Fasching/Mardi Gras/Carnival

regardless of where you were... Fasching, Mardi Gras, or Carnival or some other name... here in graz it was an excuse to get out of school early, stop working, and dress up as anything you want or just put on the clothes you would never wear any other time... and for many of the people it's an excuse to start drinking in the wee hours of the morning.

the ~20ft tall jester

This guy was the main commentator for ORF television, he was wearing a really cool jacket that was covered in some very cool buttons, all very unique :) but as the parade continued he got progressively covered in silly string.

ORF Commentator

Slovenian animal or something...

looks a little less menacing when covered in neon silly string

Austrian ski bumb lodge :)

the message to use glass containers instead of plastic, there were other environmentally friendly messages as well, including paper bags instead of plastic, and oil spills

creative way to be a potted plant

police keeping order with the masses

these pastries were everywhere as the traditional Fasching food. though most didn't have pretty heart-shaped sugar on top

it was a lot of fun to see people just relaxing and having fun for the day, the parks were filled with people just hanging out and playing games. I unfortunately had no ridiculous items of clothing to wear, but it was fun walking around taking pictures of people who did. I was a little unprepared for the number of people dressed up. When I saw everyone else dressed up, I wished I had had some crazy thing to wear... oh well, next time.

if you want to see more Fasching pics, view this album: 2011 Graz Fasching

and ps. i just found out that in Scotland the tradition is just to eat pancakes on the day :) yum.

the weekend that grew

so thanks to Berlitz's approach to scheduling, I found out thursday that I had friday off and my 2 day weekend became a 3 day weekend i could suddenly do something more exciting with. I then found out on sunday, that I didn't have work on monday and my 3 day weekend suddenly became a  4 day weekend....hence. the weekend that kept growing.

nevertheless, i started my friday by walking to the bus station and taking a bus out to the Raßberg in Stallhofen and was happy it was a nice day so some outside work could be done (cleaning up stuff and just soaking in the sun that made it so the temperature wavered at warm, though there was still a crisp chill that the warmth at bay.)

girl statue in stadtpark sitting alone. i have walked by it many times without really noticing it. this time i made sure to take a picture.

the crocuses peaking out!

the wreckage of the Raßberg's lower barn

after the sun went down i went to st. ulrich im greid with my dad for the actual weekend. i saw an exhibit there of photographs from the micro and nano scale which was pretty cool (check out my 2010-2011 Austria Album for a couple pictures from it if you so desire). after that we went for a walk around part of the rural valley.

crocuses also peaking out, an hour south

 

the main feature of the town, the church, nestled on a beautiful hill

 

footprints across the melting ice

a glimpse into the heart

beauty hidden under a weathered dock

a sure sign that spring is arriving

in the evening. the church that cannot be ignored!

this beautiful church never fails to ring every 15 minutes, enough times for each hour, and an extra string of rings at 6am and 7am and for sunday church...good luck sleeping.

then returning to stallhofen on sunday. ezra had gone out to help and we met up with him for some more work on a beautiful sunny monday before heading back to graz.

~1000BCE, beauty in its decay

smile on the drive by!

despite it being an unexpected long weekend, it was a nice breath of fresh air, all the better to prepare me for the wonderfully wild "Fasching"...

oscar, the little golden man

unfortunately i didn't get to see the oscars (being 6hrs ahead and all), i thought getting enough sleep for work would be a better idea. (i actually did have something oscar themed for this post but then the week flew by and all my wit regarding movies dissolved. but, if you need movie recommendations, I am more than happy to point you in a direction since i do love my movies ... but for those who asked, of course i checked out the red carpet photos of the beautiful and the awful dresses)

and so, first week of work went buy. it went relatively well considering i didn't really know what I was doing for any of the lessons, and that on my third day, my bike broke on my way to work so i had to run the rest of the way there just to get there in time and had literally zero preparation time. but hey, the show must go on. i only had 12 units monday thru thursday, and none on friday so i skipped town which is another story. but as for my students that week for those who care... i had a single woman, a couple (husband and wife), a younger guy who is studying for his matura (13th year of highschool thats all the tests they need to get into the University system and it determines what fields they can study), the single woman again, and then a duo (two very different people who are learning english for work), and lastly a pair of 15 year old girls who for the most part just want to improve their german but of course for my lesson were hoping to get help on the specifics of tenses for a test. fun times. but overall a good week.

I also taught a private lesson for a couple who are planning to go to Scotland in the summer and then continued my babysitting/english playing with my 8 year old...who unfortunately broke his hand. but he was getting dressed up for a costume birthday party as a pirate so we made a hook to cover up his wrapped up hand.

we shall see how week 2 goes...

when you search "oscar" on google.at this is the first pic that comes up. guess, he is the most famous oscar out there...though his facial features could be improved.

sunny sunday afternoon

it was finally a nice sunny (though still not too warm) afternoon with nothing but time to explore.

