Graz, an unexpected city

I always say that Graz is an unexpected city. In fact I didn't know it existed until they gave me a place there for my Erasmus. It's the second largest city in Austria, it has around 270, 000 inhabitants, it's the capital of the Styria region and it is just over two hours away from Vienna. Despite its place in the rankings, it's a very nice city, it's great for getting around by bicycle. For me, it was a perfect place to live.

Atmosphere

For a few years now, Graz has stood out for its youthful and cultural atmosphere. The university of Graz has a very good reputation, so a lot of students from all over the country and from abroad (especially from Germany) come to study in Graz. When I started on my course in October, the city was full of students. What's more, the ESN (Erasmus Student Network) is pretty active and they organise a lot of day trips, travelling (a lot of skiing trips) and welcome and goodbye parties, and anything else they can think of. The ESN prices aren't super cheap, but you can get discounts with the ESN card, which costs €5. They also put on concerts, especially jazz concerts, in the bars and pubs.

University and the language

Graz has four universities that have different buildings and faculties: Karl-Franzens Universität, TU Graz (technical university), KUG (for music and stage arts) and Med Uni Graz (for medicine).

Karl-Franzens is the one that organises the most activities, for example, sports courses with the USI (Universitäts-Sportsinstitut), they're really good, because the courses are very cheap (€30 for the whole semester) and there's a lot of variety. The university organises language courses with the Treffpunkt Sprachen (it's like the Official Language School in Spain, but it's part of the university) and there are a lot of courses teaching German as a foreign language.

German is the official language of Austria, but everyone or almost everyone speaks English. Austrian people are very nice and won't think twice about speaking to you in English if they see you struggling with German. However, I'd recommend you just dive in and start speaking German, the sooner the better. In the beginning, it was hard to understand, because they speak something known as "Dialekt", in Austria and especially in the Styria region. Don't panic, it's still German, but some words change and more than anything, they speak with an accent (the vowels are more open and don't pronounce some letters). For example, a plastic bag in "Hochdeutsch" (in standard German) is called a "Tüte" and, in Dialekt, it's called "Sackerl". The good part about it is that you'll get used to hearing the Dialekt quickly and you'll travel to parts of Germany where they speak a more standard German, you'll be able to understand pretty much everything there.

Residence or flat?

The residences in Graz are full of Erasmus students and the Austrian students usually live in flats (I don't think that I've meet a single Austrian living in a residence). If you want to learn German, look for a flat with nice people and that has a good atmosphere; if you don't care about learning the language, you'll save yourself the search and a lot of other admin by going for a residence. Although, housing in Graz is expensive. The flats there cost from €250 to €450 a month (the price normally includes bills: water, light, heating, etc. ) and the residences don't normally cost less than €350 a month. So, if you look well, living in a flat can end up being the cheaper option.

Going out to eat

My best option was always to go to the "Bausatzlokale", it's a kind of bar that has a special way to order: there are different coloured papers and each of them corresponds to a food, like pizza. What you do is you put the size and choose the ingredients that you want from a pretty extensive list. And it's the same with hamburgers, salads, pastas, etc. It's also the cheapest options and everything there is very good. There are a few places like this: Zeppelin, Gramophon, Bier Baron... But my favourite places are Posaune, in front of the university, and Area 5 especially, which is at the top of Jakominiplatz, a small shopping centre, and it has spectacular views.

Although there are a lot of traditional Austrian dishes and they're all very good, there's a very good product from Styria: pumpkin seed oil. It has a very specific flavour and they use it in salad dressings, although they also put in on vanilla ice cream in Graz! Yes, it sounds weird, but it's the best flavour combination I've ever tasted.

To change it up a bit, I recommend the dürüm from the Rosamunde restaurant (there are a few of them in the city) or the miso soup from Z10, a Japanese restaurant in Zizendorfgasse.

Night life everyday

If people don't go out in Graz, it's because they don't want to:

• Mondays and Tuesdays are the cheapest days to go to the cinema, for €5 or €6, since it's normally very expensive, costing €9 or €10.

• Tuesdays are also quiz nights at Office Pub, a question and answer contest between two teams, it's really fun.

• Wednesdays is when the ESN "Stammtisch", also in Office Pub, takes place (it's the Erasmus night of a lifetime, you should go). Erasmus students get discounted beers with their ESN card.

• On Thursdays, it's student night, you can go out to the "Univiertel" on Elisabethstraße, it's the nightlife area (Three Monkeys stands out, it closes at 7 a. m. ), although you can also go out there at the weekend.

• On Fridays and Saturdays you can choose between the different clubs and pubs. Postgarage and PPC put on themed parties with famous DJs, they're always full, but they're also the most expensive (it costs from €5 to €12 for entry, depending on the night). There are other, more alternative places, which I prefer, such as Sub, Music House or Papier Fabrik. In Sub, for example, they don't normally charge for entry, they have music groups of all different genres and ordering at the bar, you pay what you want (about €2 for a beer is good, bearing in mind that they are pints).

Being in the centre of Europe

If there's anything that characterises Erasmus most, it's travelling, and even more so if you're doing your Erasmus in Graz, which is in the centre of Europe. There's an airport in Graz, but it's a bit expensive. However, there are a lot of trains and buses that go directly to nearby big cities, not to mention Blablacar or Facebook groups for travel exchanges, which are very common. There are a lot of deals to travel from Vienna, too. I'd recommend getting together a group of 5 people and renting a car. It's more comfortable, cheaper and, if you go about it the right way, you can go away for the weekend and only spend €100 to €150 in total.

Slovenia, Krakow, northern Italy, Munich, Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Prague... There the most common places to travel to from Graz on Erasmus. Personally, I'd always recommend visiting Slovenia, it's a beautiful country that not a lot of people know about. Ljubljana, the capital, is in the process of developing and it's a great place. Maribor is the second largest city in the country, which is an hour away from Graz, and Bled has one of the most beautiful lakes in Europe.