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Jason in Austria
Traveling is proving to be quite tiresome. I just got back from Graz, Austria and I have been tired ever since. Maybe it is something they put in the water. Or maybe the orange-thong wearing guy in the Hostel freaked me out too much. I'll explain him later. I am going to Prague, Cheq Republic in two weeks and then to Pecs, Hungary the next weekend to take a class from one of the Hungarian universities. More and more traveling! I do not know how I will survive...
In Graz I did mostly sight-seeing, but also visited a Castle and a famous armory that has been around since the 1200's. The city was beautiful and very old-style Europe. All red roof tops, small alleys, and many musicians in the streets. Walking through Graz was very fun because there were all kinds of interesting people out and the weather was perfect.
I arrived on Sunday at about 8:30pm and checked into the Hostel. I have never stayed in a hostel, but it was quite different than what I am used to. It was cheap at 19.50 a night with a hot breakfast included each morning. The room had four beds in bunk style. The first night I stayed with two bicyclers from the UK and an Austrian guy. The second night the Austrian guy left and was replaced by a guy who was a really, really loud snorer. It was a long night. In the morning I got up to go eat breakfast, and when I came back into the room I saw the guy standing in the middle of the room wearing nothing but an orange mesh thong and drinking a bottle of Coke quite ferociously. When he took his last gulp he looked at me and said hello in a very cheery English accent and a quirky smile. I said my hello and put on my shoes and left.
Going back to the second day in Graz, we (me and some Canadian students) visited the armory and walked up a very large hill to view the city from the highest point in Graz. It was a magnificent view from here. I took a picture of the café' we ate at that day. It was a very small white building that was hanging off the side of the hill over the city. I had a goat cheese salad with pumpkin seed oil on it. It also had slices of mango. Just describing that makes me feel a little fruity and fragile. That's ok, it was good. I will make up for it with my trip to the Armory. So we went to the Armory and it was my favorite part of the whole trip. It was four stories tall and every floor had rows and rows of knight armor, horse armor, guns, bayonets, mortars, cannons, gunpowder slings, swords, and helmet hammers (hammers that were used to bust through the helmet of a knight). Our tour guide was very nice and spoke excellent English. She even let me try on one of the helmets! Everything in the armory had been there since the 1400's and some items as early as 1200's. This was the main place where the Austrian soldiers would come to gather their weapons and armor when about to fight a battle. I asked what the value of all items in the armory was because everything was in great condition (give or a take a few bullet holes and sword nicks), and it was at least 500 years old. She had no idea what the whole armory was worth, but she did say that one of the average single handed-guns housed there was equivalent to the value of a Ferrari. They had over 5000 of guns like this one. The bigger guns, and especially the armor, where worth much more. Most of the armor had very interesting stories behind it and each one was unique to the solider that once wore it. Some where more elegant and for show type events, and others were for battle. The average battle armor weighed about 80-100lbs and was made completely of iron. Many soldiers died from heat exhaustion during regular travel while wearing his armor. The tour guide also said that the average cost of a suit of armor was half a year's solider salary so they had to save up for a long time for there suits.
The next day I decided to go for a run at 7:30am before we were all meeting for breakfast at 9am. I went out a ways and then realized that I didn't remember any street names or what the hostel was even called! I started walking and kept walking... and then walked some more. About two hours went by and I started asking people if they knew where the Hostel was I was looking for. After the 6th person telling me they had no idea I just gave up. I didn't bring any money either because I was only going out for a little while. I was already tired from the little bit of running I had already done and was not up for random walking! After the 5th hour of being lost I had to find a bench and sleep for twenty minutes. When I woke up I felt a little better but I was very hungry and still had no idea where I was. Hour 6 came and went as well as 7 and I still didn't feel like I was getting any closer to where I needed to be. Finally around 4:30pm I stopped in at a hotel thinking that they are in the same business and might know where these types of places are. Sure enough the lady knew exactly where it was and took out a city map to show me. All I had was the emblem on my key chain and she seemed to recognize it. After looking at the map for a while I noticed that I remembered walking down most of the streets that were placed all over the city. The lady circled where I was and where I needed to be. I was on the other side of the city! So I thanked her graciously and began following what the map said back to the hostel. I was completely out of energy yet felt much better now that I had some sort of end-point and I knew where I was going. It took me an hour to get back to the hostel. I went straight inside and took a shower. Then I walked back downtown to eat. I was much too hungry to wait for anyone. I had an 18-inch pizza and drank a liter of Cola (really a liter, not just because of Rod Farva) and also an espresso macchiato all by myself in less than 30 minutes. My sleep was good that night and I didn't notice snoring even once.
