Wien!

May weekend mini-break #2 was organised courtesy of the lovely Katy and her new husband Dave, who are currently living the life of luxury in Vienna (those diplomats have it good I tell you - sure, they might have to work hard, but look at the amazing places they get to live!).

We got el cheapo airfares courtesy of Aer Lingus (flying an Irish airline from England to Austria, globalisation in action) and arrived in Vienna on Saturday afternoon. We started with an orientation walk around the city – Vienna is gorgeous! So many parks (apparently the most for any European capital??) and incredible buildings, it was all a bit overwhelming. So after that (admittedly moderate) piece of exercise it was time for dinner, and what a dinner we had... If I didn’t know it yet, the lesson was quickly learned: Vienna is all about the food. Adrian stuck with the traditional Wien Schnitzel (I found it difficult to remember to say ‘v’ for ‘w’ the whole time, even though ‘ween schnitzel’ doesn’t really have the best ring to it really does it), and I got the käsekreiner (sausages stuffed with cheese...mmm...). Dave beat us all though by getting the half metre of ribs and polishing them off in a flash – they did look so delicious I can’t blame him! But we weren’t done there; next it was off to have the biggest icecream sundaes I’ve ever seen in the middle of town sitting out under the stars. Absolute gluttony!

Sunday was another gorgeous day and we made the most of it by visiting the Belvedere Palace near Katy and Dave’s apartment and seeing the gardens and an Alfons Mucha exhibition, and then heading out to Schönbrunn which is Vienna’s version of Versailles. It is massive! We took in a strudel making demonstration (they soak the dough in oil for 30 minutes...no wonder it tastes so delicious!), ran around the maze, checked out the interior, and walked up the hill to the Gloriette and a beautiful view over the city.

Adrian reckoned that he could top my floor piano performances from Malmo and New York with his own rendition. Check it out and see what you think!

Sunday night was topped off by a visit to the Wiener (Vienna) Prater, a giant fairground with fantastic rides. We went on one called the ‘Admiral’ which pulled you up so fast you left your heart on the ground and then once at the top, suspended you there for a couple of seconds (which felt like an eternity!) and then plummeted you down leaving your stomach at the top – and after this happening three times in a row you had no idea where you were or how you were ever going to put your insides back together again! In a word: brilliant.

Monday was our last day and after heading back for another look at some of the buildings (the town hall, parliament etc.) we headed out to Kunst Haus Wien (Vienna Art House) which was built by Hundertwasser – better known to NZers as the designer of the green koru flag and the Kawakawa public loos! It was fascinating, his art is all about organic forms, and there was so much information explaining his intentions, it was great. Watching a 1990 TVNZ ‘Living Treasures’ video there was hilarious too, almost as if NZ didn’t really know what to make of this internationally renowned artist living in its midst.

There was so much we didn’t see – the opera house, or anything to do with music at all really which was a bit of a sacrilege, the main art galleries, or any of the city outside the very centre. It is definitely on the re-visit list. Thanks again so much to Katy and Dave for having us, we had a brilliant time! The rest of the photos are here.

Canterbury (the original one)

In an attempt to see as much of this fair country (and Europe) as possible, we've started on a rigorous programme of weekend mini-breaks. It's all about the cheap rail ticket (love the student rail card) and, despite my conscious telling me NOOOOOOOOO, the occasional cheap airfare.

So, in May, we started things off locally, with a 48-hour sojourn in Canterbury. We didn't even know where it was, so after a quick check on the map (it's near Dover) we booked our train tickets and were off. We stayed in one of the highest rated hostels in the UK (Kipps Independent Hostel) which was fantastic! They have a bbq on Saturday nights which is only £3.50 for a hotdog in a bun, a hamburger, and a beer! Nice one. But, Canterbury's all about culture with a capital C so I really should stop talking about food! We started off with the big daddy, the cathedral. It's enormous! Just keeps going on and on and on and so much history everywhere you turn. I particularly liked the cloisters and some of the newer stained glass windows. While we were in there the Polish Radio Choir were practising for a concert they were performing later that night - it was some very dischordant, jangly operatic stuff and sounded incredible in that space. We were lucky to get a sneak peek!


After gorging on culture it was time to gorge on lunch (yes I know, back to food, inevitable really isn't it...). The main street was home to a food festival which gave us a delicious Thai lunch and then a vegan blueberry tart...mmmmmm.... Fully refueled it was back on the tourist trail. That led us to a river boat trip and the Canterbury Tales - the latter's this fantastically kitsch Madame Tussauds-esque trip through Chaucer's stories. We were really lucky that we were the only people in there and could prance around making fun as much as we liked! We also checked out some gardens, (other) old churches, and op-shops. The shopping was actually pretty successful - Adrian picked up this brilliant long grey suit and waistcoat at a huge discount and has since proceeded to make everyone else in Oxford look underdressed - a pretty hard task actually!

