Alex's Alliterative Adventures

September 22, 2008

Waking up to catch a flight at 02:30 is even worse when you have a cold, but that’s a small price to pay to spend the next 10 days visiting my Austrian friends, Felix and Annina.

Felix and Annina whipped up an awesome walking tour of their hometown, Graz. Like any good tour, it started and ended with chocolate. I saw an alien which commemorates Austria’s 2003 title of European Capital of Culture, climbed a rope maze on a metallic river-island, and gazed out over the beautiful rooftops of the city from the top of a once decimated castle:

Interesting side note: the word decimate comes from Roman times. When a member of unit retreated from battle, disobeyed orders, or otherwise behaved unacceptably, the group would be punished by having to strip every tenth man (deca) of his armour and beat him to death. Isn’t English fun, kids?

We spent the evening playing board games, which seems to be a favourite European past time. While I’m really grateful that almost everyone I’ve met so far can at least grunt a few English words at me, I can’t wait until I can play games, read menus, or hold conversations without turning to my personal translator with a panicked look in my eyes.