So then on Sunday we went downtown and visited the Kunsthaus. It is a modern art type place and it rotates artists' work in and out every month or so. In the pictures the Kunsthaus is the large Alien looking building and is quite surreal-looking juxtaposed against the old buildings of Graz. The art inside was somewhat outlandish and strange. It was all a new art craze they are calling "installation art" where everything is installed and usually moves. There where many odd sights and sounds included in most works. One artist had an entire little house for his exhibit. It was called "This is not a good place". Inside were loops of videos on randomly placed T.V.s . One T.V. showed a lady banging her head into a corner over and over, another had a couple of girls screaming "beep, beep beep beep, beep beep!" while banging on drums and knocking their knees together, and another had a conversation between an older woman and a younger man. The young man was constantly crying and saying he wanted to tell her something. But, he never tells her. They just keep beating around the bush for hours and hours as part of the artist's overall exhibit. The T.V. that was the most eerie was entitled "last meals" Every day this T.V. played another "last meal reenactment" of a death-row inmate that had requested certain food items. The day it was on when we went included two cheeseburgers, French fries, ice cream, and coffee. The most bizarre part was that the re-enacter was a little girl probably around 10 years old. The paper on the wall explained the rules for the artist's volunteers. They had to sit and eat the meal completely. They were not to look up at the camera. If they finished before the 25 minutes was up they were to sit a wait without saying a word. I really wish they would explain more about the exhibits. I would love to know some of the thoughts behind these artists when they are creating their work. I understand most things are open to interpretation, but I think it is interesting to know what direction they might or might not be taking.
Another exhibit was a real life set-up. The artist was part of the exhibit. He had a wall with a mirror and some holes in the wall as well as a chair. He just kept messing with his chair and putting in various positions with a deep thought expression on his face. Someone said he does this for hours every day while his exhibit is running. Again, it would be nice to know a few of the thoughts the artist has for this work.
After the Kunsthaus we went for ice cream and look around at some of the cathedrals. The ice cream here is very good. I don't know exactly what is different about it, but there is something. I had the Apple pie flavor.
One of the buildings has a famous "Turkish Solider" sticking out the side/top of one of the buildings. The Graz broacher said it is a tradition to see if you can find the Turkish Solider around town almost like he was a hidden secret or something. There was some history behind him, but I can't remember exactly what the significance was. If I find the document about it I will write about him in my next entry. But, I did find him and took his picture! He is the wooden guy with the sword sticking out of the side of the building.
Other than my very exciting trip I am doing better each day here with coping and getting along with the culture. My German is improving and my Spanish class is more fun than I thought it would be. My teacher is from Spain and has a very nice speaking voice for the language. She is teaching us Spanish from Spain so it is a little different from Spanish in Mexico like the lisp that the Spanish people use and a few words here and there. I made a friend that goes to my school and is from Vienna. She is in the English program to better her business English skills. She is also a friend of Wilfred's (exchange to WSU last fall). She is the first one to actually try and help me with my German. Most people here want to practice their English so they don't like trying to spoon feed me German. Petra and I will speak a good portion of a conversation in German and it really helps with my overall listening and speaking/pronunciation! She also only e-mails me in German, so I do my best to respond.
Yesterday I played soccer with the other international students. It was really fun, but very tiring. I forgot how tiring soccer can be. The last time I played I think I was eight years old! We only played for an hour, but by the end I was drenched in sweat and I was bleeding a little from running into on of the guys. I will play again another day!
Good night for now everyone. Bis Sparter.
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