Note: Yet another backdated post. Actually made public on 2008-06-02
One of the wonderful things about my particular study abroad is that, due to the timing of the German academic calendar, my stay in Europe overlaps with that of both the spring and summer study abroad students. A friend of mine from the Flatts, Emily W., happens to currently be (split infinitive intended) studying in Graz, Austria for 6 weeks. As Austria happens to be a German-speaking country, I was able to “academically justify” a visit on Thursday, on the grounds that I would be gaining exposure to the dialect and culture. Isn’t it lovely that just about anything I do here can be justified that way 
After taking a night train into Graz and orienting myself—so much easier in a German speaking country—I met up with Emily at the Hauptplatz (Tr. “Main Plaza”; see left) for lunch and we wandered around the city for a bit. I must sincerely thank Emily for helping me avoid my otherwise likely first major misstep of the day; apparently, Guten Tag is considered haughty and supercilious, replaced in function almost completely with Gruß Gott. While wandering, it struck me how similarly the Austrians and Germans carry themselves. Had it not been for the website addresses on posters ending in “.at” and the slight lilt at the end of many words, I could easily have forgotten that I was in a completely different country. On a side note, does anyone else find it sort of funny that the domain names are based on English, rather than German, while that’s not the case for Germany with its “.de”?
After Emily left for another event with her host family, my next major stop was the Zeughaus, the local armory museum. Sadly, cameras are not allowed within the premises, so I am unable to deluge y’all with collages of guns, rifles, swords, axes, spears, shields, breastplates, suits of armor, etc. Of course, there’s only so much variation possible in the design of weapons, as there are certain, ah… functional considerations to be taken into account, but it was rather impressive nonetheless. The public image of medieval weapons of war tends to be colored by our romanticized image of the Middle Ages; one cannot help but confront harsh utilitarianism in examining the actual tools of the trade. Still, the solely decorative carvings on the hilts and handles demonstrated at least some artistic expressiveness.
Emily and I met up again later in the day to climb the Schloßberg. I sort of wonder how many towns in the general area have something similar to the Schloßberg, as both Freiburg and Stauffen have something similar, in the former case even taking the same name. Memo to self: upload photos of Freiburg’s Schoßberg sometime to make a comparison. Another interesting thing we noticed was the greater variety in paint jobs. German buildings, as I might have mentioned, oftentimes have just regular blocks of random color (though pulled off very successfully), at least in Baden-Württemberg. Austrian buildings seem to have a more consistent design, though they’ll sometimes also have random stripes.
The next day, my train to Salzburg didn’t leave until early evening, so I wandered around some more and dropped in by the Graz Museum of Modern Art. I’ve never actually studied modern art in person before, and though visual art still takes a secondary position to the performing arts in my book, I think I finally understand the appeal modern art has to people. Of course, I’m not planning on decorating my room full of Pollack, de Kooning, and Kline (extra points if you get the reference), and I still reserve the right to disparage buckets of paint thrown down on a canvas, but the allure of the abstract seems within comprehension now.
One of the most wonderful things about taking trains as opposed to airplanes is that you get to see so much of the countryside. I made the mistake of taking a night train on my way to Graz, but luckily more than made up for it on the return route. Because there was construction between Graz and Salzburg, we transferred to bus for part of the journey. I must now admit that after seeing the Austrian mountainside at sunset after a rainstorm, that even the Schwarzwald pales in comparison. The pictures below don’t do it justice, mostly because the white balance on my camera doesn’t adjust properly to low light conditions.
I ended up arriving rather late to Salzburg, due in part to the scenic detour (lucky that I had a night in Salzburg already in my travel plans; else I might have had no choice but to add one), and then got to my hostel even later. Word of advice: don’t second guess the bus driver’s directions. But all’s well that ends well.
Unfortunately, due to the way my travel plans worked out, I only had Saturday morning and afternoon until 3pm or so to explore Salzburg. Fortunately, there was time enough to hit several of the major highlights, including Mozart’s Geburtshaus, where he was born, Getriedsgasse, the historical street, and the mountainside Festung (fortress). I even caved in and bought a container of Mozartkugeln, these marzipan-filled chocolate balls, so that I’ll have something to open up in August when I head back home to ol’ Indiana. On a side note, I got in for just 2€ to the Geburtshaus because I’m still only 18 years old, and considered a Schüler (pre-college student) by age ^_^.
Anyways, soon thereafter, it was time to be heading back to Freiburg to do all the homework I put off. So ended my brief Austrian adventure. Hope y’all enjoyed reading 
~William~
