A weekend of visitors!

Hello everyone!

Apologies for this blog being slightly delayed, I had some visitors at the weekend and am only now getting around to writing my blog post!

So last week, I went on a little adventure to visit Carissa in Kirchdorf, and it's beautiful there. It was nice to step back into the countryside, and not being constantly surrounded by noise as I am in Linz. Here are a few pictures from this visit...

Carissa and I also went on a traditional Austrian baking course, where we learnt to make various cakes and biscuits that are eaten at this time of year. After getting over the initial understanding nothing as it was totally in dialect, we approached a nice-looking couple of ladies who were more than happy to help us and give us lots of information about what we were making and how to make it! We now have recipes for al of these, which is very exciting, and I'm looking forward to trying some out soon :)

On Friday, my visitors arrived, and I was very excited about it! Mum, Alison and Jen flew into Vienna on Friday night and I went in to collect them. We spent the weekend exploring parts of Austria, so here are some photos and details of what we got up to!

Saturday:

We spent our first day looking around Linz. We went to the New Cathedral and the Old Cathedral, I took them for a look around the Christmas market, and we went for a walk along the Danube river too.

In the evening, we went out for dinner with two of my friends out here, Conor and Emma Cate. It was really lovely for them all to meet, not just so they can put names to faces, but also because they got on so well, and it was nice to bring some of home to Austria :) I also made sure everyone tried the traditional Wiener Schnitzel, and it seemed that everyone loved it!

Sunday:

Our second day was spent in Salzburg. We caught the train over in the morning and our first port of call was the tourist information, where (thanks to Emma Cate's knowledge!) we got tickets for €24 that got us into every tourist attraction in Salzburg, as well as giving us free travel for the day. 

We took the bus into town, and where we got off, we had an amazing view up the river.

First off, we went to Festung Hohensalzburg, which is a castle up on a hill, the highest point in Salzburg, where you get the most amazing views! There was also a small Christmas market in the grounds of the castle, and a few museums and rooms you could go in and look around. 

The next stop was lunch, and Jen and I decided we were going to go full-Austrian and have Bratwürstel with Sauerkraut and Mustard. And it was good!

After lunch, we went to the Salzburg Dom (cathedral) which had lots of stately rooms and beautiful art and Baroque architecture to look at. We did an audio tour of the rooms, and learnt a little bit about the history of Salzburg itself. The city gets its name from its salt mines. Salt (Salz) is the city's most important and prominent exports, and we saw lots of Salzburg salt being sold at the Christmas market. 

Our final stop of the day was the Salzburg Christmas market, which was much bigger and busier that the one in Linz. However, unlike the Christmas markets in the UK, the stalls sell a lot of traditional food, and handmade local crafts and gifts, and so it is lovely to browse, and also a great place to do some Christmas shopping!

Monday:

Our third and final day was spent partly in Linz, buying a few souvenirs and Christmas presents before they travelled home, and partly in Vienna at the Rathaus Christmas market, which was, in my opinion, the best of the weekend. 

After we managed to navigate the underground, we arrived at the Rathaus, but for some reason couldn't find the market. We somehow ended up in a courtyard in the middle of the Rathaus which reminded me a lot of Hogwarts...

But luckily we finally found our way to the Christmas market, and it was well worth the detour! 

We spent some time browsing and shopping for Christmas presents, and treated ourselves to some Kinderpunsch (non-alcoholic punch, traditional at Christmas markets) to keep us warm in the Austrian winter weather!

I was sad to see them go on Monday night, but we had a wonderful weekend, and I loved having them to stay. Plus, I'll be flying home in two weeks today, so it won't be long until I see them again!

Thanks for reading!

Laura :)

The Christmas season is here! Yay!

Hi everyone!

As I'm writing this post, it has just begun to snow outside my window, and it's getting heavier by the minute. I am extremely excited to have a snowy winter this year! The trouble is, watching the snow is very distracting, and it's hard to pull myself away from the window!

Anyway, back to this week...
This week has been another varied week with lessons. I've talked about grammar, war and terrorism, Australia, smoking, American vs British English, adolescence, pronunciation and multicultural Britain!

I've also been asked to do some extra (paid!) work at a primary school, doing some basic English with 6 and 7 year olds, which is very much my cup of tea! It'll be great fun to play games, do basic vocabulary and sing some songs...however understanding their child ramblings in the Austrian dialect could be interesting! Fingers crossed there will be a teacher with me all the time, although it will probably help me to learn a lot quicker.

My film afternoon at my main school is all planned and ready - on the 19th December I'll be showing "The Sound of Music" at the school, and so far everyone seems really keen on coming, which is very exciting! One response in class came from a girl after my own heart. When I asked if they would be interested in a film afternoon, she said completely straight-faced "Will there be food?", to which I replied, "Of course!". Thankfully, that convinced her to come :P I'm asking them all to pay €1 for a ticket by the Wednesday before, and then I'll go and buy a load of snacks for them to eat during the film :) I just hope they enjoy it!

I also went along to a badminton club this week. I was nervous about going, but luckily I was put in touch with a guy at the club who speaks English, so whilst I want to practise my German, it was nice to have the choice of speaking English if I was struggling. The training is three hours, two nights a week, and I'd forgotten how exhausting it was! I have to say, my body is still aching three days on, and Friday was a struggle to move, but I loved it and I cannot wait to go back. It was lovely to be back playing again, and everyone was so welcoming. I think it will be a good little community to get involved in :)

On Saturday, the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) opened in Linz, and a group of us TAs went along. It's been quite warm here the last few weeks, but the temperature suddenly dropped on Friday, and it's turned quickly to winter. This just added to the atmosphere at the market. All the Christmas lights were lit, you could smell Gluhwein (mulled wine) and chocolate everywhere, and the stalls were selling beautiful handmade items which would make wonderful Christmas presents (spoiler alert for everyone back home! :P ). Here is a picture of the Linz Weihnachtsmarkt to give you an idea of what it's like...

I think that's all for this week. I'm working a lot on my Year Abroad Research Project at the moment, so my exploring has taken a step back for a couple of weeks until my deadline, but there will be more to come before the Christmas holidays!

Thanks for reading :)

Laura