Copenhagen: details

I loved Copenhagen, so rather than go through all the things we did, I thought I'd just mentioned the things I really liked. I've also included quite a few photos.


It is a very beautiful city. Being there in Autumn was great because of all the colours on display in the parks.


They seem to be a very environmentally friendly lot. Someone told me they are really big on recycling. On the flight in, one of the first things I noticed was a line of wind turbines out in the water off the coast. When I bought some stuff from a convenience store, they didn't put it in a plastic bag. A nice change from London where they want to put everything in a plastic bag, even if you've only bought one small item.

It is a very cycling-friendly city. They have bike lanes just about everywhere. It must be a very low-crime city, as many bikes left in bike racks are not chained up.


The people in Copenhagen are very friendly too. The waitress at the restaurant we went to on Saturday night was more helpful and keen to please than any waitress or waiter I can recall ever having met anywhere. It was a really great restaurant too as evidenced by the fact that we had to wait to get a table because they were so busy. It was worth the wait though. The food was yummy and reasonably priced (compared to London anyway).

Not so much something that made me love Copenhagen but something that was a bit unusual was that they have hotdog stands everywhere. I did have three hotdogs while there. Here's one of them.


To conclude, I could hardly post about Copenhagen without including a photo of one of the city's most famous attractions. When we got there, there was a continuous stream of tourists climbing up beside her to pose for photos. I had to be quick to get a picture of her alone.

From Copenhagen with friends

We're in Copenhagen now and it's very cold. We're just making a quick stop back at the hotel to get a few more warm things. They have free internet here I've just discovered so I thought I'd do a quick post. More details about the trip to come later.

Copenhagen, here I come

In case I don't get a chance to post while I'm there, this is just to say that I'm going to Copenhagen this weekend. My travelling companions are Sarah and Kate. We fly there tomorrow morning and come back Sunday evening. I'm very excited. I've been planning to go to Denmark since before I left Australia so I could spend the Kroner that Simon had left from a trip years ago.

Monopoly challenge

Just over 11 hours ago I left home to complete the "Monopoly challenge", that is, to take photos of all the locations on the Monopoly board.

When I left home, I was undecided whether I would try to photograph everything (including "Go", "Jail", "Chance", "Super Tax") or just the properties. I decided on just the properties, partly because I thought the chance of finding a "Free Parking" sign in London was pretty minimal and partly because is was enough effort just doing the properties. Oh, and the rain. I picked a great day for this outing, true London weather. Perfect. Today I was very happy that the shoes I bought before I left Australia were the Gore-Tex lined ones. My feet stayed nice and dry while the rest of me was getting quite damp.

I am happy to report that I did manage to photograph all 28 properties. I didn't do them exactly in order though. That would have meant a lot of backtracking, mainly due to the locations of the stations. I did do each of the groups together though, but the properties were not necessarily in the right order within the group. This approach meant only some backtracking. I didn't do it all on foot either, but made good use of London's excellent public transport.

The trickiest properties were Waterworks, because what exactly is this anyway, and Mayfair, which unlike all the other coloured properties, which are streets, is a whole suburb, so which bit to photograph?

Wikipedia helped me solve the Waterworks issue. I started with a Google seach for the Thames Water head office, but this turned out to be in Reading. I did discover that Thames Water used to be the Metropolitan Water Board, whose HQ was in London, and Wikipedia not only had a picture of the building (which is now residential) it told me where it was.

As for Mayfair, I didn't realise what a problem it would be until I got there. I decided I would have to take a few pictures of some "typical" bits of Mayfair. I got some help from a police office patrolling in front of the Saudi Embassy, who suggested that the Curzon theatre and Berkley Square epitomised Mayfair.

At some point I will publish the photos of the Monopoly locations on the web, but this may not happen until after I get back to Australia. With my limited time left in London, there are more important things to do!

Finding a replacement for myself

Well, it's all official that I'm leaving now as I have finally told all three of my housemates. Of course, I wanted to tell them all at once but we are never all here at the same time so that wasn't possible.

As I felt bad for leaving so soon after I came, I decided the honourable thing to do was to take on the job of finding potential replacement flatmates myself. What a pain it is too! So many phone calls and so many emails. Plus I made the mistake of not knowing when the others would be available to see people when I first placed the ad. So, of course, when people who called or emailed asked "So when can I come and see the flat" I had to say "I don't know, I'll get back to you". I've just been getting back to people now, and it has cost me a few pounds in phone calls.

The up side of getting back to people, after many people have contacted me first, is that I can be a bit more choosey about who gets to come. Otherwise, it may very well have been first in, first served, and late-comers, however lovely and suitable they sounded, would have missed out. Still, I don't have to live with them and the final decision is not up to me.

The other up side is that there does not appear to be a shortage of people wanting a place to live in London. I have had more people respond to the ad than there is time to see. I have filled three of the six "appointments" and have three outstanding offers of appointments.

