Avalanches and sherpas

I bet you never thought about avalanches in the city!  I sure never did but as we walked around Graz on Day 3, we passed numerous potential avalanches.  Lucky for us, most of the snow season appears to be over!

 

warning for avalanche

 

In case you can’t read it, here it is close up!

We are getting somewhere on figuring out the washing machine/dryer and the dishwasher. But only as far as maybe what kind of soap we need.   Today, after doing at least 2 hours on-line research on where it was and how to get there, we headed across town, taking the street car first and then a city bus, to, of all things, a shopping mall where there was a big store that had groceries, and the possibility of household items as well.  On the list:  washing machine powder, dishwasher soap, a small clothes basket, clothespins and rope (because we hear that the dryer on these machines doesn’t really dry all that well) something to clean the bathroom and counters, a squeegie, a small rug for the foyer to trap all the mud we are tracking in, mustard, vegetables, fruit, and bread.   We ended up with most everything (substituting a drying rack for the clothesline) except the squeegie and the mustard.  I even went back again to look for the mustard.  What do they put on their bratwurst if not mustard????

So you  buy your stuff that is in your cart, unloading it onto the conveyer belt, then you load it back into your cart (for which you have paid 1 Euro deposit), and wheel your cart out of the store into the mall and continue to shop, or in our case, find somewhere to eat.

There are smaller grocery stores–one down the hill from us (think ‘Grizzly Grocery’ for you Missoulians), and another closer to the University–but this by far was the biggest we’d seen.  Not that bigger is better, but in our case, it had most of what we needed.

Then it was back to the bus, transfer to the streetcar

And back up the hill carrying all our stuff.  That’s where the sherpas come in, only there were none to be found!

Tomorrow, we may make a trip to the Hauptbahnhof to see how long it will take us early Monday morning when we go to Vienna for the Fulbright meeting, or head down to the Schloss (castle), or take a hike around the woods with our binoculars.

Thank you for reading, and grüß Gott!

 

Pumpkin Anything!

Pumpkin.  That’s the regional specialty and it seems to be found everywhere!

Our second and third days here, we walked hiked into town, 3.7 km to the Technical University, and somewhat less to University of Graz.  Naturally all this hiking allows one to work up an appetite.  Our internal clocks weren’t set yet so we were hungry at the oddest times of day–4:30 PM, for instance.

Day 2 found us, after our business was completed, at one of the many platz (plazas) in Graz.  We found a little place to eat, the Glöcksbrau, which was buzzing from everyone just finishing their mittagessen (middle of the day meal) or maybe gathering for an early beer!

 

 

outside of the restaurant. It's right next to the the town Glockenspiel

The Glockenspiel is to the right. It plays at noon, 3 and 6 PM, with two people emerging to dance around.  We managed to miss it this time but will look for it again!

We finally found a table, sat down, disregarded the fitness specials:

The Fitness Specials

and ordered the regional specialties:  Cremesuppe vom Muskatkürbis mit Kürbiskernöl (pumpkin cream soup with pumpkin seed oil), Schnitzel mit Beschichtung aus Kürbiskernöl (cutlet with pumpkin seed coating) und hausgemachten Erde Apfel-Salat (house made potato salad) und ein zwei kleine Biere (two small beers).   Bill actually ordered the schnitzel Viennese-style. It was so much we had enough to bring home for another meal, except the soup.  Best thing I have ever tasted!

the soup! soooo good!

 

the Schnitzel with pumpkinseed covering

Before we left, a quick trip up the stairs to the toilette (D amen for ladies, H erren for men) and wow–check out the cool curvature of the ceiling!

stairs up to die Toilette fur Damen

On the way out who should we see but ARNOLD!!!!  Graz is the home city for Arnold Schwarzenegger!  There is a story about Graz naming a stadium after him and giving him a key to the city.  But then, as Governor of California, he refused to stay an execution, so they took back the name and Arnold gave back the key.  We hear alles ist gut now, but it must have been a little uncomfortable for everyone for a while!

omg-It's Arnold!

We had come into town that day to get our city registration permits.  They were, amazingly, free!  We have to check in with them again after 90 days, even though we have Visas.  Here is where we did that!

outside the bureau where we received our permits to live here: the Meldezettel

After so much excitement, we walked to the streetcar stop and rode it home, because you remember we still have to walk hike back up our hill!