One year as a student…

So, we’re here in Oxford. It’s as pretty as everyone says it is, although I have to admit my (Amelia) adventuring has only extended so far as my college (St John’s) and the supermarket! We will definitely have to go on a walking tour or something. I’m sure we’ll have all the inside knowledge before too long.

Autumn is in full swing here. The leaves are falling and swirling everywhere and are in every colour from deep greeny black through golden yellow and a rich ruby red. I’ve collected one every day so far and am hoping that they dry out and retain their colours. The lawns however are beautifully manicured and a lush, bright green. Probably because no one walks on them! These are the trees at the entrance to our flat but I'll take the camera out soon and see what other pictures I can get.
We moved into our flat with the extremely generous help of my friend Debbie who drove us up to Oxford on Sunday. It was pretty easy to find and is about 10 minutes walk from the centre of town. St John’s is on the way into town (as is our new local, the ‘Royal Oak’) so it’s perfect. The flat itself is really big, loads of storage and furniture galore. We’ll invest in an air mattress or something so come and visit! It’s a block of flats called Hart Synnot House and houses graduate students from my college. There’s a lovely communal lawn which should be great for next summer and is lovely to look out on in the meantime. It even has squirrels!

It’s funny thinking of all the things that you take for granted when you move into an established flat though – we have no chopping board, grater or sieve for example! Adrian’s all about trying to get things for free, so luckily there’s a great Freecycle group in Oxford that I’m checking out. Hopefully it has stuff we need soon! (Freecycling is basically listing what you’ve got that you don’t want and people come and collect it – and it has everything you could possibly think of!).
I got my uni ID card today too – so there’s no backing out now! I’ve also been inundated with information – only a day after thinking that I didn’t know enough about what was going on… There are all sorts of freshers events and whatnot this week and next week to keep us busy and meet some people which should be great.

I’ve also got a field trip on Fri-Sun with my class (the 29 other people who are doing the MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy) down to the Isle of Purbeck on the south coast. I’m looking forward to seeing who else is in the course and meeting the lecturers etc. (how geeky does that sound…).

Adrian’s started the commute this week too – it took over three hours to get into London this morning! Yikes. Hopefully he can convince his work to let him work from home…

So there you have it, the first installment from Oxford. More reports as events warrant!

Wisiting Welly

It was like I had never left...

While Adrian was making the big bucks in London, I decided to make a short sojourn down to our nation's capital to see how everyone was doing. And I had a great time! Big ups to Kate and the (current and ex) Hataitai massive for welcoming me back; I would move back into that flat in a second if there's ever a room going and I'm in Wellington!

Kate and I went on an 'urban safari' to Cape Palliser to check out the seals (and the lambs, hawks, black cows, fat sausage dogs etc.). It was a gorgeous day and the fush and chups at the Lake Ferry pub rounded off the adventure nicely.

I also went back into work to say hi which was rather random - it was so similar that it felt as if I should be sitting down at a desk rather than just sitting in the kitchen drinking wine, but there were definitely lots of new faces that made me realise just how long I'd been gone. It also made me appreciative of my current job title, 'Lady of Leisure', and all the fun that having no plans on a Thursday entails...

The rest of the week was filled with wining and dining at various locations around town (including an absolutely delicious cassoulet, and tips on what the best thing is to order at yum cha, courtesy of Andrew). My bank balance is looking a bit poorly compared to my stomach!

Other highlights were the Rita Angus exhibition on at Te Papa at the moment and the swing on Mt Victoria that I had never known about! It was about time it was discovered though - it was absolutely HEAPS of fun (as Mark, Tom and Kate are showing).

Here are the rest of the photos.

Wet and wintery

After however many days of brilliant sunshine and nearly 40 degree heat, it’s back to winter for Amelia. (Although it’s only about four or so degrees colder than London I might add).

The main thing about this winter, after the brilliant, best in 60 years NZ summer, has been the vast, copious, massive amounts of rain. Auckland has had 10 wet weekends in a row and here’s what that looks like:

And if you thought the puddle looked bad, here’s what it looked like a mere five minutes later:

This weekend coming is supposed to be fine - bring it on I say!

And then it was over

So there you have it. 112 days of tripping around Europe, each about 5200 euros poorer, but a million photos richer.

There were too many highlights to mention them all, but I know that the Blue Grotto in Capri and the whole of Corsica would have to rate right near the top (or as Osun, our tour guide for Gallipoli would have said, they were some of the 'top best' things we saw). So if anyone needs hints about where to go on their next European adventure just give us a call!

Stay tuned for more adventures during the next 12 months at Oxford...

Eastern and Northern France (and don't forget Luxembourg!)

It's the final countdown...da da da dum...dum de dum de dum...

That's right, it was the last week of our trip. As I'd said, we had some more days left on our Eurail pass and so it was off to a region of France that neither of us had properly visited - the East. We based ourselves in Metz, which is the capital of the Lorraine region, and had a hostel with a kitchen - it's the simple things I tell you. Metz is home to the best stained glass in Europe - the cathedral St Etienne is literally filled with incredible glass art, from the Gothic and Renaissance periods, right up to some fantastic windows done in the 1960s by Marc Chagall. They also had a lot of pieces in museums in the region where you could look at them really up close and see all sorts of detail that you wouldn't otherwise know was there (like the expression on this guy's face).

We also spent a day in Strasbourg making use of the wonderful French institution whereby most museums are free on the 1st Sunday in every month. I for one was well over museum hopping by this stage, but our last two in Strasbourg - the Museum of Notre Dame with lots of sculptures and other pieces from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, didn't let the side down and were a good way to finish. Strasbourg felt really different from the rest of France, the German influence was everywhere, and we made the most of being so close by tucking into some delicious gingerbread...mmm...

Day trip #2 out of Metz was to a whole other country - Luxembourg. We succumbed to the lures of the city card yet again and went on a three hour walking tour with Henriette who was the town gossip and, as well as showing us the main sights like the Golden Lady (below) and the cathedral, told us all sorts of stuff that I'm sure wasn't on the official programme! Luxembourg used to be one of the most fortified cities in Europe until they dismantled nearly 90% of the fortifications to ensure peace. The remaining 10% that remain are mostly open to the public so we had all sorts of fun wandering around underground trying not to take a wrong turn! The city also had the most incredible patisseries that I have ever seen - must be something about the melting pot of European influences, but I wanted to eat everything in sight - pity the budget wasn't in harmony with the stomach...

Last day trip, #3, was out to Verdun to visit some of the WWI battlefields and memorials. We hired mountain bikes in Metz and braved near vertical hills to look around at everything (ok, they weren't vertical, but they felt like it!). It was really nice to get out in the countryside and see something a bit different.

Our final stop was in Lille for two days so I could show Adrian my other home town. It did as it always does and rained nearly non-stop, but we still managed to see the citadel, go to the zoo, look at some markets and, as no trip to the north would be complete without a trip to Flunch, eat so much food that we were nearly ill. I never thought there would be a limit to how many frites Adrian could eat. Turns out I was wrong...

The rest of the photos are here.