The graz is always greener...

I've been putting this off for too long – my first entry from a new place. One could say, new world, but that would feel a little too overwhelming. New life? Maybe – although that isn’t quite correct, either. Perhaps it’s easier to just stick to facts.

The most obvious (and important) one is that I now live in Austria’s second largest city, Graz, population around 300,000. Here are some interesting observations I have made until now.

Graz has four univerities. The food at the main university canteen is good but more than twice the price in Helsinki. I tried local milk today for the first time. I’m not sure I want to do it again..

The trip from Graz airport to my new home takes longer than the flight from Vienna. The airport is way out, which probably explains why Ryanair has included it into its network.

Although the street my five flatmates and I live in, Merangasse, might refer to a small picturesque alleyway where our landlady bakes merangue pie for us every weekend, it is actually an important (and noisy) thoroughfare about about ten minutes east of the centre by foot. And as for our landlady, forget the pie. We anyway wouldn’t have a fridge to store it in.

Visa Electron might work perfectly in the Kurdish wilderness, but here in Austria presenting it at the cashier is like turning up smelling of dog’s droppings. I still haven’t developed an effective finance managing system.

Instead of how phone bills work in the normal world, here I have to pay in supermarkets to use my phone. It’s all like something out of an espionage film: pay the cash, receive a 14-digit code, call an obscure number and follow the orders of a husky female voice, and voilà – the phone works.

The secret is out: Graz is a treasure trove for choir singers. I have already been offered a job singing in the chorus of the Saint John’s Passion in Easter – for a salary of no less than 800 euro.

Graz may have been the cultural capital of Europe in 1999 (and they celebrated by building a modern art house in the middle of the old town – it is now lovingly called the „friendly alien“ of Graz), but yesterday a musician told me he always thought Sibelius was Danish – remark impressively delivered with a straight face.

This might not be rural Tyrol, but Austrian stereotypes still apply for Graz as well. As part of their extensive sports programme, the university is offering a course in Austrian folk dances. Lederhosen and Dirndl-skirts provided by the institute….?

Finally, as something of an appendix, I added a small but comprehensive list of distances from GRZ airport in km. Home is where the heart is (see top of list)!

Helsinki 1596
Damascus 2307
Quito 10 288

Other points of interest which are already on my checklist:
Vienna 150
Ljulbljana 120
Venice 294
Sarajevo 426
Berlin 630

Wishing everyone a smoke-free weekend!