the first day in Linz

JUL. 3

I was hardly fazed at the new day at first, but by the afternoon it caught up to me.

First, I arrived and toured the house. I will certainly need to post some pictures, because it is a gorgeous house like out of a story. After that, Peter, Christa, Konstantine and I had tea. (Christa is the mom, Peter the da, Konstantine is 17. Manuel was not there, but he is 19). Konstantine had a tennis tournament that afternoon, so Christa and I walked around Linz. Everything was so new

that I did a lot of staring.

Linz has many shops like ours. It has a lot of very nice, contemporary clothing, which made me think that it is a tourist town, but Christa says it is mostly industrial. I guess they just like to shop. There are multiple castles and cathedrals. I

saw both the 'new' and 'old' cathedral (so called, even though both are pretty old).

the left is the new and the right is the old church. in the foreground is a miniature replica of Linz when it was younger.

Then, we drove up the 'hill' to a touristic, children's trainride about the Austrian folktales. Christa says they take all their guests there. The train was a dragon that rode around and we saw lit-up models of dwarves stillframed as scenes

from the tales.

This is one of their rabbits. Apparently they just depict poor sick rabbits that the nice dwarves take care of. It seemed sort of creepy to me.

Finally, I went with Christa at 6 (oh, after a delicious dinner of pork, beans and lettuce with us two) to the Catholic school where she works. There was an exhibition of an famous

abstract artist, and the children had done a mimic gallery that exhibited beforehand. There was a phenomenol twelve year old pianist who could've showed up anyone I know in a second. The paintings, also, were very deep. I was surprised how much graphic nature and intense themes

they allowed the children to include, but it was very good to see the expression they put into their work. After touring the gallery, there was an opening ceremony. I regret to admit that I was nodding off, partly because everything was in German, and partly because I was very tired, having been awake for over 24 hours. At last, we went home and I slept. And slept. And slept...

This was my favorite childrens' painting at the exhibit. I'm not sure what it meant, but the empty

room and bed and cowering figures were just striking.