Lazy Sunday

10 a.m. run? Check.  Tiramasu/Nutella gelato on a shaded Austrian terrace? Check. Pick up game of basketball with the locals? Check. Lazy Sunday afternoon in 72 degree weather drinking beer and eating barbeque pork chops on a floating bar/cafe on the Danube River? Check plus! This place is getting better and better everyday. Today was the last day of freedom before classes start. So rather than studying, what do you do? Everything but study. The day started with a 30 minute run around the JKU campus and the neighborhood surrounding our dorms. Soon after, I found myself eating tiramasu and nutella gelato on the shaded patio of a cafe in the town square. Did I mention the 72 degree CRYSTAL CLEAR weather? Ok, sorry to rub it in. But seriously the day was just perfect. After the gelato, we hit a museum which was pretty cool. The best part of the museum trip was running into an English museum tour guide named Gary. He was friendly, helpful, and best of all, he spoke english! He suggested a few points of interest and we headed off to explore the Danube riverside. As luck would have, we walked through an art exhibition of inflatable sculptures which was definitely different.  We then spotted a skate park so decided to cross the Danube via a pedestrian bridge and check it out. Upon our arrival, I was asked to play basketball by some local kids. Under any other circumstances, I would've have declined, but who would pass up the chance to say they played ball in Austria? BTW, walking seems to be the preferred mode of transportation after the Linz street car system. We walked everywhere! Moving right along, I wrapped up the game and we headed back toward base camp. On our way, we spotted what we thought was a booze cruise. Turns out, it was a floating bar and cafe. Not  1 minute after boarding it, we ran into good ol' Gary from the museum and his girlfriend Gabby. They were the absolute coolest people in the universe. We ended up spending about a solid 3 hours drinking, eating and laughing with them. It's hard to find the words to articulate what it feels like to finally sit down and unwind. To not be productive. To not be in a dungeonous library. Now of course, all this good comes with a sprinkle of bad. No camera. Sorry folks, I forgot to load the CF card after I removed the pics the day before. To add insult to injury, my battery was fully charged. So what about my travel buddies you ask? Every battery in a group of 4 was dead(excluding mine). The silver lining? That's easy, not having been able to record the day in digital format forced me to activate my internal memory.  My lazy Austrian Sunday is one I won't soon forget.