Lazy in Linz

OK, it's time to finally catch up. We haven't actually been that lazy here, it's just that between vistiting Omi, planning future parts of our trip, registering for absentee voting, and chosing a travel insurance plan (yes, we are finally insured!), there hasn't been much time to write updates.

Right now Michael is working with Kurt and Roland to tear down an old house. I'm going over to Omi's in a bit, probably to look at more photos (so far we've covered 1950 to 1977).

Here's what we've been doing since Salzburg:

8-30-04
A down day, we didn't leave the house at all. I spent about 3 HOURS just copying addresses that we had in our old book and on random scraps of paper into our new book, it's amazing how long little things like that take. Michael worked on the computer and Roland flew in from California in the afternoon.

8-31-04
Roland, Tamara and the two of us met Omi at the Chinese Restaurant near her apartment. Michael got yelled at by the waitress for taking some rice because it didn't go with the noodles he ordered. Michael and I then went over to Omi's for a bit and later met up with Roland, Tamara, and a bunch of friends at Rosie's, a cafe/bar where his friend Lulee was bartending. We stayed until he closed up at around 2 or 3 AM and then we all headed over to Leberkas Pepi to sample the various kinds of Leberkaes (an Austrian/German meat that's hard to describe or translate, literally it means 'liver cheese'--doesn't sound too appetizing). Michael's favorite was the one with horse meat.

After getting kicked out of there at around 4 AM, we continued on to the next bar. Michael and I were the first to leave at about 6 AM, just as it was getting light outside. We rode the tram back to the house, with Michael hicupping loudly all the way home. On our way to bed we met Henni who was just getting up.

9-1-04
We slept until about 1 PM after our long night out (we’re getting too old for that kind of thing!). In the evening we were invited over to Erich (my mother’s 2nd cousin) and Anni’s for a delicious dinner. The two of them live in the house where his grandmother (Omi’s mother’s sister) once lived, it’s neat to be surrounded by that kind of family history. Besides being a great cook, Erich is also quite the wine connoisseur, so we were able to enjoy some excellent wine selections with dinner (we had a bottle from his private collection that was over 18 years old).

9-2-04
I went over to Omi’s on my own and later met up with Michael and Kurt at the Klosterhof for a beer. We then made our way to the Wine Festival that was going on in the Altstadt (Old Town). It was bigger than we thought it would be—lots going on and lots of wine to be tasted. We parted ways with Kurt and met up with Roland’s friends that we’d met on Tuesday night. It ended up being another pretty long night—we met up with Kurt again coincidently and shared a taxi home at 2:30 (after the traditional stop at Leberkas Pepi of course.)

9-3 to 9-5
Our trip to Hinterglemm with Henni and Juni. (We’ll write about it in a separate entry once we get the pictures up.)

9-6-04
Another lunch with Omi at the Klosterhof, followed by more picture albums at her place. We spent the evening going through over 200(!) pictures from our Hinterglemm weekend.

9-7-04
We decided to take advantage of the beautiful day by walking up the Pöstlingberg here in Linz. The top offers a nice view of the city, but more importantly it is home to the Grottenbahn—the dragon train that takes you around the dwarf and fairy tale world (built in 1906 as I just learned from the website). At first we felt a little silly being the only two adults there without kids, but we got over it quickly and went a bit crazy with the camera. On the way down, Michael amused himself with a little game of “kick the rotten apple down the road”. I bet him 5 Euros to take a bite out of the apple.

We met Omi at Henni’s for some wonderful homemade Marrillen und Zwetschken Knödel (apricot and plum dumplings)—delicious! We then showed Omi the Hinterglemm photos on the DVD player.

9-8-04
A work day for us. We accomplished quite a bit, most importantly we finally purchased our travel insurance (through IMG, world travel center).

9-9-04
We made brunch for Omi, then spent some time planning the next leg of our journey. Looks like we’ll be leaving for Zagreb, Croatia around the 21st.

That's all for now. We promise to be back soon with the Hinterglemm pictures and write-up.

P.S. I hope the beginning of the school year has been a good one for all those teachers out there (and students too of course)!