Aussie Gold!!!

Today was Australia Day and to celebrate the occasion we Australian residents of Wolfenbüttel gathered our Australiana and wallowed in all things that make our country great - mostly food and alcohol. We made meat pies, pavlova, lamingtons and vegemite on toast. Sipped Australian wine and beer, listened to Australian music and watched a bunch of Aussie things on the telly. 

I was introduced to Tim Minchin an Australian comedic singer who is quite awesome. Check out the attached videos of my two favourite songs of his that I have seen so far (well a song and a poem). They are absolute GOLD!!!

INFLATABLE YOU

ANGRY (feet)

Weihnachts in Deutschland!

The christmas period here was wonderful! It was a time when my relationships with my German colleagues grew and developed so that I now think of many of them as friends rather than people I work with (it's amazing what a bit of mutual drunkeness can do to build a relationships). I think I evolved a little from being a visitor to the lab group to into an actual member of the group - which is great! It has made life much more pleasant.

The Germans invented many of the traditions we associate with Christmas - they are responsible for christmas trees and christmas lights. One of the great treats at Christmas is the Weihnachtmarkt (Christmas markets). You can buy all kinds of German delicacies (yes there are some) my favourites so far being: Feuerzangenbowle - a very tasty drink made from juice, glühwein and rum - which is poured over large cones of sugar and set alight to melt the suger into the glühwein; and the Bombardino which is whiskey, warm milk and Eierliquer topped with whipped cream....as the germans woulds say "sehr lecker"! I visited the Christmas markets many times with my fellow auslanders sampling a different food and beverage each time!

 The Christmas parties I attended were also GREAT fun - the Germans really know how to plan a party. The MPAT (our lab group) Christmas retreat was held in St. Andreasberg in the Harz mountains - it was an amazing winter wonderland. The party was of course a well organised and well oiled affair - dinner, presents, international table tennis tournament, cocktails, the MPAT  band playing a medley of christmas carols and organised games!

 

The HZI Institute Party was awesome...so much fun..possibly one of the best parties I have ever been to. It went over 5 floors, the cellarwas a dance floor with a DJ playing a really 

good mix of songs, the ground floor had tables for eating and a buffet of food and glühwein. The first floor had the cocktail bar manned by the boys of MPAT and they had made this awesome bar out of eskys that looked a bit like an igloo. The first floor also had....wait for it....singstar! The 2nd floor was another dance floor playing really good music too and then the 3rd floor was more tables and food. There was a champagne bar in the elevator so you could take the elevator between floors and have a drink at the same time - we ended up hanging out in the elevator for quite a bit of time cause it was so fun....So we (myself and some of my Auslander friends) danced up a storm for hours with so many different people - all of us dancing like mad (after a few drinks everyone was dancing like mad not just me and Leo!). The Germans from my workgroup weren´t really into dancing so much but I talked to nearly everyone for quite some time....then later on in the evening when most of the people had gone home there were about 12 of us still partying away and singing our hearts out on the singstar into the early hours of the morning!

So this party makes me ask the question: what exactly is it about dancig that makes me so euphoric??

Fun in Deutschland.

One of the best and worst things about working at an internationally recognised and rather large research institute is that people come and go all the time for periods ranging for 1 up to 6 months or more. On one hand, this is great because it means that you get to meet new people all of the time and learn about different cultures because people come here from all over the world. But on the other hand, it is also terrible because it feels like you are constantly on your best "getting to know you" behaviour. I was really lucky for the first 8 months that I was here because I had pre-existing friends from Australia here with me - Martina for the first couple of months and then Anna for 6 months. Another downside of this constant coming and going of people is that it also makes it a little difficult to make friends with the people who have been here long term...they have seen so many people come and go and have developed friendships that then have to end, that it can be difficult to get through the barriers that they have put up. I´ve given up trying with some people and now just accept that they have their pre-existing group of friends without room for one more...it´s their loss!!


