travelog

After an uneventful train trip from Stockholm to Copenhagen, we headed North to Hillerod- the small town just outside of Copenhagen where my Danish relatives live. Due to our family being scattered across the world, I had only met my aunt Liz and uncle Frits once before when I was younger, and I had never met either of my two grown-up cousins, or their partners, or their children!

So it was very exciting to stay a week in Copenhagen, get to spend some time with everybody and to see the places where they grew up and where they live now. We spent the first day exploring their part of Denmark, including a breathtaking lake and castle right on their doorstep- a past home of the royal family. We walked through the gardens of Fredensborg (home to Frederick and Mary and the kids) and spent a few hours at Louisiana; an amazing art centre where the grounds and view of the coast are as spectacular as the art galleries inside. We finished with a drive up the coast and ice-cream on the beach- it seems like we had brought the good weather with us.

We met my eldest cousin Ingelise and her husband Andreas, along with their kids Marcus and Emilia. It was both thrilling and awkward meeting the kids since neither of them spoke or understood english and were therefore a bit shy around us strange unintelligable new folk. They are both so cute, and Emilia is so funny- despite being only 3, she is boisterous and tries her best to boss everyone around It was so nice to finally catch up with Ingelise and Andreas- you think you have a sense of a person from seeing photos of them growing up- but you realise just how much is unknown when you meet them in person. In was great to share stories of growing up and just talk and really get to know each other better.

We were treated to a tasty traditional Danish meal cooked up by Frits- he really went out of his way to feed us as many different Danish delicacies as possible during our time there. Being retired, he has spent a lot of time honing his skills in the kitchen- the quality of his cooking shows it- and the food was definitely a factor in us considering moving to
Copenhagen to work for a while

Another alluring factor was the wonder of Danish design... It's one thing to have modern architectural wonders sitting shoulder to shoulder with historic buildings in central Copenhagen, but it goes so much deeper. Studying design in Perth we got used to learning about design classics but rarely laying eyes on them- unless it was in a museum or the foyer of an office tower on The Terrace. Sometimes it seems like it's only people involved in the design industry who even know these famous furniture pieces even exist! Maybe it's because Denmark has produced so many design talents or that it's embedded in their history, but this is a country where everyone knows and appreciates good design.
Every house we entered had beautiful modern lamps, chairs, and furniture. Famous designers are household names and everyone is knowledgeable of the iconic pieces of Danish design, since they are surrounded by them as they grow up. It's this appreciation of design on a societal level that really gives Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia such a unique feel- good design resonates through daily life, just like it is supposed to do!

We set out to research jobs and accomodation while we were there, spending a morning at a centre especially set up to help non-Danish speakers to find places to stay and give advice on work. We found a bunch of local design firms and sent out CVs and folios, while trying to get a feel for the different areas of the city in terms of living. It was quite hard to cram so much into our week there- work stuff, sightseeing, time for family, shopping... and as a result we were quite exhausted.

A great lead came our way when my cousin Torben got us interviews at the large shipping company he works for. The jobs were just administration assistant positions- nothing really creative- but the office was close to the city centre and the jobs would give decent pay. We quickly warmed to the idea of spending a few months working in Copenhagen before heading to the UK- we would have a bit more time to relax and research firms in London, a bit more time to explore the city and spend time with my cousins, we could start to learn a new language, and we could ride bicycles everywhere! We set up interviews at the end of the week and then tried to cram in as much time as possible to soak up the city.

We spent a day exploring on bicycles, swam in the harbour baths, visited the military barracks-turned-hippie town Christiania, visited galleries, museums and design stores and saw plenty of modern architecture dotted around the city. We went out one night, hitting a few bars and wandering the streets, window shopping at the cool design, clothing and bicycle stores. We had another day of being driven around the countryside, this time to visit a couple of iconic churches- each one of them so stunning and so different from one another.

