Parasailing

From my office in Innsbruck, there is a great view of the mountains. Like a really, beautiful, stop-in-your-tracks kind of view. And every day it was clear enough, I would see parasailers coming down from the top. I am definitely not the adventurous type naturally,

but boy am I trying to be. So since Josh was in town, in addition to spending alot of time in Innsbruck, just walking around and having fun, we decided to get out of town and try our hand at parasailing. What was really cool, is we booked it as part of this package, and the tour guide came to our hotel

and we decided what we wanted to do. We went first to this mountain, and took a cable car up it. At the top, there were a whole bunch of cows, just hanging around, and the start of an alipine coaster. They are basically these little carts attached to a single track, and the only way to control them is the brake, which you can chose

to apply or not. It goes streaming down the countryside, all along the hills, up and down, and quite, quite fast! It was such good fun! Next we went to the paragliding place. Thank goodness we did a tandem flight or I would have been terrified. It was ok, all you had to do was run down this hill....it sound easy, but because I wasn't in control of it - it WAS easy! And it was such a beautiful view. Josh and I had such an amazing day doing those things, kind of adventurous for us, but so much fun!

The Hafelekar Mountains

My day to day life in Innsbruck was pretty simple. Get up, have breakfast, walk to work, and sit down on my laptop and work all morning. In the afternoons, my collegues and I, who were all university students of some sort of levels, went to the local supermarket to get lunch, before we worked more in the afternoon.

On a lot of weekends, I did outreach with the children in the area, or I worked continually on my research project. I was incredibly boring really, until Josh finished work for the summer and he came to visit me in Innsbruck. Because it was pretty cramped at the monostary, we stayed at a hotel in town. The first day he came, we

walked all around the town, and I showed him the sights, my place, and where I worked. The next day, we decided to try an excursion that some of my collegues had been suggesting. Some of them are avid hikers, and had suggested we see the view from the top of the Hafelekar

mountains surrounding Innsbruck. Innsbruck is literally surrounded by these beautiful mountains. So in the morning, we went out and bought cute Austrian traditional hats, with the feather in them and everything. Very touristy, but very fun. Then, we took the cable car up. Well, the first one is a finicular, and then there are two more cable cars all the way up to the top, so far that you can't even see them from the bottom. It was an amazing view, so we stopped and had some great traditional

Austrian food there, and Josh had a beer too. At the very very top, it was kind of windy, but we found some snow, at the end of July! I couldnt believe it, but there it was! It was a great day out, and a much easier way than walking all the way up ourselves!

Moving to Innsbruck

After Dan and Kara's wedding, pretty much the next day I had to fly back to England. I was really quite lucky to have had such a long time between finishing my exams back in April and starting the internship/dissertation part of my Masters degree in Space Physiology and Health. Back when we visited ESA in February, we had had this cool demonstration of an analog Mars space suit, designed by the Austrian Space Forum, and it had been arranged that I could come and do some research,

and my dissertation with them at their offices in Innsbruck. So off I went, with Mummy in tow, to move to Innsbruck, Austria for 3 months. To be fair, I knew very little about Innsbruck before I went, although I had arranged some accomodation in an old monostary. I hadn't however, seen the small print that said they were only avalibale for moving in at 9am on a Friday morning, so there was so kerfuffle when I arrived at 3pm. But eventually, we got ourselves sorted, and made a trip to IKEA,

which was accessible by bus, and kitted by little room out. For the weekend, Mummy and I stayed together in a really old hotel, that was super lovely right in the middle of the square. The Maria Theresen strasse leads up to the famous Golden Adler or Golden Roof.

It is a building which houses the town hall I think, and has actual gold leaf on the roof. It's really popular and is a lovely little place to hang out in the cafes around there. We spent the weekend figuring out how to walk from my accomodation all the way to my work, where the shops were,

the train station, and all the other logistics. We spent the weekend eating gelato, and going in the little shops, and walking up and down the pretty river. Innsbruck is such a pretty little town, especially as a tourist. I don't think I would want to live there forever, but it was the perfect place to set up camp for three months and get some work done!

A walk to Pyramid Point

The day after the wedding, we had a nice wedding breakfast with the Dornbusch family, and then we took a little drive into the countryside to talk a walk up this mountain called Pyramid Point. I'm not sure really if it was a mountain exactly, but maybe more like a big cliff.

We walked through the woods, and then suddenly, it was like a beach, on top of a cliff, with a great view of the lake below. It was so pretty there, and so, so blue! It was good to be out and about after the wedding, in the fresh air. We had a nice snooze in the sand, before walking back through the forest!

Dan and Kara get married!

A few of my friends have gotten married since we all became old enough. I've been invited to just one friend's wedding, and a few relatives weddings, but this was finally my first wedding so I was so so excited for them! I got to help in the morning, getting everyone ready and sorted,

and then Mummy and I helped to clean up and feed all the girls so they were all ready in the morning. The wedding was so beautiful, and so much fun - I got a great view of the wedding ceremony, the food was wonderful, and I got to sit with some really nice people at my table. I met some of Krista's friends

who had also been unable to bring their boyfriends because they were working like Josh, so we had a nice time chatting, eating cake and dancing! It was a beautiful wedding, and they are the cutest couple, and I know they will have many years of great happiness!

Up North in Traverse City

After the pre wedding BBQ, the next day we headed over to the wedding rehersal venue - it was some big kind of estate with a whole bunch of houses, and cabins, and fun activities. A bit like an upscale Oasis place. It was also the nearest place to Snow Moon ranch, where Dan and Kara were

getting married, so it was going to be where we were sleeping for the next couple days. Before the rehersal dinner, Mummy and I daddy and I went out to explore the area we were staying in. They had a cute little gold shop and grocery store, and we just walked up and down some of the hills in the forest. The rehersal dinner was really nice, down by the water and very low key, which was nice. I was really getting excited for the wedding now!

A wedding BBQ

I had such a nice time up in Traverse City, first with Kara and her family, and then Krista and Jed came up from Detroit, and we had a grand old time, going out for lunch, running some errands for Kara with her ring, and things that just had to be done before the wedding. Two days before the wedding, the Dornbusches held a cool beach BBQ at their house. I was in charge of setting up all the food and arranging tables and such. I had a great time organising and an even better time when

everyone arrived and all the food was eaten! There were smores and everything too! The Guys are really into paddleboarding, and I even had a go at that! It was a really nice, casual way to get all the wedding activities started!