Graz- a city with too much trust and interesting ways to welcome you. And some Turkish shops and Russki magazin and Italian ice-cream.

 So, I've finally somewhat settled down here in my new home in Graz. I live quite close to the central of Graz (10min walking) and 5 minutes from the Hauptbahnhof (train station). My flat is lush- the best looking flat I've ever lived in- well, it's new. So it's pretty. And we have our own basement-cell where I keep my bike (which Hannes put back together and fixed a bit).


My arrival to Austria was quick and without any problems. I got off the plane, got my luggage (some of it got stuck on the lint but no problemo in general), got into the car of one of the friends of Hannes and then drove to Graz.


On the first day (Thursday afternoon), Hannes made me a tiny tour around the closer area- where the shops are located and where I can get Turkish and maybe Estonian food. Firstly, they are located close to me, so I'm happy. I can get good Turkish bread and halva and coffee from nearby places. Then here's a Russian shop as well. And guess what I found there? Pelmeenid, präänik, condensed milk, sprotid, Rollton chicken-flavoured noodles, Baltika beer, Krakow sausage, Russian candies and most of all- some weird looking Russian Kohuke that actually tastes really good. I'd say that only Estonian beer is missing now :) Hannes also showed me a local ice-cream place which is owned by Italians and where they sell freshly-made ice cream. Well, you can imagine how good that tastes!

On the second day, me and Hannes went around in the city a bit, met again with the guy who drove us to Graz and had another ice-cream with him in that Italian place. This time for free, because they just renovated the street it was located in and for the opening of the street the ice cream was gratis (free). Not bad at all for first couple of days in Graz.

On Saturday we put together my bike with Hannes and fixed it.Also, we promised to help a gay-association to sell their stuff for couple of hours on the street that was freshly opened- because they had a fair over there. A funny incident as well- a lady came to us, told that the stuff we sell should just be chucked into garbage (sort of Flea Market stuff) but was a bit looking at the table where we had the rainbow-coloured things. Then she asked whether we have those....welll those.....those..... and asked whether she could look for them in the gay association house that was behind us. Hannes went there with her and the lady saw the bowl with condoms. She told that her son is gay and well, when he's like that then he should at least be protected and she worries about his healty and then took a bunch of condoms. Oh, but she chose condoms- they were all the same, just different texts on them, but she told that oh, those ones are better than the others. She was a nice fussy lady. Funny.


On Sunday, we went to botanic gardens with Hannes and that friend of his (let's call him the bee guy, will explain soon, why such codename).  They had a free-entrance there so we took a look. Well, botanic gardens as everywhere else, basically.



On that day I found out sth weird about Graz- they have public gardens where everybody can go and plant their things and grow them there and everybody can go and take them for free. E.g., I could go and take tomatoes from there for free. It's extremely weird to me- people trust each other so much here  that they aren't afraid of thugs coming and breaking the garden or stealing everything from there. This system has worked here for 5 years. I could go there myself and start growing plants. Weird. I still think I will do that on the balcony of our flat.... Even though one of those gardens is 5min walk from our flat. Still, the bee-guy who keeps 3 hives of his bees in that garden, told that we can go there whenever we wanted. I don't feel comfortable with such stuff- I don't grow anything there so I won't go and take anything from there- that's fair, I would say. Hannes agrees with me. Me as a typical Estonian can't just imagine such a level of trust actually working out. But it does.

 

Anyay, Graz is a weird place (in some ways) to live in.

I love the fact that they have tiny family-shops in the streets, though. Reminds me of England a bit.


Oh,and by the way, after I registered myself as the citizen of Austria, I got a welcome-package with many maps and booklets about Graz. Also a memory-stick with 2 movies about Graz on it.

'