It's a special episode with a long-distance twist! Tune in to hear what's different!
https://linktr.ee/atwittsend
It's a special episode with a long-distance twist! Tune in to hear what's different!
https://linktr.ee/atwittsend
Well, welcome back to the AtWitsEnd Podcast. This may sound a little weird, but it's just me here, Carson, opening up this podcast solo. Yeah, you may be a little confused and Ken's out of town right now, but he isn't 6,000 miles away. He's not nine hours away. He happens to be sitting. right next to me here in Linz. Groosby. So he has cut out those six, or there's 6,000 miles, cut out the nine hours. We're six inches apart. Yeah, maybe even a little closer. Time should be exactly on. Yep. Technically, time is different no matter where you are in the world. There's a little bit of time difference. But. Yeah, so he has traveled all this way just for this episode now. He's come here for other things and I think that's what we'll talk about here today. But I'm one of our few special guests. Yeah, you're very special guest. Special guest on your own podcast. That's a new thing. It is. I'm officially for a little while, at least. I know Linza. And if you have no, if you're watching the podcast, I have a special jersey on. So this week, just gonna talk a little bit about what we've done so far, other than if you notice the background, it's all white. Carson's in a new flat in downtown Lenz. Actually, right, if you go out his front door of the complex, and you see the biggest cathedral in Austria. What did you learn today though that I talked to you? It's not the tallest. It's like two meters short. than the Steffenstone. Yep, two meters shorter. But it is actually the biggest cathedral. It's having some renovations done. Probably post some pictures of just, I thought it was interesting walking out of the apartment this morning, early in the morning and seeing the steeple, the tower, I guess, steeple? Steeple, yeah. Steeple is like small churches in the US of farmland. I hate to say steeple. the spires of the cathedral and then walking back from dinner this evening, the contrast was quite stark, very, you know, a cathedral against a black background of the sky, so just so you know, Lentz, I think we've probably talked about it before, not a big tourist town, it is a stop on a lot of the river cruises, but I think actually a great place to visit, we've talked about festivals to see. The cathedral is obviously there, a lot of unique museums, but what I enjoyed most about Linz is the shops, the boutiques are traditional Austrian shops. And just a great experience if you don't wanna be too touristy, this is a place to be, so. Yeah, it's just a little... It's a little Austrian town. Yeah. It's a working class town. You can't say it's little. Yeah, it's not little. It's like the third biggest city in Austria. Yeah. It's, it's relatable to, you know, where you're at Sacramento area, right? It's kind of similar vibe to like the working class town, a different type of work. Cause yeah. It's on a river. Yeah. On a river. I wouldn't say that Sacramento is an industrial town. This has got a lot of industry. Yeah. Sacramento is a farm, farm like. built on a farm town. It's a working class town on a river. About it. Well, it is the capital of California, but I would say Lintz is probably an hour train ride from Vienna, the capital, but so it's kind of like Sacramento is an hour, hour and a half. If it was a train, yeah, there is a train, but nobody takes it. So what, an hour and a half to San Francisco? I think the capital corridor is getting more popular. But first, so the first, I think, day we were here in Linz, we happened to go to a last match. Last match. I can't call it a game. So I've been to soccer matches before, a long time ago. But since Carson's been here, obviously, he was a Premier League fan before, soccer fan. I should say football. So I went to take in a few matches. And Lask being his new team, adopted team, just like Sacramento was a team was the basketball was the Kings, Giants I would say is your baseball team. Football. I don't really have a made. Maybe 49ers. I'm a root for him, but yeah, probably say more. I'm more of a college football fan. Most people who know me through football know that. And we discussed the rivalry game here between the blue lights and the black and whites, laska is the black and white. Carson explained it before. I did buy some gear. It wasn't given to me. This is a field, field worn, warmup Jersey and trainers and coaches shirt. So it's not, it's not a game Jersey, but it is a pre-match and on the bench, the trainers official team wear. Yeah, I didn't want anybody, you know, saw me in a jersey thinking, hey, this guy plays for Lask. It would be obvious with my athletic ability, but yeah, I'd rather go with the coaches. And it was unusual color, right? Yeah. It's so good. It's a, it's like, I think the third color of