So, barely 4 weeks after getting back from Barcelona and Ibiza I am getting ready for another trip, this time back to my home country of Austria. I have to take care of some business issues in Austria, and in addition to that, I am heading over for my 20th high school graduation reunion! Scary stuff, I must say. I left Austria 18 years ago, and with the exception of 1 or 2 people, I haven't seen anybody I went to school with for almost 2 decades....

It's going to be interesting to see my former schoolmates after such a long time. Seeing the changes in hair colour, physical shape, muscle tone, attitudes etc. 2 decades is a long time, you go through life feeling pretty good, feeling young and energetic, and then you realize that you are heading straight into middle age. I often wander what sort of reflections my school mates have been going through, how their outlook might be different from mine, since the majority of them chose to stay close to home. From what I could tell I am apparently the only person that left the country/continent to start a new life in a totally different place. So this reunion will be interesting indeed.

Austria is a beautiful country and although I am only going over there for a short period of time, I am hoping to have a little bit of time to do some exploring. I may do a little side trip to the north part of Italy or to the coast of Slovenia or Croatia.

The beauty of Europe is that everything is so immensely close. Although the end of October/beginning of November is not the best time to travel weather-wise, I am looking forward to going back home after almost 8 years. It's certainly a good time to realize some travel savings since it's off-season.

This will be a real budget trip too since I get to stay with my brother and sister-in-law. I did some searches on the Internet to look for the best flight connection and almost booked with www.flyzoom.ca which offers tremendously inexpensive charter flights to London Gatwick. Their return flights to London start at about Can$199, which is an unbelievable price for a transatlantic flight.

Then I looked into Ryanair, www.ryanair.com, which is one of the well-known low-price charter airlines in Europe that fly to Graz from London Stanstead. Ryanair would charge about GBP 80 + GBP 40 for a return flight to Graz, 120 Pounds in total (about Can$270) which would be an extremely good price for a flight from Toronto to Graz.

However, I could not find a good connection between the two flights and would have had to stay over one night in London, which would have negated all the savings from the flights. So I ended up booking with www.destina.ca, and getting a convenient direct flight with Lufthansa from Toronto to Graz for about Can$850, taxes included.

I will certainly try to do a little tour of Graz, www.graztourism.at, the city where I attended university. Graz is the second largest city in Austria (larger than Salzburg or Innsbruck) with a population of about 250,000. It has a beautifully preserved medieval core and was recently awarded the designation of "World Heritage Site" by UNESCO. In 2003, Graz celebrated many festivals as "Europe's City of Culture 2003.

Graz has a hill in the middle of town, the so-called "Schlossberg", that can be ascended by funicular. On top is the "Uhrturm" or clock tower, built in 1712 and the symbol of Graz. The "Hauptplatz" or main square is a beautiful large square and harbours City Hall and many upscale retailers and a local market. Other main sights include the Chateau of Eggenberg, the Cathedral and Mausoleum and the Armory.

Graz is also the capital of "Steiermark", which is the Austrian province of "Styria", www.steiermark.com/en/. Styria is a beautiful province with diverse landscapes, including glaciers, high mountain ranges, rolling hills and even vineyards. Styria is one of the little-known secrets of tourism in Austria and it holds tremendous scenic beauty while at the same time offering great travel deals.

Styria has beautiful regions, including the Styrian "Salzkammergut", a region with high mountains and alpine lakes, very close to the area where "Sound of Music" was filmed. Other regions of interest include the "Dachstein-Tauern" region with towering high mountains, Upper Styria with forested mountains of medium altitude. The Western and Southern part of Styria have gently rolling hills, many of them with vineyards and orchards. This is often referred to as "Styrian Tuscany". In the south east is the area called "Thermenland", a relatively flat area with low-rising hills that has vestiges of former volcanic activity and many thermal springs and spas. Just the perfect place to get pampered.

The area that I am headed to is called "Oststeiermark" or Eastern Styria, with medium-high mountain ranges and rolling hills that peter out towards the Great Hungarian Plain, with many castles, ruins and churches of interest. The regions of Styria make up one of the most reasonably priced areas of Austria and they offer great recreational and cultural opportunities.

As always, in the little bit of spare time that I will have on this trip I will take pictures and create blogs whenever the time allows. It's going to be interesting to head back to my home country, my home town after almost 8 years.