Saturday 29th May
2am – departed Saas-Fee
5:10am – arrived Geneva airport
7:15am – departed Geneva for Vienna
9:30am – arrived Vienna
10:15 – departed Vienna for Graz
12pm – arrived in Graz
12:30pm – arrived at the UPC-Arena ground for a training session at 1:30pm
I was most happy that the leg from Vienna to Graz was only a short 20 minute flight as it was a very small propeller driven aircraft rammed full with people and what seemed like an extraordinary amount of hand luggage! I found my seat and due to the tiny overhead compartment had to put my backpack under the seat in front, which like the aircraft and the overhead compartment wasn’t very big. I had to sit with one leg up on the bag and was feeling a little uncomfortable as the rest of the travellers on the flight filed in. The flight filled quickly and the seat next to me had remained empty until a large unit of a human stood over the seat, looked at his ticket, checked the seat number then nodded in confirmation that he had located his seat. It was hard not to laugh as the two guys from the seats in front turned and laughed as my new neighbour slotted himself in the small seat. Some battles aren’t worth fighting and the battle for the armrest was most definitely one of those not worth pursuing! It was the first time I had ever seen someone request an extender for the seat belt to allow them to buckle up for the flight. I was glad the 20 minutes went quickly!
It was a pretty epic day of travel so by the time I made it to my room in Mercure Graz City at 4:30pm the temptation to get straight into bed was almost as strong as the call to explore a foreign city. I sat for down to try find some inspiration through a can of mixed salted nuts and bottle of coke. It seemed to help so I grabbed my things, as well as the map of the city provided at check-in and headed out to have a wander. I asked on the way out the general direction to town as well as what time it usually got dark before walking the three of four blocks into the heritage listed old city centre. The most unusual site amongst all the old historical buildings was the Kunsthaus Graz building. To try and explain this building would be too a difficult a task for this humble wombat so the obvious choice was to have a picture taken in front of this strange structure which has become an architectural landmark of Graz.
The two gentlemen who created the landmark have been known to refer to it affectionately as the "Friendly Alien". It looked more ugly than friendly to me!! I knew by the tourist brochure in my hand the best vantage point to view the city and help me find my bearings would be from the Schloßberg – which means “castle mountain”. This mountain is best described by the tourist brochure which says "Where in the world would you find a beautiful mountain covered in trees right in the middle of the city?" I walked up the old cobbled street in the direction of the Schloßberg and as I was drawing closer to the bottom of the hill I heard a bit of commotion ahead. At first I thought was a bunch of teenagers being a bit rowdy as there were cuckooing and other fairly random calls all sounding generally strange. It all became clear – but no less strange – as I rounded a corner and walked straight into rolling street performance heading up the hill.
There was a large crowd following the teenage performance art troop as they sang, acted and played music along the streets and paths uphill. I found it all highly interesting and found the girls perched in the trees singing song in German most entertaining.
As entertaining as it was I took the opportunity to swiftly move passed the large crowd as the group stopped for to perform an act. I headed up the hill and soon reached the Uhrturm clock tower. The view from under the clock over the old city was remarkable and the contrast between the Kunsthaus Graz and the surrounding buildings was even more striking from this viewpoint.
I spent a little bit of time looking at the view from here but as the troop had resumed their ascent I thought I’d move further up the hill-side to avoid the crowd. The view over the Uhrturm clock tower with the city behind was too nice a picture opportunity to miss by trying to avoid the encroaching crowd so I stopped again to admire the scene below me.
One of the positive things about putting in the hard yards heading up hill is that you are usually rewarded with a better view the higher you climb. Climbing the Schloßberg was no exception. The view opened wider and I again found myself looking over a magnificent view. The day before I was standing 2350m above sea level in the Alps admiring its natural beauty and here I was a day later in another country looking over a vastly different view, this time of man-made grandeur.
