Arrival and First Impressions

Many of you will know that I am initially from Austria, but that I have been living in Toronto for more than 20 many years. I left Austria early on, by myself, at the youthful age of twenty and discovered a permanent home in Canada's biggest, most multicultural city. I usually recognized that I originally came from a stunning country, but by some means the large oad world was contacting me and settling in Canada's most cosmopolitan city centre has been a excellent choice.
In the early years I utilized to go back home each and every yr when my father and grandmother had been nonetheless alive. My mother experienced currently passed absent more than 20 many years ago. But from 1995 onwards, following the death of my father and grandmother, I paid extremely few visits to Austria and thinking of my house country frequently introduced back again sad recollections of individuals that experienced handed away. So for nearly nine many years I did not travel back house at all till in 2004 I decided to go back again for my twentieth higher college reunion which in itself was an fascinating experience.

I enjoyed my drive on the A2, the highway that connects Vienna with Graz, the money of my home province Styria. Aside from some building work near to Vienna it was a stunning drive across the Wechsel mountains into the area of Eastern Styria. Alongside the way I saw various indicators pointing to a selection of theatre festivals in the province of Burgenland that are held in numerous castles and fortresses, a excellent way to use some of the outdated medieval structures that are situated all more than Austria.
The weather was sunny and very warm and even though my car had air conditioning, I experienced the window open and loved the warm wind blowing in, listening to 3, Austria's contemporary music radio station. I turned off the freeway at Hartberg in eastern Styria, and drove via rolling hills previous tiny scenic villages such as Schielleiten, Stubenberg am See, Lebing and Floing to my house city of Weiz. The rolling hills of Eastern Styria are always a nice region for a generate.

I have to admit driving along the roads that I utilized to grow up on was a unusual feeling - not a lot experienced altered visually because I had left 20 years in the past. The same farms and villages, mountains and hills were nonetheless there, although most of the buildings had been superbly renovated, mordernized and painted. It was apparent to me that Austria has experienced lengthy intervals of prosperity since every small city was clean and the architecture was in close to ideal condition. No peeling paint, no run-down buildings, no rubbish strewn about anyplace - everything appeared to be in tip-top situation.
Finally at about noon time I arrived in my home town and took a fast spin around the centre. Weiz is a district money with a populace of about 9000 individuals, and it is located about 25 km from the Graz, Austria's second largest town. It usually amazes me that when I request North Americans about Austria they all appear to know Vienna and Salzburg, and some of them have noticed of Innsuck, but very couple of people have actually heard of Graz, even though with a population of about 250,000 individuals ralph lauren shop it is Austria's second largest urban centre.
Weiz in itself is an industrial town that for numerous many years was centred around the ELIN, a manufacturing company that produces electrical gear this kind of as transformers and generators for hydro electricity manufacturing. In current many years, a Canadian business known as Magna Worldwide, founded by Frank Stronach, a previous resident of Weiz, has built several factories in the area. Magna is the biggest automotive parts provider in the globe, and Frank Stronach is considered one of Canada's (and Austria's) biggest entrepreneurial success tales. Due to these production work, Weiz has turn out to be a rather energetic and prosperous regional centre and many new developments in the downtown area attest to that reality.
The general really feel of the city experienced stayed the same so following satisfying my initial curiosity I drove to my other's home on the outskirts of city where my sister-in-legislation Anneliese welcomed me my other Ewald was nonetheless at function. It was excellent to see her once more even though we experienced just recently noticed every other in November of 2006 on the island of Tenerife exactly where my spouse and I experienced gone on a joint holiday with my other and sister-in-legislation. After settling in and unpacking my suitcase we went for a quick stroll downtown to do some buying and received caught in a major thunderstorm. So we sat down in a little caf in Weiz' pedestrian zone known as "Weberhaus " and waited out the downpour.