Hi dudes,
We took a train from Vienna the day after Jess' dance audition, to Graz. It was a very beautiful train ride, lasting about 3 hours and went mainly through mountains and valleys. It was a sunny day but the mountains in the distance had snow covering their peaks.
The countryside was how you would imagine old Austria to be, pity Graz isnt.
Our first impressions of Graz was that it was Austria's version of Ballarat and it took us a few days to start liking it. The uni (Jazz department) where I will be studying is an extremely boring building that has no character and doesnt look like a university - more like a run down office. But, the Classical department is about 15mins walk away and it is a great old building with marble floors, nice gardens and some character! So after seeing some more of the nicer areas of town, we have grown to like Graz a lot.
Upon arrival to Graz we took a train to our friend from Australia, Amanda's house where we have been sleeping on the floor of her room (on matresses) since being here. We have looked at 3 places to rent already and are looking at another 3 on Monday so hopefully after those we will have a place in Graz before we leave to Salzburg on May 7th for Jess' next round of auditions. One house is across the road from uni so I really hope its good and will just be like my old house in Perth!
I got a gig the 2nd day I was here which was also the day i was re-united with my trombone, playing with the uni's composer's ensemble/dectet at a bar/room near uni. It was great to meet some people from uni and get to play again. Ed Partyka (my teacher) had to pay an extra 50€ (nearly $100) to clear my trombone from customs, so it was nice that he was still happy to see me when i arrived!
The letter y and z are swapped around on the keyboards here so i keep spelling words wrong. We also have cool symbols on here like üäö߀µ so our typing is a lot slower.
Our German skills are poor and everything is in German so Jess and I are struggling. It is getting better slowly, because sometimes now we know what we are eating, but we definately need to get a lot better quickly.
Smokers are killing us as they can do it in pretty much every room, and 95% of them are smokers. Internet cafe's are so strong it feels like your brain is shrivelling up. Jess has cancer already. So there are no photos for this blog yet but there will be at some stage. Hello to eveyone, and Jess and I have an Austrian mobile number each, if anyone wants it just msg our Aussie number and we will send you it!
Tschuess
Austria's Flag
Map of Austria