So the night before these pix were taken I was passing by this 'entrance' arch (used to be one of the gates to enter Vienna, now it's like in the middle of the city LOL) and was quite taken a back by seeing troops, hardware, helicopters....were we being invaded?!
No, it was just in prepartion for October 26, the Austrian 'National Day' in which they celebrate the last of the 'occupying troops' to leave Vienna in 1955 (as mentioned before many Austrians also view the Nazi period as an 'occupation' (nevermind tons o' Austrians gladly participated), so more than likely in official Austrian history much of the 20th century involved one occupation or another. So as I went inside to the Neue Burg area, I was surprised to see, in addition to all of these weapons of destruction, Austrian soldiers dancing with the civilians....PROPAGANDA! :)
The new Typhoon jet fighter which much of Europe will be flying....
I admit part of me loves this stuff, but then there is another part of me that is like 'these are used to kill people'! and then I get melancholy about it all...
Creepy seeing a tank in my favorite area of the Neue Burg....I guess technically you could say all of this is for defense, but...
It seems that a 'sponsor' of this event was the movie '2012 - we were warned' - the movie posters were all over the place.
I don't know, just my opinion but probably NOT the kind of movie posters you want all over the place when you're trying to propaganda everyone into 'Calm, the Army is good' land....
This I could actually see being used in avalanche rescues or flooding of the Danube, etc....
I still remember when we went to such a military 'propaganda' fest when I was little in Italy. I did the zip-line then, I LOVE IT!
Tanks...and the Vienna City Hall in the background...hmm....
It looks like my beautiful Neue Burg is under siege! No, no, no!
And now that we've dazzled you with our dancing skillz, we march! Groupthink, forward ho!
Oh well, I should settle down...it was all for their 'liberation day' celebrations, so....good for Vienna! Glad it's not under attack from the Turks, or Napoleon, or the Nazis or Soviets and Americans....