I was lucky to have Anna here for so long. Anna and I had lots of fun exploring the local area in her 6 months...we would just hang out and watch telly or movies, or go on little explorations in the local area. One time in Autumn we took my camera and tripod into the nearby forest and spent ages taking self timer portraits of ourselves frolicking in the leaves...the pictures were so funny that we had tears of laughter and Anna threatened to pee her pants at one stage from laughing so much....these are the kinds of silly things that you can do only with people that you know well!

But then other things are more fun to do in groups with everyone enjoying the same first time experiences. In November I organised a group outing to the nearby Brocken (the highest peak in the Harz mountains) for a weekend of fun in the snow. It was myself and 4 others - Anna, Guru and Manish (2 Indian guys) and Rosanna (a Brazilian) - none of whom had ever seen snow before! We caught a steam train up the highest mountain (the Brocken), hung out at the top for a few hours and then caught the train back down.
It was awesome, the snow was knee deep and blanketed everything, it was absolutely freezing (well...minus 5 degrees) with howling winds and driving snow at times. But there was a restaurant up there so we would go out in the cold and frolick a bit, make a snowman, take some photos or go for a walk, then we would head into the restaurant to thaw out and then back out into the elements. This was a great experience to have with a bunch of Auslanders and bonded us together (perhaps froze us together), that being said...I am the only one of the 5 of us that is still here.

Florence, Italy.

Myself and Anna (a friend from Australia who was also here in Brown Town for 6 months) spent a long weekend in Florence in mid-November, and Rikki another Aussie joined us for 2 days of the weekend.

We met up with Rikki at Pisa airport and after 20 minutes of raving about the awesome weather (it´s amazing how balmy 15 degrees can feel when you are coming from 6 degrees) we hopped on a bus to Florence. We dropped our stuff at the accommodation and then it was off to a nearby trattoria for some good food and good red wine (which are sorely lacking here in Deutschland) and then off to bed early for a full day of sightseeing.

We stayed in a backpackers to save money and I dropped off to sleep no probs and woke up refreshed in the morning to have Anna whinge about getting no sleep because the girl in another bed snored like a trooper...I thought she was just being a princess until Rikki agreed that she didn´t sleep a wink because of the snoring and had even kicked the girl in the middle of the night to stop her tractor impersonation. Thus, proving once again that I am a world class sleeper - if it was an olympic event I think I would be in with a chance for a medal!

That day we pounded the cobbled streets of Florence taking in art (including Michaelangelo´s David at the Academy - which was really impressive - well for the artistic aspects not so 'anatomically' impressive), gelato, views, gelato, shopping (I bought some chic purple leather gloves ), gelato and a super yummy lunch at a place called Yellow and ended the day with some wine bar hopping tasting a few good chianti´s along the way. The next day we bid farewell to Rikki, then Anna and I headed out to a medieval village called San Gimigiani...the place was pretty cool in a ye olde kinda way - with tasty pizza and awesome views over the tuscan countryside but better yet the weather was sensational with sunshine galore to replenish the vitamin D - Henno even stripped down to a t shirt at one stage.

Feeling energetic and loving the Tuscan countryside we decided to join a bike tour the next day that would take us to on a 20km loop stopping at wineries and tavernas along the way for refreshment! I didn´t do too badly and only had to pike out and walk for about 200m up a rather steep hill (the brochure said "relatively flat" I think they were using the term relatively rather loosely!) but Anna was a champ and fanged it up the hills.

The next morning we got up super early to get to Pisa so we could see the leaning tower and the "Field of Miracles"...we spent quite some time perfecting our touristic shots with the leaning tower (it´s gotta be done), made the dizzying climb up to the top - dizzying not because of the height but because of the angle of the tower -it messes with your balance something shockin´ then it was off to the airport to return to Deutschland....

....and to the shocking reality of 3 degrees!

Best things about Florence:


* it was warm enough, interesting enough and tasty enough to keep the mood up to get me through the cold weather that lay ahead.

*the coffee was GLORIOUS!

