Day 96

25 July 2013

How green is (the) Graz?

Australia and Holland must be the only countries where you are able sleep in. In Muslim countries you are awakened by the muezzin singing their prayer from a nearby mosque. In the eastern bloc countries incl. Austria, the 6 am church bells which will do joib just the same. Ljubljana was no exception as the hostel I was staying in was right opposite a church; my open window made sure I didn't miss a single bang..

As mentioned before, I was pleasantly surprised by Ljubljana. Before setting off on my next journey I rode into the city centre to find a place to have some breakfast. The city seems to be built on a kind of plateau as the surrounding countryside is fairly flat. Riding north, soon enough the mountains of Austria come into sight; very dramatically I may add.

I passed a the well known town of Radovlitca, well known that is…to my brother Frans who knows the town well and perhaps some people in the town know him also just as well; anyway that was a long time ago.

The pictures I have shown thus far are but a few of many. I understand at times they become boring as I often photograph architecture and pictures can never portray the real thing. So I will try to change that.

Around 4 pm I rolled into Graz and stopped at a coffee shop with Wifi to arrange for accommodation. I am now careful to check the location on Google earth first, and peak into the street to see what the parking facilities are like. The coffee shop was in a tourist area near the city centre.

While walking though the shop I looked at the notice board and saw several notices offering home stay accommodation with private people. Usually it says in German "Zimmer Frei" or “Sobe” which I think is Slavic for “Room”.

Usually you end up with an old couple trying to make some extra money by renting out a room their children use to occupy. I have experienced that in the past and of course I had home-stays in Mongolia and Russia. Things are now a lot easier as there is no need to follow instruction other than entering the address in the GPS.

I ended up in an older suburb with simple wooden houses. It looked like it had been an old farming village which had been gobbled up by Graz city. I have now learned to stay in places for 2 nights if I can. The day you arrive is mostly gone before you check in and you need a day to get an impression about the place where you are. The people I am staying with are in their late seventies. We communicate in German and eat heavy brown bread. And eh… internet.. eh no, we don’t have that.

My computer picked up an unsecured signal from somewhere nearby, either the shop across the road or a neighbor but the signal was weak and kept on cutting out. In hostels you are assured of a wifi connection although some of them are suspect due to the heavy traffic at times.

The pictures of the castle- I will talk about tomorrow.

Graz is the place where I am- I keep in saying Grass but am corrected by my host, as it is meant to sound like Graatz. Ok then!