Lask. So, right. Um, yeah. So how was the match? What did you think of it? It wasn't a sellout guys. You got to remember they played a Carson Lincoln match. We discussed it at Liverpool, which was a big match. This was, I don't know, you never would. from somewhere in Austria. Not a big travel team but we sat right next to the visitor section and you know they fence it off so they can't get to anybody and vice versa. Can't throw anything too there's nets all around them. But I think I'll probably be posting some of the video pictures of it. They were quite loud for the small contingent that were there. How many did you? 50, 60 in the pattern. Yeah, 50, 60. But they were rowdy and their songs were quite entertaining. I found some of them kind of funny, like Doris Day's big hit, K. Sirah was one of their chants. I didn't understand what they were saying in German, but it was entertaining. I was stomping my foot. The last crowd at the other end was definitely much more vocal and fun to watch. You pointed out during the game you like the flags. Yeah, I gotta admit the TFOs. The Lask fans and their flags that they fly, I guess are on silk, a great thing. They make them themselves. So pretty much everybody in that section was wearing black or white. I did wear some black and white clothes just so nobody thought I was with the other team. And we sat in a section mostly with, I won't say elderly, men with their kids. and buddies. So they were very into the match talking about, yeah, just like an American football game. And the match wasn't a big match. It was just a regular season, Bundesliga lead match. So there was no reason for someone that's not a fan of the team really to come out. No, it was the locals' game or match. The stadium is beautiful. As Carson mentioned earlier, that was, I don't know, how would you say, piling up, getting damaged. Giving way. Yeah, it was giving way. So, but shout out to the groundskeepers. They kept it nice and clean and neat. Um, was easy getting in and out. You know, it's not like American football where you drive up and have a tailgate. Um, rather free buses and transportation. And then you walk into the stadium. There wasn't the big parade because it wasn't a major game. Like. some mentioned in previous episodes but all in all a great event wasn't uh wasn't expensive i remember um food was good people were pleasant plenty of room enjoyed it and uh last one so three points to the to the table for last and uh i think they're in uh third place but they're fighting for the top of the table yeah finest day and what level are they austrian They're in the top level of Austria. The top level of Austria, yeah. As you can tell, you people that are into soccer, football, I am not an expert on it. I have to keep asking questions. So we are planning on taking in a major match later on this weekend. Yep. We haven't got tickets yet. We'll talk about that later, but it is a big match. And then you want me to talk about your practices I attended? Yeah, so another new thing. Yeah, so as many of you may know, we did do an episode where we had... question and answer session with American football players from the local high school and universities, friends of ours and a coach, Coach Bob. And then some of the team hopped on, Carson's coaching. So I got to meet them, the legendary guys, the shout out to Leon and Timo, pretty much leaders of the team. Nils I got to meet and his girlfriend. which was interesting since she is a, they're both German. She's hasn't got an accent at all because she lived in San Diego. Her parents are now in Philly. So it was interesting talking to her and her perspective on both countries. And she loves both countries. She loves Austria, so does Neil. So a great couple. And then got to meet the Hungarian, the wild man. And then Ginger Linger. Norbert. Yep, Norbert's a good dude. I would say he's the Viking that conquered the He's the uh, he's the uh, brass bandsman on the team too. He plays the- I would love to see you play. He plays the trumpet. No, no, the trombone. Yeah, he plays the trombone. Yeah, I think he's a trombonist. Either trombone or trumpet, one of the two I can't remember right now. But yeah, he's uh, he's our, um, our local brass bandsman. I think tough guy and actually great at great hands. He's actually one of the better receivers on the team. If he was a receiver, but he's too valuable as a lineman. I actually, for those of you that know USC football and the USC band, he is what I would picture as a USC brass section. They were all, when I was a kid, they were tough, maybe not so much anymore, but interesting, they didn't take any crap and, uh, they were fun to watch as a kid at USC. So interesting if you have a chance to see his band too, they're a great band. Have you seen them? Yeah. Oh, okay. Um, they're a lot of fun. Um, but yeah, so you went to, uh, Two practices and a tryout. So how did it kind of look out there to you? And