Oh! the Grandeur of Graz

11.14
It was another bright and early morning starting off with a 4.5 hour train ride to Graz. Graz is the capitol of Steiermark, and Austria's second largest city in Austria with a population of about 250,000 (compared to Vienna's 1.7 million). All in all, it was a successful train ride: I knitted an entire ball of yarn (I'm currently about half done with my 4th scarf) and earned 5E for getting a perfect score on a vocab quiz (part of the new round of cultural incentives).

When we arrived in Graz, we dropped off our stuff at the Jugendherberge (youth hostel) and took the bus into town. We had some free time to grab lunch before meeting up for our group tour of the city. The tour was a lot of fun and very interesting. Our guide used a combination of German and English, and he was very easy to understand.

Sporgasse - the old main street

That evening, following a tasty dinner, we checked out the Mur Insel (a man-made floating island that was built in 2003 to honor the title bestowed onto Graz for being the yearly cultural center of Europe), walked past the 'friendly alien' which is actually the 40 Million Euro Kunsthaus Graz (Modern Art Museum), and then headed up the winding staircase to the top of the Schlossberg for some amazing views.

Teresa and I by the Mur Insel

Mur Insel

11.15
The day started off with a tour of the Landeszeughaus (the largest armory exhibition hall in the world). Again, another interesting, funny and easy to understand tour!

Landeszeughaus

We were given the afternoon to do whatever we pleased, so I headed out to get a better look at the mausoleum, and the Dom (Cathedral). We also walked through the Stadtpark (city park) before visiting Kunsthaus Graz. I have to admit, I enjoyed the building itself more than the art inside. There main exhibit was entitled 'Leben?' (Life?). The submissions were by a variety of artists, who interpreted the topic pretty freely. Most of the works were bazaar (it is modern art, after all) but there were a few that were pretty unsettling also. Next up we checked out the Geology Museum, which was surprisingly interesting, especially since 3 of the girls I was with had recently taken Geology back at CSB|SJU. Honestly, I enjoyed it because they did!

Our group dinner that night was thoroughly enjoyable! We stayed at the Goesserbraeu (a restaurant associated with the local brewery, Goesser. Their slogan is a clever one: Gut, Besser, Goesser [Good, Better, Goesser] though I'm still partial to Salzburger Stiegl's: Es muss ein Stiegl sein [it must be a Stiegl]) for nearly 3.5 hours. We later discussed the likely hood of such a thing ever happening in the States...I've personally never done it.

11.16
After dropping our stuff off at the train station, I went to mass at the Cathedral. It was full, so we stood in the back the whole time. It was a nice mass, but weird not being able to sing along.

We took one more stroll up the Schlossberg for a day-time view of Graz. The weather was perfect!

Carolyn, Chris, Teresa and I @ the top of the Schlossberg

A walk past the Opera House, and a stop at a nearby cafe concluded our weekend in Graz.

Thanks to the ever fabulous Cultural Incentives Program, I spent a whopping .05 Euros of my own money. Not too shabby!