Graz – October 7-8

By Leyla

The only reason Graz was on our itinerary is that we found a direct flight from Graz to Mallorca on Lauda Motion, which had just been acquired by Ryan Air. This was our first adventure in European discount air travel and we double-checked that we had done everything correctly. Given what we had read on-line, the pitfalls were bringing luggage that was too big, too heavy and that you had not paid for in advance. Also not printing your boarding passes. Confident that we had done what we can to avoid any surprises at the airport we drove north over the border to Austria. Our Airbnb for the night had just been booked a few days prior. Emily and I had looked for a place when we booked all our other lodging but had not found anything that looked good. Then when we were in Lake Bled, I looked again and found a sweet looking place in the city center, near the river that had one night available and offered parking. Our host agreed to an early check in but we arrived even earlier so decided to have lunch at a nearby restaurant called Caylend that we found on Trip Advisor. In the meantime, our Airbnb host reported that their lock box was out of order and she would need to meet us with the key, so I invited her to the restaurant to join us for a drink. While we had dessert, and Maria had a glass of wine, we relayed that we were going to Mallorca so Emily could shadow at a school called Escola Global. Maria was surprised to hear we were looking for a school abroad and said it was too bad we were leaving in the morning because it would be great if we could tour her daughter’s school. Her daughter Alina is 15 and is in her 6^th year at the only public IB school in Austria. All the classes are taught in English and the school had been around for 25+ years. Our flight was not until 11:20 so Maria offered to pick Emily up at 7:30 the next morning so she could go to school with Alina and spend first period. Maria easily arranged it with Alina’s teacher. Maria told us she had moved to Austria from St. Petersburg for college. I think she was surprised again when I started speaking Russian with her. All this from a chance Airbnb booking!

We spent the rest of our day in Graz doing the usual…walking up hill to a castle and eating ice cream. On the way to the castle, crossing the various rivers over the river running through Graz, we observed 3 things: 1) the river is huge, very wide with lots of volume and rapids. I think it’s the largest we had seen – perhaps larger than the Seine. There appeared to be a kayak slalom course and play park for kayaks. There is also a cool diagonal bridge that cuts through a restaurant in the middle of the river. 2) Graz has some of the most beautiful architecture we have seen in Europe. We gazed at rows of historic buildings in the old center with our jaws hanging open, some with elaborate exterior frescoes. 3) We heard two street musicians, one on the violin and the other on the saxophone who were both incredibly good. Reminds of the Joni Mitchell song about the “one man band…who was playing real good, for free”.

When the reality set in of our 6am wake up call and the timing of Emily’s quick stop at the IB school prior to boarding a flight, it was a bit of a nail biter. We were supposed to be at the airport at 9:20 to drop off our bags and the class got out at 8:45 with a 30 min drive to the airport. And we needed to get gas and return the rental car. Maria and Alina picked up Emily at 7:30 while Mark and I cleaned up and then drove to the school, arriving a bit early to check it out. It was a beautiful modern building in the Eggenberg area, which from what we could tell, is a mountain park and City open space. The building was made entirely of formed concrete (inside and out) with broad hallways and a wide central staircase, also of formed concrete accented with wood. It is extraordinary. We looked for someone to stop us at the door, but instead we got to look around on our own, stopping at a map on the wall in the entryway identifying roughly 20 cities/towns around the world. Less than a handful were in the U.S. and one of them was TELLURIDE, CO. Wow! We thought we should probably check in with someone in authority before wandering up to room 6B on the second floor, where Maria told us Alina and Emily would be in geography class. It was actually a bit of a challenge finding the administrative offices. We finally asked a student, who directed us. Behind a closed door, we discovered a small office with a lone secretary behind a desk. After explaining why we were there, it became clear that no one in charge had been advised of our daughter’s presence in the school. The secretary summoned the principal, who was apologetic that she did not know we had an appointment, owing to the Internet being down. We explained that we did not have an appointment, explained again why were there and, wondering if this disclosure might get the teacher in trouble (given that she obviously had not cleared it with admin) attempted to distract the principal by mentioned the map and Telluride. The principal was very gracious, letting us know things were not as strict here as in the U.S. but said she thought it sweet (but not necessary) that we had dropped in to announce our presence in the school. Then she told us it was she who was in Telluride, nearly 15 years ago, to do an exchange with the Mountain School. She traveled with a group of secondary school students and went on to say that she wishes they could go back but that Austria has a new ruling party, the Freedom Party, and now such things are not as easy. She walked us to the classroom, commenting on the building, which is listed on the historic register due to it’s prominent mid century modern architecture, disclosing that while nice, it’s a pain for her because it means she is not make even the smallest changes i.e. getting non-functioning lights replaced. Emily and Alina walked out at 8:45, all smiles, exchanging contact information.

The nail biter to the airport became a bit more intense when I realized my French SIM card had expired that morning so no Google maps to guide to the airport, but thankfully with Mark’s keen sense of direction, and Emily’s knowledge of German, we read the signs, and made it to the airport on time, getting gas along the way. It’s a small airport so very easy to navigate and while I had my concerns about flying a discount airline, it all went surprisingly well. Even security was lenient with the liquid emanating from the sauerkraut we were carrying on. True to form, being the daughter of an immigrant causes me to travel with food at all times. Emily has grown up with this and has been traumatized on more than one occasion when U.S. security confiscates yogurt, or almond butter, or some other slightly liquid food product. The woman in the Austrian equivalent of TSA simply made a remark to her co-worker upon discovering the sauerkraut, and handed us a Ziplock bag. Walking to our gate, Emily stopped in her tracks when she passed the airport bookstore and saw a large array of self-help and alternative medicine books prominently displayed in the aisle, and among them a book on Jin Shin Jyutsu. What a crazy place this Graz, Austria!