Linz

 We arrived in the town of strohiem, approximately 30 minutes north west of Linz.  – apologies if I spelt that wrong. We met our host – Joseph, who immediately cooked us up a nice meal of cold meat, tomatoes, pickles and cheese. A drink later and he took us off down to the street of linz to meet some of his friends at a nice establishment in the city center. We talked about various things – mostly global issues such as climate change, how to solve the worlds energy problems – all the important things. It made me look up solar energy on the net. They are planning to build a huge solar plant in Africa, as well as a big one in NSW. The one in Mildura is big – but not huge.

Anyway – there is no solar paint out yet, there is only thin panels that are flexible L

The worlds deserts receive enough energy in 6 days, to meet the worlds energy needs for 1 year!

Now… why are we spending trillions of dollars on defending ourselves from ourselves? At the same time as finding faith in human kindness through couchsurfing and traveling, I am losing it by learning about the stupidity of the human race also (see later when I talk about a work camp).

We moved on to another place, danced for a while with the locals.. and then went home. The next day was friday – my sore throat from the day before had flared up again (but this time only for 2 days!) so I went down to the supermarket armed with my newly learned german. Of course reading the back of medicine/pharmaceuticals isn’t my forte when reading English, so I had little chance in German. So I took a random guess, anyway – at the checkout to my surprise the man was about 80 years old and scanning groceries. He was sitting down, looked very content, scanning each item with care and concentration. I managed to get through the transaction with either him knowing I wasn’t Austrian and therefore not speaking much, or he wasn’t the talkative type; But I nailed the goodbye and hello and do you want a bag. J

Anyway – back up to watch the hawks win against Sydney – have managed to watch most games this year – even though being away from home, I think I have watched more games this year than last year. Joseph then helped us get 4 new tyres for our car (well 2^nd hand tyres) which we desperately needed, especially if we are going to be driving in the mountains. We had a problem with these later – but that is another story.

We then went to an abandoned castle which gave us great views of the surrounding hills, and the green lush fields of eastern Austria. We also trekked through a goat field with deer and geese – but that’s another story. We then went to the football (soccer) to see a Linz Vs Linz game (lask Vs somebody else)

It was very strange to see that people took it so seriously! The crowd was CRAZY.. people complain about the crowd behaviour at the AFL – well this was a totally different atmosphere. Mind you before I describe this – it was a 2^ND division game!!  We arrived to people drinking beer on the street which is not so strange now after being in Berlin. Then we were subjected to a thorough pat down, then walking through the masses of people – mostly drunk to find our seats, we were stopped by a fight – well more like a brawl. 8-9 people just going at it, a quickly glance around to see the security guards not really concerned about it.
Welcome to Austrian 2^nd division! So we walked past the fight once it petered out, and found our seats next to the opposition – who were just as crazy, except that they were fenced off by a huge net, and fences so you could not get in/out. Add to that about 50 fully armed police standing at the top where the fence was at it’s weakest. Cage the animals… it will be fine. During the game itself – various flares were let off, and a player was hit by flying things. The game itself – crap, poor quality, not worth going, but nice to see what crazy football fans are like.

We went home – sleep.

The next day was after a late start the day we were going to the Arts electronica museum. This is not a museum! It is a place with lots of current information about various technologies that are relevant to life now – eg: Bionic eyes, ears, hearts, as well as exhibits on brain function and other things. Interesting, I put the brain hat on and got my brain waves monitored in order to write words on the computer. It works! I was impressed.  We left there -–had some good kababs and then hooked back to see Jospeh’s house which he was renovating. We met his friends there – which were very nice, funny and good to talk to, and went back to his house for dinner with his friends. We were then treated with goulash and another nice meal! A very nice evening spent – comparing photos of countries that we had been to. Joseph was somebody that I liked very much, always good for a joke, and helped us out very much.

I forgot to mention – one of the nights (the first night) I was inundated with mosquitoes. I think everyone has heard the high pitched wining of the mosquito near their ear. Well I woke up with 2 bites, and big ones at that. So it was on, light was on and hunting them down. 2 were killed immediately, and thinking job done, went back to sleep. Well… I was wrong. Another bigger one lurked, which I saw later – it took me about 30 minutes to get him. I even googled about how to catch mosquitos in the night. I have a theory that seems to work  for me, hear it – light on, then wait 2 minutes, then light off, wait about 4 minutes then light on, and they will be moving in for the killer bite (in some countries anyway) But I nailed him – at 6am!!! I didn’t get much sleep – but the nights were easier after that.

Will continue another day.