Day 5, 6, 7 - Hagenberg

Placeholder.  I'll post something in a few hours after I finish dinner.

Day 5 - not done yet...but need an update!

I'm in paradise.  Hagenberg is something out of a movie.  I can't even describe it, I took a few photos but have really slow internet so I'll try to upload them later.  I'm hanging out with 2 guys (Sebastian and Thomas) both who speak good English.  It's such a relief, I'm talking non stop and finally have some locals to communicate with.  I had an awesome lunch and a good beer too.  Now im back at my hotel, prepping for tomorrow's conference and enjoying the Sun (YES THERE IS SUN HERE!).  Things are feeling great the air is so fresh, and the hills roll on for miles.

-Scott

Day 4 - NOOOTTTHHHINNNGGG

Overview
Imma gonna keep this brief.  It's fucking freezing cold today and raining like crazy.  I biked into town, froze my balls off.  Dropped my bike off, hung out at a few cafe's.  Had a beer at a bar, then grabbed some meat and ate some more meat.  I forgot my phone so I took no photos.  Now im sitting in the warm hostel, with a beer and making beats on my phone.

Tomorrow I head out to Hagenberg.  A dude by the name of Sebastian is picking me up from the hostel and driving me there.  He is the guy that organized the security conference.  Speaks English and said we can get beers together.  First Austrian drinking buddy tomorrow!  excited.

-Scott

Day 3 - Lentos Museum, Schnitzel, Beer...Beer...More Beer!

Late Start
I was soooo tired, I didn't even get up until 10am.  Sleeping is weird over here I get about 2-3 hour sprints then I'm awake for an hour or two. Regardless I got up and decided I wanted to go to this Lentos Museum.  Although I had to drop my bag off, so I left the hotel and started to bike to the Hostel to drop my gear off.  ON the way I swung by a gas station and picked up breakfast.

Hostel + Sleeps
I got to the hostel, chomped down this delicious sausage and fell asleep till 1pm.  Then I got up, and took the Tran into town ( and I took this really awesome picture on the tran).

Then I walked about half a mile over to the Lentos Museum.

Lentos Museum
Well, this was quite an awesome place.  They had a wonderful selection of modern art, including some pretty sweet originals from Egon Schiele and Andy Warhol.  I took pictures of the paintings and artist names I liked so I could look them up later.

They had a special exhibit on 'car art' which ended up being one of the coolest things I've ever seen.  I'm gonna post a few pictures here so you can see what I mean :-).

Some Awesome Restaurant
After I finished up the Lentos Museum, I hiked back over to this Austria Restaurant recommended by the hotel I stayed at.  And boy, was this the real deal.

I had some Steigel and Ludwig beers and was full and sorta drunk.  I left to head back to the hostel.













More Beer
When I got to the hostel they informed me they ran out of beer.  Most every store closes on Sunday's so I had to go on a 'journey' to find beer.  I basically biked around for like an hour until I found an open gas station and I bought a few beers you see below.

Things to Note
It has been raining in Linz for the last week  There hasn't been a single moment of sunlight and I've been drenched the whole time.  So anytime I have to go on an adventure, it's the real deal (wind, rain, bike, etc.).

I had an Austrian make a joke to me yesterday.  I asked where the restroom was at the restaurant and he said we don't have one.  And then started laughing.  Sorta cool!

Gelato is maybe the best thing in the world.  For 1 euro,  I can  grab a scoop of deliciousness.

Beer here is overall...beer.  I can't tell the difference between the 5 or 6 types of beer I have had.  Everything is about the same...low ABV, drinkable, foamy.



Sleeps
After finishing a few more beers I called it an early night and crashed out around 10:30pm.  I had fun today the museum was a blast.  Now for Today (Monday)...I think I'm gonna go into town and check out some architecture and the oldest theater in Austria!

I approve of this Sausage!

Day 2 - Epic Fail and Mega Win

Bike Trip to Grein

Epic Bike Fail!

On the River!

