Joel received a really warm welcome from me (of course), from my roommates, and in a shocking display of hospitality, a 4th year class of English students at the Fashion School. His first night in Graz Laura (Italian roommate) and some of her Italian friends made pizza and we had a nice, long, and loud Italian dinner (Laura and her friend Chiara are in the picture). This also happened to be the night that Joel kicked off his self-guided Bier Tour of Austria, which was mostly conducted from the comfort of my house but included excursions to Vienna and Budapest.The next morning the 4th year students at the Fashion School had a breakfast for us and brought in fruits, bread, cold cuts (Austrians LOVE cold cuts), and lots of different kinds of jam. One girl even brought in a Sacher Torte that her mom had made. I don't usually like to eat really sweet things for breakfast, but Sacher Torte is an Austrian specialty and I couldn't pass it up (Sacher Torte is a chocolate cake with thick chocolate icing and apricot filling). Plus I couldn't risk hurting the girl's feelings by not eating it (I rationalized all the other unhealthy food choices I made throughout the next three weeks in a similar fashion).
As if the Beer Tour weren't exciting enough Joel also got to see the sights of Austria's second largest city. Wyatt Harper, who has a Fulbright in Romania this year and we graduated with from Sewanee last year, came through Graz while he was traveling so we met up with him. We walked around and I showed them the cathedral, which is a complete mismatch of Gothic structure, Baroque decorations, and Victorian chandeliers that make it look like it was put together in the dark, the mausoleum, where one of the Kaisers (whose name I can't remember right now, but is safe to say was Wilhelm, Josef, Franz, or some combination thereof. Anyway there's a picture of Joel and I outside of it here) lies and was designed by Fischer von Erlach, the Herrengasse and Hauptplatz, which make up the city center, and the Schlossberg ("castle mountain"- Joel and I had dinner on the Schlossberg at a restaurant aptly named "Schlossberg". Austrians can't be expected to be clever all the time), where the Uhrturm (clock tower), is located and Wyatt was kind enough to take a picture of us. We had a great lunch with Wyatt, and while neither of us had really hung out with him in college (ok, to be honest, Wyatt and I had never even spoken before I got a facebook message from him about coming to Graz), it was a lot of fun. Wyatt even made me feel a little grateful for Austria when he told me about his heat going out and not being able to get his landlord to fix it. The landlord's solution was to tell him to put his over on high and leave the door open. Apparently there are several oven-gas-related explosions in Bucharest every winter. 
Joel and I also spent a day at Schloss Eggenberg, a castle right outside of Graz that has a surprisingly nice Medieval art collection (triptychs, and birth plates, and tympanums, oh my!) and where peacocks roam the grounds. Who knew peacocks don't mind snow? And who knew that they don't like to snuggle? Every time I got close to them they moved away, and something told me that they're not only freakishly pretty, but also freakishly fierce and could mess a girl up. Sort of like Ellie Bear. 
It was really good to get to show Joel around Graz and to give him a point of reference for when I tell him about things going on around the town, in my college courses, and at both of my schools. He's also now experienced first-hand the difficulties that stem from being someone who only likes ham when Uncle Sonny's cooking it and living in a country where even the turkey is "turkey ham" and older people's musk literally reeks of eau de pork. I'll end with a picture of Joel and his beard enjoying a frothy brew because, although his face might tell you otherwise, he was really happy in this moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment