I’m afraid that the time has come. I mean I told myself there was no way I could be so emotional about this, but boy was I so wrong.

No amount of words can ever describe how I terrified I was at the prospect of a year abroad – I mean I literally thought of everything; “should I change my degree?”, “can I really do this?”, “how can I get out of this?” and so on. It was endless thinking, debating, and in desperation hoping and pleading that it would actually all turn out alright in the end. I guess, like many, I didn’t like the uncertainty of it all. It was the same kind of feeling as leaving for university for the first time, yet amplified somewhat by the fact that it involved being an extra thousand miles away, and it wasn’t entirely always possible to pop home on a whim for a roast dinner on a Sunday.

However I’m jolly well pleased to say that it actually did work out in the end. Naturally there were highs and lows, but this was all to be both expected and more importantly accepted! There were days where I wandered around the city feeling like the happiest and luckiest person ever, but equally I’m not ashamed to say that there were days when I crawled out of bed for food and crawled back in again to binge watch TV series on Netflix  IN ENGLISH!! – because really there is a limit to how much German you can take in order to maintain one’s mental stability. Trust me!

Over the year I’ve seen places I never thought I never would, fulfilled dreams I thought I never could. A few personal highlights for me..

• My first day in Graz being a lost tourist.
  After following some sketched out directions I remember making my way to the supermarket and then walking round town in awe at where I was going to spend the next year living, little did I know how important this city would become for me.
• Staying in 5€ per night hostels.
  Travelling on a budget is rather..interesting. 20 people sharing two showers and one toilet with no lock. Roommates who snore, those who stay up all night and those who lecture you all evening in a language you do not speak, all made for some strange once in a lifetime overnight stays.
• Getting sold cheese in a public toilet in Croatia.
  Just one example of the many ‘culturally widening’ experiences that I could mention.
• Featuring in a group photo in Maribor.
  Long story short, a group of Austrians, also on a trip in Slovenia welcomed a friend and I into a group photo in a wine museum, due to the fact that we could speak German. Oh how I would love to see that photo, or more like just our ‘what is happening here’ faces.
• Running the 5k Ladies Run through the city with my flatmate.
  Now I am no olympian, 5k was an achievement! One thing I didn’t expect to be doing on my year abroad.
• Visiting and experiencing all things ‘Sound of Music’ in Salzburg & meeting a real Von Trapp Family member.
  This one is pretty self-explanatory. A surreal dream.
• Taking a 10 hour overnight train from Milan to Graz.
  The only reason this features as a personal highlight is to remind myself never to put myself through such torture ever again. Unless you can sleep sitting up, being fully aware that each one of your fellow travelling strangers are uncomfortably into the zone of your personal space, then please pay extra for a bed.
• Austrian life!
  Dirndls and Lederhosen, the food, everyone greeting everyone, dialects (sorry, linguistics geek.), picturesque train journeys. Perfection!

Looking back over some past blog posts is really making me realise how grateful I am for all of this and I could write forever in a day about all of my wonderful memories. In a way I don’t regret that I was so scared for this year, because it has meant that, in all seriousness, I have surprised myself probably more than I ever could have imagined. Just over a year ago I was sitting second year exams in university and it was all too much at times, and today I just finished my end of year exams all done in German and all with a strange lack of stressing involved. Something that some people probably won’t actually be able to believe. My last exam today was a speaking exam for a geography class and I found out straight away that I had passed it, and it was a little strange, because if someone had have told me this would happen this time last year, there is no way I would have thought it possible to achieve.

Returning to the UK soon, which of course means returning to my home university as well. That is the next challenge I think. After becoming so accustomed to Austria, and making so many changes for the better it makes me wary, yet I am hopeful that the challenges battled will bring renewed positivity to my final year.

Almost 11 months away and it’s gone in a flash.
Austria, I thank you dearly. Friends, you have become family now; this is not goodbye this is see you again soon. Graz, you will always hold a special place in my heart. You won’t be able to keep me away for long I promise!