I got a bunch of sleep last night and I was feeling pretty damn good.  I got up and ate breakfast (which in Austria is bread, spreads, cereal, and meat).  I started on my bike trip which calculated was about 40 miles.  So things were going okay, but I started to notice the 7 speed bike I had was requiring quite a bit of work to hit 11 or 12 mph (way worse than any other mufti-speed bike I have been on).  Also, it was raining like crazy and I had a 35 pound backpack on.  About 2 hours into the trip, I decided that at the rate I was going it would take me > 6 hours to get there and I may end up frozen to death with the rain.  So...I stopped and turned around (insert big frown face here).  But I was okay with my decision even though I had to eat 40 euro on the B and B I blew off.

On the way back, I was dying the wind was just crazy and it took forever to go just 15 miles or so.  But, I made it back safely to Linz and then....

Ars Electronica
Yep, there it was at the start of the bike path.  And I'll just say this was the most amazing museum I have ever been to.  Hands down.  It's a museum for technologists like myself and in a way like the scientific industry museum but way more intense.  I decided I'd list a bunch of pictures and some highlights:

1. The museum is just absolutely beautiful from the outside, see photos below
2. I got to see Theo Jansen kinetic sculptures (yep not kidding).  See this for an exaple
3. Watched kids play with a 3d printer, and got a change to play with a lazer cutter.  Also got to mess around with a 3d sterographic display art board that drew things you were typing
4. Brain Painting lets you produce images with the conscious activity of your brainwaves, which a brain-computer interface (BCI) and special software translate into actual pictures.  I got to do this here :)
5. Got a photo taken of myself where a museum worker took a cutout of my shadow on vinyl (how cool!)
6. Played with a bunch of robots, like tons of robots
7. Took images of my human eye and got to look at my retinas
8. Blah there is so much I could type like 50 items but I'll save the best for last

The Deep Space exhibit was life changing.  It was a cube that had mufti stereoscopic projectors.  A narrator in German started with Austria then using images from the Hubble telescope and very advanced 3d rendering stepped out into deep space.  honestly, I can't describe it in words and I couldn't take pictures...unfortunately. But it was cool.  I ate at the museum and had some wine and was pretty good I also got to chat with Nikki on text!  Which was sweet!

Kinetic Motion

Playing with a 3d printer

Ars Electronica from outside

Hotel + afternoon

So I got a hotel in Linz after my botched trip to Grein.  It's nice and comfy.  I laid down for about an hour then headed back into town.  I wandered around for 2 hours, just sorta looking for stuff to do.  I ate gelato and it was delicious.  I then somehow ended up here:

Japanese teahouse?

Yeah this was the real deal.  I had a good time here but found myself a little bored without conversation.  It's weird, today I think I said maybe 50 words total the whole day.  I feel like when I get back to the US I'll be a chatter box cause here I can't talk to anyone :).  The Japanese guy spoke english so I got to ask him a few questions but he wasn't to sure on places to go/eat.

Matcha at the teahouse

Wandering..killing time

Not sure what else to do, I just kept wandering around.  I got more gelato, and was hoping id run into someone who spoke English.  nope!  So instead, I got a few beers and started walking around some more.  I notice every time I get a little lonely or wish I had someone to talk to, I feel better after a beer (duh!).  And this is why so many lonely/single men are alcoholics :-)!

Pizza + Tomorrow

Got pizza at some random place, and some more beer.  Now I'm back at the hotel.  I decided I'm going to the information booth tomorrow to see if I can find some English tours (which I haven't been able to find on my own) or some places where English speaking people hang out.  I also am going to go to this: http://www.lentos.at/en/.  This is a modern art museum that is really pretty from the outside and seems like fun.  Overall this has been an interesting trip.  

Reflections

I think I have learned that traveling can be difficult without companions if you are in a place where you can't communicate with others. That being said, I find myself having the most fun doing things like museums, biking, drinking, etc.  Things that you can do without needing to communicate!  So i'm gonna stick with those things to make my trip as enjoyable as possible and I'll keep taking pictures to share with you all when I get back.

BahhhhhhhH Bike Town!!!!

Travel and Linz - Day 1

So let me just start of by saying I haven't slept in some 24 hours or so, the whole light/jet lag thing has got me by the toes.  However, I have an unremarkable amount of energy so I'm going to do a little blog post talking about the highlights of the day.

