Gas

Hi y'all. We had a great day today - well, great really isnt the correct word. Its more like surreal. First things first though, so you can visualise our journey a little better, here is a pic of us in our snazzy car. Its very cool. It had 5 km's on the clock (yes 5) when we picked it up and it now has 3654 km's! I'm thinking we will clock up over 6000 km's when all is said and done. According to Wikipedia, NZ is 1600 km's long which means that we (actually that should be 'me' not 'we' cause 'we' decided that only I would drive) have already driven 400 km's more than driving from the very top of the NZ to the very bottom - twice! Holy shit, thats crazy!

Anyhow, once again I digress. The plan for today was to visit Leibnitz, the birthplace of Herr Rudolph, mein vater (my father). There we planned to see the house (in which he was born), the school (in which he learnt fuck all cause he left early to become a cabinet maker) and the grave of his father (in which he buried his father) also named Rudolph Schwarz. Isn't that the weirdest thing naming your child after yourself? "Hi, my name is Jason Schwarz and here is my son Jason Schwarz". What if you had picked an androgynous name for your daughter, like Sam. Then you could say "Hi, my name is Sam Schwarz and this is my son Sam Schwarz and this is my daughter Sam Schwarz" Christmas could get real confusing.  

Sign

Its cold! We have been used to average temperatures of 25 odd degrees and suddenly its 9 degrees. I made the mistake of going out today in shorts! I'm pretty sure that I was the only person in Austria wearing shorts. I got some seriously funny looks. Dickhead.

Leibnitz is a lovely town. It was neat to see the house where Dad grew up. It was almost exactly the same as it was 70 odd years ago. Showing us where he used to hide when the bomb siren went off as the Allies were bombing or telling us about when the Russians came through and tore the whole place to bits was really interesting. Going to see my Grandfathers grave pulled on the heart strings a bit. Dad was a bit upset and its never nice to see your parents upset. His sister, Inge, still comes here and looks after her Fathers grave, tending to the flowers and lighting a candle once a year on the anniversary of his passing.

From Leibnitz, we stopped by the hotel to put some clothes on then drove onto my Fathers niece Brigitte's place. My 1st cousin and I have never met or spoken so the evening was always going to be interesting. It turned out to be a little awkward but ended up being fine. A glass of schnapps to start the evening relaxed us all somewhat. Austrians love their schnapps.

Schnapps

The language thing was tricky. You find yourself sitting around in a group with half of the group speaking German. They then crack up laughing at something someone said, and you sit there with absolutely no idea what was going on. Then the same thing would happen with the others that speak English. It was a bit odd. However, due to the universal language of food - all was good! Brigitte cooked an amazing traditional Austrian meal. It was a stunner. Picture below with description in German. Translated it is braised pork with sauerkraut and dumplings. Wicked. We ended up having a really nice evening and it was great meeting these newly discovered relatives.

Dinner with the relatives 

 

 Schweinsbraten mit sauerkraut
und semmelknoedel und bohnen salad mit styrische

Tomorrow, we are off an hour away to the Austrian hills (not their real name) to pick mushrooms (no shit) then have a vineyard lunch with the family. Apparently we are having some famous crumbed chicken dish - sounds nasty :) We will then tram into central Graz to have a better look around the old part of the city.

By the way, thanks for the emails from those of you that emailed us recently. Its great to get contact from home and its nice to hear that you are enjoying this blog. Catch up soon, one last photo to share.

Summary of atmospheric conditions

 with all 4 of us sleeping in one room