in our small collection of board games, there is an austrian version of monopoly from the early seventies, which my mom apparently received as a birthday gift. it has her name written on the bottom of the box in childishly written letters.
the currency in monopoly austria is austrian schillings¹, and the game has a set of two or three streets from each provincial capital.

in january 2007, at one point during a 90-minute-layover in vienna with absolutely nothing to do, i noticed i was walking through one of the streets from monopoly.
i decided to find the other two, and takes pictures.
that same year, coincidence or fate (whatever) also brought me to bregenz, salzburg and eisenstadt (forgot to collect the streets), which means i’ve collected 4 monopoly cities (including innsbruck, excluding eisenstadt) so far.

i’ve just rediscovered this abandoned project, and might try to complete it in the near future.
oh, and please ignore my old hair-”style”. i was young and didn’t know better.

[view photos: monopoly austria]

last september, anton and i came across three giant (mostly-) stuffed animals within 2 weeks. i’m not sure what made us pose like this in the first place.
this is obviously just the start of the series, i’ll add more photos as we find more of them.

[view photos: anton, i and giant stuffed animals]

about two weeks ago, the solid layer of ice in my pond started to melt due to a period of warmer weather.
i seized the opportunity and took some underwater macro photos of the embedded pattern of air bubbles.

[view photos: ice]

woody perennials and buds, part 3 of 3 is concerned with conifers.
altogether, nearly all of the native woody perennials can be identified without greater difficulty, once you’re acquainted with the matter.

[view photos: woody perennials and buds - conifers]

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gehölze und knospen, der letzte teil enthält einige nadelhölzer.
alles in allem sind fast alle heimischen gehölze, wenn man erst einmal eingearbeitet ist, problemlos auch ohne blätter oder blüten bestimmbar.

[view photos: gehölze und ihre knospen - nadelgehölze]

part two of my twig- and bud-photos is here: woody plants with opposite foliage.
this album also features a juxtaposition of 5 fruits of different species of maple (acer sp.) that can be found where i live: sycamore maple (acer pseudoplatanus), norway maple (acer platanoides), box elder (acer negundo), field maple (acer campestre) and tatarian maple (acer tataricum).

[view photos: woody perennials and buds - opposite foliage]

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teil zwei meiner zweige- und knospenfotos ist hier: holzige pflanzen mit gegenständiger beblätterung.
dieses album beinhaltet ausserdem eine gegenüberstellung von früchten von 5 ahorn-arten (acer sp.) die hierzulande wachsen: berg-ahorn (acer pseudoplatanus), spitz-ahorn (acer platanoides), eschen-ahorn (acer negundo), feld-ahorn (acer campestre) und tatarischer steppen-ahorn (acer tataricum).

[view photos: gehölze und ihre knospen - gegenständige beblätterung]

this semester, i was in a botanical class that’s concerned with ligneous plants and recognizing them only through their habitus and buds.
i’ve assembled some of the photos from this course, most which were taken under pressure of time. they have only been hastily photoshopped, so please excuse the quality and varying backgrounds.

along with all the species listed, i’ve included some of the most striking characteristics.

part one (alternate foliage) is online now.

[view photos: woody perennials and buds - alternate foliage]

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dieses semester belegte ich unter anderem ein botanisches praktikum zum bestimmen von gehölzpflanzen anhand von habitus und knospen.
hier sind einige der fotos zusammengestellt. die meisten wurden unter zeitdruck gemacht und sind nur flüchtig nachbearbeitet – ich bitte daher, die qualität und tw. wechselnden hintergründe zu entschuldigen.

zu jeder art sind ausserdem einige der auffallendsten merkmale genannt.

teil 1 (wechselständige) ist ab sofort online.

[view photos: gehölze und ihre knospen - wechselständige beblätterung]

classic sightseeing, annoying tuk-tuk drivers, impressive temples, crowds, sushi, and more – here’s the final part of my thailand trip report.

when we arrived at the hotel (one of two that we had booked ahead from austria), stefan and lisa had already checked in. as mentioned before, we couldn’t get more overlap-time for our “thailand trip of 5″, so we decided to meet up in bangkok for a few days.

for the typical sightseeing part, we decided to experience what the travel guides warn of: just around the corner of the entrance to wat phra kaew (the biggest and most popular complex of buddhist temples in thailand), there was an unusually friendly man who told us that the temple was closed for another two hours (which was of course just a big lie).
he was also “friendly” enough to mark four or five popular sights on our city map AND get two tuk-tuk drivers to drive us there for nothing (i’m talking a few cents).
we had read about this, and decided to “try for ourselves”.
the strategy behind this is that between the sights, the drivers ask you to go into an affiliate shop (tailor, jeweler, …) and look at the things they have to offer. you don’t need to buy anything, but the fact that they supply the shops with lots of potential customers earns them gas coupons.
if you’re already expecting this, there are no other surprises – except that they might leave you at the last but one sight, and go search for new victims instead.

wat phra khaew, by the way, is the most impressive complex i’ve seen. the entrance fee is so high that no thai would likely be able to pay for it (locals enjoy free entrance), but it’s no doubt worth it.
another sightseeing highlight was wat saket, the “golden mount” (free entrance).

there were also lots of malls, which from the inside you can’t really tell apart at all. except one mall which had only two elevators – one going to levels 1 and even numbers, and the other one going to levels with uneven numbers.

as usual, the few obligatory postcards that i absolutely had to send (to family) were dropped off at the airport, right before boarding the plane.
 

[view photos: bangkok (thailand pt. 6)]