Graz was my first stop after the capital city and my first experience couchsurfing in Austria. It was a nice little town most famous for it's old clock tower (not much of a tower to be honest, the building wasn't much higher than the clock itself, it was just on a hill). It was a nice clock though. Apparently Napoleon I think it was wanted to destroy it but the citizens of Graz at the time pooled their money together to pay him to leave it alone. It's also quite famous for the fact that the hands are the wrong way around, ie, the short hand is the minute hand and the long hand is for hours.

I had to spend the first night in a hostel as my host wasn't able to host me until the next night. There was only one hostel in Graz and it was basically a hotel with a couple of dorm rooms. So there was no atmosphere to speak of, and no common room or kitchen or anything. Very boring place. I was glad I only had to spend one night there.

My host was Evelyn. She was kind of a geek, which to me is really cool. All around her apartment she has those little bead things that you iron and they stick together. Each one is based on a computer game. Mostly Monkey Island but there was also some Day of the Tentacle ones and also Lemmings. She said I was the only surfer she has had so far who actually recognised them all. Although she wasn't actually a vegetarian she didn't often eat meat. So all our meals consisted of only veggies for 3 days, which was fine by me. It was about time I hate a bit healthy.

She also had a projector hooked up to her computer in her room. So for a couple of nights we got some beer, made some popcorn and settled in with a movie or two. Sometimes it's nice to be able to have a few quiet nights. Graz didn't exactly have a bustling nightlife anyway, though it did have a few nice pubs which we spent a bit of time at.

Other than the castle and clock tower there wasn't exactly a whole lot to do in Graz. They do however boast that they have the largest armoury in Europe. When I went there I was kind of expecting a kind of weapon and armour museum. But nope, it's an actual armours. It's just rows and rows of weapon and armour stacks. Thousands of swords, guns and pieces of armour almost exactly how they would have been stored 500 years ago to hand out to troops needing to defend the city. It was pretty damn cool.

There was also a nice Christmas market outside the town hall with a large tree and a projector screen set up to play colours and patterns all over the hall. It looked awesome.

So I guess that's really pretty much it for Graz. I had found a host in Linz, so that is where I was off to next.