that Hard to compare but it is hard to give us your for the guys on the team. Give us your honest True opinions because you won't see them in person again, probably Not till they make the playoffs. You get the totals, Matt, right now. No, they all are passionate, I would say, about the team. It is unusual, as we've stated before, that there's no... If you play football in the States, you are never late to practice. If you are, you're running laps. And I mentioned... Oh, it's a... They were smoking, vaping after practice, which is an improvement because many of them when they started practice, when Carson started coaching, were smoking and vaping. So that was interesting. You would never see that anywhere in the States. And talent level, I think it's there. You can tell they've never many of them have never thrown a football before. You know, there's definitely an art to it. I think in the States, kids grow up with a foot. They throw it, whether they play football or not. So there's a certain way you throw a ball, you know, you don't throw it like a baseball. It is, um, it's, it's a technique that's kind of you grow up with. So a lot of kids are pushing the ball or side army and, you know, or they wind up like a baseball. Okay. And I saw a lot of guys pushing the ball. Yeah. Like a shot put. Um, what's it's a football is, I mean, there's not, it's just like, it's not a normal. thing you throw and it's not a normal thing you come across. Like, you know, you throw in a, uh, European football, but a softer ball around, right, throwing a round ball, smaller ball, even a rugby ball has a rounder end to it. Yeah. But you don't, you basically pitch, uh, a rugby ball, but like a baseball or any round ball, right, it's pretty obvious how you throw baseball, right? Kind of, it's pretty obvious, but a football is unique, right? And it doesn't make a lot of sense to people at first that they're out of. Yeah. So I think a great group of guys, I think what I found is that they enjoy hanging out and kind of the brotherhood, which is what we talked about. You know, a lot of the guys, when they ask questions and all during the podcast episode, it was we were talking, we were mentioning a brotherhood. You'll always be brothers because you played football together on a team. And I can kind of see that they're all hanging out. They do have friends come by. Carson mentioned two practices and a. a tryout, you probably had another 10 to 12 people show up. There was a kid from Georgia, not a big football player, but so he knows the sport. I think on a semester abroad. Yes, semester abroad. So I don't know if he'll be here for the season in total. And a diverse crowd, but it's- But I'm curious what you think- Skill level. Well, when you think back to, I'd say- Over three quarters of the team, 80% of the team had started never playing football. Yeah. And to the point you saw today where we're kind of scrimmaging and we had 11 on 11 on Monday. The scrimmages, the practices today were much more. than expected. Guys are knowing plays they want to know about plays. They want to know the strategy. They want to know why. And then to contrast that with the tryout where you're teaching kids a three point stance. That's actually, it's actually a good thing because that's where the guys that you see now, that's where they were when we first started. And I will say, you know, I talked with coach Mike, the other coach on, well, there's three coaches now. Yep, coach Roman as well. And shout out to Hannah. She said, The advantage the Astros have amongst the talent and the Hungarian kid and all those, all that stuff is that they have the best coaching staff in the ACSL, which I was surprised she said that I said, because they have the smallest in numbers and I think you being, they have a significant number of coaches on their team from, you know, OD head coach. They position coaches. They position coaches, yeah. Which for Carson, you know, he's the quarterback coach, the receiver coach, the line coach, the yoke, it's everything. And- Used to be the special teams, but now thankfully Coach Roman is taking over. Coach Rome? Coach Roman. Yeah, Coach Roman. Oh, I didn't, I remembered his name and Hannah asked me what his background was. She said- His local. but he's played football for 30 years. He's been a coach, I think he said, for almost 30 years now in this area, which is incredible. He could probably play and be a very valuable player to the team because he's a tall gentleman. He's the tallest guy out there without pads. I always joke with him because he always shows up in Cal Berkeley gear. That's what she said too. She goes, yeah, he's always wearing college gear from the States. Yeah, as a USC fan, we kick him out. Calgary. Is that a real change? So all in all I think the skills are coming the new kids that are coming out and again, it's like It's not the university level in the States. I don't know. I hate to even