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Published: September 12th 2008
Raucherzone
An area of the Graz Hauptbahnhof for smokers. Equal to having a peeing section of a pool.Today was the best day I've had yet!!
I got to sleep in a little bit later, because instead of having class at school, we instead met in the Hauptplatz at 9. Eva split us into groups and gave us each a different set of questions, then set us loose in the Innere Stadt , to talk with the locals and learn some of Graz's history. I got paired with my friend Elizabeth, from Brisbane, Australia, and another guy in my class, Libor, from the Czech Republic. Libor doesn't speak English, so it was good 'cause we had to communicate entirely auf Deutsch. We were assigned questions about das Rathaus, which is the biggest building in the Hauptplatz, the city hall. It was fun 'cause we chatted with a guy in the Rathaus, then had to take a poll with some of the locals and basically walk around asking people some questions, so it was entertaining. We went to a cafe, after, TBK , which is Eva's favorite in Graz, and then walked around the city and discussed the answers to our questions. There is so much history
Slovenia
First steps in Slovenia! The train station. here that I had no idea about! For instance, the Turks tried to conquer Austria , and they were actually successful in stealing Graz, EXCEPT for the Schlossberg. That was the one section of the city they could never take, and eventually Austria reconquered Graz for itself. It's so amazing how so many turning points in history have occurred here or in the general area, and I LIVE here.
Eva then brought us to der Markt, which is an open air market behind the opera house, and did the same thing. She gave us a list of questions that we had to talk to the locals about, and this time I worked with Harry and Chelsea . It went by quicker, and people thought we were crazy 'cause we were laughing and joking and having a great time talking to the locals. It was also startling to realize that for the first time that I was conscious of, I was NOT conscious of speaking in German. Rather than be thinking about words, I was just talking to people, and was shocked to find myself making perfectly fine sentences and
Ljubljana & Zagreb
Oh, you know, just a sign for Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, and Zagreb, Croatia's capital. being completely understood. It was even stranger to find myself thinking in German, especially after class when I ran back to my apartment to drop my bag off.
After class, we went our separate ways for the day...sort of. My friends and I then decided to take a little spontaneous trip. We got out of class at 12...and caught the 2pm train down to Slovenia!! I ran home first to eat a quick sandwich and then was on my way. I caught the bus to the Hauptbahnhof , and took it right at the time that every high school was getting out. Naturally, we had to pick up kids from every one, so the bus was BEYOND cramped. It was awful, but I finally stumbled out at the Hauptbahnhof and met my friends.
We all have a card that is for Austrian students and cuts the prices of train tickets in half, so for us to go down and back cost us only $9 each! That's not even for each way, that's total, how crazy is that?! Going on the trip was: Orla , George , Elizabeth , Libor , Meghan , and Sarah [Orla's
Statue
Weird statue across from the train station. friend from Ireland]. It only takes about 20-30 minutes to get to the Slovene border, and from there we only went a little bit in, to Maribor, the second biggest city in the country, with the exception of Ljubljana, the capital.
We got there and it was just immediately different from Austria. It really felt like Eastern Europe. It was pretty obvious looking around that Slovenia was a lot poorer than Austria, but even more striking was just the atmosphere. It felt physically so much more depressing. The buildings were mostly grey, in stark contrast to Graz's colors, and there was hardly anyone anywhere. The people who were out kept to themselves, and spoke very very quietly, moving quickly to their destinations and never making eye contact. It was a little bit of a shock to go here from Graz, where things are loud and crazy, people are everywhere, laughing, talking, enjoy themselves. It didn't help, either, that the weather was changing and a storm was rolling in, adding to the somber attitude around us.
