Graz Warnings and Dangers

Graz felt like a very safe city. The only thing that bothered me about the place was the density of beggars, all of whom were genuflecting in the most painful position, in the freezing snow and ice and at all hours of the day. It was just how Linz was when I visited a couple of years previously. It's not just that I felt bad that I couldn't give money to them all, after all I felt they must be pretty earnest to be suffering so much, but because the city wasn't doing anything about it. Surely a city as rich as Graz obviously is could put these people in a warm room and feed them.

I just thought that i'd say that I can't for the life of me think of any dangers in this town. The town was very refined with no real trouble at all. The only hint was when I staggered out the 3 Monkeys to withdraw some more lagerbeer tokens from a cashpoint (which was miles away).
I entered the bank to be met by some Austrian fellow who seemed pretty tanked up as well but harmlessly slouched by the cashpoint. I greeted him and tried to get some money out but with some difficulty. After a while about 5 Austrian guys came in all suited & booted with bow ties and waited behind me. The drunk bloke disappeared from view and before I knew it they were all rolling around on the bank floor. I don't know what started it but I would say that it wasn't a proper fight with heads & fists but just a lot of shouting, posturing & pushing. I think the drunk guy might have done something because the others didn't look the type.
In the end they all ran out to leave me to fathom out the cash point on my own. By the time I got back to the 3 Monkeys my brother and our mates had gone. Cheers guys. At the time & looking back, I found the cashpoint thing really quite amusing.

Not so much as a warning, but a happy story.

When I arrived in Graz train station on a Saturday afternoon in late February 1999, I was picked up by my new landlord to take me to the apartment. I, in all the excitement and confusion, left my handbag at the door of the main station with all my money, wallet, passport, id and walkman inside! Very stupid of me, I know. I didnt realise I had left it behind until I got to the apartment and started to take my things out of the car. Ice-cold fear clutched my heart when I realised that I left my handbag in the station. My landlord drove me back to the station and my bag was still there where I left and everything was still inside!!!

Thats how safe it is.

Top of Leopoldstr. was a place I didnt like to be on my own at night. There were often guys just hanging about and if i did have to walk by that way, they'd shout out at me, which was uncomfortable. A couple of friends of mine experienced the same thing.

I decided to put this photo here - under Warnings and Dangers - because that's where it belongs! ;) To explain myself...

We went to a trip to Eggenberg Schloss, which I really liked, so I started taking tons of photos - just like Japanese people do... :) Anyway, out of my mind, I stared at the Sun & clicked my camera & this is what came out.

Girls from TSC, this is especially [and exclusively] for you! ;)

I've been to Graz 3 times and it's not a dangerous city at all. I've not had one bit of trouble of any kind so the only warning I'd give is bring a fat wallet and gold credit cards as it's not a very cheap city.

I must share this, especially for women travellers to Graz. Although the city is perfectly safe, this is the place travellers should avoid; I'm sorry I can't remember the exact location, only that it was a McDonalds in a central part of the city, on a corner.

Well, as me and my friend arrived to Graz and entered this McDonalds, which was the only place open on Sunday morning around 7.30, we noticed many weird young people walking around. As we ordered and sat to eat, some of them sneaked around us, stared at us, some quarrelled loudly, shouting, one guy entered and I noticed that his white t-shirt is covered with blood stains. The security guy was there, so we stayed to finish our meal.

But when we went to the upper floor to find a toilet, it was at first uncomfortable to pass, there were only immigrant teenager boys sitting there, with unwelcome, mean stares. That guy with blood on his shirt was sitting with them. As we walked back from the toilet, they started shouting insulting words to us and laughing. As there were only them (some 10 of them) there, it was really scary.
So we reported them to the working staff downstairs, and, on our way out, we saw the security guy going up to check. Good for that!

So it was really a creepy place, unlike McDonalds places in other cities in Europe, and unlike the rest of Graz, which is a lovely city.

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, the catchy title of the 1992 bestseller by John Gray, succinctly expresses an ancient dilemma. What--if anything--do men's and women's brains do differently?

The general statement that men and women respond and behave differently under the same circumstances is true; For example, from the crib, male babies tend to be more aggressive and females more passive. As adults, in spatial operations, men have the edge in such skills as negotiating a maze, reading a map, and quickly discriminating between right and left. Men also perform better than women when asked to visualize an object and imagine rotating it. On the other hand, women tend to perform better than men when asked to look at objects of different shapes, sizes, and colors, and then to group them in some order.

This still doesn't explian why a woman turns the map all around when a man is asking for the road to travel, while I like the map at one point so I can better visualize our position. Help!