At the end of the working week, we went and interviewed for those admin jobs- the first time either of us had done 'proper' interviews with logic and personality tests. I never knew someone could tell me so much about myself based on a squiggle on a page!Knowing that we were only in town for a few days, they moved us straight onto the second interview, and we even met the heads of the department we would be working for and discussed the work environment and tasks in more depth. We left feeling very confident and excited about the opportunity, expecting them to make us an offer within a week or so.

Another exciting event was that we were in town for the christening of Torben and his wife Susanne's first child, 5-month-old Emma. We sat through a church service in Danish, and were singing along by the end of it- nothing beats a couple of hours of talking and singing to help you get hang of the pronunciation of a new language! We went back to Torben and Susanne's house near the beach, and proceeded to eat buffet food and drink all afternoon, meeting extended family and friends. The kids were much more animated this time around, and would often approach us with gifts of sweets and questions we couldn't understand. Sonia very quickly learned to communicate in tickles, while I was still resorting to grins. We ended the day with a walk down to their shared private beach- the weather hadn't turned out quite as good as expected, so only one brave soul went swimming while the rest of us were content to wet our feet in the shallows, pick berries and skim rocks along the shore. The little ones gradually shed their clothes and were soon shouting, splashing around in the freezing water and running up and down the small jetty

So we said our goodbyes to our newfound family and jumped on a train heading into mainland Europe. We embarked on our last leg of travel knowing that we knew we would be back in Denmark in four weeks time- either for another week's holiday, or perhaps to live for a while longer.

-Liam and Sonia

Hey everyone, just a quick update to let you all know where we're at now that we've finished our travels. I'd initially intended to finish all the remaining blog entries and post them in one hit... but it's taken three weeks to get one of them done, so that idea has been abandoned

We got to London three weeks ago and on our first day there Sonia got a call back from an architecture firm in Copenhagen that she had visited. The director wanted a proper interview with her, so we organised to head back to Denmark, since the firm was so prestigious and awesome we thought it would be worth the extra expense and hassle to go back. The firm is also just starting up a product design department so I also had a chance of meeting them as well.

As a result, we were kind of stuck in limbo- looking for jobs and houses but unable to commit to anything because of going back to Denmark and possibly being offered work there. It was so strange to decide on London and get our headspace ready for that, only to know we might go back to Denmark for a while!

So we both worked hard on sending out CVs and folios, and chasing up different job leads. After a couple of weeks it became clear that all the great firms that I had contacted just weren't interested in hiring anyone at the moment, so I got in touch with a couple of recruitment agencies. Sonia had already contacted recruiters first, and has had a couple of promising job interviews and second interviews.

We flew to Denmark on Monday morning and interviewed with the architecture firm here. It went well for both of us and it was great to meet the director there, but it seems like he was just interested in meeting us in person, since he has some future projects that he has us in mind for. So we're heading back to London to throw ourselves back into the job and house hunt, knowing that we might have an opportunity back here in a few months time.

Househunting is another drama- we've looked at about a million ads, phoned about 30 people, and actually viewed only 6 places in the last week. 2 were indescribably bad, 2 were ok, one was just crazy, and one was absolutely amazing- and all of them were around the same price!
So we've got a couple of hopeful leads and a few more places to look at later in the week. It's actually a relief that Denmark won't be happening immediately, so we can just get a place and finally have a bed and a cupboard and a room to ourselves again. Travelling for so long is so very tiring.

The flickr page is up-to-date as far as travel photos go- http://www.flickr.com/photos/legham/collections/72157600237293485/ and we promise that the blog entires will get finished, once we have a computer of our own and some spare time
I've also just updated the travel map, so you can get a better idea of where and when we actually wandered around Europe.

Hope you're all keeping well, drop us a line anytime

-Liam and Sonia

After spending so many hours in the air over the first half of our trip, we were dying to crack open our Eurail pass... however to get to Norway we had to catch one last flight. We decided to forego the usual arrive-two-hours-before-and-rush-to-boarding-gate routine, in favour of getting there an hour before boarding, taking our sweet time wandering around the airport, and waiting until most of the flight had boarded before we stood up to join the boarding queue. I tell you what, it makes the biggest difference to just take your time- it's not like the flight's going anywhere without you once you're checked in, and no one's going to steal your seat. I sat there watching all the suckers lining up before the boarding gate was even open, like they were going to get extra gold stars if they were lining up to get into the classroom before the teacher arrived! Now, if only something could be done about getting OUT of the plane without queueing...