call it a club university level more like a high school team But it's kind of what you I think It's just, you have to remember when you think about the team and who's playing that these were guys that last year had never played football before. Maybe had thrown a football around, definitely watched football at some point. And if you go back to your youth football career, you always knew the kids that hadn't played before and I always say it took a season to understand how to be hit, how to accept a hit, how to be hit at a role and how to hit people. And it's an intimidating thing. And another thing there are two girls on the team now. One, I don't want to call her petite, but she's not a big girl. She's a receiver, but she had played football before, which is surprising. She had her own helmet out there. So she had pretty decent hands. So I think she'll be a great asset to the team. The other girl was hurt. So I didn't really get to see her play much. I think she was at the practice on Monday. just running drills that look great. And I was talking to Hannah again about that. And I said, it's interesting in the States, that would be a big deal. You'd probably be in the local paper and on TV. Whereas in the States, that's the way it is. A girl is gonna be on the high school football team kicking a field goal in the news. We're here, nobody really even talks about it. So it was fun to see people walk when we had the practices on campus. people walking by and stopping and discussing American football. What are they doing? Yeah, everyone always stops and they're watching, talking about it. You like to see them talking and playing because some of our practices now are on campus, which is nice. And so we get a lot of people. And they did have to practice at a year. Yeah. Monday's practice was at a field that is actually part of a tennis court club, tennis club. Yeah. And there's a bunch of kids that go out and play soccer, waiting. They want to be part of the practice. So you can tell they want to. It's actually one of the, it's one of the coolest things. These, yeah. He's talking about these, there's this group of little kids that live in the residential buildings right next to the field. They're all, you know, eight, nine, 10 years old. Um, they're running around. They're always out there playing football, uh, European football, soccer, kicking the ball around with each other's. I think there's like 10 or 12 of them. Um, but since we'd been having practices there with American football, Um, they've been interested in joining our practices and we love it. We have, you know, run, they run laps with us. They run sprints. We let them hit the bags and throw the football around with them. So it's really fun to get these little kids involved in this, you know, uniquely American sport. Yeah. And to go back to your practice today, I was kind of surprised you were having, there was some hitting going on. Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. And it was weird because some of the guys didn't have their other pads. Some of the guys that just came out to try out that were on there on the D line. Their defense is pretty good because I think they've got guys that played before for the Steel Sharks, maybe a few of them. Or they've played football before. No, no. Like Timo played rugby. Yeah, Timo's a rugby player. None of the guys you saw today were, one of them, I think they played a little bit, maybe rugby though, but the majority of the guys are first timers out there. I don't have a good time, but yeah, I was surprised you were hitting. And I say that because conditioning is not a big part of football here. Again, it's more of a love kind of thing to come out and have a good time. And so you want to avoid injuries because you've got a significant number on the team that have some injuries. Probably if it was in the States, the 10 to 12 people that are out, maybe three would be out because we all know people that have played with broken fingers. things that normally here would be drought. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, it's been a fun week of practices. We're in game prep. We had tryouts because the school year just started, so a lot of new people on campus and we have tryouts, but we're also in game prep, so we're two weeks away from the opening JKU Astros game. Which was supposed to be this Saturday, so I'll be not cheering on the four teams I'm gonna watch. But a lot of the guys from the team are going, so we'll be there to watch and discuss things and have a beer while watching football. So American football. Yep, the team we play is playing this weekend in the ACSL season opener. And we're playing in the, they're playing in the big stadium in Vienna, so the crowd won't look as big in that stadium, but I think it'll be a lot of fun. Although I think they said they've sold over 2,000 tickets. But how big's the stadium? Like 20,000? No, no, not even close to