I wandered around the park on top of the mountain enjoying the atmosphere which was aided by the band in the nearby pub playing local folk music. The different vantage points around the park opened up to new views across the city. After wandering without much care for the time and in no rush to be anywhere it was from one of these outlooks I saw the weather was closing in very quickly so started my hasty descent. It was a shame to have to quickly shuffle down the amazing staircase cut into the rock face of the mountain. It was also a real shame I felt my calf muscle strain halfway down the stairs!! I reached the town centre again before it started really raining hard so I settled into a restaurant and ordered myself a schnitzel and a beer. After a long day the massive plate-filling-schnitzel washed down with a nice pint of local beer had me longing for bed. Within an hour of leaving the restaurant I was fast asleep.
After breakfast at the hotel we headed to the ground for the Japan v England international friendly arriving at 11:30am for the 2:15pm kick-off. I was a little disappointed that the ground has had a name change in recent times as it was formally named after one of the areas favorite sons – Arnold Schwarzenegger !! Now that would be a great name for a stadium!! Rain was forecast but it looked like it might hold off, which it did for a little while but then it rained on and off throughout the day and game, becoming extremely heavy at times.
The UPC-Arena holds around fifteen and half thousand people and I’m pretty sure it was sold out. The English fans were as always in fine voice and the small pockets of Japanese supporters added to the atmosphere. An early goal from Japan had the brigade of red and white silenced momentarily but they soon rallied behind their team once again singing in unison willing their lads to victory. An own goal by Japan levels the scores lifting both the England team and the volume of their supporters. The final nail in the coffin was a second own goal by Japan and in the lead for the first time in the afternoon the chorus of “we’re going to win the cup” rang even louder around the small ground. The game finished 2-1 to England with all the goals coming from the boot of a Japan player!!
I’m not to sure what time the game finished but the 5:25pm departure for the airport came around extremely quickly!! The bus pulled out of the UPC-Arena car park headed for the airport at shortly after 5:30pm due to a few stragglers (yours truly being one) holding things up for a few minutes. We checked in at Graz airport for our 6:30pm flight back to Geneva via Frankfurt and waited for the boarding call which was delayed by about 20 minutes.
We finally boarded and bounced our way across to Frankfurt arriving in at around 8:45pm. The weather was rough with a bit of turbulence but the flight passed quickly up the front as I spoke to my new mate Steph, an Austrian guy now living in Perth. Boarding for our connecting flight to Geneva was scheduled for 8:55pm but we were again delayed this time by the shocking weather. After a long two days the extra time waiting for this flight seemed to drag on and on until we departed just after 9:30pm. I asked for a beer on the flight and much to my surprise I was handed a glass bottle of Warsteiner beer. It seemed strange that with the huge lengths they take to ensure you do not carry any sharp items on board a plane, they give you a glass bottle. Anyway - as always the beer tasted better out of glass!! I was sitting between Chinese travelers and the gentlemen to my left did not enjoy the turbulence we encountered before our decent in Geneva. On two separate occasions as the plane jerked through the pockets of unstable air he grabbed both the armrests and gave a loud “whooooaaa”. As soon as he felt safe enough to release his grip he quickly grabbed the end of his belt and tightened further around his waist. He wasn’t having fun! He was more than happy when we landed in Geneva at 10:45pm.
Feeling more than a little tired I trudged to our waiting coach and mentally prepared myself for the 3 hour bus trip back to Saas-Fee. The whirlwind of this trip was highlighted to me on the bus trip when I received an sms message at 12:18am saying “Welcome from o2 Germany!” Not even the roaming on the phone could keep up!! It lashed with the rain pretty much the entire trip and after snatching a few small sleeps along the way we arrived back into Saas-Fee at 2:15am on Monday morning the 31st on May.
48 hours, 6 bus rides, 4 flights, 3 countries, 2 teams and 1 game of football. I was a more than a little
relieved to fall into bed shortly after 2:30am.
No comments:
Post a Comment