Photo of the Day: Hundertwasserhaus Wien

DSC02052, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

The Hundertwasser House Vienna (Hundertwasserhaus Wien) is an apartment houseVienna, Austria, designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser...
...The house was built between 1983 and 1986 by architects Univ.-Prof. Joseph Krawina and Peter Pelikan. It features undulating floors, a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. Hundertwasser took no payment for the design of the house, declaring that it was worth it, to prevent something ugly from going up in its place.Within the house there are 52 apartments, four offices, 16 private terraces and three communal terraces, and a total of 250 trees and bushes.
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Video of the Day: How Croatians invaded Vienna!

Dedicated to all Croatian fans! Vienna was literally invaded by Croatian fans in white-red checked jerseys. Euro Cup 2008 is on full motion happening and exciting millions of fans around Europe and beyond. And to really feel it, you have to go to one of the host cities in Austria or Switzerland.

Good luck to Croatians! I bet on them ;)
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Football fest in Europe - Euro 2008 in Vienna report

Fantasy without borders; Anubis in Austrian jersey

For football fans, this is the best time to visit Europe! Not necessarily it should be Euro-2008 hosts Switzerland or Austria. In many other countries, central squares of the cities are turned into Fan Zones with huge screens to follow the games. Euro atmosphere is all over the continent! Even the people with zero interest in football can easily turn into the wildest fan! :) But if you have a chance to go to Austria or Switzerland, then do not miss it now! We spent last weekend in Vienna (one of the Euro'08 host cities), and the atmosphere was very "footballic"! All the photos are here.

Our Vienna trip gang; 1 Kyrgyz, 3 Kazakhs, 1 Russian, 3 Catalans

Museum Quartier has put up giant football boots for each participating country

As Croatia was to play with Austria in Vienna first, the city was literally invaded by Croatioans (proof videos and photos are to be provided). It was as if noone was left in Croatia and migrated to Austria (probably they had some good ventilation in Croatia during that period). Suddenly, we were in Zagreb, not Vienna.

Not only the half-drunk male fans, but pretty halves of Croatian supporters were in the Vienna streets as well.

Forza Croatia!

More of Croatian invasion. Giant Croatian flag floating over the square in front of Vienna's main cathedral - St.Stephen's Cathedral. (Videos are coming next!)


This 5-million nation is indeed very successful in sports; football, water polo, basketball, etc.

Local Austrian fans in Vienna streets - like rare tourists.

Besides them many other fans in different national jerseys, hats, face paints, scarves,... that's how football brings together nations and colors. And there were several Fan Zones (for all those who doesn't have the match tickets and who is not willing to watch the games lazily from home) where you could follow the game from huge screens, enjoy your beer and cheer your fav team with many other comrades.

In the Fan Zone in front of Rathhaus building

One of the Fan Zones inside the park. Photo taken from the top of the giant Ferri's Wheel. Similar fan zones can be found in several locations around the city.

Peter Cech (Czech Rep. & Chelsea goalkeeper) illustrated on the Ferri's Wheel.

With the hosts - Austria fans

I was... I am... I will cheer for Turkiye!

Apparently there were some Barcelona fans there as well! I had my Barca jersey on me, so 2 other Barca fans noticed me in that crowd and I heard them calling me "hey Barca, Barca!". Friendly chit-chat and a photo for the memory.

Leila came back to Prague after almost a year since she went back home to Kazakhstan. It was great to see her again, and to travel together after another great trip to Krakow (Poland) last year. We did our part and cheered for Czechs as well!

Now this is the pose of the real football fan!

Adil and Alex are already getting ready for future Spain vs Kazakhstan games in UEFA tournaments

Russia fans - Nastya & Leila

Czech fans - Adil & Kamilya

Holland supporters - yours truly & Leila(?)

Avrupa Avrupa! Duy sesimizi! Ishte bu Turklerin ayak sesleri!
(Europe Europe! Hear us! This is the sound of Turks' footsteps!)

Real Croatian fans!

Portugal boot (uploaded for viewing pleasure of Tamara)

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Yesterday, Turkey beat Switzerland. Now they need to do the same with Czechs. Despite living in Prague, I'm 100% sure which team I will cheer for! Together with her (see below) and other millions.

(Photo: www.ntvmsnbc.com)

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Vienna + Budapest

Off for next whole week. To explore the other 2 vertices of Golden Triangle of Central Europe; Prague - Vienna - Budapest. It will add 2 more countries and 2 more cities into the list of the countries I visited. This time my travel mate is Miki (Japan).

Even preparing for the trip is part of the trip for me; you get to read a lot and see many pictures while making a list of things to do and places to see, and it already puts you into the mood. Today it was unusually nice weather outside, but I stayed at home preparing for the upcoming 1 week trip and enjoying the warmth of one of the last warm days in Prague from my kitchen window.
So we got cheap bus tickets from Student Agency bus company (indeed they offer low-priced tickets for the international trips, and the service is good as well (considering how public customer service in Czech Republic sucks up to extreme levels!). Just to compare, I bought Prague-Vienna ticket for 300 CZK (~15 USD)! Train would cost around 1000 CZK (at least that's what Begimai told me). Budapest-Prague should also be less than 500 CZK. Thus, here I recommend - www.studentagency.cz!

Here's the plan;

Some podcasts I downloaded into my iPod to listen on the way there;

• From Rick Steve's podcasts
• TravelCast from Lonely Planet offers interesting postcasts as well (search in iTunes)
• Amateur Traveller Podcast collection also offers quite a lot

Keywords for Vienna tour - Hundertwasser Haus, Schoennbrunn Palace, Gloriette , Hofburg Imperial Palace, Riesenrad ferris wheel, Naschmarkt, Karlzplatz, Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera), Albertina, Stephansdom, Hofburg, Museums Quartier, tram D city tour, Heuriger, United Nations headquarters, St. Stephen's Cathedral, Sachertorte cake

Keywords for Budapest tour - Buda Castle, stle, Fisherman's Bastion, Matthias Church, Heroes' Square, Danube Promenade, Gellert Hill, Cave Church, Great Market Hall, Liberty Bridge, Margaret Island, Hungarian Parliament Building, Széchenyi Chain Bridge, Tomb of Gül Baba

We'll be staying at the Hostel Husseldorf, according to the ratings it should be good place to spend the night.

Weather forecast is not the best one, but optimistic.

View from my kitchen window

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