Ibis Graz - where the smoke gets up your nose

Advantages: Useful location for transport; clean comfortable
Disadvantages: Smoky lobby; over-priced if no offer available

...If like me you are the sort of person who prefers to stay in more moderate hotel accommodation in order to have more money to spend on things like eating out (or the purchasing of horrific souvenirs) you may be interested to know that to celebrate their 30th anniversary, some of the brands that fall under the Accor umbrella are offering a limited number of rooms at special rates this year. It does mean that you can't alter your reservation and won't qualify for a refund if you cancel but for those travellers who are willing to risk that, there are bargains to be had. In mid-June we are going to Hanover and have booked a double room in a very central Mercure hotel for just 39 Euro per night and have just stayed in the Ibis Graz, the subject of this review, for 59 Euro for a double room, a saving of some 20 Euro based on two people...

fizzytom 02.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of Ibis, Graz

Often foolishly overlooked

Advantages: Small yet lively, a variety of things to do and a great place to be based
Disadvantages: none

...Vienna either. Most productions are in German or the original language, but a must for all opera fans. www.buehnen-graz.com/opernhaus/index.htm contains information about the programme, although the site is exclusively in German. The Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium: In the South of the city, and home to GAK Graz (hier regiert die G.A.K!) and Sturm Graz. Tickets are pretty cheap, apart from Champions League tickets ? if either side qualifies. Manchester United, Rangers and Livingston have all played here. The stadium is small and compact, regularly hosts international matches, and is worth a trip to for a big match, although Austrian league football is woeful. Public Transport: Graz has a public transport network of trams and buses, which run reliably and there are night buses through the night along several major routes. Because the public...

Morgenhund 23.01.2005 · Read review
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Review of Graz (Austria)

Not just for shopping!

Advantages: People wear traditional dress, lots to see and do, very pretty
Disadvantages: Steep cobbled streets, smoking allowed in public places

...For the benefit of anyone who still doesn't know, my partner and I bought a little flat in Maribor in Slovenia at the end of last year. Over our last few visits we have been furnishing the flat and given the abundance of retail parks in the area you might be forgiven for thinking that this would be easy. The trouble is that although there are lots of retail parks in Slovenia they all have the same limited stores and so people tend to head over the border to shop. Depending on where they live, this might be to Italy (very stylish and very pricey), Hungary (cheap but not so stylish), Croatia (so-so, good quality but not much choice) or Austria (reasonable prices, good quality and lots of choice). People in Maribor tend to go to Austria and head for Graz, just fifty or so kilometres away. There's even a song that goes something like...

fizzytom 10.04.2008 · Read review
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mediauk.com

Advantages: A decent media website...
Disadvantages: ...but no better than that

...Anyone looking for a job in the media, or even an insight into the big wide world of it, could do much worse than look here to begin with - mediauk.com. Operating since 1994, it lists current available jobs in radio, tv and print media, recent news articles on all these forms of media and a discussion board. Now being a graduate in a degree of this field of work, the jobs board has been an interest to me for quite a while...but don't expect to find work instantly. Anything but. Copious numbers of people view these adverts (you can see how many exactly in the job listings), but don't let that deter you of course - if you're good and experienced enough then you'll come across the job for you eventually. The jobs listed usually just contain a small job description and contact details for where to send your cover letter and CV, but...

carl.mcqueen 14.10.2009 · Read review
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dictionary.com

Advantages: Good free service
Disadvantages: Too many adverts & pop-ups

...Dictionary.com?! Dictionary.com?! Seriously?! Why, yes, something that seems so simply and basic has it's place on the World Wide Web (yes, I'm aware of the irony!), but fear not...it's not as basic as it seems! Rather than just typing in a word to discover its definition, dictionary.com does provide a far greater service. Since it's launch way back in 1995 (were websites even around then?!), it's one of the world's most popular services, as naturally many people will just type in 'dictionary.com' into their browser if they need to find the definition of a word...even if they don't know the website exists, it makes sense to have a crack at it! The website does provide a thesaurus option, translator and encyclopaedia...for anyone even contemplating steering away from Wikipedia, God forbid! But there are other quirks to the website...

