Saying goodbye to Austria

I've spent just over eight months in Austria and I honestly don't know where that time has gone. It feels like just yesterday that I was boarding my first solo flight, nervous and excited, and worried that I wasn't going to settle in. I've done so much this year, I've made so many wonderful friends who will never be forgotten, and the experiences I've had this year are incredible. Here are a few pictures from my final two weeks in Austria:

1. I went on the teachers' outing for my other school to Bavaria and yet again we had a tour of a brewery. It was lovely to spend time with the French assistant and to get to know the teachers even better.

2. Charlotte, Markus and I went to a zoo in the Mühlviertel called Altenfelden where we saw a falconry display and got to feed lots of animals. It was the hottest day of my time in Austria - 30 degrees!

3. My wonderful students and colleagues were very generous in giving me wonderful goodbye gifts - lots of traditional Austrian food! And Niki the cat was very helpful while I was packing...

4. My lovely friend and colleague Susi invited me over for a BBQ at her new house, and it was lovely to spend more time with her before I left.

5. A group of us went to see some fireworks over the Danube river in Linz.

6. Another friend and colleague Ines invited me to her house for the afternoon and we went for a lovely country walk with her family and stopped at a Gasthaus halfway for traditional cider and snacks.

7. We had a goodbye meal with a few of the assistants at a Polish restaurant in Linz - and it was very nice :)

8. I made a traditional steak pie for my housemates Charlotte and Michael, Markus and Susi.

Now time for the soppy part...
Over the past year I have gained confidence, language skills, experiences and friends and I am so pleased that I made the most of my time abroad. And it's not over yet! I am off to Spain to work as an aupair this summer and I am determined that after my degree I will be jetting off somewhere else, having enjoyed this year so much. Thank you to everyone, both in Austria and at home, who has helped to make this year so great. I love you all!

Thanks for reading!

Laura

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

Happy Easter!

Hello everyone and happy Easter!

The last two weeks have been super busy and I've done so much, so here's a run down of what I've been up to.

My friend Beth from university, who is on her year abroad in Spain, came to visit me in Linz. We did lots of exciting things, including a visit to Linz zoo, where you can pay €2 to get a bag of food to feed some of the animals - it was very exciting!

We also took a trip on an old-fashioned tram to Pöstlingberg, a small town set up on a hill by Linz.

There is a grotto train (I think it's meant for children but we had fun anyway) that you ride on and see little scenes of gnomes and forest animals. Afterwards you enter a museum where scenes from fairy tales are shown - in Austria, the traditional fairy tales are a little darker in comparison to the UK!

The church at Pöstlingberg which can be seen up on the hill from anywhere in Linz.

The view out over Linz from Pöstlingberg.

And a trip to Vienna...

We started off our day at Schönbrunn palace.

This was the view of the palace ground from the palace steps. We had beautiful spring weather and the grounds were free to explore.

The Gloriette which stands up on the hill was intended to be a focal point and a vantage point for the palace garden. It now, however, houses a cafe.

The view of Schönnbrunn palace and out over Vienna from the Gloriette.

Karlskirche (Karls church) was where we began our tour of the Ring Road, one of the biggest and most famous streets in Vienna where many of the popular sites can be found.  

This is an art museum in the Museums Quarter of Vienna, and shows the sort of architecture which is so popular throughout the city.

The Rathaus seen through the tree blossom.

I introduced Beth to Schnitzel, as this is very important when in Austria, and she liked it.

I then flew home for the Easter holidays. The first few days were spent in London with my friend Jen, as we went to see Adele in concert at the O2 arena.

We also did a fair bit of sightseeing.

We started our day with Big Ben and Westminster

We went to visit the Queen...

...had afternoon tea at the Library Lounge right on the Thames...

...and we went up the Shard. 

This was the view of Tower Bridge from the Shard at night. 

And then I headed back to Devon for the Easter weekend. Mum and Jen planned a lovely half-surprise early birthday party for me, and it was so lovely to see so many friends and family all at once :) I was thoroughly spoilt!

My sister Rachel got me these rather fantastic balloons!

(yes, I did wear my Christmas slippers for the whole party)

I also spent time visiting family and friends and generally catching up with people I hadn't seen since Christmas.

It was a very short trip home and seemed to fly by, but it was lovely to be back.

I am now back in Linz, and I start back to work tomorrow - I only have two more months left here! I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone, but I am determined to make the most of the remaining time in Austria.

Thanks for reading!

Laura :)