Innsbruck and Budapest

Hello everyone!

Last weekend was a long weekend in Austria and I'd just handed in my dissertation, so I thought this was the perfect excuse to go travelling. There were two places I wanted to see before I left Austria: Innsbruck and Budapest. And, being the crazy person I am, I decided we could do them in four days. In theory, this was fine, but the night train from Innsbruck to Budapest isn't something I would do again any time soon!

Thursday
The trip started off in Innsbruck. We arrived at lunch time on Thursday, headed to the hotel to drop our bags and then started out to find some lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day and so we decided it would be lovely to sit outside in the main square.
My first impression of Innsbruck was that is was beautiful. It is nestled in between the mountains, which you can see from almost anywhere in the town, and is very clean. After lunch we decided to purchase the Innsbruck card for 24 hours, which gives you free or discounted entry to many museums and tourist attractions in the city as well as public transport. Most big tourist cities do this, but not all are a good deal, so it's definitely worth looking in to.
There is a mountain in Innsbruck called the Nordkette mountain, which is home to a zoo full of alpine animals and a cable car which takes you to the top of the mountain where you get an amazing view over the city and the surrounding mountains. This is how we spent our Thursday afternoon, and here are a few pictures:

What I found amazing was that we were on top of a mountain in May, when the temperature in Innsbruck was around 18 degrees, and there was snow, but it wasn't cold. My British mind was blown, but my Austrian colleagues looked at me like I was crazy when I told them how amazing that was!

Friday
On our second day in Innsbruck we wanted to see as many sites as possible. We still had our Innsbruck cards, so we did a few tourist attractions first.
We started off at the Hofburg, an imperial palace in Innsbruck which was used sort of as a retreat for the rulers of Austria when they wanted to get away from Vienna, or as a stop off point when they were travelling. Some rulers spent more time in Innsbruck than Vienna, and it was also a favourite of Maria Theresia, the last of the Habsburg line and mother of Marie Antoinette.

After the Hofburg, we went to se St Jacob's cathedral...

...and then chose a museum called the Volkskunstmuseum (a museum of folk art). I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was full of objects like farming tools, nativity scenes, costumes and games from Austrian, and specifically Tirolean, history. It was very interesting, and they also had some reconstructed houses that you could explore.

We then headed off to the Ambras castle in Austria, which is about five or ten minutes by bus outside of the city. By this time the weather was beautiful, and we decided to have a picnic in the sun. Here are a few pictures from our time at Schloss Ambras:

After the castle, we walked back through the town, and saw the arch built by Maria Theresia for the wedding of her son which was celebrated in Innsbruck. The celebration went on for many days, and during this time Maria Theresia's husband died. This arch was built as a celebration for the wedding, but also as a memorial to her husband.

To pass the time until our night train, we decided that going to the cinema would be our best option. So we dropped our bags off at the train station and headed off to the local Cineplexx to grab some dinner and watch 'Batman vs Superman'. Now, I've heard mixed reviews about this film, but for someone who has never watched any Batman/Superman films, I thought it was really good! Plus, they had sweet popcorn, which is rare in Austria, so I was happy!
The film finished around midnight, and then we headed off to the train station to wait for our 1.30am train to Budapest. Unfortunately I'd made the mistake of not booking a bed coach (too expensive), and just getting a seat, which wasn't ideal as I am rubbish at sleeping on any sort of public transport, but I did manage to get a couple of hours sleep.

Saturday
After a not very good night's sleep, we arrived in Budapest. The day didn't get off to the easiest start: we managed to get some money out, took about fifteen minutes to find the metro station because we left the train station out of a side door not the front door, and then when we arrived at the hostel our room wasn't yet ready so we had to wait an hour. That wasn't so bad though, as they had a common room and we went and found some breakfast/lunch in the Subway across the street, which funnily enough was next to a Tesco - I felt like I was back in the UK!
The hostel we stayed in (Astoria Hostel) was actually split between two flats in Budapest, both on the same street but about a five minute walk between them, and if you're not in the flat that houses the reception they don't offer your breakfast. We weren't expecting this, but it didn't really matter. The room was nice and really cheap (€16 per person) so no complaints there.
So once we were fed and showered we decided to go off and explore Budapest. We went off to the north west of the city to an area with botanical gardens, a castle and thermal baths to see what we could find. Here are a few pictures:

The castle that we found, called Vajdahunyad.

Heros Square, where there are statues of many important people in the country's history (although I didn't know any of them...)

