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Published: November 24th 2008
Katolischentagskapelle
We were walking along and just came upon this "Daily Catholic Chapel" which I thought was cool so I took a picture.Grüß Gott.
It is officially Christmastime in Austria. As you all know, Thanksgiving is American, therefore, it is not celebrated, observed, recognized, understood, known, etc. etc. in Austria. So, while you all are stuffing yourselves silly on Thursday, I'll be sitting in class. Cheers.
However, since there is no Thanksgiving, that means that Christmas comes earlier here. No no, that doesn't mean listening to Christmas carols on the radio and blah blah blah, that means real, true Christmas. In pretty much every Germanic city/town, the Hauptplatz (and subsequently all smaller yet major squares) have Christkindlmärkte. Christkind = Christ the Child. Europeans on the whole, it is my understanding, don't have Santa bringing them gifts, but St. Nicholas and Jesus (as a baby...which makes it all the more impressive). Anywho, these markets are full of little trinkets and Christmasy things, and they are a foreigner's (as well as local's) delight. There's also a humongous (did I spell that right?) tree in Hauptplatz, though it's not yet lit. Anyways, the entire city basically looks like Christmas threw up. Garlands and lights everywhere, but in a classy, old-school type way.
Friday night, Libor, Thomas, Mio [a friend of ours from
Schoenes Haus
We ended up in this house's front yard, and it was a pretty cool house, so I took a picture. Japan] and I set out to explore the Christkindlmarkt. Austria had other plans for us, however, as as soon as ("Thank you for my Az"...only Hillary and Rachel will understand that) we arrived, it started basically torrentially downpouring. We persevered and tried to keep going and see as much of the Markt as we could, but it hit the point that even our underwear was soaked it was raining so hard, and we decided to call it a night. We were supposed to go to a party afterwards at Dietlinde's house, but, being a rainy, freezing night (literally, the temperature has plummeted), we decided just to stay at home and go to Neubaugassekino, where we watched "The Hot Chick."
Saturday was a pretty good day. Libor, Thomas, and I set out at about noon in the direction of Gösting, which is the region of the city a bit past where I used to live, and kind of next to the village Schwarzeneggar grew up in (Thal). Libor had studied some of the houses there in one of his classes, and he wanted to go and see them in real life. He wasn't sure exactly where they were, though, a
Front Lawn
The view from the front lawn. fact he decided not to tell us until we'd traveled quite a ways. We went on foot since it was a gorgeous day and I didn't have a bike (Borja was still sleeping and we didn't want to wake him up, otherwise, I would've just borrowed his). Anyways, we wandered for about 2 hours, trying to find these houses, but we were fruitless. We could see, however, the castle ruins on one of the mountains in Gösting in the distance, and so we decided that hey, we'd come that far, why not check it out. After hiking up the side of a mountain (literally), we were at the top and at the castle! It was really really cool. On one side, we chose to ignore the giant ACHTUNG sign, and climbed up onto this little cliff area that overlooks a giant valley, walled in by the Alps. We sat there for a while, just enjoying the view and Austria and relaxing (it was the first time we'd sat down in over 3 hours of non-stop walking). I tried to capture some pictures, but, as I've come to accept with Austria, it can never really do it justice. At one point,
Mountains
Those be the Alps from this dude's front lawn. too, I started laughing to myself (I figure it's been 3 months, my friends can start to see my crazy side?), as I realize in some aspects just how American I really am: sitting on top of a cliff with two great friends in the southeastern pocket of Austria, overlooking a valley opening into rolling hills leading into the Alps, four words found their way into my head. The hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiills are aliiiiiiiiiiiive. I hate to admit it, but yes. That was what I thought of.
Anyways, once the wind finally got the better of us , we decided to head up to the castle. It was SO cool. There was hardly anybody else up there, so we just wandered around, exploring different areas and discovering new sides of the castle and whatnot. To give you some perspective on this, it was built in 1042. It reminded me a lot of Hamlet, the movie version, and the castle it's set in. Anyways, we eventually found our way up to the top of the tower, and from there, we were looking over Graz
Mountains
Some more. in its entirety . It was pretty breath-taking, and here again, we just hung out on top and enjoyed ourselves and how incredible it is to believe we actually live here. Once again, though, the wind got the better of us, as did our stomachs, and we decided it was time to head home.
On the way home, I decided that I wanted to try making French Toast . It took us about an hour to walk home, and then I stopped in the grocery store and got the necessary accoutrements. After cooking it up , I decided I'm not actually too bad of a chef. It wasn't bad at all , though it would've been better with syrup. Libor and Thomas both also tried it, and both concurred that it was pretty good.
After our intense amount of walking on Saturday, I intended to heartily plop myself on my butt for the evening,
but, as fate would have it, Austria had other plans. Somehow, at 8:30 on Saturday night, I found myself in the Kunsthaus, Graz's art museum, with Libor, Martyna, and Nico & Anouck , learning how to salsa. Every Saturday night they do salsa lessons there , and so we went and learnt how to dance. It's also come to my attention that I am potentially taking a salsa class next semester at the Universitätssportinstitut, the same place I do volleyball. They've all decided it'd be a lot of fun to learn how to really do, and so apparently I don't have a choice in the matter. Anyways, it's true, Americans don't have rthyme. Martyna's danced her whole life, Nico and Anouk were both pretty good, and Libor had to take dance lessons in middle school . They were all pros, and I was...not. However,
Burgruine
Castle Ruins! as we were dancing, it started to snow outside, which was pretty exciting, the first snow of the year! When we finally left, it was still snowing lightly, which was really nice to see with Graz all lit up for Christmas and Tannenbäume everywhere, etc. etc. It's a very quaint little Austrian postcard type city.
Sunday, Libor and I had to wanted to hike up to the top of Schöckl, a mountain a little bit outside of the city. Due to the snow, however, we'd decided it'd be best not to, and so we're going to do that next weekend. Instead, I sat around all day, trying to get my legs to recover from the day before. Last night, Libor, Thomas, and I met up with Anouck, Nico, and another girl from France whose name I can't remember but I know it had a very strong phlegm sound in it. We wandered through the Christkindlmarkt and took in the sights without rain this time, and stopped to drink some Glühwein. It's a type of wine they only drink at Christmas, and you can choose either red or white . It's served really hot, and it was nice
On the Cliff
This is from our seat on the cliff. This highway is the start of a tunnel that, according to Libor, goes through the mountains around Graz and comes out on the other end of the city. It's something like 3900m long or something. just to hold the mug in our hands since it was SO cold out. Overall, though, I'm not much of a Wein type guy, Bier ist besser! It was good, but nothing I need to drink any time soon again. We just hung out, though, in the Markt until we couldn't take the cold anymore, and then we just headed home.
Today was pretty uneventful as well. I have the oral portion of my midterm for my German class for international kids tomorrow, and have been finding ways to avoid studying all day, but now am at the point where I can't put it off any longer. Oh well, so it goes. Wish me luck! I also was doing some errands today, and it was snowing, which was really nice, so it's officially Winter and Weihnachtszeit in Austria!
That's about it, though, for the moment. Just gearing up for the last surge
Mountains
Doesn't do it justice. of work before the Christmas break, and then headed up to the Czech Republic with Libor then down to Italy to meet Julie!
Tschüss!
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Hillary
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Wet Undies
That was a nice image of your wet undies (and Libor's ;) but don't tell him I said that)! Just joking.... Anyway, I had to check with Rachel on the inside joke I was supposed to know - she explained it to me, so we're good now.