orusttjejen

I just got back after a long and intensive day so I'll just do a quick post about what's happening here in France... And well firstly I wanna say that so far I love this country! The people, the food, the beauty - well so far pretty much everything... :-) So well I can say my love for Spain has got some competition! ;-)

Since we arrived yesterday so much has happened so I'll just write it down shortly like this:

• We met our friend Pierre and he showed us his home (where we're also gonna live from Friday) and the city.
• Checked in at the hostel where we stay until Pierre's parents go on vacation. (The internet is not very fast; therefore no photos.)
• We had awesome food and great wine at the cute square.
• I went for a morning walk and got a little lost.
• Today we started the day by doing a oral French test to decide our level; I wasn't able to speak so much but I think I got in just the perfect group for my level!
• My group consists of three guys from Oman, one woman from USA, one girl from Ireland and one girls from Taiwan. Everyone is very nice! :-)
• During the breaks we made friends with nice people from Australia, Russia and Switzerland. Yey! :-)
• We got a lot of homework and tasks to complete at home; this doesn't seem to be a vacation - but I guess that's good! ;-)
• Tonight Pierre took us to eat crepes, so good! And when you eat crepes as a real French person you apparently drink cider from bowls (instead of glasses!) to go with it. Interesting... but very good! :-)
• Finished the evening at the language café and I spoke only French for about 2 hours, so proud! I find that I can understand quite well when people speak nice and slow now, yey! Speaking is a little harder, but still manageble.
• We met Pierres cute friend Mari, she was so nice! She had also been in Sweden to watch the Nordic Lights this year, interesting...
• I do mix a lot of Spanish in my French. My teacher even asked multiple times about me having some Spanish blood in me... Haha... Well I wish I was partly Spanish but I guess nothing other than Swede in me...

So well that was a quick recap of the first day in Tours. Now I will go to sleep so that I can manage another long and tiering day tomorrow! Speaking and listening to a language you don't really speak makes you real tired...

 

 

A photo of my school that I found online, isn't it beautiful! Trés jolie! :-)

Driving in Switzerland...

Since Switzerland is a very expensive country we decided to fill up gas in Austria before crossing the border and then not to go on the high ways but on the smaller ways, since it's apparently about 60 euro to go on the high way even once in Switzerland, crazy! But our navi found us nice roads instead and it was just much better and nicer to see the nature! Switzerland was also very beautiful, but I think that Austria still beats it! ;-)

I had always imagined Zürich to be kinda a big city with tall buildings, maybe because I'm thinking of the banks there I don't know, but anyway it was not. Zürich is a very small city with small cute houses. So nice! Unfortunately very expensive, or at least we think so, we never quite looked up the exchange rate between euro and swiss franc... :-)

 

With a view over Zürich!

Then the day ended in a very small town (or Austrian: "Kaff") in southern Germany. We're staying at a very nice Gasthaus called Dinklerberger Hof that I can totally recommend! The bathroom is shared but the rooms are big and nice and they serve awesome food here! I had the most amazing meat, that I unfortunately couldn't even finish because it was too much. So afterwards we had to go for a walk in the "Kaff", which was nice. It's beautiful here... And feels a bit, or a lot, like Orust. They have a lot of cows, big fields and an interesting cow smell. Just like home. ;-)

I also introduced Anna to this amazing "french teacher" Michel Thomas that I found through a friend. I've downloaded his French course and only after listening a little bit I feel like I can talk better than before. He's truly amazing and has his totally own way of teaching, comparing French to English and showing you how much you actually really know. So well if you wanna learn French Michel Thomas is your guy! ;-) Thank's YouJung for the recommendation!

Driving in Austria is beautiful! :-)

 

But in Innsbruck I had good Austrian food and drink, we watched "the golden roof", was amazed by the beauty. Go to Innsbruck! A really amazing city, one of the most beautiful ones I've seen I think and then most importantly we bought a new navi - that works. So we have a little friend with us in the car! :-) From Innsbruck we didn't only go on the high way but take the scenic route that took us to see amazing views!!! Austria is crazy beautiful! I think I could totally move there or something! ;-)

 

Me and sweet Anna in Innsbruck.

 

A cool thing with yesterday was that me and Anna spoke German for most of the road trip, in Innsbruck and in the evening - even discussing politics! So apparently my German is way better than I think, yey! :-) It's so cool how fast you get into it and can actually speak! Looking forward to the French course and what it can do to me! ;-)

In the evening we got to Anna's aunt's house and she was the sweetest ever. They live in a really beautiful house and she took us out for pizza in the evening, helped us with directions through Switzerland, made us breakfast and even gave us some franc for the lunch in Switzerland today. But mostly she was really nice to talk to, and we managed to talk a lot in German, really cool! Need to see my sweet "German teacher" Damla again soon so that she can see the difference! Well and I must add that Dornbirn is a great city, super pretty! Also go there! So I'd say take a vacation in Austria, totally nice! So Sofia and Björn, I guess you made the right choice! ;-)

 

(Sorry for the lack of photos, I took loads, but the internet in this hostel is a little slow...)

Last night was such a wonderful night! It was one of the first really warm summer nights for me this year (you know I'm from Sweden...) and I was with my Anna and she showed us to two great places! First we started at a restaurant (see the photo) with awesome grilled food that was to die for! ;-) And then we continued to a nice roof top bar together with Anna's brother Rickard and his girlfriend. Two amazing people that already finished law school. The girlfriend had even done an internship in UN in Vienna before so it was interesting hearing her opinions on it, she wasn't all positive. In the bar we were having a drink called "Hugo" with was apparently common and a mix on Elderberry, White Wine, Ice and Mint, it was really good and to recommend when in Austria! :-)

Now Anna is making me breakfast and then it's time for us to start off our road trip, yey! :-) We have about 5,5 hours driving ahead of us today, partially through Austria and partially through Germany until we reach Dornbirn in the very very west of Austria.

The awesome restaurant from yesterday that has a view out over the city. (Also observe the man in "leder hosen" standing in back of the photo. Anna says that it's not normal wearing them but at least he did... :-) )

My sweet sister a couple of weeks ago cheering for Sweden in the Euro Cup, I guess the picture is taken before she knew the result... ;-)

 

Then I have spent my whole day travelling, first by plane Gothenburg-Berlin, then a short change in Berlin to Vienna. And I just realised that one hour is maybe a little short to be sure to get your luggage so I was a little worried, but it was fine! :-) Then I took the airport bus into Vienna and met up with my darling Anna! It was so good to see her again, I've missed her... And can't imagine I now get to spend a whole month with her! Yey! :-D

 

Just now she's running around in her apartment packing and ironing her last things for our road trip that will start tomorrow, and since I'm already packed I just relax and enjoy being in Austria. I like this country, people are nice and the bread is great, so the weird accent can be overlooked... ;-) Tonight we're going out for dinner at some amazing place, no idea where, maybe I'll have some schnitzel...

 

The view from Anna's apartment, so nice, I wanna live here! :-)

 

 

Tomorrow we'll start our road trip by going through a big part of Austria to the very west of the country, I think it's called Dornbirn, where Anna has some realtives. We're gonna stay with her relatives for a night, and apparently they both live close to a lake and has a pool. Seems like a cool deal since the weather in Austria is like 30C and sunny at the moment, yey! :-)

 

Anna and her room mates dog that speaks Swedish yey! It understood all of Anna's remaining dog vocabulary; sitt! and ligg! ;-)