_Elizabeth- On Monday a friend of Andrea's Mom gave us a tour of central Graz. She knew a lot about the history of all the buildings, and we saw part of the old city wall and one of the original 14 gates of the city, most of which are now gone. On Tuesday we went to see the Lipizzaner horses at the stable where they are bred. The horses are all black when they're born and then turn white as they mature. There were a lot of ponies with their mother and they were all very cute. It was pretty warm out so we went a lake where we lay out in the sun, and took a short swim, but the water was very cold. Silvio, Andrea's boyfriend, worked close to there so he joined us. We went shopping at a mall on the way back and I bought earrings and a necklace. We cooked pasta at Andrea's apartment in Graz and then went to a square downtown to watch the soccer game between Croatia and Brazil. There were a lot of people there and people were cheering for both teams. On Wednesday we chilled at Andrea's house and took a walk along the road to see what the area looked like. We were on top of a large hill so we could see pretty far away. There were a lot of houses scattered among various fields. We went out to a club in Graz that night and slept in Thursday morning. We took an afternoon train to Venice. -Elizabeth-