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Austria

Club Leopold Eurovision night....

Well last night was the first of the series of Eurovision nights that the host city of Vienna has created for the delegates, press, fans and local people....

Obviously, as it was the first, the team from www.ESCKAZ.com were mostly going to be there :-) One member went a bit early as the others were still finishing in the press centre but by around 22.15 there were four of the team there, plus folks from the www.escnation.com and www.escgo.com teams, as well as several members of the EBU/Eurovision.tv team.

On arrival it all seemed to start so well, with Eurovision music blasting out from the rather large split level club....we thought that we were in for a great night out.....

However this did not last too long as after about 20 minutes or so the Eurovision music stopped, the club became very overcrowded in the lower ground area and we moved to the upstairs area....at this point we noted the massive queue still to come into the club, none of whom appeared to be officially related to Eurovision in any way....

We persisted thinking that the Eurovision Jam or at least some Eurovision music would start. Or even that some delegations may come along, but sadly no.....so at around 1 a.m. we decided to leave and head back to the apartment.....

Yes we had a great time and thank you to the Host City, Vienna for creating this, but we wanted EUROVISION

:-(

Flag quest completed...almost!

Ahh, just finished a quest - searching for hidden flags scattered all over the Arena area. It was tough but I managed to find most of the them. The idea is "green" as these flags were designed from old clothes and fabrics, kind of "garbage".

I couldn’t find some of them as they were not hanged out in the windows and this places were closed for public. So, if I find more of them in the nearest future - I will keep you updated!

Vienna insight.

While some members of our team headed to Bratislava, I decided to have a nice walk around Vienna. I was also thinking to hire a bike but unfortunately they were all unavailable as too many people were using them at the moment.

So, I stopped at Stephanplatz – the main square. It is named after its most prominent building, the Stephansdom, Vienna's cathedral and one of the tallest churches in the world. It’s combination of a medieval cathedral and glass and steel building.

Then I was thinking to do some shopping but unfortunately again every single shop was closed. So, I did window shopping instead )
I didn’t have a plan were to go and I ended up at the Vienna Opera where they usually show opera on a big screen in the streets.

From Vienna May,10

On my way I found a Monument against War and fascism. It’s an impressive monument that won’t leave you indifferent or apathetic. Not only you look at the monument but there is a special sound coming out from the monument that makes the right atmosphere.

From Vienna May,10

I walked through the Spanish Riding School were I could have a look at purebred horses from a distance.
Later I came across the ruins preserved from the time of Romans till the late 19th century.

From Vienna May,10

As I was rushing to the press centre to see the opening ceremony I don't have anything else to share with you tonight.

ESC winner bridge

Today Misha and I visited the ESC winner bridge that was specially designed and constructed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Eurovision Song Contest. It spans all way over Danube river. There you will find all the ESC winners from the beginning, starting with Lys Assia in 1956 and finishing with Conchita Wurst in 2014. There is even a space reserved this year winner.

Soon Misha will upload a very interesting video commenting on all the winners of each year telling you a bit of a history and refreshing your memories from the previous years. For now on, enjoy some photos of mine.

Press centre day one....

Just about to set off on the huge massive 3 minute walk to the press centre for day one.....

Previous years have taught us only too well that there will be dramas, tantrums, thing's not working and levels of stress that induce cardiac moments.....and not one country will be on stage until tomorrow!!!!

Check back a bit later for the first look at the press centre

Welcome to Vienna to me!

Well, at long last I landed at Vienna Airport. The minute I stepped on the land I saw huge amount of Eurovision billboards and ads. Building Bridges everywhere! This is amazing; it makes you feel Eurovision in the air. I headed to our cozy apartment straight away. It’s located just in 30 min away from the main venue - Wiener Stadthalle. By the way, we’ve been there today!

Some members of the team together with me travelled to the accreditation center to collect our badges and the promo bag. There was a small problem at first, they didn’t want to issue the badges but our editor-in-chief resolved the problem very quickly. The contents of the promo bag surprised me. The first thing I saw was the sausage. A real sausage! The second thing that surprised me was… the second sausage! Well, the organizers thought about the press not to starve themselves during the contest!

You can find there dozens of promo materials (handbook, official programme, city map, notebooks, invitations to various events, etc.) Well, the promo bag is amazing! All these bits and pieces are very useful when traveling abroad – shampoo, body lotion and shoe polish - just in case you forgot yours at home :) Bottle cooler bag and a small hand fan – in case it gets too hot in Vienna :)

But the most useful gift is the local sim card. You get a plan with 2000 min, sms and mb already included. What else do you need?
After that we had a something to eat near the venue, the area seems to be very clean and beautiful; there is a park just in front of the main building.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the opening ceremony of the press centre, as they didn’t let us in today. Very intrigued by this event.

So, see you tomorrow and I hope you all enjoyed my fist blogpost ;)

Accreditation badges are go......

We have badges and the very impressive bag this year!

Lots of goodies in that bag.....including salami sausage, nuts, chocolate, body lotion, all the press info you could ever need, notepads, pens, loads of tourist information and a CD with a selection of Austrian classical music

Nice.....and the bag is bigger this year too....well done ORF :-D

Oh and we are loving this......

The SUN IS SHINING.....well it was this morning.....

When we went off on a little trek round the sights and sounds of tourist Vienna

All started very well, at 9.30 a.m. too, there's a first for us two....and in shorts too, the weather could not have been more perfect, sun shining, no sign of the forecast rain anywhere!

Seems that Vienna is a lot bigger than we were all led to believe though, so after 30 minutes walking it was the cheap cop-out and we hopped on the HOP-ON-HOP-OFF tourist bus to take in the main sights....Actually this seemed like the bets option when seeing some of the hordes wondering round the streets....

I guess this old doll (Marie Teresa) seemed to be the most impressive thing we first saw, then it was usual mix of old buildings and various famous streets until we hit the impressive TV tower on the other side of the Danube

Some very esteemed members of the press will be hurling themselves off this in a bungee jump in approx five days time....I think we need to have a "cameras at the ready moment" that day :-D

All in all was a nice day out.....short video clip here; and some more photos underneath that, it tried to rain but now the sun has come out again...#eurovisionbringssunshine