Time of my life

Two days ago, all of Austria celebrated Fasching and invited all of us international students to be 100% apart of it.

Graz holds a parade through the city every year on this day and the turn out is amazing! The international students were invited to be apart of it this year and so we painted T-shits to show off our pride for our home country's. I honestly expected this to be a slow parade with some bands and nice floats. I couldnt have been more wrong. The Fasching parade in Graz was probably the biggest party i have EVER been apart of.

All of us internationals got together at about 1030 to paint our faces, do some "pre lashing" and marched on over, singing our national anthems (looking like crazy people) to the beginning of the parade at the Opera house. We did not expect to have this much fun at all but I can tell you that every single one of us had the time of our lives! You can see the parade that was broadcast on Austrian tv at this link: Parade Link
... jump ahead to about 18:30 to catch the other internationals and I .. I think I did Canada well :)

We made the cover of the newspaper the next day :)

After the parade, a bunch of us went to Office Pub (obviously) .. and from there we headed out to the Carnival street party in the "Bermuda Triangle" .. the old part of town, where there were bier stands like crazy, people like crazy, and crazy amounts of music. We danced and drank out there for hours. 

I would visit Austria every year just for this day.

Check out my pictures below, I think they speak louder than any of my explanations can. (Ps: sorry about all the orange juice bottles in the pictures - we made mimosa's)

Our International Leader guy

Canadian girls <3

Also, I thought you guys might like to check out my friend Courtney's Blog! walkinginthesoundofmusic.blogspot.com

Fasching!

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR FASCHING IN AUSTRIAAAA!!

aka. CARNIVAL .. Austrian style!

Info here 

Ill be rocking a Canadian Flag outfit ! . but for now i must go mix drinks :)

Look for pictures tomorrow!

Video from last year's parade:

CARVENALE DI VENEZIA 2012

Beautiful views, amazing masks, Italian food, Gelato .. Repeat!

Italy was Amazing! You should all bookflights right now and go!

It was actually funny going into Italy because of the language change once again - We were using more german words to ask for things in italy than we even do at "home" in Austria. 

I went with five girl friends and our "Token Brit" Ross - and we left from the University at about 5am Saturday morning and we had quite the fun ride! haha lots of snacks, a Gosser or two .. shh

And along the ride from Austrian into Italy there were mountains that kick the Hills/Mountains in Ontario in the but! they were amazing.

When we reached Venice (since its all islands) we took a water Taxi into San Marco (the main square where the majority of Carvinal events were going on) ... You all have to look at my facebook page to see a clip of the boat ride in. Honestly we were all breath taken. I cant even put it into words - I could have road the boat up and down that canal all day.

When we reached San Marco it was SOO busy. Millions of people were there to celebrate Carnival. I had never seen people dressed in such elaborate costumes nor seen such amazing masks that are all made in venice! .. check out the pictures below for the ones the girls and i bought :)

We did a lot of wondering around to try to find the less busy streets, ate a delicious Italian lunch followed by GELATO mmm and did the exact same for dinner .. and just continued to take it all in.

I can't even explain any more the pictures speak for themselves. But i will 100% be going back to Venice in my time here to find out more about the city and do some tours.

Guess where I'm goinggggg...

Hi guys :)

So I wake up every morning here, walk down the street (rather up a hill) to my German class (which I had a little exam in today that i think i did rather well on) and I'm basically smiling from ear to ear. I love life over here. Today it was BEAUTIFUL outside. I can feel the weather warming up already (considering we had a major downpour of snow on Wednesday).

Today the girls and I walked around downtown Graz, we were looking for an outdoor patio but got a little lost in the small cobble stone ally ways - fine by me because their gorgeous - and anyways just ended up having a sausage and Puntigamer at a stand outside of city hall, followed by a pastry from "Sucger" my fave bakery that is all over town (literally I am there every day) ..

So things are great, but know what's even greater?

The fact that tomorrow I am going to VENICE for the day! .. like only in dreams can you say, "oo yah lets just pick up and go to Venice for Carnival!"

It was about 45 Euro to take a bus early tomorrow morning into Venice and we'll leave tomorrow evening after all of the Carnival activies. From my understanding Carnival is very similar to Mardis Gras in New Orleans, just on a whole other level. Here's a video from 2010 ...

So wish me Luck! I'm sure ill have many pictures to post afterwards.

And here are some random photos from the week:

1st Schnitzel on Valentinstag (Valentines day)

room where we had orientation 1

2

this is a pond near my house where I planned to skating however it was not shoveled :(

 

blizzard on wednesday

Tschüss!
(Bye!)

photos!

Finally got out to do some touristy things today in Graz!

- Went up the Schloßberg ("Schlossberg") ... most amazing view. Can't wait to go back up there when its warmer out and Piknik :)
- had some hot chocolate at the Murinsel Cafe on the Mur River (video)
- walked through some gorgeous ally-ways .. and only in graz (so small) would it lead us right back to Jakominiplatz (main tram station)

Loved today .. and its only the beginning :)

ps. these pictures are very out of order

random souvenir shop with old Austrian items

entrance to the Schlossberg

you could either walk or take the lift

Minds and the Clock Tower

those trees are called Stadt Park, i live right near there

Congress? .. something like that

old old old fortress

door from the 1900's o yah - people were shorter then :) haha

UMLAUTS !

mosaic

theater on the Schlossberg

we see beautiful courtyards like this alllll over Austria

photo of Hitlers visit to Austria

a church

cafe on the Mur

the Wine Spritzer !

chocolate shop

these hot dog / schnitzel stands are all over the city <3

alley ways

ye!

american candy shop

you can literally buy and drink beer anywhere

way better than toronto street meet

traditional outfits

middle of graz

this is Jakominiplatz! where all of our buses/trams go to

best bakery

courtney :) 

girls before the club

school :) 

beautiful