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Published: December 5th 2008
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Landeshauseiskrippe
The Ice Manger at the Landeshaus. I'm writing to you on the eve of my department to the one, the only, Salzburg, Austria! And it now occurs to me that it's almost midnight, we're catching the train at 8am tomorrow, and I have yet to pack. Oh well, might as well waste some time on this.
Been pretty lowkey since we last spoke, just doing work and hanging out. Officially skipped my second class in my entire college career today. A big group of us last night went to the Kunsthaus where we've been known to Salsa dance on Saturday nights. I know, I know, you're certainly saying, "But Matthew, you are a diligent student, what are you doing out until 2am on a school night when you had class at 9am the next day?" What can I say, when in...well, Graz.
Anyways, it was this crazy Cuban band that was playing live music, and it was a lot of fun. Oddly enough, it was my second Cuban experience of the week. We'd tried on Monday night to go dancing at a Cuban bar up by school
, but Eiskrippe
Ice Manger. that was a flop since there wasn't really any room to dance. Last night, though, was a lot of fun. Altogether about 10 of us went, plus all the other crazy Austrians, and we just listened to the music, hung out, chatted, and danced. It was a great time, and we got to hang out with the band and we each got to sing part of a song which was embarassing but fun.
Today I just went to my Italian class and then hung out for the afternoon. I needed some pants, so I went and bought myself a pair at this cheap clothing store right next to my apartment, and that was about it for afternoon excitement. For the evening, Libor and I decided to take a little risk. We'd been warned not to go out if possible tonight, as tomorrow is December 6th, St. Nicholas' Day. It's basically the first stop on the road to Christmas, though it's actually probably bigger/more important than Christmas . Anyways, as I hope you've all seen, we had the Krampuslauf on Sunday. Well, tonight is the real deal, when the real Krampusse come out of
Eiskrippe
Ice Manger the mountains and go from house to house, inspecting the kids. We were told it usually turns into a crazy night, since a lot of people wear masks and thus can do whatever they want and nobody will know it was them. Windows get smashed, people get harrassed, you know, the usual.
Anyways, the Czech and the American decided to brave the battle, and we went to the Hauptplatz and finally succeeded in our mission of more than a week: getting a waffle. In the Christkindlmarkt in Hauptplatz there's one stand that makes waffles and we've both been wanting one, but every time we've tried, they haven't been open. Tonight, in the words of Borat, GREAT SUCCESS! We both got a waffle with chocolate syrup, which was awesome , but a little unpractically to eat without a plate. I'm pretty certain Chase could have made less of a mess than I did. Needless to say, Libor got a kick out of the fact that my hands were covered with chocolate, I had spots all over my cheaks, on my nose, by my eye. I'm 20, I swear. After that, we decided to wander around and
enjoy the Christmas Season, and we ended up inside the Landeshaus where there was an Eiskrippe, a manger carved from ice. After both lamenting that we didn't have our cameras, we decided to shoot home, grab 'em, pick up the Frenchie, and go for a little tour of Graz. We headed back to the Eiskrippe, took an adequate number of pictures, and were astounded by the skill involved. Behind the Krippe, as well, there was another open space that's usually a restaurant. There, they had a bar that entirely carved from ice, which was really cool and really impressive. From there, we jumped over to Jakominiplatz, where we frequently a lovely little Turkish kebap place and sampled true Austrian culture. It was only my second kebap since being here, which is sacrelig to most of the internationals and Austrians alike, but so it goes. It was really really good, and I can't wait now to have my 3rd, 4th, 5th, 38th.
From there, we decided to head up to the Schlossberg, as I'd only been there once and hadn't seen the city from there at night. Unfortunately, the Clock Tower is covered on all sides by walls for restauration,
Steiermark
Libor's very happy to live in Steiermark [this is the symbol for our state]. which will be up there until June. Sorry Rachel, Julie, and Julie, you won't be seeing Graz's clocktower on your journeys to Austria. Anyways, we hung out on the Schlossberg for a bit and enjoyed the views, and I taught them some English which was entertaining to hear their accents, and then when the wind finally got the better of us, we headed on back to our place.
It's about midnight right now and the Spanish were having a pre-party here before heading out to a Santa Claus party up by school, and they all finally just left, so, time to shower and crash before waking up early for Salzburg tomorrow! Oh, how I look forward to a long weekend in a city where I'll be making tons of comments and song quotes and just getting stared at by my co-travelers...the life of an American!
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kristy
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BON VOYAGE! MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALTHOUGH I'M SURE YOU'LL BE BLOGGING FROM YOUR TRAVELS! XO K