Naturally, as soon as we got there, I snapped a few pictures...and my camera died. On the trainride it occurred to us that
Funky truck
I got a kick out of this truck for some reason. we had absolutely no idea what we were going to do in the city, let alone have a map of the city. When I realized I needed batteries for my camera, it presented the next massive obstacle: no one spoke Slovene. I went into a grocery store and got asked a question by a lady, and decided it was safest just to smile and walk away. I found the batteries and quickly checked out, and couldn't even say "thank you" to the lady working at the register. It was shocking how much I wanted to instinctively use German and how confident I felt about my German, whereas in Austria I've typically felt a little nervous that I might say something wrong. I quickly ran out of the store and discussed our latest problem with everyone, when Libor spoke up. Since he's from the Czech Republic, he obviously speaks Czech, which is a sister of Slovene, so he could understand bits and pieces, and ended up being our lifeline. We found a tourism office and got a map of the city, and started to wander.
We immediately saw the Franciscan church of the city, and right across from it the
Flags
Slovene flag with the EU flag city's castle. It was a little odd to see the castle right in the heart of the city, and at first we didn't even believe it was the castle. We walked around a little bit and finally concluded it had to be it. Unfortunately, it was closed. We walked through the Main Square, which was a dwarf compared to Graz's, and around the "Innere Stadt" of Maribor. It was a lot of small, windy roads, and though these had more people on them, it still felt very somber. Prices were outrageous! They were so much cheaper than in Graz...and Graz isn't even that expensive! A pair of sneakers was about $10, a pair of jeans was $7, it was ridiculous. Libor said it's about the same in the Czech Republic and couldn't understand why we were all so shocked by how cheap it all was. We decided next time we need anything, we'll just hop on the train to Maribor haha
We then came upon another square which was much bigger, wide open and contained the city hall. We thought it was a big impressive building with flags and whatnot, but it was in fact, according to Libor and
Franciscan Church
Picture I took of the Franciscan Church in the distance...and then my batteries died. his rough Slovene translation, the much smaller, blander building across the street. We chose to believe instead that it was the much more interesting building haha We then walked down a little alley and came out along the river, the Drava. It was gorgeous. It was quaintly Eastern European, as lame as that sounds haha There were ducks in the river, and just typical Eastern European architecture on both sides. Don't really have too much to say, you'll just have to look at my pictures. We walked along that for a while, up and down it, until heading back up to the Main Square.
We then went to a pizza place for dinner called Ancora, which was a 3 story restaurant that was very old, the building looked like something out of Robin Hood. It was fun and nice to sit and relax and just hang out, but the most amazing part occurred when the bill came. Sarah and Orla had both ordered trout for dinner with a glass of wine. This is the kicker: the trout cost them each TWENTY EIGHT CENTS, and the glass of wine NINE CENTS. That's right, they spent 38 cents on dinner. Mine,
Hills
You can always see the hills that surround the city, it's really cool. a pizza and a Coke, cost me only $5. It was so hard to believe. For seven of us, the bill was about 30 euro. We were all floored by it. While we were eating, a massive thunder and lighting storm broke out, with thunder that shook the biulding sometimes, and as the clock rolled towards 8pm, we knew we had to make it back to the train station.
We ventured into the rain, after running into a man from Austria and chatting with him for a little. While we were walking back , we came across a puddle that was almost ankle deep. I decided just to walk through it, 'cause there was no way getting past it without walking in the road, and there were a TON of cars in the road that made that no option. So, while we were all wading through the water, a car decides to drive up on the sidewalk and drive along the sidewalk! It came dangerously close to hitting us! We were all floored, we just stood with our jaws hanging open.
We made it to the train station, though, and sat down
Maribor
Where I was in a compartment together, and finally we were back off for Austria. The lights weren't working in our cart, but none of us really cared, we just all sat in silence since we were really tired. We made it back to Graz at about 9:30, having spent about 5 hours down in Slovenia.
It was a very tiring day, but so much fun, and so worth it! Enjoy my pictures!!
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kristy
non-member comment
Yea Lucy! I am loving living vicariously through your blog! I'm so happy that you are having such an experience!! We miss you!