Graz, greater Styria, Hungary and Slovenia.
Hey everyone,
We returned to Graz last weekend and have been staying with Renate again. This Friday we will catch an eight-hour day train to the region of Voralburg to stay with Renate's daughter, Sigrid, and spend Christmas with her family.
We came back to Graz with Wolfgang who drove us back for a family lunch last Saturday in Graz. He organised the lunch so that the extended family could get together to meet us, instead of, as he said, always meeting for a funeral. We met about 20 people related to Ollie and had a five-hour lunch with them in an Austrian ‘Gasthaus’. We enjoyed meeting so many people at once and everyone speaks at least a little English that they learnt at school to communicate with us, which is good because my German is shocking and Ol’s only a little bit better.
In the following week a number of Ollie’s family took us out to see parts of Austria and elsewehere. Erwin took us on three drives in greater Styria, the region Graz is in. Erwin use to be a history professor so he took us to a number of old churches in the region. Most of the churches are designed in a Baroque style with a ridiculous amount of gold detailing but very beautiful. A few of the churches had completely painted ceilings like the Sistine Chapel but with only the three of us there, not 200,000 as in Rome.
Our favourite church is built in an old fortress on top of a hill. The church is designed with six chapels positioned around the fortress. Each chapel has been designed as a kind of set in a play of Jesus’ life. One chapel has been designed as a nativity scene, another as a prison cell, one on the hill Jesus was crucified on and so on. In the prison cell chapel you actually go to close the cell door with its big door handle and then realise the door is only painted.
We visited the world's largest monastery library in Admont. A church in Barnbach designed by the Austrian Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the same guy who designed the tiled toilets in Kawakawa, New Zealand. A glass museum where we saw glass being blown and a lot of snowy Styrian scenery.
On one of the drives we drove through part of a national park with huge mountians and freezing streams. We saw a whole lot of snow, including a pile Ol fell into when he thought the snow looked hard but was actually powder soft. He then spent some time complaining about his cold feet in wet socks, wuss, the temperature only reached -5. We watched the start of a proper husky dogs sled race and were actually snowed upon for the first time. The snowfall has increased heaps, and it even snowed outside our bedroom window for more then 24 hours a few days ago.
Lukas took us to Stübing, an open air museum showcasing about 100 original old Austrian houses. They had people making candles, Christmas decorations, schnapps, music and more with traditional techniques in the houses, in rooms chocked with smoke from original fireplaces and a severe lack of enough chimneys. Lukas' mother, Franka, worked there carving wood sculptures. In Stübing we had some more maroni, roasted chestnuts, which they sell at roadside stands throughout Austria during winter. We tried sausage and freshly grated horseradish, baked apples with custard and cranberries and Ol tried some chestnut schnapps.
Winfried took us out on the town in Graz one night for drinks. We went to a bar and a pool hall, unfotunately though, smoking inside is not banned in Austria so we had to put up with a smoky atmosphere. Even worse though you have to wear a coat, scarf, jumper etc out at night so they all stink the next day of cigarette smoke. Ol was not impressed.
Yesterday, Gernot and his son, Hedwig, took us out for the day. We went to see an old Austrian castle where they sold handmade Christmas decorations. Then, appropriately enough, we went for lunch in Hungary, and I did feel hungry, *cough*, lame. The border to Hungary is only half an hour from Gernot's house. Currently, you need your passport to cross the border even though Hungary is an EU country but next week it will no longer be required. The border men hardly glanced at our passports though when we drove through. On the way back they didn’t even bother to glance and watched TV instead.
Despite driving less than 15 minutes into Hungary, the country looked very different to Austria. Only 20 years ago the Soviets had completely fenced the border and guarded it with gunmen on the Hungarian side. In 1989 they opened their border with Austria. The buildings and houses have a communist drab style of architecture painted in sludge-tinged colours, people drove cute box-like Soviet designed cars and the restaurant had brown wool knit net curtains and not much heating. The lunch tasted great though and we had Hungarian beef gulash of course.
After Hungary we drove back to Austria, then in under 30 minutes drove through the border control into Slovenia. The area of Slovenia we went to looks much like Austria and use to be part of the Austrian Styria region. We had coffees at a little pub where 5 drinks cost 5 Euros. No chance of paying that little in Western Europe even just over the border in Austria.
We then had dinner in Austria next door to a Guiness Book of World Records' fire station built in the shape of a giant fire truck. For dinner we had spare ribs, Austrian red wine and plum schnapps. Personally, I don’t know why they bother flavouring schnapps, they all taste like burning to me.
So far though we have been having an excellent time and it is really nice to be shown a country by the locals. We have seen so much more than in most other countries, and tried new foods and learnt new things.
Interesting things that I bet you would not have guessed orginated in Austria; Swarovski Crystals, Red Bull, Schindler (who went on to make his list) and the ones you would have guessed, Arnie S and Mozart.
From Ollie and Sophie.
