Der Wissensturm

Very, very nice name has one of the highest buildings in Linz - The Tower of Knowledge. Really great place - full of culture and potential. It is located close to the Hauptbahnhof and... 10 minutes of walk from my house.



Der Wissensturm holds many cultural and scientific programs targeting almost everyone. There are University for Adults Volkshochschule, big City Library Stadtbibliothek, Learning Center LeWis and more.

I am really looking forward to the 2011, because on 17th of January my German language course will start. It will take place in The Tower and it will be very intensive. Four times a week for two hours. It's the most basic A1/1 level. Didn't I have German for seven years at school? Scheiße. Maybe I'll take the A1/2. It costs 198 euro for 3 months.

And there is a fast elevator! Watch that! (sorry for the Linz Weather)



There are some buildings that can be seen from the elevator's window: Hauptbahnhof (with OBB), Bundesministerium für Finanzen (the higher one on the right) and Landesdienstleistungszentrum (yeah!! just spell or pronounce it!!)


Hauptbahnhof - The main train station


Bundesministerium für Finanzen - Federal Ministry of Finance


Landesdienstleistungszentrum - Administrative Services Center

I know, photos are grey. This is not Spain. I'll try to make more sightseeing photos when the weather gets better.

My flatmate says that winters in Linz are grey and cold... she is right. I smile anyway :) Aufwiederschreiben!

Der, die, das... it matters!

German language can be really funny, especially when one does not know it well.

So in German there are articles - definite and indefinite, masculine, feminine and neuter: der, die, das, ein, eine, ein. Everyone knows that already after first lesson. But sometimes it is easy to forget they use variants...

German is also known for its looong words (I played with it in Yahoo Babel Fish: Fallschirmhauptlandungkreis :)) which are the result of a concatenation of nouns and relations between them. One can easily say: das Tagebuch, the diary, because of der Tag and das Buch. The day's book. Clear. Sonnenklar. More examples? das Tagelohn, the workday, das Tagesanbruch, the dawn, die Tageszeitung, the newspaper, die Tagesordung, the day order... and so on.

The thing is, that last two are feminine. And the s letter, for example in Tagesordung is a variant.



Today I realized that hit is feminine masculine (thank you meine Bruder!!, even here I made an error!). But before I laughed my ass out :) Tschüs!

Language lessons and swimming pools

My flatmate Stefie teaches me German. These lessons are quite irregular and both of us have to feel the moment to begin one. Every Lektion consist of reading a relatively short article in die Tagezeitung which we get every morning to the door from some early-waking ghost, then translating it and drinking a coffee. I like these lessons a lot cause I can learn from a native speaker, but also because there is always that mental game in the background - when should I stop asking questions? Lately however, she leaves early and I get my ass up late. I miss the lessons.

Anyway I got the swimming pool carnet!
There are five swimming pools in Linz, all for that one carnet that is relatively cheep - 86 + 2 (carnet fee) euro for 6 months. I have no idea how they count months in Linz, but they are really user-friendly! In Madrid I could buy a month carnet for 45 euro which could last for a week (depending on a day when it's bought) - but here I got it until the end of May 2011. Yes, to the 31st of May, my birthday. That is 6,6452 months. Swimming about three times a week I pay approx. 1,09 euro for each session. I did not expect such a bonus in Austria!

How Austrians swim and why it is so hard for them to change their swimming habits is a different story. Of course they wouldn't call it a habit, but an order. I got even shouted by an Austrian swimmer. They swim like that:

• if there is one swimmer (on a line) he/she gots all the line (clever)
• if there are two swimmers in a line they have their own half of line! And they swim only on that half - back and forth.
• if there are more than two swimmers in a line then each half of line is in different direction.

Sounds good? Well... I thought that ommiting the point no. 2 would be easier as the point no. 3 can cover it, but... I still can't argue with someone in German. Soon. Bald.

Funny story. Old guy in a tram asked us to read his SMS as he could barely see the little font on his tiny cell-screen. I read it at loud: "Meine liebe Franz! Guten tag! Ich liebe dich!" He was so thankful! He asked us where we are from and we said "aus Polen". He was so happy about that! And I had been scared of nationalismus. We suspect that he makes many people read it for him daily.

Below is the photo of Linz specialty: almonds, hazelnuts and any-nuts in very tasty sugar-like ornament. Bon appettit! Mahlzeit!