A slight bungle.

I screwed up ever so slightly and I humbly beg your indulgence.  I was messing around with stuff yesterday and wanted to publish an entry to see just exactly how it would look,  which resulted in that link taking you to the wrong place. 

So if you clicked on “Playing with watermarks” as a result of this blog being linked to someone else’s,  as in ‘on their list’,  you had to then click on “home” to get anywhere.   Sorry.  After 679 posts spanning four years,  I’m still a “pretty good beginner”.  

*sigh*

 

 

Where was I?

 

Today is Ljuba’s last day here in Europe.  She spent the last week down in Slovenia visiting here and there.  She did go to one place where we’ve never been,  which is out to the salt producing area of Slovenia on the Adriatic.  Daughter Number two and here hubby were there last year.  Last year?   Oh geez,  maybe it was two years ago?  Never mind.  Here is a link to the Google search page if you're remotely interested.

 

Although she certainly could have made her way to our front door on the public transit system (hey,  I’ve done it to and from that train station) we went to pick her up last night.  Everything is pretty quiet at that time of night. 

 

I probably should have taken the Nikon,  but then taking a short video would have been out of the question.

 

 

There was actually quite the hoard on that train.  Ljuba had very wisely reserved her seat both going down and for the return trip,   but it’s still heaps better when a train is only half full,  since then you’re not packed in for five hours.   Actually the report was that the train was mostly empty and that more and more people kept getting on after they crossed into Austria. Folks getting back in to town after the weekend?  Sure beats Sunday night traffic on the 400.

 

 

There was some mention of the architecture yesterday,  as well as something to do with coffee.   Yes,  the architecture is pretty awesome for the most part.   It’s very easy to muddle along from day to day with out really looking up once in a while to appreciate the work that has gone into the buildings here.   There are a few “plain Janes”,   but for the most part,  there’s a certain pride in making things look nice.

Now,  as to the coffee plus water question?  Well,  as near as I can figure from wandering around the net,  it’s a habit that came out of Turkey,  since the coffee there is pretty high test stuff.   The water also helps to clear away that “crud”  in your mouth that tends to linger after a cup of coffee.  Not only that,  since coffee is a diuretic,  the addition of equal parts water to the experience helps to balance out that situation.   It’s a multi-pronged solution,  if you will.

So basically,  there doesn’t seem to be one pat answer.  And this probably could be filed under,  “Bob is making sh*t up”, but I’ll stand by my utterances just the same.  You’re certainly welcome to search it all you want.  Your mileage may differ.

Now,  on the very opposite end of things in the “fancy building department” (and you knew I mentioned the architecture for a reason),  I’d like to offer the following:

 

Really? 

Oh man!  Gotta go there! 

(not)

 

 

The plan for today is,  Travelling Companion is going to *try* to get out of work early enough so that I can first go and fetch her,  and then she can accompany Ljuba and I to the airport.   We need to leave our front  door by some time around 5:30 p.m. in my humble opinion.  Ljuba’s flight is at 20:05  (OS457),  so even if it takes me an hour to get out of the city,  she’ll still have plenty of time.   This is the same departure time I have set up for the coming Friday when T.C. and I are heading to Shrewsbury for the weekend,  so it’ll be a good test. 

 

Keep those cell phones charged.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

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Around the Neighbourhood.

 

Kind of struggling here with Google maps,  so I thought I’d revert to the print screen program and then muck about with Paint. 

Seems primitive somehow. 

I also think I’m going to start putting a little watermark on stuff. 

Just well,  because.

 

This was the beginning of the walking on Saturday

No,  actually it wasn’t,  since I had been out shopping before that already.  Doesn’t really count I suppose.

 

Sometimes I see things that at first don’t make a heap of sense.

Cops + Firefighters.   

Hm.

 

It looked as though the firefighters were moving a couple cars around,  and I’m not sure at what point I stumbled on this scene.  Usually they call an “Abschleppdienst”  and haul your car away.  Click that link if the concept has you sitting there slack jawed.

 

The first pic was when I was headed in one direction,  and then later when I came back,  it started to make a bit more sense.