▼ Domkirche zum heiligen Ägydius

 i have walked by this church so many times. it looks beautiful at every time of day and is lit up at night. there are three main buildings, i am not really sure how you get into all of them or even if you can, but i made it into one part. gorgeous marble floors (a wide variety of color square tiles), beautiful wood pews with inlay designs, and like many old churches, tons of gilded adornment, giant vaulted ceilings, and beautiful afternoon light streaming through the windows. really cool to be inside, totally alone, and so quiet (the click of my camera sounded loud to my ears).

Inside the one of the parts of the Domkirche zum heiligen Ägydius

This area of the river in particular is filled with many cries for help. Many of the trees and surrounding areas have "help" signs (can see one pic in a previous post) and the bridge has numerous articles taped to it regarding the building of a dam that would also result in the removal of "8000 trees" from the river bank area. Candles are also lit at night and people gather in an effort to stop this from happening.

Graffiti on one side of the bridge

Graffiti on the other side of the bridge (depiction of the center of Graz with Schlossberg left background)

"Fortress Europa" graffiti near Schlossbergplatz

The Russian steps built during WWI leading up to Uhrturm

 there are three paths to take from this point. on the left is the beginning of the Russian stairs (currently their is a gate blocking the way due to "winter weather" and potentially icy conditions but that didn't stop all those who wanted to (me included) from just hopping the gate and climbing the many steps up the side), in the center is the entrance to the Schlossberg elevator that goes straight up (for a small price), and to the right is a tunnel that goes through mountain to the other side where there is another walking path and their is also access to a concert hall that is also inside the mountain.

Rooftop view from Russian steps

A look back on the City Center

these were absolutely tiny, but i thought they looked so pretty, like miniature roses all growing on the rocks.

seeking the warm rays

soaking in the sun

Schlossberg side passageway

Schlossberg tram

pause a moment and watch

 i sat on this one bench here for a while and watched the flow of people that crossed this bridge. one of my favorite observations was the variety of shoe colors. its kinda hard to tell in this pic but the guy is wearing bright blue shoes and the girl is wearing read shoes but there were shoes of every color, green, white, black, purple, gold, spotted, etc. that walked across. :)

Schlossberg side cafe

Schlossberg

one of my favorite places to sit in the afternoon is up by the columns (slightly to the right and in the middle of the photo) where you can look out over the river down below and across the city. it is a great place to catch some warm sun rays and watch the sun setting over the distant hills.

one of many little rooms in the castle walls

pretty old wood door on the Schlossberg

tangled tree

Guarding the front of the Schlossberg "fearless and loyal"

Can you tell what time it is? Sun dial on the side of the building

this building is on Karmeliterplatz, a large pedestrian square that in the winter houses a small public skating rink that was usually filled with lots of kids trying not to bump into each other. at the moment, the rink is being thawed for the coming of spring!

Graz's never ending graffiti messages to the world!

i hope you had a fabulous sunday!

inquiring minds want to know

die Libelle * the Dragonfly

die Libelle/the Dragonfly

for those who have been curious...

i picked this name for a blog back in college when i was asked to write a blog for my german class...(the content of which is now deleted...) but the blog remained. I have always liked the dragonfly for many reasons, but simply: it is really pretty, mystical, and just plain cool. And when I looked up the german word for the dragonfly I was pleasantly surprised because I thought "die Libelle" was a really pretty name. As far as cross-culturally, the dragonfly has a wide variety of names insinuating everything from beauty to the devil. It is also similarly depicted in special association with native americans, witches, samurais, and medicinal shamans.

For those who are curious about some of the many meanings of the dragonfly, it is said to symbolize: courage, strength, agility, happiness, wind and water, color and illusion, the subconscious and dreams, purity, balance, peace, harmony, swiftness, elegance, grace, wisdom, and magic, and is also obviously linked with summer and autumn.

an afternoon to and fro

today was a good day. I started off in Graz and then in an effort to sort out health insurance I hopped on out to Stallhofen. It was a brief but gorgeous visit out to the Raßberg. A beautiful sunny day with crystal clear air. After soaking in some sun rays, I went to the Hüber Farm not far away and got some of their award winning kürbiskern öl before heading back to the city.

Old building on the Raßberg...hope to fix it up one day

old beauty

Hüber farm, really old building ~1000AD

Pretty graffiti under the bridge, direction facing Hauptplatz

One of many love locks attached to the bridge

2:30pm walk

corner cafe, surrounded by side streets near hauptplatz

tiny through way from hauptplatz, graffiti showing the way

lazy afternoon in a back ally

drying in the shade

despite having walked part of this route a multitude of times i noticed things that I had never noticed before, maybe it was the lighting ;) or maybe it was just the fact that I had my camera with me. either way, an encouragement to explore some more.