After a night out on the town checking out the local chavs (sorry Canterbury, but it's true), we spent most of next day at St Augustine's Abbey. It was one of the largest Benedictine abbeys in the UK, but was destroyed in the Reformation. We've been learning all about Henry VII's role in the history here, man, that guy was pretty incredible (in the literal sense of the word!). But, I have to say, the highlight of Sunday was coming across these guys:



Did you see the amount of greenery on their heads?! And that one particular guy in the second row - like an entire garden growing on top...

So, Canterbury mini-break gets a big thumbs up from me. I may even go so far as to say it's very nearly as pretty as Oxford! The rest of the photos are here.

Peter Pan and Wendy

One of the must-do things in any Oxford student's life is to go to a ball. Those of us with £££ to spare would obviously choose the Magdalen College ball, but at £195 for one night it's a little on the steep side! A much more reasonable choice was the Keble College ball for £70, so a whole group of us from my course decided that a fun and frivolous night out on the town was definitely in order.

The theme was Neverland and it was definitely a fantasty paradise! Entertainment on offer included a silent disco, a chocolate fountain with cream filled profiteroles to dip into it (!!), a bouncy castle, a photo booth, a casino room, shisha pipes, and even sumo suits to play with! All that and unlimited food and drinks until 5am... We most definitely got our money's worth!

Adrian was particularly enamoured with the sumo suits (at about 4 in the morning) - see if you can tell which one he is in the video! I got into them as well after this scene was shot, man, are they heavy! I could hardly lift myself up again once I'd fallen over. Enjoy the video and the rest of the photos here.



The luxury of a taxi (for the mammoth one kilometre walk home...) at 5am was well worth it, as was the greasy fried chicken in bed the next day - so classy.

A brilliant night out!

Oxford takes on Paris

One of the most alluring parts of the structure of each of the four MSc courses in the Geography department is the annual field trip. Barcelona, Brussels and Amsterdam were on offer for the other courses, but I think we got the best choice of the lot - Paris!

After having lunch with a newly arrived Alexandra fresh off the plane, we all met up at the train station to get the Eurostar across to Paris. I'd never caught the train before, always going for the ferry because of the price differential, and becasue I was worried about ruining myself with the luxury of the train compared to the budget train/ferry/bus combo! It was pretty incredible, you only spend about 15 minutes in the actual tunnel itself, and then, hey presto, you're in France! Coming from an island it's definitely always a bit of a thrill to be able to go 'overseas' so easily...


On the work side of things we had a visit to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a study of how nature/culture is represented in Parisian parks, a presentation on some research on Paris's transport policies, and then a presentation of our work on knowledge controversies at Sciences Po (one of Paris's universities). I was also lucky enough to schedule one of the interviews for my research while I was there and, as a result, to be invited out to a gathering of ex-pat Kiwis on the Pont des Artes to celebrate ANZAC day! (The guy I was interviewing was a NZer) It was great fun and made me incredibly jealous of all these people doing wonderful things in such a beautiful place.

On the fun side of things we hung out on the steps of Sacre Coeur watching the amazing fire poi guy, went to the flea market at St Ouen, had dinner at a great Brazilian restaurant in Belleville, took loads of photos of all the lovely Paris icons, and other such frivolity. Every time I go to Paris I want to live there more and more...one of these days!!


Enjoy the rest of the photos!

Pudding monsters

So, you've been hanging out in anticipation long enough, wondering what on earth is this wonderous Pudding Club that I spoke of in the previous post. Well, let your salivating commence!

The Pudding Club is one of those random British institutions that you are never going to find anywhere else (although I might just set up an Icecream Club when I get home) and you just absolutely have to experience while here. In 1985, a group of friends were looking at the choices on the dessert menu and bemoaning the loss of traditional British puddings like 'Spotted Dick', and 'Jam Roly Poly', not to mention the illustrious family of puddings that are the crumbles. So, they started a tradition of getting together each Friday night and trying out a set of puddings (served, of course, with lashings of custard). One thing led to another and now about 50 people go each week, paying £30 for the privilege of a small main course and then seven, yes that's right, SEVEN helpings of pudding. You're not allowed to try a new pudding until you've eaten your last helping - and that's no easy task I can assure you when you're looking down the barrel of pudding #5... 

 
But, we made it through! Jeff and I (congratulations to Jeff also for organising this whole thing) made it through all seven of our puddings, while Sara managed a very honourable five helpings. My favourite of the night (and the crowd favourite also) was the rhubarb crumble, with the sticky toffee coming in at second place. Spotted Dick was stodgy and the idea that it was made with 'suet' just kind of didn't work - I don't even really want to know what suet is, it just sounds a little too odd for my liking... Lord Randall's (marmaladey) was quite yum, as was the Squidgy Chocolate (how could it not be with a name like that), but I'd definitely be keen to go back during the summer when they add four summer-weight puddings to the repertoire, such as Gooseberry Fool! Mmmmm...

Check out the rest of the photos here.