We then headed off to meet two other assistants who were in Budapest the same weekend. They had tickets for a cocktail cruise on the Danube river which sounded like great fun, but when we arrived we were told the afternoon cruise was cancelled because of a boat race. So we decided we would go for a coffee instead, and then did a bit of sightseeing around Budapest.

St Stephan's Basilica

The inside of the basilica was very ornate and beautiful.

We also walked along the river to see the Parliament buildings, which were very impressive. 

We also went and had dinner with the other assistants Beth and Maura, which was really lovely, in a local restaurant where we tried some local wine and food.
After that, I was pretty ready to catch up on the sleep I'd missed the night before!

Sunday
Our last day in Budapest got off to a relaxed start by meeting the girls for brunch at a lovely little restaurant in a non-touristy part of Budapest. It reminded me a lot of a traditional English country pub and it was nice to sit out in the garden in the sunshine and relax.
After brunch we headed back into the centre and the girls were getting an earlier train home, so we went our separate ways. We decided that with just a few more hours in Budapest, we'd do a bus tour and get off at the things that we really wanted to see. Here are a few pictures from the tour:

The Donány Street Synagogue is the largest in Europe and seats 3000 people.

The Fisherman's bastion on Castle hill is a viewing terrace which can be explored and gives a panoramic view of Budapest. 

The Fisherman's bastion

We also went to the Castle, which was very impressive, but not like a traditional castle, and we found a food market in the grounds where they were selling local foods. 

The view from the Citadel over Budapest. The citadel was used as a vantage point both to protect and oppress Budapest (and by extension Hungary) over the years.

The Liberty Statue, in memory of all who have fought for the independence of Hungary, was erected after WW2

Before we headed off to the train station, we made a stop at the Tesco across the road from the hostel, and I was very excited to find their final box of PG Tips tea bags - the things you miss on your year abroad!

Thanks for reading!

Teachers' Outing and St Florian's Day

Hello everyone,

I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote! Things got a little hectic with finishing my year abroad research project (dissertation), and finding a house at university - both of which have now been sorted out.

So what have I been up to?

Back in April I went to see 'Into The Woods' at the Musiktheater in Linz. It was totally in German, but I knew the story so it was pretty easy to follow. I really enjoyed it, and was very impressed that they'd managed to fit the extra-long German translation into the already very fast songs!

I also went on a teachers' trip (Lehrerausflug) with one of my schools. It was really great fun! Here are a few pictures from the trip:

We first visited Burg Strechau in Steiermark (a castle in the region of Styria) which was beautiful, and very typical for Austria. 

This was the view from Burg Strechau out over the town.

Chiara the Italian assistant and I spent the weekend together, and it was great fun getting to know her better.

This was the hotel we stayed in in the region of Carinthia (Kärnten)

We also went on a brewery tour and tried some traditional Austrian beer, schnitzel and Goulash

On the way home we stopped off at Friesach, Kärnten (Carinthia) and climbed up a hill to find this view over the town, of the old city wall and the beautiful church. 

Last Wednesday was St Florian's Day. He is an important man in this region because he is the patron saint of Linz, and of Upper Austria. He's also the patron saint of firefighters, chimney sweeps and soapmakers...
So to celebrate the day, I went to St. Florian, which is a little town south of Linz, where one of my colleagues lives. She invited me to visit the market they have, where they sell traditional food and clothing from the region, and to do a tour of the church in St Florian, which also has a very important history.

St Florian was important in the Catholic Church because he was seen as being between mankind and God, so people could talk to God through him. At the time he was alive, the area was under Roman control. After refusing to worship the Roman Gods,  St Florian was sentenced to death, and was drowned in the Enns river with a stone around his neck.
This Church is also important because the musician Anton Bruckner lived nearby, and loved to play the organ here. He is actually buried directly underneath his organ in the crypt. 

The library at the monastery. 

The marble room at the monastery, which used to be used to entertain the Kaiser (royals in Austria) and is still in use today for concerts. 

I am also now the editor for the Student Language Bureau blog, which is aiming to help anyone setting out on their year abroad, or settling back into life after living abroad. We have a range of bloggers positioned all over the place. If you are interested in checking this out, it can be found here: http://www.studentlanguagebureau.com/blog.php
And if you are interested in writing for us, contact me on: editor@studentlanguagebureau.com

Last weekend was a long weekend, and I went off travelling again - I went to Innsbruck and Budapest! I will write another post about that this week.

Thanks for reading!

Laura