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

Hallstatt and Bad Ischl

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since I've written a blog post, mainly because the last few weeks I've been spending my weekends working on my dissertation so nothing all that exciting has been happening. But I thought it was time for an update.

As I said, I've been working on my dissertation recently, so I've been analysing questionnaires, conducting interviews, and I've written 1500 words for a hand-in last week. I've also taken on some more tutoring, so I've been working with a group of final year students on their speaking skills in the lead up to their exams, and also with another pupil to help with writing texts and exam skills.

A couple of weeks ago we had to say goodbye to one of the assistants in Linz, who is splitting her year abroad between Austria and Italy - it was sad to say goodbye, but we had a lovely surprise meal to see her off!

I also went on a cinema trip with my housemate Charlotte and a few of the other assistants here. We went to see two films in an evening ('Colonia' with Emma Watson and 'Hail Caesar') and it was lovely to spend time with her properly outside of the flat!

On Friday a group of us went over to Steyr to have dinner with Emma Cate and a friend of her's from America, and we went for an all-you-can-eat Chinese - it was great! The first Chinese I'd had since coming to Austria!

And finally yesterday, once my dissertation hand-in was complete, I went on another little adventure! I went to visit one of the assistants, Ellie, who lives about a 2 hour train journey from Linz in a town called Bad Ischl. She first showed me around Hallstatt, which is a small town on the side of a lake, which has one road going into it on one side of the lake, however if you are arriving my train, you have to get a boat across the lake to access it! Ellie told me that the town itself is a very old settlement, dating back to at least 800 B.C., which for such a remote location is amazing! Here are a few pictures from our time in Halstatt.

The view from the boat

The view of the Protestant Church from the Catholic Church further up the hill. The whole town is built on the side of a mountain, so it feels like it's all piled on top of itself!

The inside of the Catholic Church 

Our view from the restaurant where we had lunch - I was brave and tried trout for the first time, as it was a local speciality and caught in the lake. It was nice, although I wasn't expecting it still to have its head and tail!

The town square

The view from the boat

Hallstatt is a town known for its salt production, and up the mountain you can visit the salt mines and ice caves, however these were not open yet due to the season, so I will have to go back later in the year to see these!

After Hallstatt we got the train back to Bad Ischl, where Ellie lives, and she gave me a tour of the town, including stopping for hot chocolate and amazing cake in a very fancy cafe! There were chandeliers and everything!

The river Ischl that runs through the town.

Bad Ischl is a thermal spa town, and has a very interesting history. Ellie told me that the Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl was the summer home of Kaiser Franz Josef 1 and his wife, known as Sisi. The mother of the Kaiser gave them the home to help Sisi, as she struggled to have children, however Sisi didn't really like it in Bad Ischl. She is and was, though, very popular in Austria. Unfortunately the residence, like the salt mines, was not open while I was there, so I am looking forward to going back again to look around!

Thanks for reading :)

Laura