And I will walk 10,000 steps

We have been in Graz since Monday, and I believe I've averaged about 20,000 steps a day. On Tuesday, I think I had 25,000+ steps, and yesterday I walked 22,000+ steps. It's pretty easy when you're lost in a city trying to find your way around. The students have class at 8:30, so we eat breakfast and then walk into the city, which is an 8 minute walk to the tram stops. To get to the university, it's a 17 minute walk or so, and it's a very nice walk. Then they go their way and I go mine.

On Monday, I used the hotel's iron to iron our clothes. It didn't quite work as planned. I added water, and as soon as I tipped it, it all spilled out the side. That's when I noticed the silver duct tape wrapped around two places on the cord. It was then that I decided I'd had enough with hotel irons and was going to find my own. So on Tuesday, I went all around the city looking for the electronics shop. In Vienna and Graz, and perhaps most of Europe, there is no Wal-Mart or big-box store. It's all broken out. The grocery store sells groceries. BIPA sells make-up. Electronics stores sell electronic devices for the home - like vacuums and irons. Hauptplatz (the "hou" is pronounced like "house") is where City Hall is and a quick walk up the road from Jakominiplatz (you say it as "Yack-o-meeni-plats"). So I decided to concentrate my efforts around Hauptplatz. Nope. So I went down to Jakominiplatz again, about ready to go home, and I decided to take a different route home. That's when I saw it - the big red sign that said "Elektro". I headed straight to the store and asked if they sold a "bugeleisen". (I don't know if that's spelled correctly.) They said yes, and then I asked if they sold a travel iron because it dawned on me that I didn't want to add a 5 pound appliance to my bag. They did. So I am now the proud owner of a little travel iron that fits in my hand and gets surprisingly hot without water so now the Professor always looks clean-pressed. Victory!

I also was tasked with finding a bottle of American wine around 20 Euros (right now, it's $1.37 to 1 Euro.) I failed, instead finding 8, 40, 60 and 90 Euro bottles of wine. This was a gift for the city council woman we met on Tuesday afternoon. This year, we got to go into City Hall into the room where the city council meets. We sat on these very nice white leather chairs, and when the woman came in, she told us who normally sits where. I was sitting where the Communists sit. There were no liberals represented, ha. She welcomed us and then invited us to go to the balcony to see Graz. I've included a video here for you to see what I saw.

Afterward, they had a reception for us: juice, wine, salad, potato salad, bread, cheese, fish, chicken and rice. It was so nice.

It was at this time that one of the students was really complaining about her shoes, so John asked me to take her back to the hotel so she could change them. We had about 20 minutes to do it before they caught the tram back to the university, but we made it. After they went back to class, I went home and edited photos. The videos are being uploaded, but the internet connection is very slow, so 3 hours ago, it said it would take 3 hours, but it's still saying that...so...

On Wednesday, I went to Schlossberg, which is a tower on top of a pretty big hill. We took the students there on Monday, but I decided to go back and sit for a bit. So I took the funicular up with about 100 elementary aged children, and they ran for the bathroom and I ran for the edge. They must've gone farther up because I didn't see them again. Instead, I sat and heard lots of birds singing, and then the church bells all over the city started ringing. That is the video that I think is taking so long to upload because I was recording for about a minute. So I sat up there for awhile, taking pictures, listening to birds and bells, and then decided to walk down all the steps. There are many steps...I haven't counted them all, but I went there again today and lost track around 200. We are having a formal tour of the city tonight, so I'll try to keep track when we go back. Oh look, a picture! This is Schlossberg.

I don't have the other pictures from Schlossberg uploaded yet, so you don't get to see those right now.

Last night we had dinner at a Columbian restaurant. I had a burger.

At first, I was so surprised that it was missing the top part of the bun that I didn't notice the egg sitting on top. That's not cheese. Underneath the tomato was Grey Poupon. The meat itself was tasty, but the egg, onions and mustard were a bit much. However, the fries were terrific. I'm not sure the meal was worth 20 Euros, but our friends picked up the tab. They and John had steaks, which were fantastic. I should've gotten a steak. Instead, I got apple cinnamon ice cream afterward, which was the first time I'd had that flavor. Very intense. I liked it.

There's been some change from the past year. The little store where we got our advent calendar is no longer in business, which is very sad to me. It was a really cute, quaint little store. You knew you could get doilies, but there were a few other finds that you just didn't know about until you got there. The advent calendar is one of those things. 

The other thing is that our favorite kebap place changed owners. I took the students there on Monday and asked about the previous owners. "New ship," I thought he said, but I think he said, "New chef." The kebap is still very tasty, but I miss our old Turkish/Kurdish owners. They were so nice to chat with. This is kebap:

This is the best 2 Euro meal you can buy here in my opinion. Kasekreiner is a close second, but I haven't had that yet on this trip!

This morning, I stayed behind to see if the videos would upload, then decided to head out because it's going to be 83 or so again this afternoon and I wanted to get my steps in. I needed to find the post office and our new hotel that we're moving to tomorrow, so I walked over the bridge and into a new area I haven't yet explored. I found our hotel and quite a few bars that I bet the students will also find, then headed back toward Schlossberg. I spent part of the morning sitting on the side overlooking the city, watching the honey bees flit from flower to flower (less than a foot away from me, and I didn't freak out once), and then decided to head back to the hotel and see how the video uploading was coming along. Our tour of the city starts much later today, around 4 or so, so I may take a little nap. Those are such luxuries.