i am from austria

I'll make the attempt to introduce you all to my hometown Graz in just one post. So it's going to be rather sketchy...

To start with, it's very simple: Graz is a town with a river and a kind of mountain in the middle. Napoleon has destroyed the old fortress on top of it except for some buildings, but only after the people from Graz had paid him dearly to spare them...

Climbing up that hill or mountain, you'll soon discover one of Graz' characteristics: the beautiful roofs (I stole the following picture...)

Graz is the capital of a department called Styria, also known as Austria's Green Heart (which is a bit stupid if you consider that basically all of Austria is green, most of the time...). Styria's emblem is something they call a "panther", but I'm not so sure what this poor beast is supposed to be in reality... Whatever, it's green and white and has a beautiful crown and dangerous claws. Once it even spit flames from its ass. Then somebody decided that this was definitely going too far and extinguished the creature's undecent fire. And now... ah... just have a look:

Now it's getting a bit more complicated. After having defeated the plague and the Ottoman army for good at the end of the 17th century, entire Austria was of course super-relieved and in the mood to show off their newly gained prosperity. Plus, Catholic church had made short work of Reformation - now clergy and aristrocracy suddenly recognized that they had the same interests. So they employed a lot of artists to make some publicity for them and to leave no doubt in the population that they were strong and had too much money. The results are beautiful and imposant (that's why they're mostly very golden).
Saint Sebastian and Saint Jacob under a Plague Column:

Personally, what I like most about Graz are its beautiful, cosy yards. You can always discover new ones (especially when you study art history and you know someone who knows someone who knows somebody who has got the keys...). As I'm a snoopy person, just randomly walking through an open door leading to the unknown is exactly my kind of hobby...

Austrian "Hausmeister" (concierges) and landlords love to leave their mark, like dogs, in form of little signs which tell you that what you are doing is on the edge of legality, even if it's just "going through", or "sightseeing"...


Usually, the beautiful yards have unimpressive doors, and vice-versa...


Some of our vices: smoking (Austria Tabak), drinking (Puntigamer Bier), Eating (red lobster in the background; sign of a restaurant), lotto...

Restaurants usually have nice names, like the "Golden Pastry" below.

Some years back, a new tradition was introduced to Graz: a huge Nativity Scene sculpted of ice blocks and displayed in a popular big courtyard in the center. Usually, the sculptures don't survive the first week of Advent; it's too warm...

Yep, of course we are affected by global warming too! But the population of Graz isn't very eager to help changing anything about the problem. They seem to be tied to their cars (the smaller the human, the bigger the car, I guess), preferring to spend 1 hour in the traffic jam than to just hop into the bus, the tram, or on their bikes and be there in 20 minutes. The results are really bad air and a lot of allergies and lung-problems - high life for doctors!

There are a lot of beggars too, many of them from Slovakia because they're not allowed to work in Vienna. See how xenophile we are?!

Seems like the perfect place to "Make Change Happen", hm?