This post was originally written in Romanian and then translated in English.

As i was telling you last week, Labour’s Day found me in Graz, Steiermark’s (Styria’s) capital city.

As soon as we entered Steiermark region by highway I was surprised by how green it actually is. It seems it’s nothing but a big forest, sometimes coniferous, but mostly leaf shedding. It certainly gives the impression the Styrians built the highway on purpose in the middle of a forest to fool everyone into thinking it really was the green heart of Austria. Well, it is not a fake. This region seems entirely green and when it’s not green with trees, it’s green with vineyards. But i’ll leave the vineyards for another time.

Graz is a city of approximately 300.000 souls. A famous university-education and scientific-research center and wood related industries. Through the city flows the river Mur, high with spring’s melted snow water at the time i saw it. Here, on the banks of this river landed our ‘Friendly Alien’. In the above picture, center-top. The black looking thing, if you didn’t get it yet.

It appeared here during city’s preparations for being the European Cultural Capital (2003) and houses ever since Graz’s Art Gallery. The ‘Friendly Alien’ is what people in Graz call the building.  The official website where you can find out more and also see a better picture of it can be visited here.

At the same time with the Alien, the Mur Island (Murinsel) appeared too. It is a floating metal structure across from the Art Gallery and is a relaxation spot with a coffee shop, a playground to get rid of the little ones for a while and terraced steps where you an lounge in the sun, read or whatever other things you feel like doing. Click on the picture to see a bigger image.

After about 10 minutes on the island we decided to climb the hill overseeing the city to the Schlossberg castle. 473 m to be climbed on stairs isn’t that much if you climbed Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka (5200 steps). If climbing gives you asthma attacks you can take the elevator or the train up. Once there, you are surrounded by history. This is the castle from which Austrians resisted Napoleon’s armies more than once and in which the city’s folks found refuge every time they needed it.

On top of Schlossberg lies one of the city’s oldest landmarks, a clock tower. It was undergoing restoration when i was there but i found this landmark to be a very witty one. The clocks on each of the 4 sides of the tower point the hour with the big watch-hand and the minutes with the small one. I’m telling you this, so you don’t get fooled by it if you get there. I couldn’t find the explanation why it was done so, i suppose to help old people with poor vision know the days hour, since minutes for them are irrelevant, but i prefer to think it was as a prank to mess with tourists too preoccupied with time.

Everywhere on the top you can find locations where you can eat, have a coffee or other thirst quenching liquors or even sleep. I saw a lot of signs explaining the past of a particular building and then towards the end it would invariably say: “since the year 1800 something it houses a restaurant/pub”. I’m telling you, as soon as wars end drinking joints flourish. In the picture to the right you can see a very cute little coffee shop hanging over a beautiful garden and overlooking the city center. Again click on the photo to see a larger version.

The old city center in absolutely charming. Narrow streets, surrounded by tall buildings with sharp roofs and flower burdened windows with wooden shutters. Loads of small shops, lots of them selling knives, but don’t ask me why. Maybe they have a hunting tradition. Coffee shops, beer and wine gardens, trams that share streets only with pedestrians and heaps of bicycles left all over without fear of being stollen.

Obama’s name and image has been borrowed even here to help with marketing. I found an Obama Lounge on a small street. Click the picture to the right.

To end, i’d say Graz is indeed a beautiful town that fully deserves the comparison to Sibiu i intuited in my previous post. Proud but reserved, old but unashamed to support the modern, with young and also calm people. I recommend you visit it. As a bonus, the city’s surroundings are gorgeous themselves and i will tell you more in my next reportage. If Graz is a lot like Sibiu, the surroundings are like the Tarnave or Rahau hills. Very pretty, so do not miss my next post.

Dedicated to Günther, who let us use his flat, drink his wine and finish his butter.

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