Avalanches in Graz

Love lock bridge

Saturday it was our groups turn to go to Graz (the second largest city in Austria, and most student friendly). We left at 7:30 from school and they're was close to a foot of snow on the ground already. Our bus driver was able to get us out of Vienna ok, but it was slow.

Early morning to get to school to hop on bus.

We hoped of the bus 3 hours later to meet our tour guide David, who would show us around the history city that is Graz. Upon arrival was again blue skies! Everyone was happy to see the sun, and most of us couldn't deal with how sunny it was, the snow was creating an intense glare, but don't worry it didn't last for long...
First stop was a beautiful church, but not before a little wake up call. As we stood outside the church admiring the architecture. A HUGE section of snow from the roof decided to come tumbling down on us! Most screamed, and didn't know what to do, I was one of those people. I stood there as snow pounded down on me... eventually I decided to try and protect myself and run away from it. Everyone was OK just wet, flustered, and cold. It was definitely an experience.

After...

Church

After drying off, we ventured into a BEAUTIFUL church, with gorgeous chandeliers, and stain glass windows.

We also went to one of coolest staircases I have ever seen. They call them the kissing staircase because each time you go up you separate from the person then come together kiss and keep moving upwards. They are one of the 10 most notable staircases in the world!

Beautiful day!

The kissing stairs

Double staircase

Mountain tucked away in the streets of Graz

At the top of this mountain is a clock tower and an amazing view of Graz. We took the elevator up and were able to do some exploring but most of us were too busy participating in a large snowball fight.

Clock Tower

Jessica and Nicole

Snowball fight

Graz!

When we made it down it was time to leave and move on to the Chocolate factory tour! But first one more clock tower and City Hall.

Clock tower

City Hall

And so we hoped on the bus and headed to Zotter chocolate factory. We were given testing spoons upon arrival, and it was a audio guided tour, but most of us just let our taste buds do the talking. The tour started with the rawest chocolate you could possibly have, pure coco beans. They were gross! But it only got better. Each room was a new surprise of deliciousness. By the end most people felt sick and were looking forward to sitting for another 3 hours until they had to move again!

100%

So many flavors

Fountain!

Most interesting "chocolate"

Once we made it back to Vienna, it was bedtime! Today was pretty lazy, but I did go see Les Miserable with one of my roommates tonight, I swear there was not a dry eye in the theater. Such amazing singing, acting, and so much passion!