My journey to England

I have already been writing about traveling quite a lot but up to now it was all rather theoretical and to be honest only daydreaming. Because of this I thought about writing about a trip I actually did so you guys don’t think I’m just sitting at home picturing my perfect journey (though lately that’s about all the traveling I do).

So about two years ago my class went to Oxford with a day trip to London. Differently than going by plane which would be the most convenient and logical way to get there, we traveled all the way by coach. Yeah, you read right, by COACH which took us almost a whole day. Though, the whole journey was very wearying it was a very unique experience and we got to see a lot of different landscapes since we went through Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and finally France until we got to the ferry to England. (A little advice: If you use the restroom at a service area on a Belgian freeway, make sure you don’t forget to pay the fee and don’t even think of just sneaking by. Chances are pretty good that you get yelled at and even hit by toilet paper by a rather grumpy guy sitting at a table in front of the washroom. I’m not kidding, this really happened to one of us. XD)

After we took the ferry to England we continued our journey towards Oxford where we stayed at host families in groups of two to three students each. I was a little worried at first since I didn’t really know what to expect but luckily the host family I stayed with was very nice and already had some experience since we weren’t the first exchange students staying there. There were also staying two other students with us at the same time and our host-mom was very friendly and talked a lot with us, unlike some of the other hosts who just communicated to say dinner is ready.

 

 

While staying in Oxford we did a lot of sightseeing to near places and visited Stonehenge, Stratford upon Avon where Shakespeare’s houses are located and last but not least the world-famous Oxford University where we had the opportunity to take a guided tour to all the scenes which were used in the Harry Potter movies. We also went to see Madame Tussaud’s and their wax figures of famous celebrities such as George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and Marilyn Monroe.

One day we paid a visit to London where we had some free time to explore the city on our own. My friends and I turned this opportunity into a brief sightseeing tour of the most important places like Big Ben, London Eye and Buckingham Palace as well as a quick shopping spree.

  

 

 

 

All in all, it was an incredible experience to get to know the culture, people and significant places of Oxford and London better and if I ever got the chance to go there again, I’d say yes without any hesitation (but probably I’d take my classmates with me again ;))

Christmas Specials

Bells ringing here, Christmas is near (Sorry for my bad rhymes)

So in a few days it’s already Christmas which means there are gonna be a lot of cookies, a festively decorated tree, a huge dinner most likely with your family, traditional songs, a few gifts and last but not least Christmas movies or TV show specials.

This leads me to the topic I actually wanted to talk about, Christmas specials of TV shows. Almost every show has its own, some are more festive and rather peaceful, others are troublesome and yet others are somewhat weird and confusing. To give you a few examples I picked Christmas special episodes of some of my favorite TV Shows:

 

 

1)    Supernatural (A Very Supernatural Christmas): This episode deals with the Winchester brothers working a case on Christmas while they remember the last time they really celebrated Christmas “as a family”. Of course monsters (this time Pagan Gods) are involved as well. Here’s the promo:

 

 

2)    How I met your mother (How Lily stole Christmas): There are actually several Christmas related episode of this TV show but I personally think this one is the most-related one. Lily takes off the Christmas decoration and almost spoils it for everyone when she finds out that Ted has called her a grinch when she and Marshall were broken up. (Sorry, I couldn’t find a promo for this one.)
 

 

3)    Big Bang Theory (The Santa Simulation): Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj play a game of Dungeons & Dragons with a Christmas theme while they discuss their childhood Christmas experiences. Here is the promo video:

 

 

4)    New girl (Santa): Jess, Nick, Winston, Schmidt & Cece attend many different Christmas parties on Christmas Eve and there are quite a few surprises. Have a look at the trailer:

 

 

Of course there are many more but for now this should be enough.

So have a Merry Christmas everyone or how Spanish-speaking people would say

¡Feliz Navidad!

Traveling the US part 2

Quite some time ago I made a post about my favorite destinations to travel to in the US. I want to pick up this topic again since I came across something very interesting the other day. I found an offer of a cross-country road trip through 48 states of the US. It starts in the very south of Florida and then literally goes all across the country up to the very north in Seattle. Along this trip there is a lot of sightseeing including Washington D.C., Mount Rushmore, the Great Canyon and many many more. Of course the major cities such as New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles are also counted in. Plus you get a tour guide who accompanies you, private transportation and all accommodation in a package.

here is a map of the trail:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To sum up, I would love to do a journey like this and if I ever got the chance to do so I would take along my best friend and discover the US.
 

I hope someday all of this is more than just day-dreaming and who knows maybe I’ll get to take a likely trip one day.

 

This website offers a lot of different trips around the USA including the one I was talking about: http://www.trekamerica.co.uk/tours/grt.html

 

 

Odd girl out...

So I was just surfing the internet the other day when I came across this movie. It’s called “Odd girl out” and deals with a very frequent problem at schools – bullying.

Now you might think, so what another movie that shows how mean schoolgirls/boys can be. Well then think again. “Odd girl out” is an amazing movie because it doesn’t only make aware of the problem but also gives solutions how to stand up and make it stop. Besides that the leading actress, Alexa Vega (you might know her from “Spy kids”) is simply awesome.

