Strange Occurrences

When we moved to Salzburg, I was surprised by the number of modern buildings.  I guess that I came here thinking that everything would be ancient, but that's not the case.  Most of the supermarkets look like they were built or renovated within the last five years, and housing complexes are given new life all around the city.  For example, there is a crane nearby that is doing, I don't know, something to this building.  One late afternoon we witnessed the following:

  
To see this huge crane lift something as trivial as a wheelbarrow - giggles. 

Next, the other day I had the idea to use our common room for the first time to paint my nails, and as I moved the clunky, plastic chair, a bird comes out of nowhere and spastically flies around the room.  Of course, I scream as if a person were chasing me and I fly back into our room.  Good thing that my husband grew up in the country, because the man is a Bird Whisperer.

Ben went out there with a kitchen towel, and within three minutes, he had caught the bird and had taken it outside.  I waited in our room and tried to call to Ben, but when he didn't answer, I decided to be brave and go out there.  This is the scene that I found:

A story in pictures, no?

And curiouser?  It happened again yesterday!

And for the final strange occurrence: swans.  Beautiful, right?  White.  Pristine.  Regal.

How about these adjectives?  Alarming.  Deceptive.  Eww-inducing.

We took a walk to Hellbrunn, a place that I wrote about before.  It was a beautiful fall day, and we decided to walk around and see some sights.  You know that I'm not very good with gardening vocabulary, so forgive me, but in the fountain near the "trimmed hedges planted to make geometric shapes," there were two swans.  They were white, yes, but lurking beneath the surface were their

Swan Feet.

Looking at a swan foot is like looking back in time.  That thing could have been around with the dinosaurs.  I just have to sum it up as "strange."