When I was about 12 my father passed away. My brother was just a little boy of 8 years of age. At the same time that my father died, one of my brother's class mates' mother passed away as well. Medlir and Eno became inseparable in grief and friendship. Eno starting spending more time at our house than at his. This continued for years. Even when his father remarried, and Medlir and Eno went to attend different high schools, they remained close friends. Needless to say I grew to love Eno as my brother. He was sweet, pure, and very funny. I can't remember the countless times he made me laugh, or the food we shared, or the jokes we played on each other. The last time I saw Eno was during the time I spent Christmas of 1998 with my family in Albania. After that, I got married, and he left for Austria. My brother still keeps in touch with him, especially now that he is living in Europe himself. I had heard that Eno had married and had been blessed with a little boy. It was time for me to visit him, and I'm glad I did. I had missed him, and I was very happy to see him married and with a family of his own.
After visiting with his family for a little while, we took off to the streets of this very pretty and calm city. Graz was a city that made you want to relax and take life easily. People were calm and enjoyed being with each other. There were couples or families with children eating ice-cream or just having a walk, but mostly you saw students. Graz is well known for its 6 universities totaling the number of students to about 45000. Nicola Tesla himself studied electrical engineering at the Polytechnic University here. What fun to go to school and live in a city where mostly all of the buildings were centuries old and where the architecture varies from Classical to Gothic to Renaissance to Baroque to Neoclassical with a few buildings making their mark as modern. Graz is well known to the world as the birthplace of Arnold Schwarzenegger, as the city with one of the most well preserved Old Towns in Central Europe with about 1000 buildings ranging from Medieval times to modern day, and a city that has the largest existing original armory (32000 pieces of weaponry) in the world, its weapons dating back to the 16oo's when Austria was fighting the Turks. What made our experience more wonderful was the fact that there weren't many tourists around.
I just loved walking around and being surrounded by centuries old buildings still in great condition and still in use today. We walked mostly in the Old Town, since that was the prettiest part of the city, and of course I hadn't come all the way from California to see modern buildings that surround me every day in my own country.
I know it isn't cost effective to create this kind of art for everyday usage, but wouldn't it be just magical to live in a building with such decorations?!
After enjoying each other's company and reminiscing our childhood and telling fun stories of our days of past, we sat down to eat some lunch. I wouldn't mind living like this every day.
After lunch, we headed toward the Grazer Schlossberg (the Castle Mountain) with its historical clock tower, Uhrturm, still in tact. The fortress itself that dominated the hill overseeing Graz was demolished by Napoleon's army, but the residents of the city begged to save their tower. They ended up preserving their city's symbol by paying a good ransom to Napoleon. The castle was used for the better part as a resting place for royalty, but later on for Graz residents' protection against various armies. Even Hitler had made his appearance at the Clock Tower speaking and thanking the people of Graz for their support in the Great War. Today it is a symbol of the passage of time, of Graz's hsitory, as well as a touristy spot. The cave was made into an elevator (that appeared to me as from the future) as to preserve the stairs for the next generations. You were allowed to climb down since going down offered a magnificent view of the city.
As we were going down the stairs, I was astonished at the beauty of the rooftops. They were clean, well taken care of, and amazingly in harmony with each other:
From the top, you could see city's landmarks with utmost clearance. Here is the city's largest church, the Herz-Jesu-Kirsche (Sacred Heart of Jesus) with its Neogothic style in absolutely amazing condition.
There was one building that stood out from all of the red tile roof tops with its blob looking body and very modern feel. Although I'm more of a classical architecture fan, I really liked it. The Kunsthaus, or the House of Modern Art, or as the architects themselves called it "The Friendly Alien" was a fun addition to this beautiful city:
Here is a close up picture of the Kunsthaus that I took while walking back:
Another interesting and modern building that was a lot of fun to see and visit, as well as enjoy its original look was the Murinsel, or Mur Island, which in reality isn't a real island, but a floating structure in the shape of a sea shell. It houses an amphitheater, a cafe and a playground, as well as 350 visitors. I thought it was such an awesome idea.
As we were walking on the bridge, an interesting sight caught my eye: locks hanging in the fence of the bridge. I saw those later in Vienna, Paris and Versailles. Anywhere that there were fences and bridges, you were bound to see these locks, that represented couples who loved each other and had locked their hearts to the rest of the world, I guess a modern version to the carvings of hearts on tree trunks.
As we were looking for a place to eat, this little cafe by the side of the river looked interesting, especially the blue staircase. It looked very much like a student corner, and so we left it alone:
We found ourselves a nice restaurant by the town square and had some dinner. After a while, when we were finished eating and talking, it was time for some pastries and ice-cream, of course what else. On the way to our pastry shop, we noticed a few children's groups dressed in traditional costumes and singing their country's songs. It seems we had happened upon an International Children's Festival. After listening for a while, we headed to our pastry shop where we were greeted by two virtuoso violinist players. Who wants chocolate when you have music!
Lastly, I wanted to share with you my favorite building in Graz, the Rathaus, or the Town Hall. Arches, domes, columns, spires, statues, and many more make this edifice look magnificent and stately. Its history went back to 16oo's and is still used today. Breathtaking!
After a restful night at Eno's in-laws out in the country side, Medlir and I took off for Vienna. I had reserved a car for us to drive, but upon careful examination I noticed that I couldn't drive it. As most cars in Europe, this one drove manual as well. I have never learned to drive a shift to the dismay of my husband who has tried several times to teach me. I wish I had, because this morning I had to rely on my brother's driving, who himself hadn't driven shift in many years. Goodness, he hadn't driven for a while period. I almost fainted by his initial crazy driving till he got the hang of it. Whew, that was a close call.
Next, Vienna here we come:
Stay tuned for my Vienna post...