We arrived in Oslo and met our hosts at the train station: ex-Perthian Shannon, her Norweigan boyfriend Eystein and our good friend from home Ciara had just spent a week holidaying in Croatia, and they were just getting back into town themselves. We spent a couple of days just relaxing, catching up on Perth gossip and exploring Oslo. I can't stress just how relaxing it was to lounge around a nice spacious apartment, drink bucketloads of tea, cook up a storm and compare travel photos and stories with such great company

After a drama-filled morning concerning a flat car battery, we then headed up to Eys' family cabin at a lake in the mountains. Many families in Norway have both a winter cabin and a summer cabin- we went to the winter cabin in the summer, which was a first for Eys. It was quite funny to see him spinning out over the luscious green foliage on the trip up, since he's only ever done the trip when the landscape is covered in snow! We spent another couple of days lounging around, eating, drinking, breakdancing (just Shann and Ciara!), reading and rowing on the beautiful lake at our doorstep. I baked a batch of the classic O'Brien "World Famous Texas Brownies" which were devoured by the end of the day, and had a go at this great Norweigan activity called Slakkline- like tightrope walking for fun!

We then spent another day on the road, with Eys pulling off a marathon driving session of 6 or 7 hours to get us down to the south coast. A friend of theirs was having a party at their summer cabin, which just happened to be on a small private island off the coast! A short boat-ride away was a cosy little hideaway complete with 3 cabins, private jetty, miniature beach and badminton court. There was also no running water or electricity, although a generator kept the fridge cold and the music cranking all night. We met heaps of new folk, and sat by the fire drinking until the sun came up. The next morning a couple of brave/crazy people even went swimming in the freezing water

We then dropped Ciara off at the airport and had one last night in Oslo before farewelling our dear Norweigan friends and jumping on a train heading North. We did the famous Oslo-Bergen rail trip- supposedly one of the most picturesque train rides in Europe. We spent one night in Bergen, then took a daytrip through the fjords, consisting of a magnificent winding railway through the mountains, a ferry trip along the fjord, and then a winding busride through some more mountains.

We had booked tickets on the midnight train- our first sleeper cab experience- so we had about 7 hours to kill in a tiny
town. After spending a couple of hours browsing the local library (sonia looking at a book on the history of hair-do's), another hour eating dinner and wandering the streets, we settled in at the train station for the final leg. I managed to devour a short novel before the train arrived, despite a family with screeching kids running around the small waiting area. The sleeper cab was great fun, but we only managed about 5 hours sleep before the train arrived at our destination. We grabbed a train station breakfast, using up the last of our Norweigan Kroner, and then jumped onto another train headed to Stockholm.

We were unsure of what the city would be like, since we haven't actually come across many people who have spent time there to offer us advice, but it turned out to be such a great week. I guess we lucked out with the weather- it was all sunny skies and t-shirt weather for the first couple of days. Stockholm is beautiful. Pretty leafy streets, really awesome train station wall mosaics (check the photos... some of them were way crazee!), just lots of art and culture everywhere, and pretty lookin' to boot.

We spent a lot of time roaming the different areas, including a cool shopping and nightlife area called Sodermalm- checking out awesome stores and spending way too much money on clothes for a traveller's budget :P (check the store Weekdays, Cheap monday jeans etc).
We also randomly ended up drinking with Australian singer/songwriter Darren Hanlon after spotting his name on a gig-guide, and got to meet some great Swedish friends of his who gave us lots of tips on where to go and what to see for the rest of our time there.
The rest of the week's weather turned patchy and overcast, but we still roamed around looking at museums, galleries, shops and bars. We caught the Gay Pride Parade, which was huge and fun.
Our hostel was actually a school, which was turned into a hostel during the summer months. This meant that we were in bunks in a classroom, complete with locked cupboards, class photos, lockers in the hall, and showers in the gym! We saw so many people come and go during our week there, including obnoxious french drunken teenage boys and a gaggle of moody emo drunken teenage lesbians. Fun times!