Nearing the last few weeks of my year abroad I wasn’t entirely sure how I could really top it all off, after all my trips around and abouts. Little did I know that Salzburg would be the gem, the icing on the cake, ‘die Sahnehäubchen’ and ‘Schatz’ that would be the last perfectly-fitting piece to the puzzle of my year abroad experience.

Salzburg itself, comprised of the old town, new town and the Salzach river running through the middle, is a small, yet beautifully traditional Austrian town; set at the foot of the alps, a bustling baroque town overlooked by imposing medieval fortress, Hohenfestung Salzburg. I passed through most of the new town and headed for the old town, where unsurprisingly all the tourists were! First things first I headed to the cathedral and surrounding area, also went past the house where Mozart was born, then headed along the river towards Mirabell Gardens, which is one of the most well-known filming locations for the movie, more specifically for the ‘Do Re Mi’ song, with the famous step sequence and the dancing round the fountain. Naturally this area was a hotspot for fellow fans like me, with people dressed up re-enacting dances and singing, I loved it! In fact (emotional fangirling moment), it made me feel quite overwhelmed to know that I was there for real and no longer was it just an elusive scene featured in a movie.

As soon as I got word of this so called ‘Sound of Music Experience’, I was sold. A day full of everything all things ‘Von Trapp’, how could I possibly have denied!? The event was run by the Austro-American Society of Upper Austria and Salzburg in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the film, and was a day packed of all things ‘Sound of Music’, as well as providing us with a unique insight into the real Von Trapp story.

The day began with a private screening of the film at the Mozart Kino, because a few people there were actually seeing the film for the first time! It was actually lovely to see if on the big screen for once, and to be in a cinema full of fellow enthusiasts was such a buzz!

After the film screening (the whole three hours) we headed for lunch at the Stieglkeller, which was a little walk up the hill, in the direction of the castle. Tables had all been reserved for the group and it gave us a chance to talk to other people who came on the trip.

It was then time to head further round the hill to Nonnberg Abbey. The outside of the abbey was used in the film, but (spoiler alert) the inside courtyard where the nuns sing in the film is all just film set done in Hollywood. Inside the abbey, one of the sisters told us about the abbey and the great influence of the real Von Trapp family, and also a speech was given by Dr Franz Wasner, who spoke about his uncle, who was the priest that put together and directed the real Von Trapp family singers. He was represented by Max Detweiler in the film.

We then all split off into groups for our walking tour round the town seeing all the main spots from the film, and our tour guide was simply great! The tour was not only full of interesting facts and stories, but at various points in the tour he would remind us of the songs that were sung at that specific place. The thing is he didn’t sing the songs at all, he just read the lyrics from cue cards as if it were a monologue with intermittent caesura for dramatic effect, which resulted in cry-laughing because it was pure genius.

The next part of the tour then continued after a short taxi ride down to the southern outskirts of the city to the Trapp Villa, i.e the house that the real Von Trapp family lived in, sang in and eventually fled. The house has been turned into a hotel now, but still values and exhibits its history, through photos, drawings and family keepsakes, which were quite touching. Take a look at the website http://www.villa-trapp.com/1/home/ for more information.

The final part of the day was then a reception at Schloss Leopoldskron, the palace which was used for the outside shots of the Von Trapp’s family villa in the film. Leopoldskron is not open to the public and even the hotel Leopoldskron is a building adjacent to the palace itself, which was why it was such a privilege to be there. They even opened up rooms upstairs in the palace such as the library, the dining halls, the terrace and various other elaborate rooms which inspired the Hollywood sets.

A panel discussion was also held, which discussed the success of the movie, the historical value and its impact on Salzburg today. Speakers included the a representative from the tourist board in Salzburg, Georg Steinitz, who worked as an assistant director for the filming in Salzburg, as well as Elisabeth Von Trapp, granddaughter of the real Captain Von Trapp. As well as speaking about her family Elisabeth also sang a few songs for us, both from the movie and those that she has wrote herself, since she also pursued a career in music. The evening was finished up with a buffet, of which schnitzel and apple strudel were a compulsory element, naturally.