Obviously they had closed the street for some sort of festival or whatever.   Maybe it was yet another selling extravaganza?  I didn’t check back later,  since I didn’t really give a hoot. 

The following is a bunch of “made up stuff”,  and may not be accurate in the least,  but I’m going to theorise anyway:

Rather than take these two cars away,  it would seem that the authorities moved them closer to a point where they could safely be driven off,  after which they put the two notices on the windshields.  The top (larger) one points out that the street is being closed,  and the smaller one doesn’t appear to be a ticket,  but rather a Verständigung.   The only thing I can come up for the meaning of that second one is an “understanding”.  I suppose we’d call it some sort of notification?   Meh, not sure.  I didn’t I want to do anything more than observe from a safe distance.   

Yet another slight Wienerland mystery.  At least the owners of these vehicles (who apparently have some issues with their reading skills,  since the signs looked pretty obvious to me) could actually come out from wherever they were holed up and drive off.  It would totally suck to come out in the morning and only find a bit of a dry spot where your wheels used to be.   Even in this case,  if your car has mysteriously been moved up the street,  I’m sure a person might have a brief moment of panic.

 

 

The little jaunt that Travelling Companion and I took was actually in search of a particular jewellery store that I thought was on Gumpendorfer Straße.  That’s what the address said,  but that too is a bit of a mystery.  Gave up on that,  and decided to take the subway down to where all the action is:

 

Yes,  that’s Stephansplatz,  a place where I rarely like to go.  On a Saturday?  Too many people.  That is all. 

 

 

I don’t dare mention the amount of people that go through here on a busy weekend.  I can’t find the article anymore.  *drat*.   But suffice to say,  it’s a lot.   Something like 750,000?  Don’t quote me.

 

So we shop.

I just sort of bide my time,  waiting for T.C. to finally declare,  “OK,  I’ve had enough”.   This is usually after we’ve taken a little break to “set a spell”  and have some sort of liquid refreshment.  *Thinks*  Since I wasn’t driving,  I could have had a beer,  but instead I had a “Melange”.  Which was just as welcome,  so it wasn’t like I regretted my choice.  (Oh goodness!  There’s a French word!  Better be careful!)  

 

For some reason that once again remains a mystery,  the waiter wasn’t using a tray of any kind,   which meant that he could only bring out what he could carry in two hands.  Silly bugger.  So the caption of that photo above was going to be,  “What’s wrong with this picture?”

If you’ve ever had coffee most anywhere in Europe,  it’s always served with a glass of water.  It just seems to work somehow.   Well,  moments after I took this,  he brought our water.  But I like the picture anyway.

 

I was going to drone on about our side trip to Kutná Hora,  on our way back from Prague on Sunday afternoon,  but that’s kind of old news at this point.   I might stick in a snippet in a day or two.  My eyes are getting tired,  as are yours no doubt.

 

Hope everyone has a fine Sunday.

 

Thanks for lookin’.

 

 

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That “fun” thing.

It’s a fairly normal Friday here in Wienerland,  so I may have to improvise just a tad.

First of all,  since it’s June the first,  the “boys” downstairs are setting out their Schanigarten.    They’ve had a team of guys doing the grunt work all morning.  Anyone who has been in the Armed Forces knows what a GRUNT is of course,  right?   You won’t find that in any on line dictionary,  so I suppose I had better fill you in.  It’s a not so very politically correct term that refers to the guys who do the slugging,  or a “General Retard Unfit for Normal Training”.

I first learned that term from one of my older brothers(they’re all older,  btw!)  who,  when he first joined the Canadian Air Force back in the dark ages,  thought a really nice “safe” job would be as a Radar Tech,  only to find out that when he went over to Germany with his young family in the 70s and was stationed at Baden-Söllingen,  every Tom, Dick and Serge (there were some French guys too)  was a Radar Tech,   and they all ended up doing the usual grunt work like starting up and fuelling up the CF-104 Starfighter.  Otherwise known as the Widow-Maker.

He did lose some of his hearing in spite of wearing both ear plugs as well as ear defenders.  Them suckers is loud.

