Even though it's been raining quite often recently I've been busy being a tourist in my own country and I'm really enjoying it! And in spite of that high amount of precipitation I was only hit by very few raindrops. Lucky me.
Anyway, on Wednesday my parents and I went to Gmunden which is also not too far away from the village I live in and spent the morning and early afternoon walking through the neat and beautiful town centre and in the early evening hours we went for a walk along the calm and lush waterside of Lake Traunsee. My dad even went for a short swim and the water wasn't too cold: twenty degrees perhaps.
On Saturday, finally my brother found some time to join us on an outing as well and so we all went to Graz, the second largest city of Austria which can be reached in two hours by car, which was the European Capital of Culture in 2003 (and I think it really deserved it...) and the centre of which has been declared as World Cultural Heritage. As we even got sunny spells and it didn't rain at all it was only natural that we were enjoying ourselves tremendously - sightseeing and savouring the local cuisine.
I think it's really an advantage for the whole family that I decided to leave Austria for Britain: now, within the rather short periods in which we're reunited, we try to get as much as possible out of Austrian life, going on day trips far more often than we did when I was still living here and I found myself being interested in aspects of (mostly traditional) Austrian life I hadn't been paying much attention to before...
The day I went to Gmunden
Nice, rustic-style interior of an inn
I wonder, is this font legible for you?
Town market in Gmunden
The palace Schloss Orth, setting of a popular Autrian TV-series
Transnational friendship...
And then we went along the waterside a bit. There you find steep ascents...
...precipitous falls...
...charming little houses...
...and a gorgeous panorama
This is already a photo from Graz, of a facade the artistry of which I found pretty impressive
I really enjoy reading inscriptions in medieval German
This here is the Uhrturm, the clocktower that is the landmark of Graz
As the Uhrturm stands on a hill, you get a nice view of the city from up there
Do you see the organ-shaped building? That's the museum of modern art.
A part of the university of Graz
Some of the houses that are part of the World Cultural Heritage - zone
There's nothing better than down-to-earth Austrian dishes for dinner...
...and afterwards a rewarding nighttime panorama. I love holidays like this!!
So, on Thursday was my first day as a transmitter of knowledge. Of course I was a bit nervous before I entered the classroom but as I'd prepared my first lesson well it went okay. The only thing is that it's really exhausting, at least if you're not used to it: I've got four hours a day after all, with eight students with different needs and preferences and then there's all that homework to grade and preparation time... leaves me hardly any free time at all at the moment so it's really a luxury for me to blog right now... but it's a really great experience and I'm glad that it all worked out like that!!
Some of my students...
