Many Wonderful Experiences

Servus!

Where to start, this trip so far has been a real eye opener for me and I can‘t wait for what‘s going to happen next. As soon as I got out of the plane I can not describe how strange it felt having everyone around me speaking a different language. There have been many highlights to my trip so far, like going to the bustling Oktoberfest and going to a few of Bavaria’s stunning lakes. I have met some really nice people and I have fitted into their school life really well. I am finding that the language barrier is beginning to become smaller and smaller and I am learning more and more about the diverse German culture.

This week has been very busy and I have seen and done many new things. On Saturday we went to a place they call a Rodelbahn, (tobaggon train). It was a huge metal slide that was made for a toboggan. The slide took over 3 minutes to get down and the first time I did it (not realising how fast I could go) I had Rebecca’s mum stuck behind me in her toboggan because I had my brakes on most of the way down. The second time I went down on a double toboggan with Rebecca’s sister, Victoria and I don’t think she put the brakes on the whole way down!

After I had survived that we got tickets to go on a zipline that was 700 hundred metres long! We took the chairlift up to the top and that’s were we got an unbelievable view of the town we were in called Flintsbach. We got our harnesses on and I watched the people who went before us disappear into the distance. When it was my turn, I was clipped in and off I went. It was the best feeling flying down the side of the mountain at 80km per hour!!

After I did the zipline, I went on the Rodelbahn four more times and then we left to go to the Flintbach Castle which had just been opened to the public for the first time. There was only one tower left of the castle which was from the middle ages, but they had renovated it into a home and I met a lady who was born in the tower. I walked inside and it was very dark as it only had a few lights. We climbed to the top of the tower and we got another amazing view of Flintsbach and you could see the remaining stone walls down below. Once we left the castle we went back to Rebecca’s grandparents house for the night.

On Sunday we had planned to go up to the top of a mountain but it was too cloudy, so the family decided to show me a couple more castles. First we went to a huge castle that was on a hill in the middle of the Austrian city, Kufstein. That castle was also from the middle ages and the only thing different about it was that every part of it was still standing. We took an angled elevator up to the courtyard of the castle that had been turned it into a museum. We learnt about the torture techniques of the middle ages and we found a well that was 60 metres deep! The second castle we went to was a ruin with only one mossy wall left standing. I saw a drawing of what it used to be and it looked like it was as big as the one in Kufstein. As we were walking back down from the ruin we ran into a couple of lamas and also say a donkey.

My weekend was definitely the busiest part of my week but I also started soccer training on Monday and Wednesday and I went and watched Rebecca’s brother play. School has been the hardest thing to get used to so far, but I feel my new friends have made it easier for me to fit in. This weekend I go to Berlin for Rebecca’s birthday and I cannot wait to go and learn more about the German culture. 

Callan