It is true, the shark feeding at the “Haus des Meeres” - the famous aquarium inside on of the Flaktürme in the sixth district - always was a disappointment. Whatever you expected, it didn’t happen. White pieces of fish were sunk without ceremony into a little tank were the small shark snapped at them without any kind of energy or action. The HdM itself is always worth a visit and a neat idea how to use these relicts of WW2.

Now there is a new, big and nicely designed shark tank in the Haus des Meeres, opened yesterday. It is a nifty 300.000 litre affair, 5.5 metres deep and goes over two levels, and it even has a little glassed crack to the outside world, where the climbers in the climbing garden on the wall of the HdM might look in at the sharks looking out.

Unfortunately, only three of the nine sharks survived the procedure of being taken from one tank into the other. The old turtle “Puppi” also survived, thank godness. The reasons for this are very unclear and the bodies have been taken to CSI Vienna for autopsy. Okay, to the veterinary institute of the university of Vienna.

The next things to be built into the HdM will be a crocodile cage and a cafeteria. I hope they will be seperated.

A little comparison from my own experience:

In London car drivers will let you cross a street as politely as could be, even stopping when seeing you getting close to a zebra crossing. But they’ll kill you if you try to cross the street aside a crossing.

In Budapst you are probably safer crossing th street anywhere aside zebra crossings because drivers tend to ignore them completely but stop if you cross the street elsewhere.

In Vienna its all a game of chance. You might get killed anywhere.

What’s your experience?

Some days ago I posted about the rise of porn-stencils in the city. So last week in the 7th district I found this one:

And some meters up the street the same artist used the entry to an arts gallery for the same stencil. But the cool people in the gallery but a frame and a label to the stencil. By the way: not to be sold.

Sense of humour goes a long way.