Gib mir die Hände!

Hi!
Yesterday we went into Graz again, this time for more sight-seeing than for shopping.

Valerie and I's first destination was Mariatrost. Mariatrost is an old church that sits on top of a mountain. To get there we had to take the bus into Graz, then switch to another Autobahn (streetcar), and take that as far as it went. About 30 minutes travel-time altogether. When we got out of the bahn, we had to walk up this mountain (approx. 100 steps or so) to get to the church. Not only was the view breathtaking, but the church itself was lovely.

 This is a view of the church from our journey at the bottom-ish of the small mountain.

 Valerie and I were about to celebrate like total tourists when we finally reached the top of the stairs, but then we realized church was just getting out...so we had to contain our enthusiasm haha. It's interesting how the "Sunday best" for many Austrians is the traditional Lederhosen and Drindls. Also strange, was how inside of the church on either side of the altar, there were 2 small coffins with what looked like a baby skeleton inside each of them?! We weren't sure...it was more on the creepy side so I definitely didn't take pictures because I didn't want to seem disrespectful. 

This is me after reaching the top. As you can see, the view behind me is amazing. We walked all around too, but this part of the view is by far the best.

The inside of the church was marvelous:

 This is the painted ceiling of Mariatrost. Very beautiful.

A photo of the altar-ish area. Members of the congregation were moving music instruments around, so I had to take just a few pictures and they were in the way of the altar.

After Mariatrost, we took the Bahn back into the core of Graz, and ate lunch at a little Turkish restaurant serving kebaps. A kebap is lamb mixed with vegetables (tomatoes, onion, lettuce) and a spicy chile sauce inside of pita bread. It was very good...my first "street food" experience. And there are lots of Turks that reside in Austria. Tracy was telling us how there is still a lot of racism here against Turks.

After lunch, Valerie and I headed to the Schloss Berg, where we climbed 256 steps to the top of Graz.

 Valerie and I not even halfway up, and already the view is wonderful and everything seemed so far away!

 Finally at the top of the Berg, or so we thought...we kept finding more inclines and places to get another great view.

 This is my favorite picture Valerie took of me. Enjoying the great view of the city. We even spotted our secluded Schloss far off in the distance.

It was really cool how there were pretty gardens along the Berg (mountain) as we walked up. The landscaping here is already amazing, but the flowers are so colorful!

 A few terraces in one of the many gardens on the Berg.

 I just think this picture is so charming. A window of a house close to the Berg on our way down.

There were also sculptures and lots of pieces of artwork at the top of the Schloss Berg...this was some strange sculpture I probably shouldn't have decide to lounge on haha. What was funny is when I sat up there were some German-speaking people staring at me and then asking Valerie about the art (because we knew...hahaha). Every description of the pieces of art were in German! Umm...hello?! Haha.

The Schlossberg was my favorite adventure of the day. After that we went to see the Operhaus (Opera), which was closed :(. But we took pictures in front of it anyway.

Then a group of us met up again and had dinner at a little Austrian pub. Here I looked like a dumb American when I tried to ask for our bill, and really they just bill you with a computer and everything right there at your table one-by-one haha. I ordered Bratwurst with some Saurkraut/ham concoction, and split Apfelstrudel (yum!) for dessert.

Es war sehr gut! And for the record, that pile of stuff on the right is horseradish. NOT cheese. Haha.

I'm about to go sing in performance class...Die Einsame. Hope everyone is well!

Bis später!

Lauren