Arrival

After the 8 hour flight + 3.5 hour layover in Frankfurt I was pretty beat.  First thing I did when I got there was a double espresso.  Bam.  It was good.   Then I got another one from another kiosk in the airport.  At this point I was feeling weird, cause it was something like 1 am in the morning in Chicago but 8am here.  Either way, I got in this tiny ass plane and had a super quick flight to Linz.

Hostel

I snagged a cab and got to the hostel around 11am.  Hostel was pretty nice for 40 euro.  Then it was game time.  I went up to the front desk and got the scoop on the tran system...sorta :)

Tran system wtf?

With a belly full of gusto, I decided I was gonna take the tran system into downtown, and locate the bike shop.  When I finally got to the tran, I realized I had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on.  That's cause I don't speak German...and strangely, it seems (opposite of what I thought) not many Austrians speak English.  I was able with very broken German words I learned on the plane ride over here get a little info and finally got on the right tran.  The tran system is awesome, but slightly confusing.

Downtown 

Absolutely beautiful.  I felt like I was in a book.  I strolled around so slowly, taking in every shop, beer garden, bratwurst.  There was so man farmer market stands selling fresh cheese and meat.  I'm not kidding.  Fucking meat town.  Literally.  I've eaten so much meat already I can't even explain.  

Tour bus and downtown

The Square

The River I'll be biking soon!

Every street looks like this in Austria

Just a few of the meat/cheese shops

Bier

So...I decided based on how long it's taking me to upload photos from this slow public wifi I found...I'm gonna save all my bier photos for when I get back.  Then I'll post up a huge bier post with all the crazy stuff I've had.  

Language

I haven't really ben able to socialize with anyone outside the waitress at one of the resturants I ate at.  She spoke enough English to hold a conversation but most people in Linz do not speak English or do not like to speak it.  Which is a bit of a bummer...I was hoping to maybe make a few friends but I think this means I just need to shift into 'solo journey' mode and just have an adventure for one.  I had a little bit of a people watching adventure about an two ago.  

There was this B96 like van blasting music in the middle of some street.  People were serving up sausages, dancing and drinking like baffons.  I stood for about an hour and people watched.  I get the vibe they can tell I'm american, I'm the only person in Austria that has a mustache and gym shoes :-).  

Day 2 Plans

I will most likely not have internet for the next 2 days I'm going to smaller and smaller towns across the countryside.  I'll post up some info as soon as I get internet access.

For now, Guten Abend.  

48 hours and Im outta here

So it's almost time to GTFO.  I'll be landing in Linz, Austria on April 13th in the AM.  Time zone is 7 hours in the future which is pretty rad.  Kinda like that old Sci Fi show sliders. 

4736 - that's how many miles I'll be away from Chicago.  Holy shit that's like longer than my small intestines.  

Linz is a city of contrasting parallels full of traditional Austrian heritage and vibrant contemporary arts.  I'm gonna be most likely visiting the Ars Electronica museum the first day I arrive.

I plan on doing some sweet stuff when I get there. After sucking in the city vibe, I'm gonna rent a bike.   (Map from hostel to bike rental place).  Then I'm gonna do at least 2 days on this bad trail (map):

http://www.radreisen.at/en/cycling-tours/electric-bike-tours/electrobike-tour-detail-view/news/danube-cycle-path-linz-vienna.html

I'll probably do this: 

Day 2: Linz – Grein/Bad Kreuzen, approx. 60 km

Passing through the beautiful Mostviertel, you cycle on to Grein. Shortly before reaching Grein, the Danube valley narrows as you cycle through the fascinating landscape of the Strudengau. In the small Baroque village of Grein is the oldest city theatre in Austria as well as a great Maritime Museum and a castle, which are all awaiting your arrival.

Day 3: Grein/Bad Kreuzen – Region Melk, approx. 51 km

You will cycle through the impressive landscapes of the wild Strudengau and the Nibelungengau continuing on to the remarkable Wachau (UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Region).

If a train seems unlikely by Region Melk, I may just bike to Bad Kreuzen and crash the night there. I see things like castle and theaters and shit like that gets me pumped up.

Also if anyone needs to reach me, you can call me at (seven seven three) - 828 - four one 7 five





-Scott