Grüsst, Österreich

or Graz, Austria, is a wonderful place with a beautiful landscape where people are super friendly. I mean it! They are extremely friendly and helpful. They are ready to lend a hand for me even without me asking for their help. This is great because I always go every where only with my son.

Where ever I go and meet people, they will smile and greet me by saying "grüss gott!" or "morgen!". It feels awkward not to reply to them or to pretend that you don't hear them because every one says that to you and this great custom is contagious.

I am learning to greet people and learning some of important words spoken in here, such as: morgen/guten morgen for good morning, guten abend, grüss gott, Bitte schön/danke schön (or just bitte/danke in short) for thank you, rechnung for receipt (because I always want to get receipt when ever I pay for something.. :) ), Auf Wiedersehen for good bye. It seems 'Bitte' is used almost in any situation not just to say 'thanks' because I think it can mean 'please' as well. Not many people can speak good English here and the only English-German dictionary I have at the moment is the SlovoEd mobile dictionary installed in my mobile phone. So, most of the time, I just guess what people say to me and so far, there's always help whenever I need someone who can speak English. It's like God's guardian angels who are assigned to follow me where ever I go... :)

Food wise, hmmm...what can I say??This is the land of apple strudel... and I definitely grow fatter and bigger now...wha..ha..ha.. :D
I love the food here especially the ones from the restaurant of my hotel. It's so famous and all taxi drivers know about it. So, I have no problem going back to the hotel because of this famous restaurant. There are 1/2backhendl, the juicy and tender steak, chicken cordon bleu, the wiener schnitzel, grünen Salat with pumpkin seed oil, and many more.
The dessert? Apple strudel is the signature dessert... :D The other types of dessert are just as delicious as the apple strudel and I don't know their names... :)
The drinks? The signature drink is schilchertraubensaft (I'm still learning to pronounce this word..he..he..). Schilchertraubensaft is like a berry juice, only made in this restaurant. I haven't tried other drinks because I just like this signature drink. It is served in 0.5ml-glass and I always finish it all... :D
The beer? The famous one is Puntigamer and it's really good! I don't actually drink beer, but I do like this Puntigamer. The only beer I like before Puntigamer is Snake bite (this beer is served in one of pool bar in Sunnyvale, CA-USA).

Ok, I think I am hungry now for talking about food so much. I'm going down to the restaurant and am going to order Wiener schnitzel this time!
I will post about the beautiful landscape of Graz tomorrow if I have time.