Bilious Blog…Around Europe in 80 days#11

Yesterday was odd…the sun was out at last and it was a beautiful day yet as it wore on I felt increasingly down in the dumps,not depressed or anything like that,just an increasing feeling of “meh”That’s how things go sometimes.Nobody feels 100% their upbeat happy best all the time and if they do they’re quite probably a raving psychopath…in the words of The Human League “ I was working as a waitress…” no hold on wrong song…”I’m only human…” that’s it.

I decided to head back to the hotel early but then noticed an Indian restaurant at the end of my street but it’s far too pricey…€25 for a chicken curry? I mean come on.We’re also in the roughest part of town too.So I went next door to a dive bar and immediately felt better as I was surrounded by people older,fatter & uglier than me.Back at the hotel I couldn’t get in the main door,the fob key wouldn’t work.Twenty minutes I struggled until a random woman stopped her car and helped.After putting the fob on the reader you turn the handle right,I had been turning it left without once trying it the correct way.A total brain freeze.Luckily being British I hadn’t rang the number on the door as I didn’t want to “make a fuss”…oh then my phone died on me but like my brain it had just froze.The old off/on thing sorted it out…

So here we are.Another day( I’m actually starting to lose track of what day is what.Like Xmas ) and yes I’m feeling much better.It was a temporary blip…

So Linz? Well it’s nice and that’s about the best and worst thing I have to say about it.Even the bad part of town where I’m staying is nice,the park where the local vagrants hang out is nice & clean and they also seemed nice…

The actual look of the place is a mixture of Regency period German & Slavic( we’re close to the Czech border so the influence is no surprise) it’s very beautiful & clean.It’s very nice…the centre seems to have more independent shops & cafes than many cities,the huge American conglomerates are here but they are not taking over the high streets…when I first got here I couldn’t find many bars for a city this size but looking around yesterday there’s lots of little alleys & arcades at the end of which are usually cafe bars…there also seems to be a bigger than usual South East Asian restaurant thing going on for a city this size…

The locals seem nice too.I have received two random acts of kindness from strangers.The cafe brolly woman( which I returned of course and had some more wonderful cake & coffee) and the woman who stopped to help me last night in my clearly agitated state…many of the locals seem taciturn & stoic.Not unfriendly at all just not cheesy grin “ hey buddy tell me your life story” ingratiating,Clearly it takes time to get to know them.On the stormy night I was in a bar for a while and the big fella who served me was fine but didn’t want chit chat and made that plain by his manner.Fine I thought,that’s cool.He was professional without being cloying…yesterday I was outside another bar and he walked past,saw me,literally doffed his cap at me and carried on his business.Taciturn & stoic…

Would I recommend a visit to Linz? Absolutely, but maybe only a couple of days.It seems like the perfect place to wind down and relax,especially when the sun’s shining…oh and don’t expect much English to be spoken.Despite being a university city they don’t seem to pander much to tourists who don’t speak the lingo…

Today is my last full day here and I’m going to check out Salzburg.It’s about an hour away by train and when we went through the other day it looked pretty spectacular…the good thing with having a three month Interrail ticket is I can use it daily if I wish so there’s no shelling out for extra tickets on days out…

Anyway peeps,shower,breakfast & offski…

See you all tomorrow…