Udine

Today I will write about the weekend I spent in Udine in Italy back in October for my birthday (which seems a very long time ago now).

Udine is only a couple of hours away on the train from where I'm living in Kärnten. But everything there seemed so different - the language, the architecture, even the weather was warmer! This is what I really like about living in continental Europe. You can explore so many countries, all with a different language and culture, so easily.

One great thing about Udine is that it's a small city and all the important sights are right next to each other, so it is very easy to explore on foot. (However it is a bit of a climb to get to the castle!) It is also not too touristic so you can look around without feeling pushed and shoved.

Now for some pictures of this beautiful city:

The cathedral

Piazza della Libertà (Unfortunately, my photos don't really do it justice!)

Porticato del Lippomano

The city hall

Arco Bollani

The castle

A nice park near the train station


Udine is not the best known city in Italy, but it is definitely worth a visit!

My New Town

I have been living in Feldkirchen in Kärnten for three and a half weeks now, and I have to say I like it quite a lot. There's not much going on here, but it's a nice town. It has supermarkets, various shops, cafés, restaurants and a train station all within walking distance, which is a huge improvement for me from the tiny village where I live in England!

I'm living in a very nice little apartment within a house (with a cat!), I'm finding my job as an English Language Assistant interesting, and I have plenty of free time to travel around the local area and beyond. So life is pretty good at the moment!

Here are some pictures that I've taken around Feldkirchen:

The view from my apartment

The view from outside my schools

The Hauptplatz

A pretty church

A weird but cool sculpture in the town centre

And another pretty church!


My next post will be coming soon and will probably be about Udine in Italy!

Salzburg

It has been a while since I last updated this blog, but I have been very busy since coming to Austria. I can't believe I only arrived in Salzburg three and a half weeks ago! I only got to spend a couple of days in this great city, but I loved the time I spent there.

After Salzburg, I moved on to a ski resort called Saalbach-Hinterglemm to do a training course with the other English Language Assistants, before arriving in Kärnten, the region where I am now living and working, at the end of September. There is a lot to see and do in this beautiful part of Austria, and there will be blog posts about it coming soon, as well as about the trip to Italy I managed to squeeze in last weekend!

But firstly, Salzburg...

So here I had the opportunity to take a tour seeing the sights from one of my favourite movies: The Sound of Music! (Strangely, it turns out that this is not a famous film at all in Austria). Here are some of the highlights from this amazing day...

Hohensalzburg castle

The lake at the front of the Von Trapp house. But the house isn't the one used in the movie!

The path from "I Have Confidence"

The gazebo from "Sixteen Going on Seventeen"

Not from the film, but a great view from the side of the road!

The outside of the church in Mondsee where the wedding scene was filmed...

...and the inside!

Pics from the Mirabell Palace and gardens where "Do Re Mi" was filmed


And here are some non-Sound-of-Music-related pics from my trip:

A pretty church...

...and another one!

Mozart's house...

...and his place of birth. (It is a bit weird that there is a Spar there!)

A street in Mondsee

The lake in Mondsee


More posts coming soon...

Language Course in Montpellier

So last month I did a language course in Montpellier and it was great! This wasn't part of my original Year Abroad plan, but I'm glad I did it, as I improved my French a lot and got to see many amazing places around the south of France. Here are some of my better pictures of the sights I saw:

Montpellier

Mauguio

Nîmes

Pézenas

Cap d'Agde

Béziers

Avignon

Sète

Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert

I loved being in the south of France and wish I could have stayed there longer! However, I will be going to Austria soon to work as a teaching assistant. I'm very nervous about this, as my German isn't great, but I'm also really excited and looking forward to doing lots of travelling when I'm there. Of course I will document it all here!