carl.mcqueen 15.10.2009 · Read review
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gumtree.com

Advantages: Very detailed
Disadvantages: Open to fraud

...Many will remember a time when the classified section of a local newspaper was all there was if you wanted to look for second-hand goods, or look for a place to live without going to an estate agent?but not anymore. Goodbye the classified section; hello Gumtree.com To quote the frontpage of the website, Gumtree advertises ?Homes, jobs, cars, sofas, vintage records? anything, really??and they?re not wrong! It lists it?s good in cities across the country. And not just the capital cities of the UK, but anywhere from Brighton to Nottingham, from Oxford to Aberdeen. This handy tool can help you look for exactly what you?re after without having to sift through adverts from cities hundreds of miles from you. Now, to indicate the scale of the website, in the London section, the ?Flats and Houses? adverts totals 124,174!! That seems a bit...

carl.mcqueen 21.10.2009 · Read review
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TVCatchup.com

Advantages: Great website to watch TV on, for free
Disadvantages: None

...The television - the bane of most people's lives, spent whiling away the hours whilst sat in front of it when you could be doing things more productive. Then the Internet came along as a pretender to the thrown...but never would the picture box be knocked off it's perch, so the internet did the next best thing - broadcast the television on the internet. This is where TVCatchup comes in. Now, first off it's important to note that this website differs from, say, the BBC iPlayer because it is not a 'catch-up' service, or is it similar to YouTube by having readily available any old rubbish. No, this is quite literally television on the computer. The web address is simple - www.tvcatchup.com - and the idea is just as so. It streams the channels you can enjoy on a standard Freeview box via your computer screen, completely free...

carl.mcqueen 21.12.2009 · Read review
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cricinfo.com

Advantages: The home of cricket info...
Disadvantages: ...which many people won't like!

...Cricket lovers, come and join the fun...this is cricinfo.com Owned by ESPN, cricinfo.com is seen by many as the most insightful, informative and up-to-date cricketing website out there in the vast world wide web. Of course, those of you which can't stand the sport in any way, shape or form then this certainly won't be for you. Those who do like it and are aware of cricketing websites, then you will probably already know this one... Now, on arrival to the website things may look confusing - there's an awful lot going on and plenty of places to click...so lets take things as logically as possible; At the top of the page is an index listing - countries, live scores, fixtures, results, news, features and photos are all there, which kind of speak for themselves! The Features section for example includes regular articles such as the Ask...

carl.mcqueen 18.09.2009 · Read review
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Helium.com

Advantages: Good review website.
Disadvantages: Little or none if you are careful.

...Helium.com This is one of the better websites that I have seen on the world wide web. It is effectively a review site where people can share their opinions and details of different topics upon different channels. The channels themselves are not like ciao so much where people write reviews about certain specific products or services, though Helium have more general topics to talk about. Having written a total of 333 reviews on Helium I have been paid around the same amount through paypal in american dollars. This may seem a little reward though as long as I keep rating and writing the occasional review, I find that I am likely to receive around 25 amerian dollars every month or two. I am not a fan of rating reviews so much and there is only a requirement to maintain at least one rating star on Helium.com. I find...

costas1234 15.12.2009 · Read review
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mousebreaker.com

Advantages: Addictive gaming!
Disadvantages: Addictive gaming!

...For all of you looking for time to waste in the office this afternoon, then you may have stumbled across the crown jewel in time-wasting... mousebreaker.com In essence, mousebreaker.com is simply a plethora of basic computer games that help you while away the day. From sporting games to shoot 'em ups, from trivia to old school arcade games, every type of game is here - think of it as an online compendium of fun. First of all, make sure the latest version of Flash player is installed on your computer so you can get the full benefit and latest versions of the games available. The website has changed a little bit over the years - it's most recent revamp gives it a dark grey motif, with a large yellow stripe running across the top of the page. Now, going through every single game would leave me still writing this review the other...

carl.mcqueen 23.11.2009 · Read review
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