filter. Often, ashtrays in the form of a huge cigarette are screwed to traffic lights or street barriers. Special booths for non-smokers have been built on the train platforms.
At the airport, a zone where it is not recommended to smoke is marked right on the concrete (so that smoke does not enter the room).
Non-smoking booth on the platform of the train, where it is already forbidden to smoke. This is the real meaning of the word tolerance, and not the fuss with gay parades and other pretense of alleged democracy.
The choice is given - smoke and die, but you shouldn't litter. Or pass by and don't worry about the dead man. It's his choice. Him.
Our reality with smoking bans everywhere, fines, hysteria about banning smoking at home on balconies and other restrictions suggests that all this spam is needed to disperse attention, to make you think about nonsense at the moment when really important things are being decided. Deriban budget and its development.
Trans.
On the S7 platform, I heard a thick beautiful male bass. Turning around, I saw next to two elderly women talking about something. The one that is taller, thin and somehow "castrubata", cheerfully communicating, turned in profile, revealing to my eyes a classic (as in portraits with lords and dukes) huge nose on a blackly tanned "face".
Gyulchatay turned out to be a man in his 50s, wearing a skirt, a curly wig, a flirty jacket, plaid tights and low-heeled shoes, with a micro dog in her arms. While driving to the airport, Gulchatay scurried around the car, sticking to the passengers, apparently feeding on attention and drowning them out with her bass.
This is the only picture about tolerant Europe that I came across. Well, except perhaps a crowd of aggressively yelling slogans of the "greens", singing something of their own, "green", so much so that we, being inside the neighboring church, perceived the echoes as if someone on the verge of hearing was singing in chorus that something ecclesiastical. Beautiful and soulful. Going outside, beauty crumpled and turned into a mess of screams of laughter and city noise.
Language
No problem at all. At all. The only time when the brains boiled was the fight with the vending machine that sells tickets from the airport to the city. German is the default language and it was difficult to understand which area and how many people can go to at first. But with people it's different. English with a dictionary was more than enough, and Google translator gave a reason to neigh when, instead of the seller’s completely understandable phrase “we definitely don’t have such a rarity”, it gave out “how do you look? ”.
Wifi
About the fact that it is everywhere and works, these are the tales of the Vienna Woods. Yes. Public access points are visible, but it was rare to land on them due to the huge amount of interference around. But roaming plowed with a bang.
An interesting observation. Judging by the fact that the jeepies stopped seeing satellites when approaching the Vienna airport, I assume that the airport is protected from quadrocopters and judging by the size of the dead spot (from the cemetery), this is serious money.
The main photo block in the slideshow at the very beginning.
Adding
True, there were a couple of minuses. Instructive.
I'll start with "pictures" from our own. Namely, "not Vienna", penetrating there from us, from our wild. Maybe it will help someone in the future.
Passport control at the airport. A group of enterprising Arabs outlives the wife of the queue. I approached later, gallantly let an elderly lady in the Arab national and was struck by her reaction - a victorious procession past us and an expression of contempt. It’s necessary what kind of mentality young ladies have there, that showing respect for them is considered a sign of weakness.
Evening walk in the Schuttenruth area. A staggering figure appears from around the corner, clings to the walls and passers-by, and, well, to me (who has softened and believed that this is a civilized country). AHA! A homeless-looking stranger, about 60 years old, chattering something, nervously clutching his sleeve. To my "Sorry, Fershtein" runs back, issuing obscene phrases in Polish and promises to break glasses. While I was thinking about where I am, what I am, and maybe kick this miracle, he disappeared without waiting. I did everything right. This is a breeder. Provocation, calling the police and everything - vacation in one place.
The impression was created that the crowns themselves were adults, wise, who knew what was what. Calm down and looking at us with bewilderment. We are children, without education and elemental vaccinations against rabies and hatred for ourselves, and for everything that is not within the scope of our concepts. We are those who came here with claims to consider ourselves "Europeans".
So far this is bewildering. Then it will change to contempt. I don’t know how to filter out normal people and those who, having a TV and a pack of bucks instead of brains, stick themselves here.
