since i took a view days off due to easter holidays, i went to vienna. and so i had another visit to the zoo of schoenbrunn. i thought there wouldn't be too many people since it was on a wednesday, but i was wrong. loads of tourists, school classes, etc. most likely also because the weather was excellent for a visit to the zoo i did not end up being there alone. i focused on the big kitty-cats this time, like lions, tigers, cheetahs, and lynx. unfortunately i did not see the panther and the lynx. both were hiding, i guess. additionally there was a construction site right opposite the lynx cage, so i guess the cat was also annoyed by the noise they made. and the cage was full of trees and bushes and green. so no idea were it decided to take a nap far away from me. sniff. but at least most of the cats enjoyed lying around in the sun[02-09,39-41], or playing in the little pond with a ball[10-18]. of course i also stopped by all the other lovely cute little animals[01,19-38] they have there. was - as usual - a lot of fun with all the kitties around. a few days later i finally made it to the giger exhibition. though i have been to the last one too, this year's one had a few exhibits i haven't seen before. but i was happy to find the alien head in the exhibition once more, but this time they had another one. though again an original alien movie prop it wasn't the one with the wires i have seen the last time. well, one gets what they expect from giger art: penises, asses, breasts, and pictures of joyful coitus right next to strange creatures, and contaminated, deformed bodies. very enjoyable, i like this look and atmosphere in the pictures by h.r. giger. sunday we (ninsti, me, and some friends) went to the prater to enjoy the festival on the labour day. loads of bands on several stages (though some "stages" actually only were tents). after the concerts we found a maypole. i guess due to intoxication or boredom we decided, in accordance with austrian tradition, to take it with us. so five people ended up dragging the quite heavy and huge pole through the prater. loads of people went or drove by cheering for us, but actually no one seemed too much surprised to see some guys running around with a large tree. since the pole was really heavy we decided to not take it home with us, but rather re-erect the pole at the nearby pub called "fluc". with the help of some drunk people from the pub we really managed to tie the pole to some street lantern, where we finally left our trophy. puh, i guess i can mark this "you should have done that once in your lifetime"-thingie as done. maypole stolen - yippieh!

for a long time the company i'm working for had planned to go for a paintball match. it has been postponed several times, but today it finally took place. i was really looking forward to this event, but since i had some issues with a rib, i didn't take part in the game. i didn't want to get a bullet... aehm... paintball right in my side. so instead of shooting bullets i took the risk of taking pictures with my cam. to not get shot by others, i got the special referee-dress, strips of black and white and a face protection mask[011] with little bells on it. after a short introduction[005-008] by the guy running this place and a little shooting to get customized[012-016] to the weapon... aeh... the painting-device, the battles began. first ones were team deathmatches[017-106]. then, after a break[107-119] to refill the guns... ahm... painting-device, the mode was switched to "CTD", capture the donkey[120-139]. after a few hours the guys were really exhausted[140] and pretty colourful[141]. during the game i was right in the middle of the battle field, always telling the guys were i was standing, so they wouldn't shoot at my (or, to be more precise, at my camera, because i wouldn't have cared too much about getting hit myself, but it would have definitely hurt if my camera got hit). this worked pretty fine for most parts of the games, only once i got attacked pretty hard, as i was hiding in some raised hide and one guy thought my camera was a gun that was pointing at him. since my body, and thus my referee shirt, was hidden behind a wooden slab the guy kept shooting at me. luckily i could hide[123] just right in time. no harm done. the game looked like pretty much fun, too bad i couldn't participate. but the grief got a little less, once i saw the wounds those little balls[125] can cause. one co-worker got three shots in the back, resulting in big red spots. this really looked like a lot of pain. but yet, everyone was happy.