On our final day there the sun came out, so we finally got to do what we had been dying to do all week- wear shorts and ride bicycles! Another interesting thing about Stockholm is that the city is spread out over a bunch of different islands: you have Gamla-stan the old-town touristy island, Skeppsholmen the museum island, Sodermalm the trendy downtown shopping and nightlife island, and the best of all; Djurgarden the park island. It's sort of like a flat King's Park- really close to the city centre, but mainly automobile-free and with great cycle paths. There are beaches, ponds, meadows, open fields, museums, canals, an amusement park, and the closest thing to paradise that we've seen- Rosendahl's garden cafe.

This place was stunning on such a nice summer's day- they create salads, cakes and pastries using mainly ingredients grown onsite in the organic gardens and greenhouses. It's quite something to wander the flower gardens and rows of vegetables knowing that the meal you're about to eat was in the ground only days before. The best part was the atmosphere- after picking a selection of things to eat and drink you could wander down through the outdoor terraced area to an apple orchard- where families and picnickers were sprawled amongt the shady trees. It was like an image of heaven....sunny, grassy, apple trees, beautiful Swede families everywhere. Of course the food was amazing, but it was just the way that everything came together- the food, setting and atmosphere- to form such an unforgettable experience.

It was also so much fun to get back on bicycles- after seeing how well integrated cycling is in so many European cities, we are well and truly bitten by the cycle bug, especially the retro-stylings and classic designs of the bikes available in Scandinavia. We were still finding our latent bike riding skills, seeing that Sonn took a tumble after getting a bit adventurous going down hill on a gravel path - ouchy! Not to let a graze spoil our fun, we rode around all afternoon (at some points Sonn just did winding bog laps up and down the path - she felt like a happy little kid again, scrapes and all!!) until we had to drop the bikes back at sunset and get ready for the next day's train journey to Denmark.

-Liam and Sonia

Before heading to Iceland, Liam and i dropped into the UK - London was mostly catching up with friends from Perth - followed by a whirlwind peep into Glasgow and Edinburgh. We were both surprised at how small both these towns were - egad, even smaller then Perth maybe? Not that they lacked in character by any means, we are just slowly coming to realise that other towns are just as small as Perth; it's just that more people have heard of them. We had initially thought that Scotland might be an alternative to London for a place to live and work in the UK, but we decided we need a big city for better job prospects. So begrudgingly we have accepted that London is where we are probably going to settle down and look for work. Now on to Iceland...

Ah Iceland. Where to start with beautiful Iceland? Let's see... upon touching down, we were greeted by a beautiful, clean and well designed airport, it had a high level of material finishes and well considered detailing; it was essentially a sophisticated little pod in the middle of nowhere. This really summarises Iceland quite succinctly. The place is bloody perfect and so are its people. In fact we continued to encounter various forms of Icelandic perfection on our 8 day drive-a-thon around the small island.

The road from Keflavik airport to Reykjavik gave us just a taste of the landscape that we would uncover over the next 8 days. Li and i were mostly silent for the 40 minute drive, just quietly observing this new landscape in front of our eyes. Initially Iceland strikes you as so... 'removed', you really feel very very far away. The land looks so fresh and feels a little bit strange too. Kind of new and prehistoric at the same time. The colours are really crisp; acid green mosses, bright blue water and black black black rocky outcrops. The best way to describe it is like looking at the world through high definition, and i hope that our photos convey that.

We arrived at Reykjavik city hostel, (another snazzy piece of architecture) checked in and picked up our cute lil hire car - a volkswagon polo. The VW made Li feel a little bit at home atleast! Funny thing when we hopped in the car, all confident with our driving-on-the-right-hand-side skills after america, we expected an automatic only to discover it was a manual. Eek. We weren't so confident anymore - it's a whole other ball game driving on the other side of the road AND having to change gears. My left arm kept bashing into the door everytime i needed to change gears! But we adjusted quite quickly and with no collisions. Phewf.

