Preparing for Austria (Graz / Styria)
So, barely 4 weeks after getting back from Barcelona and
Ibiza I am getting ready for another trip, this time back
to my home country of Austria. I have to take care of some
business issues in Austria, and in addition to that, I am
heading over for my 20th high school graduation reunion! Scary
stuff, I must say. I left Austria 18 years ago, and with the
exception of 1 or 2 people, I haven't seen anybody I went
to school with for almost 2 decades....
It's going to be interesting to see my former schoolmates
after such a long time. Seeing the changes in hair colour,
physical shape, muscle tone, attitudes etc. 2 decades is a
long time, you go through life feeling pretty good, feeling
young and energetic, and then you realize that you are heading
straight into middle age. I often wander what sort of reflections
my school mates have been going through, how their outlook
might be different from mine, since the majority of them chose
to stay close to home. From what I could tell I am apparently
the only person that left the country/continent to start a
new life in a totally different place. So this reunion will
be interesting indeed.
Austria is a beautiful country and although I am only going
over there for a short period of time, I am hoping to have
a little bit of time to do some exploring. I may do a little
side trip to the north part of Italy or to the coast of Slovenia
or Croatia.
Lovely architecture in Ljubljana
The beauty of Europe is that everything is so immensely close.
Although the end of October/beginning of November is not the
best time to travel weather-wise, I am looking forward to
going back home after almost 8 years. It's certainly a good
time to realize some travel savings since it's off-season.
This will be a real budget trip too since I get to stay with
my brother and sister-in-law. I did some searches on the Internet
to look for the best flight connection and almost booked with www.flyzoom.ca which offers
tremendously inexpensive charter flights to London Gatwick.
Their return flights to London start at about Can$199, which
is an unbelievable price for a transatlantic flight.
Then I looked into Ryanair, www.ryanair.com, which is one
of the well-known low-price charter airlines in Europe that
fly to Graz from London Stanstead. Ryanair would charge about
GBP 80 + GBP 40 for a return flight to Graz, 120 Pounds in
total (about Can$270) which would be an extremely good price
for a flight from Toronto to Graz.
However, I could not find a good connection between the two
flights and would have had to stay over one night in London,
which would have negated all the savings from the flights.
So I ended up booking with www.destina.ca,
and getting a convenient direct flight with Lufthansa from
Toronto to Graz for about Can$850, taxes included.
I will certainly try to do a little tour of Graz, www.graztourism.at, the
city where I attended university. Graz is the second largest
city in Austria (larger than Salzburg or Innsbruck) with a
population of about 250,000. It has a beautifully preserved
medieval core and was recently awarded the designation of
"World Heritage Site" by UNESCO. In 2003, Graz celebrated
many festivals as "Europe's City of Culture 2003.
The "Rathaus" (City Hall) of Graz
Graz has a hill in the middle of town, the so-called "Schlossberg",
that can be ascended by funicular. On top is the "Uhrturm"
or clock tower, built in 1712 and the symbol of Graz. The
"Hauptplatz" or main square is a beautiful large square and
harbours City Hall and many upscale retailers and a local
market. Other main sights include the Chateau of Eggenberg,
the Cathedral and Mausoleum and the Armory.
Graz is also the capital of "Steiermark", which is the Austrian
province of "Styria", www.steiermark.com/en/.
Styria is a beautiful province with diverse landscapes, including
glaciers, high mountain ranges, rolling hills and even vineyards.
Styria is one of the little-known secrets of tourism in Austria
and it holds tremendous scenic beauty while at the same time
offering great travel deals.
Styria has beautiful regions, including the Styrian "Salzkammergut",
a region with high mountains and alpine lakes, very close
to the area where "Sound of Music" was filmed. Other regions
of interest include the "Dachstein-Tauern" region with towering
high mountains, Upper Styria with forested mountains of medium
altitude. The Western and Southern part of Styria have gently
rolling hills, many of them with vineyards and orchards. This
is often referred to as "Styrian Tuscany". In the south east
is the area called "Thermenland", a relatively flat area with
low-rising hills that has vestiges of former volcanic activity
and many thermal springs and spas. Just the perfect place
to get pampered.
The area that I am headed to is called "Oststeiermark" or
Eastern Styria, with medium-high mountain ranges and rolling
hills that peter out towards the Great Hungarian Plain, with
many castles, ruins and churches of interest. The regions
of Styria make up one of the most reasonably priced areas
of Austria and they offer great recreational and cultural
opportunities.
As always, in the little bit of spare time that I will have
on this trip I will take pictures and create blogs whenever
the time allows. It's going to be interesting to head back
to my home country, my home town after almost 8 years.
Here are some essential travel books for Austria:
Related articles:
Read my travelogue from my November
trip to Austria
Find useful information in my country
travel guide on Austria