I am safe and sound, back from Graz, and survived!
Graz itself is a pretty little big town, all high street stores, Hennes wherever you turn. Loads of baroque type buildings, steeped in history and all that. There's this hill there on the top of which used to be this castle fortress settlement, of which remnants of are still left behind, and they've added all these modern finishing touches to it, like benches, and lookout points, so its a nice little place to visit.
We spent one day in vienna as well, and vienna has much more to see in terms of architecture, but also the christmas markets had started, so we had a good ol' wander around. They had all the christmas decorations out, so it was quite lovely. the train journey from Graz was two and a half hours, although this was fun too. we had fun trying to buy the tickets in english and trying to work out which platform to go to and where to change. the weather that day was particularly beautiful, cold, but bright and sunny. The trains were new and comfortable and we sat chatting and looking at the passing austrian scenery for the duration of the journey.
I have to admit though, the highlight of my time in Graz (and Vienna) was seeing a guy who really looked like Justin Timberlake. I mean he really looked like him. and it was all quite funny as well, because we were in a 'Nordsee' restaurant, a sort of European Fish food diner chain, me and my friend, and the diner was only half full. and it started off with me saying, 'hey y'know what? that guy really looks like Justin Timberlake...but its not him.' and then as the meal progressed, this vein of though continued with, 'I'm sorry, but I can't believe how much that guy looks like Justin Timberlake!' You get the picture, I say various versions of this a few more times. And as I talk quite loudly, I think he heard me, because then he started looking over our way. It was really quite funny. And then he stood up to go to the toilet, and he looked even more like him then, like the same build and stuff, and the style of clothes he wore. and then I started saying to my friend, 'I swear, that guy looks so like him that I am actually tempted to take a photo of him,' and then my friend was like 'yeah! go ahead and do it! you can pretend you're taking a photo of me with him in the background!' and if I had just a few more minutes, I would have done it, but at that point he left, putting on a rockstar style suede jacket. and even now, I still can't decide whether it was him or not, but we had a right laugh about it, I can tell you.
The second eventful thing which happened was when I was staying at the Youth Hostel. The Hostel itself is fine, its just the other people with their questionable toilet habits. I stayed there for four nights. The first two nights were no problem whatsoever. I shared with two-three other austrian girls, and I swear, they went to bed at 10pm, and got up before 8am. The third night however, three Irish girls moved in, and they were very different. I went to bed at about 11.30pm, and at about 2am, one of them returned and went to bed without really waking me up, but at 5am, the other two came back, and one of them was practically falling over from drink. She became loud and abusive when the other girl tried to get her to go to bed: 'No! I am NOT going into that hole, I am going back outside, no I am not fucking going into that hole! I fucking hate you! I hate you, I hate your mum, I hate mike...' and on she went.
At one point she had put my coat on that I had left hanging by the door, and the other girl hurried over to block her way from walking out the door.
'Will you fucking get out of my way, will you just fucking move away from the door - '
'No Marie, go to bed, and take that woman's coat off.'
'I fucking hate you.'
'Well good for you, now go to bed.'
Eventually, the sozzled 'Marie' settled down a bit, and sat down on the toilet to pee. And she must have been there for a good few minutes, I know, because she left the toilet door open. at one point she would grunt, and stream of pee would come out, she'd grunt again, and so on and so forth, like an old man with prostate cancer. At this point I thought it would be a good time for me to retrieve my coat, which had been thrown onto the floor, and whilst I was doing this, drunk Marie saw me.
She was stood at the doorway, lit up by the bathroom light, swaying a bit, and she said to me, 'B-Bernie?'
I looked over at her, and she looked like this little girl, looking gormlessly at me, and when she realised she didn't know me, she actually said hello. 'Hello, you're not Bernie.' I shook my head and clambered up unto my bed. then she came into the room and went over to the other bed and says, 'Are you Bernie?'
after much annoyed ticking and fussing and telling off, eventually drunk Marie passed out on the bed under mine, and predictably enough started snoring. Sleep for me was out of the question then, not only because of the snoring, but also because of the smell. I picked up my duvet and pillow, and tried to sleep for another two hours in the downstairs common room. I didn't dare go into the toilet again after that.
On the fourth night, I had a room all to myself.
