Friday, March 06, 2009

a few photos from Vienna

The most striking thing I saw in Vienna was an exhibition by artist Gerhard Richter, at the Albertina Museum.

Usually photography doesn't captivate me, but I was riveted by this exhibit.




It looks as though he's just blurring the photos, or applying a swiping effect. Perhaps one day I will try this on my own photos to make them more artistic.

Here are my own boring unaltered photos from the past week in Vienna:


The inside of St. Stephen's cathedral, at night.


Venetians on the street, dressed up for Mardi Gras.


A sculpture in a square.


A car getting towed. This is different from the US, where tow trucks drag the car on its two rear wheels.


Austrian food has a lot of sausages, pickles, schnitzel. It was good, but after a few days, my body craved vegetables.


An Austrian friend said that cold cuts and breads is a common dinner. I like this practice of eating the most extravagant meal midday and having the dinner be a denouement.


Driving from Tulln, a suburb of Vienna. I took this photo from the car. Hey, I just noticed that it has the blurring and swiping effect. Watch out, Gerhard Richter!


The Albertina Museum was one of the most lovely museums I've seen.


The cafe inside the Albertina. Unfortunately it stopped serving food and drinks by the time I got to it.


The salon of Sisi, former empress of Austria. She met the emperor Franz when he came for a brief stay at her parents' palace. He was there to meet Sisi's older sister, Nene. But when he saw the lovely Sisi, he fell right away in love.

Sisi refused to accept him, out of loyalty for her sister (girl code!). So Franz pressed her hand by holding a betrothment ceremony. In front of everyone, he walked in with the engagement bouquet, right past Nene with outstretched arms, and presented the flowers to Sisi. What a scandal! Truly they were the Brangelina of their time.


Eileen on the train. We had a pleasant train ride.

I like train travel in Europe. It's efficient, since you can arrive 15 minutes prior to departure instead of 90 minutes for the airport. Also there is more personal space around each seat, and interesting scenery out the window.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just FYI, picture number 10 is not the Albertina museum, but the Karlskirche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlskirche). I hope you enjoyed your stay in Vienna!

Anonymous said...

Hey Niniane -- hope you are doing well. We'd love to hear about some of your favorite Vienna spots over on nextstop.com -- or if you're still there, check out some of these places recommended already. http://www.nextstop.com/location/z98ioqcE-EE/

Anonymous said...

Niniane, the photographs taken by you are not boring...
They are nice..
especially the one in which the car is being towed.. haha
you looked gorgeous in the train..
keep smiling..
regards
ipsg007

om said...

niniane enough of this staid museum and eating stuff. when we are in berlin, we will do as berliners do.

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!

N said...

ipsg007,

That's my friend Eileen in the train photo, not me! Yes, she looks gorgeous, in that photo and always! I am not sure how this confusion happened, since the photo is captioned "Eileen on the train".

N said...

re: Omar. What do Berliners do exactly? You are making me nervous. I prefer my staid museum and eating routine.

N said...

Hi Carl, I'm reading Adrian's Berlin nextstop guide now. Btw you might wish to make your URLs human-readable for better SEO. :)

Anonymous said...

Yep, we're working on it. ;) New stuff coming soon.

Anonymous said...

Richter is a painter, not a photographer. Some of his paintings are more photorealistic than others.

http://www.gerhard-richter.com/art/