Studying Abroad in Austria: June 2012

Hello everyone. Happy June (or sad June because I only have 28 more days). So last weekend I went to Deggendorf for my 5 day weekend to spend some time with the family. It was great! I didnt want to leave. I just was having so much fun and felt like I really belonged there. Anyways, I arrived there late Friday night so me, Erika and Franzie went over to Elisabeths and just hung out for the night. Saturday morning me, Erika and Franzie headed off to the National Park and walked across this high bridge made of trees. At the end there was a giant dome (called the Tree House) that you can walk up. The view from the top is amazing. Being taller than all the tree tops is an awesome feeling. After we walked back down we went to the animal park. It was a three hour walk from beginning to start but it was cool to see all the animals just in open, natural land. That pretty much took up the entire day so we all went back home to change and eat dinner and then headed off to a festival. The festival was so much fun. There were tons of carnival rides, bands, huge German beers, yummy food and so many people. We walked around, ate tons of carnival food, danced and had a great time! Sunday morning we went to Regen to another music festivals. They had multiple stages with German bands playing folk music. We walked through the forest and along the way there were tons of families and people playing all kinds of instruments and singing. It was really cool to see so many different people partaking in the German culture. We stayed there for the entire day. There was so much to see. Monday morning me and Franzie drove to Schloss Neuschwanstein! Finally! When we got there I we walked around the castle across the street from Neuschwanstein and then hiked up to it. It was awesome. Sadly, they were doing construction on one side of it but it still looked just like in the pictures. I did the walking tour inside. It was really cool to see all the modern architecture it had inside. After Neuschwanstein we headed off to Kloster Andechs and looked at the church. We then spent some time in the beer garden and then made our 3 hour journey back home. On the way home we stopped at the cemetery and visited my great Oma and Opa. When we got back me and Franzie spent the entire night looking at old photo albums. It was amazing to see all my family members 20, 30, 40 + years ago. Tuesday morning we went to Uncle Jachs and Tante Annas house. We had chicken and french fries. It was super yummy. Lothar and Helmut came by and well to say the least... our few hours there were rather entertaining :) After lunch, me and Elizabeth went shopping and then ate dinner. Tuesday night I had to get back on the train and head back to Linz. The weekend was great and I saw tons of awesome things. Ill post some pictures at the end of this post but I just wanted to say thank you so much for those of you that have been reading and following my blog these past four months. It means so much to me to hear from my dad that a list of people tell him all the time how much they enjoy reading my blog, or hearing from Kyle that his grandmas love my blog! Im so glad Im not wasting my time sharing my stories with no one :) There are only 28 days left to blog about! In 3 days I am off to Santorini Greece for a whole week! After that AMAZING and lengthy blog post... they will probably start getting a little depressing as the end is coming. But until then... here are my Deggendorf pictures!

Tree bridge