Graz: Where I Went to a Conference and Was Almost Arrested

The train ride to Graz was amazing. The Eurail traveled through the Alps taking us to southern Austria (Styria), famous for pumpkin seed oil and traditional cuisine We arrived and were promptly lost once again in the rain. We checked into our less than stellar accomodations of the Jugend & Familiegästenhaus and headed out into the rain, got lost again, and eventually met the musicologists for a wonderful dinner at GlocklBräu. I met a lot of lovely ladies from England, Austria, and Germany, and was excited for the promise of meeting more international conferencers the next day. GlocklBräu provided me with some real traditional Austrian fare--my first Wienerschnitzel breaded in toasted pumpkin seeds, a side of potato salad, and a maßt of the GlocklBräu bier. Of course, I could only manage half the meal, since the Wienerschnitzel was the size of my face, but oh so good! After a tiring day of train travel and meeting internatonal musicologists, I headed back to the hostel to get some sleep before presenting my paper early the next morning.

We were greeted at the 1st International Conference for the Students of Systematic Musicology with much pomp and circumstance. My paper was surprisingly well-received considering it fit into the second category of the Austrian conception of systematic musicology--i.e. interdisciplinary methodologies drawing on aesthetics, gender, etc. I got to hear a lot of papers using my conception of systematic musicology and sparked some ideas how I can incorporate these methods into my dissertation research. One of my favorite presentations of the conference considered house music as a South African phenomenon, presented by Thokozani Mhlambi from the University of Capetown. He danced during his presentation, which was pretty cool! Later that night we were treated to a wine and cheese reception and a jazz performance. I met peple from all over including Poland, Croatia, Italy, Mexico, Finland, etc. It was the musicological UN.

On day two in Graz, en route to the conference from the hostel, I got a ticket from the bus police for not following proper procedure and had to pay 60 Eur. Ugh. However, I soldiered on and enjoyed another day filled with conference papers, hung out with some witty Brits, drank a lot of coffee before heading off to our swanky send-off party at the super cool Murinsel where we had a delicious dinner and drinks with new friends. I wished we could have stayed longer if only to have more conversations with these fascinating people and to explore the town some more! But, I had left my heart in Vienna and had to retrieve it. Off on another four hour train ride to return to Vienna.

The few pics of Graz are here.