Hallo ISEPers! Wie geht’s? (Hi ISEPers! How’s it going?)
I’ve spent almost two months at TU Graz in Graz, Austria and every day I love it even more, so if you are worried about where you should do your exchange semester, you can stop right now… the answer is of course Graz.
Of course I know that everyone has different interests, but if you love traveling, if you are into skiing, or if you know a little German you should come to Graz, and I will tell you why.
1. It’s mainly a university city.
I love that there are a lot of students everywhere in Graz, so it is very easy to get to know people your age and make friends, both Austrian and international. Other universities in Graz include Uni Graz or Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz. It is also the second largest city in Austria (after Vienna of course) but it is still small (when you compare it to cities like Monterrey, where I’m from in México, which is really big). Since it is not that big, you can walk or bike everywhere get everywhere quickly, which brings me to my second point:
2. The default vehicle to move around is your bike.
Yep, it is amazing. Everyone has a bike, seriously never in my life had I seen so many bikes in the same place. Almost no one owns a car and everyone uses either public transportation or their bikes. You will see parents biking with their children on the back seat and people biking without touching the handlebars because they’ve had so much practice that now they can just use their legs. Cars stop every time that a pedestrian or a biker has to cross a street. It is amazing cause biking gets people to exercise and it is good for air quality. I love that about this city.
3. The buildings are amazing.
The architecture of Graz is so pretty and every corner of the city looks decorated. The colors of the buildings are light yellow, sky blue, mint green, pink, light orange and so on… You will feel like you are in a fairytale… not to mention when you go to the countryside of Austria, now you really are in one!
4. You feel safe all the time.
This city makes you feel safe. Everyone follows the rules, people are respectful and things work the way they should. Maybe this is an important point for me, since I am from Mexico and I am used to being alert all the time when I go out, and here in Graz, I just feel so safe, and I know that nothing bad is going to happen… well unless you count the time I fell off my bike ahahahah, but seriously Austria is one of the safest places to live.
5. You can basically travel anywhere.
That’s right, one of the many perks of being in Graz is that it is very centrally located in Europe, so you can travel east or west, you will be there in no time and it is not that expensive. So far I’ve been to Italy (Venice, Verona, Florence and Pisa), Slovenia and Vienna… but I want to continue taking weekends trips and travel over spring break.
I could continue writing about why I love this city but I think you got the point, so I will just let this information sink in and I hope it would help you make your mind or get excited about your semester abroad.
I wish you all the luck in the world!
Bis später (until next time),
Gabriela
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