Change of plans

Well, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with this daily photo thing forever, but I was hoping to at least make to 100 posts. I barely made it half way. So, it's time for some changes. I will continue to post photos almost daily (Monday through Friday), but they won't necessarily be a photo from that day. Starting Monday, look for more frequent photos.

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

This scary gnome is in a yard near a friend's house. One day as Brian and I were walking past it, the daughter of the friend warned us that if you got too close to the house, the gnome would "robot" after you. She also said that the blank eyes glowed at night. She has a pretty vivid imagination.

Keywords: gnome, garden, scary, robot

Saturday, May 24th, 2008

This is the only cafe I know of in the city that's open 24/7. I'm sure there are others, but they're quite uncommon. This is one of my favorite cafes because I always feel like a local when I'm here.

Keywords: cafe, restaurant

Friday, May 23, 2008

More decor for the upcoming soccer games.

Keywords: soccer, Eurocup

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

This is a sign at one of the many food stands around the city. It says something like, "We serve horse specialties from Gumprecht! Our snack time tip: the tasty horse Leberkäse!"

Leberkäse is a mixture of corned beef, bacon and onions -- and apparently in this case, horse meat. Leberkäse literally translate to "liver cheese", even though it doesn't necessarily contain liver or cheese. They're pretty popular in Austria, but I've managed to avoid them thus far.

Keywords: signs, horse meat

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

I haven't developed quite the same fascination with slugs as I have with snails, but I like their German name even more than the name for snail. A snail is "schnecke" and a slug is "nacktschnecke" -- or, in English, "naked snail".

Keywords: snail, slug, translation, German

Monday, May 19, 2008

I've developed this odd fascination with snails. Maybe it's because I've never seen such large snails like this. But I think really I just like the name -- schnecke. Not only is "schnecke" a snail, it's also a pet name and the name for cinnamon rolls (Zimtschnecke).

Keywords: snail

Friday, May 16, 2008

This is the Neue Donau, or the New Danube. It was created as part of the flood protection system when the Danube (what is now the Alte Donau, or Old Danube) was rerouted to it's current path -- which is the Donau, or Danube.

I'm not sure if all of that is accurate. I just wanted to see how many times I could include Danube and Donau.

Keywords: danube, donau, river, water

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Today as I took out the recycling I noticed this sticker on one of the containers and couldn't help taking a photo. (Yes, I took my camera with me when I took out the recycling, but let's stick to the point.)

The sticker basically says, "We warn you! You've fallen into a chip trap."

We received a flyer from this same organization last year and I've seen advertisements for it at several u-bahn stations. I just still can't get over the oddity of it. I wonder how many of them there are out there.

Keywords: aliens, advertising, religion, chip implant, verichip

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

It's hard to miss it -- there's something major happening with soccer in Vienna. The UEFA Euro2008 (Euro Cup) finals are being held in Vienna in June. I just noticed today that several bushes near Schottentor have been made to look like giant soccer balls.

Keywords: EuroCup, soccer, football

Friday, May 9, 2008

This has got to be the coolest street musician I've seen in Vienna. He was playing the harmonica, guitar, keyboard, drums and (I think) a xylophone. See the glove on his left knee? It was holding the wand -- or whatever it's called -- that was hitting the xylophone-like instrument and he controlled it with his left leg. Meanwhile, he was using his right foot to keep the beat on the drums.

It was quite a sight to see. And the music wasn't that bad either.

Keywords: music, street performer, musician, multi-tasking

Thursday, May 8, 2008

This is one of several bike rental stands around Vienna. I think you have to set up an account using your bank card, but then you can take a bike and return it to any of the city bike stands. The best part -- the first hour is free.

Keywords: bike, bicycle, free

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

I haven't been out and about much this week, so I decided to try a little macro photography. You don't have to go to Vienna to see these things popping up everywhere.

Keywords:

Monday, May 5, 2008

Keywords: advertisement, inlingua, language, ich habe nur Banhhof verstanden

Time to rock the vote

I originally decided to only include photos here and write the descriptions in Flickr because I wanted the site to look nice and clean. Minimalistic, I suppose. But recently I realized that I probably wouldn't want to go to another site to read about a photo and maybe you don't either. So here's your chance to make a difference in the world. Or at least on my blog. I've added a poll to the sidebar where you can vote on whether you want to see the descriptions here on this blog or whether you want to continue to ignore them over on Flickr. Oh, you know who you are -- those of you who come and look at the pretty photos but don't click over the Flickr to see what I've got to say about the photo. I'm on to you.

And don't worry, your vote will remain confidential. The poll results only show me how many people vote for each option. It doesn't give me your name, email address and social security. And even if it did, I wouldn't sell that information if you voted inappropriately. And even if I did, you would never be able to prove anything.

So go on now... vote!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Keywords: dancing, old couple, zagreb, croatia, band

Friday, May 2, 2008

Keywords: sunset, view through a train window, river, slovenia