that. No. Is that where the Vikings play? No, no. No, this is probably, I'd say, a 4,000 stand. And there's a big grass hill, and there's some open areas on the sides. But the main stand isn't that big. I've got to say, it is being weird. It's weird doing the podcast in the same room because I want to turn and talk to you. Yeah, you can do that. So. 12 and all, you know, no disappointments in the team. I think it's great. I think you have great, the three coaches are a great staff. I think the kids like their staff. I think they wanna be playing football. They enjoy it. They're having fun. And they're building that brotherhood. And well, I don't know what brother or sisterhood. How's that? Yep, yep. Family, I think they do some breaks on family and do a... Yeah. Um, some team stuff. So it's, it's good. And they do a lot outside of practice. We do, um, various like get togethers and stuff. So, um, yeah. And so to end it, I would say any American kids, again, want to play football, especially linemen, uh, or, uh, if you want to, if you want to get an education, that is a very good education. In English, you don't want to waste time. There are many programs in English. your bachelor's degree in three years here in Austria. You can get a master's if you do it well in four years. So you can have four years of playing football at the university level. And you can play a lot of, you can have football fun. You can do it at all the national. Meet your friends and travel Europe. Yeah, and that's what we offer here at the JKU Astros. Unfortunately, the big star shipper NIL money is yet to come. We're still looking for it. But the NIL money could develop over... Scholarship's not gonna happen because let's face it, why do you need a scholarship? Yeah, if you didn't know, international students pay a very low fee if you're an Austrian or EU resident. I think it's 40 bucks for. Actually, it's for the residents. Cheaper than that, it is 25 euros. Yeah, that's right, 25 euros. Think of that, folks. If you're a resident here, it's 25 euros. Is that a semester for the full year? For the semester, yeah. Okay, so 50 bucks a year to go to school, maybe 75 if you go in the summer. No, there's no summer program. So 50 bucks a year tuition to go full time to a university, get a great education, uh, and courses, many courses, programs are in English. Uh, I think like the international business is the AI program, AI program, programming, and then in masters, it even expands medical degrees are all in English. So, um, I can, and you get to travel the world or Europe. Yeah. I mean, you get the. Do your degrees here in Europe. Right. Yeah, so exciting. So yeah, we have the ACSL season opener this weekend. So that's upcoming. I guess we'll end it with a... I don't want to end it yet. Let's just say, while you've been here, we got to go to the Nash mark. Let's just... Oh, okay. Well, that's Vienna stuff. I wanted to stick to the Linzer part of this episode. So I was going to ask you a couple of your, to end it, kind of your favorite things about Linz being... Being in Linz and the Linzer things. I would say what I like about Linz is it's not, again, it's not a tourist city. So, you know, when you sit down, you don't have the menu in English and German, which you probably say, well, but that's great. But then you, I don't know, it's a better experience, I guess. And the shops are owned by, most of them are owned by locals. Like today, everything was open again. kind of interesting the hours. I don't know if they're not open on Monday, Sundays, but a lot of the art galleries, art shops, antiques, prints. Just a lot of those small shops that are run by an old guy. Which you don't see a lot where you're from in California. There's just not a lot of those around and they're on every street here. There's local bars. And we were envied for like... the end of October Fest, but we had some friends that were in Munich at October Fest and joined us in Vienna. And they had bought later hoes and endurinoles for the festivities. So you have those shops here, but they are not for festivals or really events. They are for events. But I mean, people will wear them too. You see more people that are wearing later hoes because that's what they wear. They wear the hoes or the traditional jackets because that's what they wear. So there was also, you know, Carson had us take some pictures in front of the two lions by the train station, by the Bonhoff, because that's where his grandfather had... Carson discovered after he got here that my dad had been here in World War II. We still don't know exactly why, because this was kind of German territory. No, this was, he was here post-World War II, so this was- 45 points? No, he was here 48, 49. So this was American territory during post-World War II. So Lynch was not cut up like- No, this was American territory. Oh, that's good. So the town was basically saved from the Russians. That's a