Kern Buam Graz

... the windows to the restaurant below, wasn’t so stinky after all, and the bed was quite comfortable. I even slept until almost Noon today!

After dropping my bag, I set out to find the town center. It wasn’t too far from my hotel, but amazing how the clientele changed in the city center. I had a much more comfortable feeling and I made a mental note to get back into the hotel and lock myself in my room before dark! I climbed ...

... that Graz is in. It was beautiful! Rolling hills lined with vineyards, shady forests in every other valley, a pretty blue sky dotted with just enough puffy clouds...

Our first stop in the countryside was at a small restaurant (or Buschenschank, I think) with picnic tables outside overlooking a valley. Here we drank "Sturm" which is a very popular drink in Austria. Sturm is wine that is in the beginning stages of the wine making process, so ...

... than climb the 260 stairs; we were glad with our choice since we knew that we were going to free camp for the night and didn't want to get all sweaty. At the top of the Schlossberg (castle hill) there was a clock tower, bell tower, museums, and a view of Graz that was spectacular. The best part, for me, was the fact that once we were up there and admiring the sunset, all of the clock towers below went off at 6pm. We could hear about ten different ones ...

... just went down the pedestrian street a ways, and the hotel we would find there was just as nice. So we took his advice and ended up here, which is exactly as he described. The pedestrian street is long and full of interesting shops and restaurants, leading to the centre square. Our hotel is at the far end, where the pedestrian street meets the car-friendly roads. Just above us is a castle. It is illuminated with colourful lights at night.

Bruck an der Mur, Styria, Austria travelingdiva

... 5
Well, well, this is coming to an end. This evening we're taking a flight to Alghero (Sardinia, Italy) so we still have several hours to visit Graz, And you know what? It doesn't rain! Last night it still was pouring with rain but early in the morning it stopped and now it's just cloudy. Well, it's better than nothing!
We go to Jakominiplatz and from there we walk to Kaiser-Josef Platz to see the daily street ...

Wednesday 3rd June. We left early and drove through the mountains crossing high passes and ski fields dotted along the way. The villages had a definitely Swiss feel to them as it gets cold up here lots of woodpiles for fires and houses built of wood with steep rooves for the snow to fall off. We soon hit the Italian border with Austria and crossed midday leaving the high Dolomites behind us. The scenery was very clean and green and fresh. We had lunch on the side of the road at ...

Sunday 14/09 Whilst in the Tirol we managed to go see one of the 'ALmabtriebkalender'. Where the farmers bring their cattle down off the mountains for winter. The information we had indicated it started at 10am, so in true Ed style we got there in plenty of time. Especially when it didn't end up starting till 2pm. Anyway it was pretty funny to see hundreds of sheep and goats walking the streets- funny till we realized we had parked right where they pass by ...

... American here) is learning German. I've been thinking about why, and here's my theory-people are so shocked to find out I'm learning German (because of a stereotype that Americans don't learn other language(s) and assume everyone speaks English) that they compliment me (mostly because of my effort to speak the language). However, I think it's also because my German is pretty darn good right now-it could be better, but I'm working on it. :D

... from German class. I'm also considering joining German club when I get back to school. Some of the students are in it and they said it's a lot of fun and not hard to join. I just need to give my email to someone so they can put me on the list. I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. I'll be writing my test to finish the program on Thursday or Friday and then off to Italy. I'm slightly stressed out about traveling now, I'm nervous from losing my passport (which was ...

Cambridge was a very nice little town, we had caught a train from Kings Cross. We meet up with Jarod, Devon, Paul and Sandy in town. We went out for curry that evening and I ordered the hottest curry they had on the menu. IT WAS HOT. But not too hot. It was GOOD. YUM! After dinner we went out for drinks at the local pub to have some good English beer. That night we all slept in Jarods room; 6 people cramed into a very narrow space, it was cozy to say the least hehe. Before ...