So if you’ve got some time just take a look at it, you surely won’t regret it ;)

 

Here’s the trailer of the movie:

You're never too old for an advent calendar

Since it’s already December which means Christmas is not too far away, a lot of people especially kids have an advent calendar to make the time until this special holiday go by faster. But not only children are fond of these little pictures or treats which can be candy (mostly chocolate), little toys, scented candles or pretty much everything you’d like to have in it. If you’ve got the time you can even make your own, unique one.

 

I personally think it’s a very nice idea especially in such a cold and sometimes also dreary month and I have to admit that I got one myself ;)

What are you thankful for?

Now that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I thought “Why not write a little bit about this famous American holiday?” So here we go.

In general, thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November which means this year’s Thursday the 28^th. At this very special day families gather together to celebrate and have a large dinner. This usually involves roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and corn. Some families also watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or a football game on TV.

But why do people actually celebrate Thanksgiving? Well, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims to thank the Native Americans who helped them harvest food in order to survive. Nowadays, however, people express their gratitude for the simple things in life at this special holiday. 

If you want to know a little bit more about Thanksgiving, I found this video on youtube: 

It is a little bit ridiculous since a rock tells the story but nonetheless it sums the history of Thanksgiving up pretty well.

Traveling the U.S.

I’ve always wanted to go to the United States and visit all the famous places people keep talking about. If I ever had the opportunity to actually go to the U.S., I would try to make sure to visit at least a few of the famous cities such as New York or Los Angeles. I think it would really be awesome to go shopping in a huge mall in New York, see Times Square and The Statue of Liberty or enjoy the view from Empire State Building. Another city I would like to visit at the east coast is Miami. There are told to be very nice beaches and parks but also marine aquariums and zoos.

I would, however, love to see some places at the West Coast as well. First of all, I’ve always wanted to go to Los Angeles to take a look at the places where TV shows and movies where filmed and if possible take a guided tour through the sets of a film studio. I know it sounds very unlikely to happen and also somewhat weird but it would be simply amazing if I ran into one of my favorite celebrities as well. I also would love to visit San Francisco to see the Golden Gate Bridge in real life and all its majesty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Somehow I think it would be great to make a road trip through the U.S. not only to get to know to country better but also the people and their culture. I just hope to be able to make this dream of mine come true someday and until then I just keep on dreaming…

Supernatural Halloween

In honor of the upcoming Halloween I thought of writing about a show that deals with all the creepy creatures that can also be seen on Halloween.

It’s my currently favorite show and is called “Supernatural”. It is quite difficult to describe and even one of the main character’s actors himself stated that the best description is given by watching the DVDs. Nonetheless I’ll try to sum it up shortly and hopefully also understandably. Supernatural is a TV drama series about two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, who fight ghosts, demons and other supernatural creatures. They are portrayed by the actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. In addition to the ghostlike beings the show also tackles the lives of the two brothers and how hunting demons changed it. I can only recommend it to anyone who isn’t scared of seeing a lot of blood and also hearing a lot of swear words.

 

For a more detailed description have a look at this website: http://www.supernatural-fan-wiki.com/page/About+Supernatural

 

Now back to the topic I brought up in the beginning. Since Halloween is already in a few days I picked my top five creepiest creatures of the show:

So here comes number 5: Werewolves

Werewolves were human once but now have the power to transform into a wolf when there is full moon. People become werewolves by being bitten by one and there is no cure to get normal again. Besides being stronger and faster they also have night vision.

 

 

 

Number 4: Zombies

Zombies are one of the most known supernatural creatures especially since there seems to be a hype about zombies lately with all the movies and TV shows. Like widely known they are the living dead brought back by some kind of magic spell. But of course they come back in a very different way then they were before as zombies are stronger and faster than humans.

 

 

 

 

Number 3: Wendigos

Wendigos were once human but after they had to eat human flesh in order to survive they turned into this type of supernatural creature. A few of their abilities are enormous strength and speed as well as the fact that they are invulnerable to most knives and weapons.

 

 

 

 

Number 2: Hellhounds

Hellhounds are deadly creatures which are often described as demonic pitbulls. They are kind of like reapers but are especially after the humans soul. Hellhounds are amazingly fast and have an excellent sense of smell. Probably one of their creepiest abilities is to become invisible.

 

 

Number one: Shapeshifters

Shapeshifters are human-like creatures who can change into any shape or form of a person they want. This is also the reason why I chose them as the scariest creature because you can’t really distinguish them from the real human being they are impersonating. The only way to do so is by filming them, especially their eyes since they kind of glow then.

 

 

My first blog :)

To be honest I really found it difficult to get started with blogging since I had to do a lot of thinking to find an appropriate topic to write about. Many bloggers simply write about the stuff that tackles them the most others start off with introducing themselves or their home town. 

Because of this, I decided to start of with a little description of my home town Villach.

Villach is a little town in the center of Carinthia. It has not only a lot of historically interesting monuments especially on the main square but also a beautiful landscape with mountains and lakes. Because of this Villach is a very appealing tourist destination which offers a lot of hiking and swimming facilities in summer as well as skiing facilities in winter.

 Dobratsch (nature reserve

and former skiing area)

                                            

                                            Lake Ossiach

For any further information click the link below:

http://www.villach.at/inhalt/englisch/7682.asp