I can now say that I like octopus

Hello, once again! I have much to catch you all up on - the end is near! I will be returning to the US on Saturday, and this will be my second to last post before I leave Austria. Putting off my blog for so long was first due to my busy schedule, and now has more to do with the fact that this is admitting I am leaving soon. Which I am not sure I want to do after my year here...

Let us begin with the beginning of June. My host mother and I share the same birthday, and we celebrated and had a lovely time :) The second weekend of he month, we went on a tour of some of Austria that I had not yet seen and went over into Germany to see the one and only Neuschwanstein! (Which, as you can see, was having some reparations done.)

Innsbruck, Austria, as shown by my perfectly straight photography.

Guess where this was?!

Alpbach, Austria, said to be the most beautiful town in the country.

I am of the opinion that the snails here are much prettier than ours...

See the series of waterfalls? Those would be the Krimmler Waterfalls, which we went partially up...  

I went to visit my friend who lives close to Vienna, where we pretty much enjoyed spending time together, so there's not too much to say. Other than the fact that her host family's cat just had kittens:

The next week, my family and I went to visit the small yet beautiful country of Slovenia (borders Austria, Croatia, and Italy). We stayed in a villa with a view of the sea, and it was quite hot, so we spent a good amount of time in it, too! For our last night, we stayed with friends of the family, who were kind enough to take us out on their boat to let us swim in deeper water. (They also made sure we were overly-fed; it was very well done, though!)

On our way to the coast, we stopped in this part of the country, on the Soca river, WHICH IS WHERE THE 2ND NARNIA MOVIE WAS FILMED!!!  

Believe me, it was cold!

I had octopus twice on this trip - my first time trying it! - and this is actually the 2nd. The first I had rather late, so it was too dark to be able to see anything. (Well, you could, but I looked back at the pictures later, and let's just say they didn't look too appetizing.) 

The sea where we swam, as seen from the boat :)

My last week is almost up, and I will share that with you soon enough! I trust you are all still doing well, and happy Independence Day to those of you in the US!

xoxo,
mary beth

P.S. In case you didn't figure it out, the house we visited was upside down ;)