Wiener Prater – amusement park in Vienna

my 2012 birthday trip to Vienna, part one

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As many of you already know, I recently returned from a wonderful birthday trip to Vienna which was ‘secretly’ planned by 5 friends, so I really did not know where I was going until I got to the airport. Im kind of posting this out of order, as the visit to the Prater was actually the last thing we did on the final night.

 The Prater Wien, as far as I can tell, is a permanent amusement park on the outside edge go the main city. It has an odd, mixed bag feeling to it – and i’m not really certain that it’s all run by the same company (many rides seem duplicated or there are different versions of the same thing across the park, like 3 0r 4 haunted houses. for example)

ALSO let me add, that my friends convinced me to get there by renting bikes – I must have been delirious from the heat all week, since I agreed at 10:30PM  to get on a bicycle with $6500 of camera stuff wrapped around my neck and start toolin’ around Vienna!

there’s something spooky about these kind of parks to me in general, but add to it another language and the fact many rides were closed (or in the process of shutting down as it was late) and the creepiness factored gets strongly multiplied!!

Take for example this ‘alpine hill’ ride complete little robotic goats.

now if you are a Disney fan, this is downright insulting. NO, it’s not ‘Mickey Station’, but ‘MECKY’ station and is a complete (bad) knock off of a Disney automatronic attraction

heres a brief video I made of the attraction

Be Afraid.

…something about this giant figurine (which was rotating) and the guy sitting at it’s base (also rotating) oblivious to it all, I thought was pretty funny. Check out that green tower in the distance–more on that in a second.

ok- this ride is straight from HELL. You all know those ‘swing’ rides you’ve seen before—yeah, well, THIS one takes you up over 300 ft and spins you on a swing.

Not on your life, thank you very much

Clown’s.

And more Clown’s

even this cow is suspicious of that nasty swing ride ( which i could even see from my hotel, it’s so damn high!)

Surprisingly, I discovered Sarah Palin passing out stuffed animals here. So THAT’S where she ended up…

I have no idea…don’t ask.

theres that damn ride again— see the tiny people?? That’s not even up at the top yet!!

the miss-mash of language here is interesting–

I am wondering why is is covered in blue Silly String?…

figurines to haunt your dreams..

hallo-WIEN… Ba-DUM-dum

Frankenstein looks exhausted.

is that Princess Leia on a rope behind the Wolfman? Who knows?…

who knew the Sphinx and Eiffel Tower were on the same lake?!

start. I SAID START!

I should have shot video here – as the face colors kept changing from the inside. That’s ok, this is scary enough as it is.

So I guess- what? – you can email while you’re on this?…

my favorite shot. This was the back of the park and the ‘bad part of town’ for sure.

So biking in I saw this big king kong type guy standing there – eyes aglow. I really wanted to get a shot and made our way there while leaving, but  they were closing shop and putting him in his cage for the night. In a way though, I find the plastic drape being pulled and single hand more interesting and surreal than a straightforward shot. What do you think?

thanks for joining me on this little haunted trip! more ‘NICE’ Vienna photos coming soon