Wolfenbuttel - sehr schon!

Anna and I have been training up to ride to work each day - and tomorrow is the big day - the first official ride to work. I took the camera along (with awesome macro lens attached) on our weekend training ride and got some pretty nice pics of bumble bees busy collecting pollen and thought I would share my handiwork with you! While Wolfenbuttel is a bit of a country village it certainly is beautiful!

Perception of Safety

I feel very safe here in Wolfenbuttel (in fact Germany in general) and I do many things that I would NEVER do in Australia - such as walking home alone late in the evening or placing my handbag at my feet when my hands are busy.

But then someone pointed out to me that perhaps the reason that I feel so safe, is not because the town is actually any safer than anywhere else, but perhaps it is because I am not exposed to the media - I see no television or newspapers and what I do see I don't understand. So this makes me wonder exactly how much of societies fears and paranoias are fueled by the media? An idea explored by Mike Moore in Bowling for Columbine.

On the flip side of this blissful ignorance of German current events - I occasionally log on to the Sydney Morning Herald website to check out the Australian news and all I see reported is murder and political mayhem. Perhaps it is not safe to go back?

Athina - don't believe the rumours.

Before I went to Athens people would tell me that it was a horrible city and to stay for as little time as possible. But I really enjoyed my time there. Yes it is not the prettiest city and it is certainly a dirty city, but for a city that has been in existence virtually since the birth of civilisation I would expect it to be a little dirty and careworn.

Perhaps my personal interest in all things "ancient" gave me more of an appreciation for the ancient city of Athina, but it wasn't just that. I loved the atmosphere of the place with street side cafes and tavernas serving cheap food and drinks into the early hours of the morning, with both tourists and locals dining side by side! I think Athens is under-rated - don't get me wrong you couldn't spend a whole week there but a couple of nights is no problem. But be warned Athens is HOT HOT HOT!

Language leads to hilarity!

A funny thing happened today!

I was on the bus on the way home today and I was talking about how I had bought a punnet of rasberries that morning and that they were delicious but quite mushy in consistency and I didn't like the mushy feeling in my mouth and after a while I couldn't eat anymore because the mushy feeling bothered me so much even though they tasted so good. There was this german guy from work who was sitting near us and snickering. Then Steve (another Australian) decides to tell me that I shouldn't use the word "mushy" as in German it is a slang word for vagina. So basically I had just sat on the bus and said in my loud foghorn voice several times "mushy, mushy, mushy", so let's think about that from the point of view of the old lady German passengers - some loud mouth is yelling from the back of the bus "fanny, fanny, fanny"....aaaaahhh...the joys of being a foreigner!

This reminds me of a story someone told me once about a night out drinking in Tokyo. He and a few friends were having drinks at a bar in Tokyo when he decided to cheers Italian style and the boys clinked their glasses together and loudly proclaimed "CHIN, CHIN"....and were a little surprised when all the nearby occupants of the bar stopped what they were doing and stared. It was only a little while later when they discovered that "chin chin" in Japanese means "penis"....

Where the hell is?

As someone who loves to dance and loves to travel I think that this is the perfect way to document your travels.

If this doesn't warm the cockles of your heart then I'm not sure what will.

I particularly like the little thrusting dude in Atlanta, USA!

Where the hell is Matt?





PS If you've got the time check out the outtakes too - also awesome. So many places to see - SIGH!

Made in Wolfenbuttel

Let me introduce you to a couple of things invented right here in Wolfenbuttel.

The first local product pretty much everyone would be familiar with and doesn't really need a lot of introduction - Jagermeister - a herbal liqueur that these days is most well known for being the chief ingredient in Jager bombs! Personally I think that Jagermeister is lecker (YUM!) but most people think it is an acquired taste.



The second product is henkelwurst - it's a smoked sausage shaped like a candy cane that hooks on the edge of your beer. Seriously. A local fleishmeister (butcher) invented it last year just in time for Oktoberfest and it was a hit! I don't go much on the taste but they are a lot of fun. Check out our pics and also check out the henkelwurst website http://www.henkelwurst.de

Eastern Trekking through Eastern Europe

My trip through Eastern Europe consisted of a 9 day tour that went from Prague in the Czech Republic to Split in Croatia, via Poland and Hungary, followed by a sailing trip through the Croatian Islands (both with the "Eastern Trekker" company).

Of the places visited I absolutely loved Poland and Croatia. Poland has such a fascinating history with it's prominent role in WWII, the people were friendly and the two cities we stayed in (Krakow and Zakopane) had a great atmosphere! The awesome atmosphere in Krakow may have had something to do with the fact that the Polish soccer team made it through to the European Cup on one of the nights that we were there after playing the match in Krakow. The fans were flooding the streets and celebrating and were keen for us to join in!

Croatia was amazingly beautiful. Plitvice Lakes National Park is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen (I can't urge you enough to see it - it's amazing) and the islands were also spectacular with translucent blue water, rustic villages, great seafood, wine and beer.