So - we had tackled the driving situation, next was food. We expected Iceland to be expensive. We knew this fact well in advance, but our shopping trip to stock up on food at Reykjavik's biggest shopping centre soon pummelled that fact home. A McDonalds value meal costs AUS$16. AUS$16!!! Even the fast food is expensive! We soon realised that we would be self catering every meal for the next 8 days. We are now masters at buying exact amounts of food to portion out correctly for the exact number of meals required for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yes, yes, very anal and nerdy.

Walking through the shops, we also realised how good looking everyone was. And i mean EVERYONE. They were all perfect Scando specimens...pert little noses, high cheekbones, every girl with an outrageously cute fringe...it was like they were humanoid robots or something. It felt like we were in Gattaca. This land was proving to be more and more perfect by the minute!

There wasn't too much time left in the day so we headed straight for the Blue Lagoon, which is a naturally heated lagoon of baby blue opaque water. It cost an arm and a leg to get in but was well worth it. This building too was another beautiful piece of architecture. (What i can't understand is that Iceland, (pop. 300, 000) can provide unique high quality architecture at every turn, and Perth (pop. 2 million) seems to poo-poo anything that resembles good taste. Anyway...back to the lagoon!) The water was as described, baby blue and obscured your hand if you held it 20cm under water. Check out Liam's photos on Flickr to get a real picture of it. Soaking in the warm water amongst the surrounding black lava field rocks with white silicon mud slathered all over your face was a surreal experience. Gah - More perfection!

So after the shopping and nature stuff we were pretty tuckered out after all that perfection envy, so we only took a casual stroll down the main street in town and then went off to bed with the sun just dipping below the horizon at 12 midnight and never really setting (this is known as the midnight sun).

The next morning we had our maps in hand and were ready to hit the road! We got off to a tricky start, getting a bit tangled in highway exits, but eventually we hit highway 1 - the ring road. What followed was 8 days of waking, eating, driving, drooling over the beautiful landscape passing by the window, arriving at the next hostel, eating, sleeping - that was our routine everyday. But it was far from tiring or tedious. Iceland is pretty small so 6-7 hours was probably the longest amount of time that we drove (usually 4-5hrs), and the midnight sun conveniently extended our sightseeing time too.

We saw alot of amazing natural sights. What blows me away about iceland is how varied the landscape is. Water falls, lava fields, geysirs, glaciers and glacial lagoons, craters, geothermal bubbling pools of sulphur stenchy mud, desert like sandy mountainous dunes, crazy black beaches with caves made of hexagonal columns of basalt (apparently lava that errupted from under ground volcanoes and then crystallised when meeting the extremely cold temperatures above ground)...were just some of the things we saw. Like i mentioned earlier, there were also suprisingly many encouters with beautiful architecture around the whole island. For example, we found a small but amazing concrete church reminiscent of Ghery´s Bilbao Guggenheim in a town population 300 or something. Cra-zee!

My favourite moment was coming across a church (eerily similar to the house in Beetlejuice) that was holding a small concert. As I sat down inside, a 20th century string trio had just begun playing as i looked around the amazing interior of the church - a typical example of Scando modernism, restrained but still warm with a massive avante garde mosaic of jesus behind the alter. I just cant explain it really, but it just felt so otherwordly, it was like the abstract aural beauty of the music matched the churches avante gard aesthetic - every perfect, precise, atonal pluck and moan of the string instruments united perfectly with the interior. A bit wanky, sorry, but that´s just how it felt!

