Graz, Austria (22nd-24th July)

My semester at Humboldt finally came to an end on Thursday 19th September. I spent a few days saying goodbyes to all the lovely people I'd met there, then on Sunday evening set off on my penultimate journey of the year. I'd acquired myself a ten-day Interrail card, and my first stop would be Graz to visit my friends Michael and Lisi. To this end, I booked myself a couchette on the night train to Vienna, a 12 hour express over the border to Austria. This in itself proved to be an interesting experience, as in our cabin were situated six bunks, all of which were booked. This resulted in me taking a top bunk, which I was quite surprised I managed to sleep in without falling off!

My connection from Wien eventually got me to Graz around lunchtime, where Mike and Lisi were waiting for me. They'd been having a bit of a busy time themselves, so after a bit of shopping we had a relaxed lunch before I dragged them into the city with me. Graz was the first "Germanic" city I visited 3 years ago, so it was interesting to see it again from a different perspective. It certainly seemed a lot smaller than the last time, but I still like it very much. The weather was very warm, so we didn't do anything too active, but had a stroll around the centre and up to the Schlossberg. We also ate ice-cream, which seems to be a legal requirement there.

Before too long, we'd seen pretty much everything, so we retired to the park. Here we met some of M&L's friends, drank wine and played cards, generally being lords of leisure for a few hours. As evening fell, we retired further to the flat, where we met more people and played poker for a while, until the effects of my long journey took their toll and I had to curl up for the night.

On Tuesday we had intended to go up into the mountains and swim in a lake, but as luck would have it, cloudy skies were abound and the forecast was for rain. So we did what any sensible Austrian would do instead - we went to a cave. The Lurgrotte is a cave system over 10 km long, and has some amazing rock formations. The tour lasted about an hour and was very interesting, though I was disappointed not to see any bats. My disappointment was soon washed away by the amazing platter laid on by Lisi for lunch - Kaesekrainer (cheese-filled sausage), potatoes and fried egg on a bed of seived spinach. Outlandish to those from Ausland, but nonetheless a delicious concoction. The rest of the day consisted of another walk in the town (which was rained off and into the local armoury) and a visit to the Gösser brewery/restaurant/pub affair. Here we dined on Weisswurst, Brezeln and Bieramisu (yes, it is what it sounds like), and drank a number of delicious local beers, my favourite of which was the Schneeweissen. A pleasant evening to round of the first of my last cities :)