whole history. Yeah, he was here. It's interesting when he was here, the only reason I found when he was here is because looking at the pictures of the train station, and I was actually talking through Facebook with a Lynch historian. And he had said... and taught me that when you look at the train station, it was the style of a more modern one. So World War II had destroyed the older train station, they rebuilt it, and it was in a style of the more recent post-World War II, not the current one, but the one that they built after World War II. But what dated it even more was the train station didn't have the Hoppenhof sign on it. So there was a period of two years where it didn't have that sign on it. That's why we didn't know that was the... And so his pictures didn't have the sign in them, but they had the two lines and I'd recognize the two lines And the two lines are what a lot of Lincer's know they're kind of you're welcome to the city the Hoppenhof That's your main way to get to Linz so the trains and the lines greet you at the train station So the two lines were in his picture and the two lines are still at the train station today They moved a little bit, but they're still in almost the exact same spot that they were in his photos. And I will say, even though it's not a typical tourist town or known as a tourist town, although the river cruises do stop here, they have a lot of festivals, if you're into history, World War II history too, this should be a stop. You can visit also Mauthausen, which I think is about 20 minutes away. Yeah, not far. Yeah, so there's a lot of history here, a lot of, like I said, if that's part of you. your interest and enthusiasm, definitely I think this would be the stop. So, and again, I think the favorite thing is just kind of walking around town, engaging with the locals. I went into a traditional clothing shop and met Martha who says she works out a couple of days a week because of the, she wants to keep in contact with her cultural background by selling later hose and Derenbilt dresses to women. So. That was a nice discussion. And then the food I think is great. Stiegel has a restaurant here, the beer company. Yeah, and I didn't realize it was their actual restaurant. So it's Brandon, great beer. And we had some great food there. So yeah, all in all, I think Belenso is a wonderful town, industrial town. Going back to World War II, did they, did he speak, was it bombed much by the Allies? I would think so because it was a city district. This was a major town. Yeah, so the major, the Kemi Park, all the industrial stuff was because of World War II. Okay. So that was probably destroyed and then rebuilt for modern industry. Because it was the steelworks here. Yeah, it was the steelworks. So it had to be bombed. Yeah, it was probably... targeted. I know the city was a very important city to the Germanic side of the war. To Adolf. To it, yeah. It was going to be the center, it was supposed to be the shining star of his empire basically. And so there's a lot of history. There was actually a plan and there's some, read some documents and stories about the plan they had for Linz that never came to fruition. But it was supposed to be outshine Vienna, outshine Berlin, outshine Munich. The jewel of the thing, right? It was going to be a special place. They started that. There are certain pieces that are still left in the city where it kind of started. And certain pieces that they took away and that there are no longer because they wanted to get rid of that mindset. But yeah, there's a lot of history in Linz and in this area. It's definitely an interesting area. Probably... a little off the beaten path for tourists from America. Yeah, I think it's just, it's hard. It's like our friends said who came from Rockland and they said there's so much to see. They can't do everything. And they were obviously, they weren't inundated yet with all the cathedral and churches because they were still going, and the museums. I think they really enjoyed the museums in the history. So with that, I'd say Lentz, two thumbs up, great people. JKU Astros football team great people great structure great Bond I think going on between them and looking forward to Saturday's Game of the season. Yep. So with that I think we're in the this kind of lintzer talk here We thank you for joining us on this special edition of the at wits end in-person podcast Yeah, go Astros, you know become fans in the States Astros fan club. If you need the international shipping, I think we can figure out some way to make that happen for anyone in the States. And if you want more info on football, sorry to just DM us or contact us. Yeah, look up the ACSL also in Austria. That's Austrian Collegiate Sports League. That's where our JKU Astros play alongside five other collegiate teams. With that, one this year, episode 37, a special one. Ciao baby. Ciao. Started dragging on too much. Yeah. What was that, 30?