Overall the evening and the whole day in fact was just a dream and it really opened my eyes to the real story and the struggle that the family endured. The film, yes might not depict all the details or tell the story exactly how it was, but that doesn’t really matter at all, because it has brought the attention from all over the world to the stage that is Salzburg.

In all honesty, I cannot quite believe that it has been a whole month since I tentatively stepped down from the plane and my Austrian adventure began! (And boy has it been a roller-coaster ride!)

There have been times when I’ve questioned ‘whose silly idea was this year abroad business anyway!?’, but there have been times where I can truly say I have felt like the luckiest person in the world! Sorry for the cheesiness…but it’s absolutely true! This is probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done, travelling just over a thousand miles on my own, finding a flat here, getting to know other students, attempting to speak the local lingo and most challenging of all trying to integrate with a new culture!

There has been lots of admin, forms and such to sort out the past couple of weeks, including registering as a (..Bewohner..oh dear what’s the English word… this is becoming a rather frequent occurrence.. *google translates*) RESIDENT. This involved just a seemingly quick visit to the Meldesamt (where you have to go to apply to register in the city). It was a rather strange situation whereby I walked into an office full of Austrian women chatting away, then, after a brief pause of thinking I was most likely in the wrong place, one of them read my slightly confused face and led me into her office. She proceeded to jabber something in a very heavy Austrian German dialect, (one of those classic smile and nod situations that one often has to pull out of the bag), but after checking my passport and various documents it was all done and dusted in 10 minutes or so!

One major thing for me the past two weeks has also been my intensive German course. I decided to do this course before starting university properly, in order to integrate myself a little better with the language before being in all German lectures (scary thought!). I did have to pay for this course, but it is three weeks long in total and I can honestly say that it has been worth every single penny! At first it was a bit stressful as we all had to take both a written and a speaking test in order to place us in the right level class. The class levels use the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) that go from A1 beginners, then A2,B1,B2 and to C1 which is near native fluency. After my tests I was placed in the first of two stages of the B2 level, which I was happy with as this is where I would have guessed I should be and as the course is intensive level, it runs from 9-12 Monday to Friday for three weeks (shock to my body clock indeed!). The first lesson was all a bit scary, for most of us didn’t know anyone else there! But after the ‘icebreaker’ introductions and such, it didn’t take long till we were pretty well acquainted!

The course has covered a variety of different topics and has included a lot of grammar tasks, presentations and discussions in class, which has been really great, because everyone has the chance to speak up and get involved! By nature I have always been a quiet person, so speaking up in front of people has always been a challenge, but something really clicked for me being in this class, whereby I really feel like we are all there to learn, so why bother caring so much about making mistakes or sounding silly?! Everyone in the class has been so nice and I have loved getting to know so many different people from different countries, and being able to learn about everyone’s different languages and cultures has been so interesting! I honestly think I have spoken more German in the past few weeks than I did the whole of last year! It’s just absolutely crazy, yet so exciting!

Our teacher from the German course also took us out on a hike up a mountain close to Graz one afternoon, which was really good! It was nice to get a chance to speak to fellow classmates in a more casual environment, and of course ‘auf Deutsch!’ It was a really super sunny day, and in all honesty if it was that hot and sunny at home I probably wouldn’t have considered moving from my garden and despite the fact that after the hike I had a rather horrific bout of heatstroke (you can take the Brit out of Britain…) I actually really enjoyed it! Drinks with a view from the top was a bonus!

It’s quite nice just to sit and reflect about the past month; of course at times it has been emotional and overwhelming, but more often than not I just find myself stopping and really being truly grateful that I get to be here, meet so many great new people and experience a new culture! After this final week of my German course I have the final tests, and then shortly after my university courses start for real! Of course it’s nerve-racking, but really I’m quite looking forward to getting into it!

Thanks for reading and I really hope you are enjoying following me on my year abroad adventures!