Salsa Dancing, a Columbian named Carlitos, Modern Art, and a Couple Castles to boot

Kunsthaus close up.
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So I'm still in Graz, but this travel blog somehow doesn't let me do multiple entries for one city, so I decided to create a new one.  A lot has happened since I last updated this (Monday morning, I think) and I now have a ton of pictures to share thanks to Michelle, so lets get cracking.

Graz is a city of about 200,000 on a flat plateau surrounded by very sudden, though not very tall, mountains.  The inside of the plateau is dominated by the Schlossburg, a fortress construced, I hear, mainly by Napolean at one point.  It's set on a very high and very steep hill, and offers great views of the cities.  There's a very trendy cafe (see pictures), a biergarten (it's like an outdoor diner with beer.  They use garten to describe what we would call a back yard), and another nicer restaraunt on top, along with a clock tower and a bell tower.  Any view from high up onto the city that you see from my pictures is from there.  It's also a college town (some 40,000 students), and it loves public transportation, especially street cars.  I've been riding a borrowed bike for some days here, and I don't think my legs (or my bottom) have quite recovered from that ride to Slovenia.  Maybe after I leave tomorrow to go to Vienna I'll get some rest.

I had no idea such a small man could flip me upside down

Carlitos flipping me upside down. Good times in Graz.
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Monday night I went salsa dancing with Michelle at a little bar named La Havanah.  Salsa dancing in Austria, you say.  Were they any good?  Well...Carlitos, the instructor from Columbia was.  Actually, pretty much anyone who wasn't from Austria who was in the club danced well.  The Austrians, however, seem to suffer from the same disease that plagues the British: dancing to them is what being eco-concious is to Texas.  It definately didn't hold a candle to dancing in LA or Seattle.  But to be fair there were some very good dancers there--michelle's housemate and her boyfriend taught me some moves--and I had a great time.  Michelle also dancer very well considering that it was her 3rd time trying.

Michelle and I with Carlitos again.
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Since I've been in Austria, I've sort of inevitably felt handicaped since my German is almost non-existant, but Monday I finally was doing something that I'm good at.  I was speaking mainly in Spanish and doing something that I've actually been practicing.  And Carlitos was great.  He bought me a couple drinks, taught me some moves, and basically directed every good female salsa dancer in the club to come dance with me.  Thanks Calritos.  Oh, and you might notice that Carlitos dipped me.  My legs were above his head.  I know, it was crazy.

The clocktower at the top of the schlosburg.
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Tuesday I had my first real Austrian adventure: I popped the tire on my bike, forgot to bring Michelle's cell phone number, and was stuck wandering around Graz with a useless bike.  Providentially I finally found a place just as it was closing, grabbed a new tire, installed it myself, and found a bike shope with a air compressor outside its doors.  All within a convenient 2 hours.  I guess it's not a real trip to Europe without some madness, right?  Oh, and the shops here all close at about 6:30, so that makes things extra fun.  I bought the tire 3 minutes after the store closed.

The trendy cafe at the top of the schlosburg.
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Wednesday, yesterday, I went out to Graz' Kunsthaus, which i believe is German for "completely out of place building."  You can see it in the pictures.  It's like Graz's verison of Seattle's EMP, except it makes even less sense.  It houses a modern art collection, which fits the eclectic nature of the building.  Unfortunately, like all modern art museums, it was full of stuff that made absolutely no sense.  Modern art loves gratuitous nudity like a fat kid loves cake.  It sort of makes me wonder why people make it.  There were a few interesting exhibits, though there were so many security guards wandering around that I couldn't get a picture.

A cafe in the middle of the river, next to the Kunsthaus. Very cool.
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Then I went to the oldest armory in the world which the Austrians built to help defend against the invading Turks.  They have something like 30,000 weapons inside of 5 floors, and it was truly impressive.  I took a few pictures, though again the guards limited what I could do.  This place was definately worth the trip and the 2 euros to see.  I've never seen so many rifles and pistols in my life.  I guess there are tours too, but I wasn't lucky enough to find one.

More of Graz.
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Today Michelle has 3 finals, so I'm pretty much on my own till she's done.  Michelle has been an amazing hostess, especially considering she has so much to study for.  I'm told that she speaks excellent German (though I guess I don't really know since I don't understand it), and her Spanish isn't bad either.  We're in a bit of a travel competition to see who can go to more countries, though right now it's not much of a competition: I've been to 15 and she's been to 23.  I have an advantage in the short term though, as she's going back to Western for a year whereas I'll be traveling and working in Europe.  This means that I'll need 8 countries to tie and 9 to pull into the lead.  I'll keep you updated as I go.

Distant view of the Kunsthaus in all its oddity. It lights up at night with a sort of neon show on the roof.
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Well I have to get going--I'm going to the ruins of some big castle that still has a working tavern.  Should be fun.  And it's finally a little bit cooler today (it's been sweltering hot and very humid), so that should make the ride easier.  Enjoy the pictures, and I'll see you next time.