Eastern Europe is still relatively cheap to travel in, historically rich and stunningly beautiful but get in while you can - apparently the number of tourists increases annually and along with that the prices increase and a little something of the authenticity of the bigger tourist towns is lost. If you want a taste of European culture, history and amazing sites but can't afford to be crucified by the Euro exchange rate and crazy prices in the larger cities in Western Europe then definitely consider Eastern Europe (they should hire me for their tourist offices!).

Talented People

I've been lucky enough in my travels to meet a lot of talented people. I've introduced you to Chris and Caroline's blog - which has provided me with several hours of entertainment. Now I would like to introduce you to Laura - another co-traveller from Egypt. Laura is an amazingly creative person who makes up awesome jokes at the drop of a hat that had us in stitces on the trip, she studied animation at uni and has a couple of examples of her work on youtube that I have attached.


WILBUR


I love Wilbur and can't even comprehend the patience, imagination and skill that it must have taken to make this video. Wilbur took 6 months to complete- from concept to set and model construction to animation and the finished thing!


EVIL LITTLE JONO


Little Jono is a little creepy. A much simpler animation that is still awesome! It took about 5 weeks to create from story to movie- 3 weeks were spent in a dark room animating cut-outs under camera.

Egyptopia - Part 2

OK so I promised to write more about Egypt but it feels like it has been so long since that trip that quite frankly I can't be bothered.

So instead, for those who are interested I am going to provide the link to a couple of travel blogs of some of my tour companions:

BLOG number 1: Chris and Caoline's World Tour

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cc_world_tour/1/1208879400/tpod.html

Chris & Caroline are two Aussies who work in film and TV in Australia, their World Tour included the Backroads of Egypt a shorter version of my Egypt trip that didn't include Sinai - they are both talented writers and photographers and their blog is both entertaining and educational. It's a good read!

BLOG number 2: Miss Eeeema's World Tour

http://nzemma.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

Eeeemma (well Emma actually but say it in a kiwi accent and what does it sound like??) is a Kiwi girl also known as "sunshine" as she is always happy and always smiling and is like having your own personal sunbeam around. For a positive spin (which I would not have been able to achieve!) on anything Egypt and Sinai check out her blog! She was only supposed to do the shorter version of the trip but she loved us so much she couldn't bare to leave us and stayed on for the Sinai part too :-)

Also I've given a selection of the best photos on facebook but if you want to see the whole kit and kaboodle you can check them out at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lynneyp


Gillen
xx

Egyptopia

My time in Egypt has come to an end - the 3 weeks has absolutely flown and I can't believe how much we squeezed in to such a short space of time. I've spent the last week sick as a dog but have soldiered on so I didn't miss out on anything.

Apart from seeing all the monuments and temples that we've all read about and seen in the movies - the highlights were camping out in the desert, soaking up the sunshine in Dahab, sisha-ing it up and making it to the top of Mt Sinai even though I had the flu and thught I was going to pass out and fall off the side of the mountain a couple of times...more info and photos to come when I have a bit more time!

Spring has Sprung!

Spring has sprung - the sun is shining, the weather is clear, makes you want to move your dancing feet and Wolfenbuttel is sehr schon (that's very beautiful). But I won't be here to enjoy it as I am off to Egypt tomorrow! Jon and I took many pretty pictures of the Wolfenbuttel lake and I thought I would share.

Travel Pussy - yes you read that correctly!

For sale at the Wolfenbuttel bowling alley is the travel pussy for the man on the go. We made Jon go and buy us a couple at the vending machine in the gents toilets which was money well spent as this ingenious product has been the source of much hilarity. Click on the picture to see an enlarged version of the packaging.

A pub crawl through the Bute

So after the jet lag and a crazy week at work the 3 Auslanders decided to do a bit of a pub crawl through the Bute. One thing the Germans do well is serve beer - every brand of beer has it's own special glass of a specific shape. There are some very cute, very old pubs in Wolfenbuttel many with their own special brew or "kellerbier" - it would be quite easy to visit each of the pubs and never drink the same beer twice!

We also hit the Bowling alley which is pretty much the entertainment centre of town - strangely enough Martina and I can both bowl in the Northern Hemisphere maybe it has something to do with the Coriolis effect and I suspect that the lanes are a touch shorter too.

The Viking Festival - strangely no raping or pillaging in sight!

On my first full day we had an adventure into the nearby Harz mountains to visit a local Viking Festival at the ruins of Regenstein Castle. We enjoyed the snowy countryside, the demonstrations of viking life (but no raping and pillaging!) and we drank mead which actually didn't taste anywhere near as bad as it smelt (this is probably only exciting for people who read fantasy novels like Mazza and myself). On the way home though the temperature dropped so low that I thought I was going to die! I have a lot of acclimatising to do!

Arrival in a foreign land

Well I have made it to Germany safe and sound and into the loving arms of Martina and Jon - Wolfenbuttel has even managed to turn on some snow for me!

The first day was spent hugging and catching up and watching Jon sherpa the mattress I will be sleeping on through the streets of the Bute (from a friends 3rd floor apartment around the corner of M & J's cozy little 3rd floor apartment). I've also been reacquainted with many of the highlights of "the Bute" - the gun shop, the porn section of the DVD store, the cat skin on display next to incontinence pads in the window of some random old peoples store...Ahhhh..Germany what a place!