Travelogue #3 Linz – Everyday Life
Memorable experiences happen unexpectedly. My first day out, | found, Café Traximayr, a very nice looking café nestled into the historic area called The Promenade off the main street, LandstrauBe. Waiters were decked out in tuxedos. The large patio area attracted a Sunday crowd of stylish folks drinking wine and speaking languages other than English, reading the newspaper, and easily filing tables of eight. It felt like a real neighborhood favorite. My glass of wine was served in an oversized burgundy style wine glass with precisely 150 milliliters (three ounces) of wine. | knew that because the glass is marked (etched), not very subtly, with a line and a label that says, “150mI”. After a few days, a few restaurants, and a few glasses of wine, | figured out that the marked glass was standard. So standard that I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a Department of 150 ml Measurements, not unlike our Department of Weights and Measures.
Sipping my portion of wine very slowly, | sat around feeling pretty cool. | asked the waiter if | could order a little lunch. He worked really hard with his English and after stumbling over his words once too often, he asked bluntly, “What you like”? I shrugged. “Just a sandwich.” “Oh”, he says. “We have a ham and cheese sandwich”. I’m thinking of a version of what the Greeks (and Austrians) call “toast” which is just white bread with a slice of cheese. it made me wish | could read the menu. What arrived was a perfectly grilled sandwich on homemade bread with prosciutto, a wonderful Swiss cheese, and arugula pesto. Okay. This is a good start.
Then |hit a rut. There was a sameness to the menus. Lots of sausage type foods and things that look like bologna and cheese. I had heard that a favorite of the region was a beef broth with pancake strips. At the next opportunity, | tried it. BLECCHKK! It would sustain life…period
Then there was the night a few of us tried to find a local night time pub with music. You have to go back into the neighborhoods to find the classics. Some of them were big enough to hold maybe 20 people. Some spilled out into the cobblestone streets. Some felt like you were walking into someone’s living room. I’m not sure what was happening in there…maybe it WAS someone’s living room! Live music was very ethnic. Everyone smokes. | felt very American. We gave up on that idea
Our accommodations at the Johannes Kepler University were very comfortable-kind of Early Ikea. First floor was sitting/study area, galley sized very functional kitchen. Upstairs were two twin beds pushed together, two closets, and a shower. Best of all, there was high-speed internet connection. Remember, this is a university campus. In Austria, there is no such thing as government financed student dorms so the campus is surrounded by apartment buildings and places like our Raabhaus which are run by certain affinity groups-mostly religious groups. The Raabhaus is owned by the Catholics and has everything,
The entrance to an Olympic-sized indoor pool, which reminded me of the YMCA pool | grew up within Westport, CT., was down the hall from the main lobby. The three sets of glass doors were covered signs, posters, schedules, and not a word of English. | could see the pool as the view was from the second floor semi surrounding the large two-story darkened pool area. Local youngsters drilled through their morning laps. Swimming is one of my favorite things but | was frozen with indecision. | could not figure out how one
got from the lobby, through the doors and lockers, stairs and showers. No clues as to “Men” or “Women” and signs all over the place that all seem to start with the word “Verboten” which is about the only thing | understand in German, So, forget that until another time.
The dining room, also off the main lobby, served up a very generous morning buffet. In the evening, a separate section that included a bar and dining styled seating, served up some impressive choices. It was a pleasant haven late in the evening to gather with friends and have that last beer.
Then there was the laundry room. Down in the bowels of the building, | found the necessities of life. Washers, dryers, ironing boards and lots of those German signs again. | never thought doing the laundry could be such a challenge. | didn’t have laundry soap but I had already plotted to “borrow” someone else’s. The first attempt failed. A bunch of Euros, laundry stuffed in the machine, waiting for the sound of sloshing, | see boxes and plastic containers of laundry aids but amazingly | can’t figure out what is soap, bleach, fabric softener. Ugh, how am | going to steal someone’s detergent if | can’t figure out what’s what! The sloshing never started. I move the load of laundry to a newer looking machine and dump a bunch more Euros in the slots. Nothing. In comes a 6’5” twenty-something student sounding like Arnold Schwarzenegger and very confident about his laundry chores. Since | had run into very few people who spoke English, | was preparing for some creative sign language. | stared at the machines, looked at this towering guy, and said “Help”. He laughed and translated the step by step as we both went through the steps like a pilot’s check list. | asked him how he knew how to do laundry. “My mother said that every man should know how to wash clothes.” | love him.
I never expected that doing laundry would be so much fun but we laughed and joked our way through. Then we got to the part where we had to open that little drawer with the two compartments. Which one takes detergent, which one takes softener? We don’t know. | go for help. | peak through a couple of heavy metal doors down a cavernous hall and I see the maintenance man. “Guten Morgen-help bitte”. So now I’ve got a beautiful tall young Schwarzenegger who speaks quite good English and a 5’6” maintenance man with rough hands, who speaks no English, trying to figure which is laundry soap and which is softener. They smell them, read the box, get real animated nodding their head, shrugging their shoulders, saying a bunch a German stuff and then the maintenance guy takes a long whiff of the open plastic container and smiles. “…ahhh fresher than sunshine!” The three of us crack up. We joke and laugh through the rest of our morning chores. Nothing else mattered for the rest of the day.
Much too soon we were getting close to our final day in Linz. This was the end of Mike’s second week with the class of law students. It was the end of the third week of the International Arbitration Study Abroad program. Forty-three students, mostly from Georgia State Law School, nine from Phoenix School of Law, a couple from Europe, and one from Missouri are more than half way through their intense classes and professional meetings in Linz, Salzburg, and Vienna. A reception is held at the conference room at Johannes Kepler University. The Vice Chancellor and Director of International Relations from the
University speaks of the value of the International relationship and course of study. The students are feeling the same thing and recognize the depth of knowledge and experience this four week course has offered them. Friday morning we will board the coach for the seven hour ride through the Austrian lakes and ‘mountain region southwest through Salzburg and on to Venice,
We get ready to say goodbye to Linz. The museums were unique, the Cathedrals were ubiquitous, and the Austrian culture was richly represented. We immersed ourselves in an atmosphere of the very early centuries up to the contemporary, over-the-top, Ars Electronica, an interactive electronics art museum with unexplainable things. At night, the museum not only lights up in neon garishness, but the color of the building changes in waves of light!
Our final evening was spent with Ray Lanier, Professor Emeritus from Georgia State University Law School, who for over 20 years organized, taught, and designed the course as well as created unique high level meetings with important legal and legislative professionals throughout the Eastern European region. We are joined by Professor Jim Levin from University of Missouri Law School who runs a similar program in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ray takes us to the most beautiful spot in Linz. Perched high over the city, the basilica, “Seven Sorrows of our Lady” sits atop Péstlingberg and can be seen from anywhere around the Danube River and the old city. Our last dinner in Linz is at the best restaurant in the region – Péstlingberg Schldssl – also located atop that hill.
Thank you, Ray, for showing the way… and to Jim for joining us for such a beautiful farewell to Linz.
Memorable experiences happen unexpectedly!