So, in a nutshell my initial self-conscious fears of Iceland being a nerd holiday "are we just going to be looking at moss and rocks?" were absolutely forgotten about after our 8 days driving around that small but totally unique country. It was just what i was hoping it would be, I´ve seen nothing like it before and I loved it! I think you should all go and see it one day if you get the chance.

xs

Sitting in a 7-11 in Stockholm, looking back at my diary- I realise it's been 5 weeks since Botcon finished. On one hand it it's hard to believe it's been that long, since the memories are so fresh- and on the other hand it really does seem like it was a whole world away... which of course it was. Well, half a world

I should preface the coming ramble with a disclaimer- I've been to my fair share of toy fairs, read reports from previous transformers conventions, and seen tv shows about other fandom conventions. To be honest I was expecting a lot of socially retarded geeks. You know the type- like the comic book guy from the simpsons- large, loud, smelly and hopelessly opinionated.
While there were a few choice specimens encountered over the 5 days I spent at Botcon, I was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone I met and spoke to over the weekend were really decent, down-to-earth and friendly folk. I kinda feel a bit stupid for thinking I was in the minority as a socially-adjusted obsessive geek :P

So I rolled into Rhode Island off the bus from NYC, sweaty and tired since it was a scorching 30+ degree day in both places. I met up with the two other Australian fans I had made contact with before leaving- Matthew (aka griffin) and Ian (along with his wife Caroline), and griffin lugged his growing piles of shopping bags into our shared hotel room. They'd already taken advantage of being in town early by hitting the local Wal-mart and raiding the shelves before the convention had begun.
And after our tiny NYC hostel, this hotel room felt like a palace

We checked out the centre of town (consisting of a busport, convention centre, giant mall and about 10 hotels) and made friends with a few other fans who were milling around.

The next morning Ian and Caroline were busy with an organised tour and we didn't need to be back for official registration until later in the afternoon, so griffin and I made it our mission to hit up more department stores, as well as stocking up on groceries and finding somewhere to clear our camera memory cards onto CD. We navigated the bus system, walked a few miles, and ended up on a highway with strip malls in the next state (not hard considering the size of RI).

We managed to tick every box on the list of things to do, and I bought a bunch of movie toys (which weren't out on the shelves when I left home) just because of how cheap they were in the US. Loaded up with bags, we got back into the city and hit the convention centre to register. I was also surprised to recognise a few people in line from various US messageboards that I visit all the time for TF (that's TransFormers) info: I hadn't expected it to be so easy to come across people that I've often had conversation with online.

After half an hour in line for registration packs, we lined up again for the opportunity to buy more exclusive mechandise. We dropped off our piles of toys to the hotel, and got ready to head out again, this time for the exclusive preview screening of the TF movie. While it was a week early for the US, it was actually around the same time as the Australian release, so some of you may have even seen it before me. The screening was great- there's nothing better than a bunch of fans watching something that they love, everyone was laughing, cheering and clapping throughout- and it didn't get out of hand, so it was still easy to focus on the movie. Needless to say I loved it- as long as you go in expecting a big funny action movie and don't think about the details too much, you'll have a good time.

The next big event was the Hasbro tour the next morning, which I had been hanging out for as much as the movie. Finally, a chance to see TF HQ, to see the engineering department, to meet the designers, and to hound them with employment questions I chatted to the design team guys a lot, and then some more that afternoon back at the convention. I ended up meeting the TF head honcho and getting his business card to pass on my folio- I'm not really that hopeful, but it will be nice to get some feedback.

The next couple of days were a blur- consisting of wandering around the dealer room (tables upon tables of toys for sale), dropping off stuff at the hotel, eating and drinking with new friends, lining up for autographs, and sitting in on question-and-answer panels with various creative people involved in all aspects of the TF world. Voice actors, designers, comic and computer game artists, the works. I got to see designs and prototypes for the next year's worth of TF toys, get a movie Optimus Prime toy signed by THE voice of Optimus Prime (a very charming and humble man), buy more toys that I hadn't planned on buying, and spend time with some great people.

I barely made it to the busport (posting a 7kg box of stuff back to Oz took a little longer than expected) but stumbled onto the bus to NYC exhausted and satisfied. I'd never been able to justify the expense of Botcon, and made it to this one due to pure synchronicity with our travels- I hope the same thing happens again in a few years time, maybe when they release the TF movie sequel?

Will post again soon with more stories, we've got a lot of countries to make up for!
Been thinking about Perth and all our friends and family very fondlyrecently, so lots of love!

-Liam