In February we got the month off for our mid year university break between semesters 1 and 2. We had four weeks of classes in January that were pretty busy, with some assignments due and classes on the weekend. In fact we had classes for 19 days in a row before we went on holidays! So we were all looking forward to the mid year break.
Some of our classes finished at the end of this semester, which was a bit sad. Our last week we spent a lot of time in the workshop building instruments, which was a lot of fun.
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| Special Course students - end of semester 1 |
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| Workshop |
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| Workshop tools |
Below are the instruments I made.
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| Shaker |
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| Percussion instrument |
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| Mallets, with a bit of decoration on top |
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| Finger castanets, made out of walnut shells |
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| Drum |
For the first part of the holidays I went to Portugal for some warmer weather and sunshine, along with my partner Neal, my fellow Australian student Virginia and my sister Rosanna came over from Berlin as well. We visited Lisbon as well as the coastal town of Peniche. It was nice to visit somewhere new and be near the ocean. As well as eat some very tasty food!
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| Lisbon |
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| Eating Portuguese custard tarts - delicious! |
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| Sintra, mountain area just outside Lisbon |
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| Castle on top of a hill in Sintra |
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| Beach at Peniche |
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| Beach dune view from our apartment in Peniche |
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| Delicious brunch at a cafe, had to go there three times! |
Then it was back to Salzburg for a few days and then Neal and I were off to England to visit relatives. It was great to have such a short trip to catch up with my family in Leighton Buzzard, London and Bolton.
We went to see the musical Book of Mormon which was hilarious and a very well done musical. I visited a bookshop Persephone Books who publish and sell books by women writers from the 19th and 20th century (I only bought two books!). I also got a haircut at a hairdresser for curly hair, which I really needed!
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| Me and my cousins Helen and Roisin |
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| Book of Mormon theatre |
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| Sydney Opera House hat worn by Dame Edna at Royal Ascot and now in the Victoria & Albert museum |
I got to visit the town of Howarth where the Brontë Parsonage Museum is. The three Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne) lived here in the 19th century and wrote famous books such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tennant of Wildfell Hall. They originally had their books published with fake male names, as they didn't think their books would be taken as seriously if they published them under their own names. I like all their books so was excited to visit this museum for the first time! We did an audio tour walk with songs that had been written to some of Emily Brontë's poetry.
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| Brontë Parsonage Museum |
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| Brontë Parsonage Museum - this was the house were they lived |
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| The Brontë sisters original piano that twas played on the songs in the audio tour |
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| Ready for the audio tour, holding my map for the walk. |
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| Audio tour with Neal and my aunt Anne |
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| Audio tour walk |
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| Audio tour walk |
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| Audio tour walk |
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| Book statues/sculptures in the ground on the audio tour walk |
We caught the train back to Salzburg from London, stopping for a day in Brussels.Burssels in the home of Hergé who wrote the Tintin comic books, which I've been a fan of since I was a kid. It was very sunny weather while we were away, which is not what I expected for February in Europe!
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| Park in Brussels |
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| There was some great street Tintin street art like this in Brussels |
We also managed to do some important shopping in England! These are the teabags I buy in Australia too.
This week we are back at university for the start of the second semester, which will be a bit more serious with exams at the end in June! I had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday but am happy to be back in Salzburg studying now with my Special Course friends.
