Hanami

Hello!

The Volksgarten in Vienna has become a fixture over the past years. My focus points alter during the year, from lilacs in early spring to sleeping beauties aka roses in December.

Mid May is the perfect season for some intensive Hanami, flower viewing. The variety is such a pleasure. Vienna never ceases to mesmesrise

 

 The big picture:

Some sweet backlighting ...

Girls feeding their social media accounts. Plus a monumental London plane tree in the background. The trees's trunk has a circumference of 20 ft. The young tree in the foreground gets supported by poles.

After sunset ...

 

Overly sweet and intense impressions get neutralised by soothing grainfields. 

They vast fields awaited me in the outskirts of Vienna.

I hope you had a not too stressful May-season, given the current circumstances.
Paula

Strolling Around the City Centre

Hello!

What looks like a memory of my student years: Michaelerplatz in the early morning hours after a night out is actually a weekday evening, around 7pm.

This can't be. 

Michaelerplatz. Definitely surreal. Those post apocalyptic movies where ... surprisingly accurate.

Michalerplatz shoud be crowded, people heading home, tourists enjoying the last sunbeams, happy crowds. Happy, because they made it here before the hundreds and thousands of Easter tourists from all over the world arrive in Vienna. Around 7pm shops would be closing their doors - until the next morning. You who has visited the City of Vienna before know the lively heartbeat of the city centre.

The orange paper bag marks shopping with style: Meinl am Graben is a posh supermarket where posh people buy their groeries during the lockdown in Vienna.

Lichtensteg, next to Lugeck.

The bright screen is what is left for the moment: ice cream parlor "Zanoni" at Lugeck

The "Schwarzes Kameel" to the left has endured pest & cholera. It will outlive this lockdown fo sure. The Schwares Kameel dates back to 1618.

Not sure what YSL feared then they cleared the shelves? Broken glass? Dust?

Louis Vuitton (to the left) also cleared the shelves. But the left the lights on.

Wow. What a beauty. The "bazaar" inside the Palais Ferstel at the Freyung.

The impressive Schottenkirche at the Freyung.

At last, some normalcy! Olafur Eliasson's Yellow Fog at Am Hof. Well, it turned cherry blossom pink. I don't mind at all.

PRADA comes with a glimpse of normalcy, too. Offering window shopping at nighttime, including calming blossoms.

Good news: Spring is happening. And it's just beautiful.
Paula