 

So,  here’s what they had at this point.

When I went to the store around noon time they had all the umbrellas up,  with the railing and such,  but it was just starting to rain,  so a picture was out of the question.  Besides which,  I was carrying 24 cans of beer.  That’s 12 litres kids. 

I’m going to miss those half litre cans….

 

Now,  before we get to the “fun” in funicular (which was the only way I could remember how to spell it by the way),  I just want to include this little snippet for your amusement.   It’s been hitting the internet in certain places apparently.

 

 

For as long as it stays up,  there’s an article here from the English version of one of the local news sites.

Life in Absurdistan

The title is mine.  If you read the article,  you’ll notice that for some strange reason,  the writer has switched three Euros to two Pounds.  I think they need a better editor,  and I don’t mean me.

 

So the story goes that this young family that had come down from Germany for a brief stay,  had thought it would be great sport to buy a fish at the store,  somehow hook it onto one of the fishing poles that their kids were using, so as to make it look like he had caught a fish.  Well,  the hubby got arrested.  He didn’t have the proper permit to have a line in the water.   Doesn’t matter if you catch anything it seems.  So that title above says,  “Fish posse,  World laughs over Austrian Trout.   Austria’s authorities are chasing a father over a three Euro trout”.  

*groan*

Reminds me of the little story of the young lady out in the boat reading a book.  Her significant other had come in from fishing,  left all his equipment behind and she thought she’d row out,  drop the hook and read for a while.  The “authorities” came by and were going to charge her with fishing without a licence.  She didn’t understand how that could be,  at which point this “authority” pointed out that she had “all the equipment”,  so she must be fishing.   She said that would be all fine and dandy, except that she’d then have to accuse him of rape,  since he did have “all the equipment”  after all.   He very quickly left her to read her book.   

Not sure if you’ve heard that one.  More of a tall tale than anything I’m sure.

 

 

On to the funicular.    You’ll recall that we took the one in Ljubljana up to the castle?   I think this one is a little longer,  since it’s just over a half kilometre long,  with more than one car,  and they pass each other at a junction that’s about midway up to the half way point.   Seems to me the one in Ljubljana only goes up about 70 metres or so,  but I wouldn’t swear to it.

 

 

No big deal really,  except I’m getting the impression that there are funicular railways all over the hilly bits of Europe. 

 

This (below) is at the half way point where we got off,  since we wanted to sit and have a view of the city.   The sound you hear is the cable that is running the whole time.  Of course,  at some point about thirty seconds in,  the camera didn’t know what to focus on.  And since I can’t see,  I couldn’t really tell at the time.  *sigh*

 

 

Still had to climb a few steps to get to the restaurant.

Here’s your view.

It’s from one of these front row seats.  They never stayed empty long.

There are far better videos on YouTube,  showing the passing area.   You might like to mute this one below,  since the chatter of the passengers is a bit annoying.

Well, at least I think so.

 

 

This embedding video stuff is fun,  innit?

 

Just hope you have the bandwidth.  No help there.

 

Oh,  and the price to go up the funicular?   Dirt cheap!  Seems to me it was something like 24 Kč each.  That’s something like a buck twenty.  The kicker was,  we went to buy our return tickets after we had had our coffee and the ticket machine was busted. Gah!

I fully expected there to be some surly ticket checking person waiting for the lot of us at the bottom,  and I was prepared to argue my case,  but there wasn’t anyone.    It was late Saturday afternoon,  and the funicular was mobbed,  so I think it could very easily have turned into a lynch mob.  That whole Velvet Revolution thing wasn’t all that long ago.  Trying to check tickets as everyone was squeezing out the door would have created a bit of a scene.

 

Of course,  you’re bound to see at least one protest. 

 

 

Somehow it wouldn’t seem like a European city without at least one. 

Can anyone read Czech?  I sure can’t.   They’re on a hunger strike,  but the sign where that’s written (fourth from left) is in English.  I cheated.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I might throw up a bone or two.

 

Have a fine weekend wherever you are.

 

Thanks for stopping in.

 

 

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