Graz itself is a pretty little big town, all high street stores, Hennes wherever you turn. Loads of baroque type buildings, steeped in history and all that. There's this hill there on the top of which used to be this castle fortress settlement, of which remnants of are still left behind, and they've added all these modern finishing touches to it, like benches, and lookout points, so its a nice little place to visit.
We spent one day in vienna as well, and vienna has much more to see in terms of architecture, but also the christmas markets had started, so we had a good ol' wander around. They had all the christmas decorations out, so it was quite lovely. the train journey from Graz was two and a half hours, although this was fun too. we had fun trying to buy the tickets in english and trying to work out which platform to go to and where to change. the weather that day was particularly beautiful, cold, but bright and sunny. The trains were new and comfortable and we sat chatting and looking at the passing austrian scenery for the duration of the journey.
I have to admit though, the highlight of my time in Graz (and Vienna) was seeing a guy who really looked like Justin Timberlake. I mean he really looked like him. and it was all quite funny as well, because we were in a 'Nordsee' restaurant, a sort of European Fish food diner chain, me and my friend, and the diner was only half full. and it started off with me saying, 'hey y'know what? that guy really looks like Justin Timberlake...but its not him.' and then as the meal progressed, this vein of though continued with, 'I'm sorry, but I can't believe how much that guy looks like Justin Timberlake!' You get the picture, I say various versions of this a few more times. And as I talk quite loudly, I think he heard me, because then he started looking over our way. It was really quite funny. And then he stood up to go to the toilet, and he looked even more like him then, like the same build and stuff, and the style of clothes he wore. and then I started saying to my friend, 'I swear, that guy looks so like him that I am actually tempted to take a photo of him,' and then my friend was like 'yeah! go ahead and do it! you can pretend you're taking a photo of me with him in the background!' and if I had just a few more minutes, I would have done it, but at that point he left, putting on a rockstar style suede jacket. and even now, I still can't decide whether it was him or not, but we had a right laugh about it, I can tell you.
The second eventful thing which happened was when I was staying at the Youth Hostel. The Hostel itself is fine, its just the other people with their questionable toilet habits. I stayed there for four nights. The first two nights were no problem whatsoever. I shared with two-three other austrian girls, and I swear, they went to bed at 10pm, and got up before 8am. The third night however, three Irish girls moved in, and they were very different. I went to bed at about 11.30pm, and at about 2am, one of them returned and went to bed without really waking me up, but at 5am, the other two came back, and one of them was practically falling over from drink. She became loud and abusive when the other girl tried to get her to go to bed: 'No! I am NOT going into that hole, I am going back outside, no I am not fucking going into that hole! I fucking hate you! I hate you, I hate your mum, I hate mike...' and on she went.
At one point she had put my coat on that I had left hanging by the door, and the other girl hurried over to block her way from walking out the door.
'Will you fucking get out of my way, will you just fucking move away from the door - '
'No Marie, go to bed, and take that woman's coat off.'
'I fucking hate you.'
'Well good for you, now go to bed.'
Eventually, the sozzled 'Marie' settled down a bit, and sat down on the toilet to pee. And she must have been there for a good few minutes, I know, because she left the toilet door open. at one point she would grunt, and stream of pee would come out, she'd grunt again, and so on and so forth, like an old man with prostate cancer. At this point I thought it would be a good time for me to retrieve my coat, which had been thrown onto the floor, and whilst I was doing this, drunk Marie saw me.
She was stood at the doorway, lit up by the bathroom light, swaying a bit, and she said to me, 'B-Bernie?'
I looked over at her, and she looked like this little girl, looking gormlessly at me, and when she realised she didn't know me, she actually said hello. 'Hello, you're not Bernie.' I shook my head and clambered up unto my bed. then she came into the room and went over to the other bed and says, 'Are you Bernie?'
after much annoyed ticking and fussing and telling off, eventually drunk Marie passed out on the bed under mine, and predictably enough started snoring. Sleep for me was out of the question then, not only because of the snoring, but also because of the smell. I picked up my duvet and pillow, and tried to sleep for another two hours in the downstairs common room. I didn't dare go into the toilet again after that.
On the fourth night, I had a room all to myself.
posted by Lan Lan at 7:31 PM
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