*the actual city of Florence is small enough that you could see all of the major sites and visit a couple of museums in a day and a half (if you plan it just right to avoid the lines at the museums).


Worst things about Florence:

*In essence it is just another European city and has contributed to my city fatigue...the next holiday definitely needed to be adventure based and not city based to get a different taste of Europe.

Barcelona, Spain

At the end of September I went through a major homesick/depression phase where I was lonely and not having fun and if I didn´t have this trip to Barcelona to look forward to I probably would have jumped on a plane back to Australia at the first opportunity! I was looking forward to Barcelona as a getaway from Germany (and the closed off Germans), as a chance for some better weather and to spend time with an old friend- Gelareh.

I spent all up 7 days in Barcelona - which was the perfect amount of time to see and do everything that I wanted to. Gelareh and I wandered the streets of Barcelona, we walked 10 km a day from one end of the city to the other - eating, drinking coffee and sangria, checking out the modernisme architecture (which I love - I don't know what drugs these guys were taking but I like the results and may look into taking some myself!). We explored the gothic area with it's winding streets and alleys with surprising little shops and restaurants...a highlight of the trip was a picnic in Park Güell with goodies purchased from the fresh food markets and yummy sangria...and a leisurely exploration of this amazing park.

Best things about Barcelona:

*Catching up with old friends and making new friends - we stayed with Azadeh and Francesc who were wonderful hosts who made sure that we sampled some authentic Catalan culture (we ate snails!).

*Picnicing in Park Güell.

*Gaudi and his compatriates whose imaginative architecture make walking the streets of Barcelona a feast for the senses!

*It picked me up out of the doldrums and set me back in the world of appreciating life and what this European adventure has to offer! Plus when I got back to Germany it was like the Germans must have missed having me around and they were super nice to me!

*Dali, Dali, Dali - my daytrip to Figueres to see the Dali museum was a great day!

The worst thing about Barcelona:

*The pickpockets - on day 3 I busted some little arsehole with his hand in my bag trying to steal my wallet - lets just say there was so much yelling and swearing that if there were any pirates present they would have been blushing. This incident unfortunately ruined my faith in humanity and I eyed everyone suspiciously from then on....

London, England.

I spent 6 days in London at the end of July catching up with my friend Martina (for the last time before she returned to Australia) and another friend Rikki (for the first time in a couple of years).

London was awesome and 6 days was not enough time to even scratch the surface of what the city has to offer...particularly as minimal time was spent sightseeing and much time was spent shopping, dancing, dining and trying to reignite the gin craze of the 1930's.

Sightseeing wise I visited the Museum of Modern Art and spent a lot of time around the Thames - visiting the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London and cruising down the river to Greenwich. I also cruised past the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace....but there are still so many things to see.

Braunscwheig where I am living is a little starved of culture so I was so lucky to go and see an alternative film about Lou Reed, catch some comedians practicing for the Edinburgh fringe and take in some live music.

Best things about London:

*The sheer number of options of things to see and do, such a culture hub!

*Being surrounded by English speakers and being able to

indulge my love of eavesdropping once again!

*Catching up with friends...while I have made new friends in Germany, I find meeting new people all the time hard work, wondering what impression you make and what people think of you. The opportunity to spend time with people who already know and love you allows for total relaxation.

*The shopping!!!! I spent so much money on clothes and cosmetics but it was worth it - I am writing this post 6 months later and everything I bought is so well used and so well complimented! There is nothing better than being asked where you bought something and replying "Oh! This old thing...I bought it in London!"

Basically I can't wait to return to London to sample even more of the amazing smorgasbord of things that London has to offer.

Return to the Blog-o-sphere

OK so I am returning to the blog-o-sphere to give blogging another try. I failed miserably the first time - let's see if this time is any better...there are 6 months of travelling and living in a foreign country to catch up on I will see if I can get caught up and continue on into the future.

The previous record was 2 months of blogging...let's see if I can beat it this time.