Temperatures in Graz

Beautiful Graz where I live, Source: Pixabay

When you think about #Austria, the most common associations are 

1. The Alps (and therefore skiing, hiking and all mountain-associated things)
2. Lederhosen, Apfelstrudel and yodelling
3. The Sound of Music

With regards to the last one, you may be surprised to hear that most Austrian people have not even seen this movie. It was a big surprise for them when tourists started showing up in Salzburg, eager to take photos of the famous landmarks that appear in the film.  

Source: Pixabay

Before I came to Austria, most of my knowledge about the country came from reading a series of school stories set in the Alps (The Chalet School – anyone heard of it?). Anyway, it always seemed to be snowing and cold in the books, so I imagined that I would need to bring a lot of warm clothing. In fact I imagined that my life here would consist largely of slogging through snowdrifts and riding in sleighs. 

Of course, this failed to take account of the fact that I chose to move to #Graz, Austria’s second largest city located in the southeast corner of the country. Not only is Graz far away from the Alps, it’s also located in a valley surrounded by hills. All of this contributes to much milder weather. In fact the climate here is much more like a Mediterranean country. When I first arrived, it was early September and temperatures were still above 25 C. I had brought almost nothing but woolly jumpers. I had to make a couple of shopping trips... 

Of course, it still gets cold and beautifully picturesque here in the winter. There are usually about two weeks of the year when the city looks like this:

Photo: my own

As I mentioned in my previous post, I often suffer from depression in the winter, so thank goodness this doesn't last too long. It's pretty for a few days though.