Hopefully after Monday evening (when people are coming around), I will be able to relax a bit more. All the things that need to be done because I'm leaving have been causing me to feel quite stressed. Fortunately, as of my impromtu day off on Wednesday due to train problems, most of the travel plans for Simon and my trip are made and my Australian tax return in done!

The last few outings with my parents

My parents left London today to return to Australia. Lucky them!

Since they arrived back in London on Saturday for the last leg of their trip, we have been to lots of places.

They came into town in the afternoon and as they still had the hire car, they picked me up from my place at Chalk Farm and took me to the Hampstead apartment they rented for the week, where I would stay with them for the next few days. This apartment was also shared by Genevieve and Damien and Damien's parents, and later in the week by Damien's sister and her partner.

On Sunday, we went to Cambridge. Here we had a very nice lunch at The Mitre pub and went for a punt tour on the Cam. I had a quick turn at punting, but I found it was somewhat counter intuitive, at least for someone used to canoes.

On Monday, I took a day off work and we went for another drive. This time, we started with Brighton. We visited the Royal Pavillion, which was built by George IV before he became king. It was his pleasure palace by the sea. We also walked along the Brighton Pier. I think it's an English thing to put carnival rides and gambling machines on piers.

Next we were heading towards Dover. On the way we stopped to have a look at the Long Man of Wilmington and to have lunch at a pub. Unfortunately, this meant we didn't get to Dover Castle until about 4:40pm and we decided that 10 pounds each was a bit much to spend to go in for the 20 minutes before closing time. Instead, we drove up a bit further and walked along the white cliffs.

On Tuesday, I had to go to work. This was also the day my parents returned their hire car, as they would spend the rest of their time in London. I also had to go to work on Wednesday.

Thursday was wonderful and a good choice for a day to take off work. It was a beautiful, sunny day, unlike Wednesday when it was overcast and rainy. Mum and Dad and I started the day with a quick visit to Hampstead Heath, to see some greenery and the view over London. We then headed into the West End. We got off the tube at Leicester Square and then walked to Picadilly Circus. We jumped on the tube again so we could meet the others at the London Eye at noon. When we got there, Damien's parents were already in the queue, but we joined as well. There were an odd number of people in our group, which was shame because of the offer that allows 2-for-1 tickets on the presentation of an Oyster card (the way to pay for public transport in London). However, my ever-enterprising Mum asked the guy behind us in the queue if he was alone and if he wanted to get his ticket for half price. He was and he did and additionally he was from Australia (lives in Melbourne but originally from Brisbane). To save time, we passed our money and Oysters to Damo's folks, and before too long, we all had tickets. We then queued again to go for our ride. It was good fun and the view is really good (seeing we had a clear day).

Next, lunch. Thai food. Not bad but not quite Go Hun. Mum and Dad and I then rushed off because we wanted to make it to the Temple Church before it closed, which we believed was at 3pm. We got there at three minutes to three, only to find it closed. The times posted said it was to close at 4pm, but an additional sign indicated a change of plans and it had closed at 12:30. We got lucky however and a tradie outside having a smoke let us look through the door so we could see the effigies of the knights on the floor.

No longer in such a hurry, we had a leisurely walk around the Inns of Court. We checked out the Royal Courts of Justice and the Old Bailey. We walked past St Pauls, and then headed off for Greenwich. I wanted to go and see the Thames flood barrier, but we decided it was too far out of the way. We had also all been to the observatory, so we just went for a walk under the Thames, through the pedestrian tunnel that was built in 1902.

We then headed back to see those West End sites we had missed on our way to the Eye: Cleopatra's needle and Trafalgar Square. Thoroughly worn out by all the walking, we happily headed back to Hamstead. We were going to go out for dinner, but Mum and I didn't real feel like it, given our late lunch. So we stayed in and I backed up all Dad's photos from the trip to CDs (about 3.6GB worth). I don't need to hear that I should have used a DVD because I have tried to burn a DVD from Gen's laptop before and it didn't work.

I didn't want to leave to go back to my place, but I had to. Mum and Dad had leave for the airport at 5:45 this morning and I had to go to work. And I couldn't leave too late because I was relying on public transport. I think I left around 11pm. Mum and Dad walked me to the bus stop, and unfortunately it was one of the few occasions that the bus turned up right away. We had to say our goodbyes quickly, and I was very sad to go. At least I'll be home again soon!

Resigning and other delights

I handed in my resignation today. My boss knew it was coming, I had told him, but today I actually gave him the piece of paper. Hooray!!

If that sounded a little too joyous, just remember that the job turned out to be shit and every day I work there I appreciate CISRA more and more.

Other happy occasions this week have been the several bookings I have made in preparation for the trip I will be taking with Simon in just over 5 weeks.

Here is the plan:

Monday November 13:
Simon arrives in London (at 6:20am I believe)
Tuesday November 14:
Simon and I fly from London Stansted to Dublin, where we are staying for two nights (I booked a room at a hostel on Tuesday). I hope to catch up with Cormac and Susan one last time, and there will definitely be another visit to the Guinness Storehouse. I learned recently you can pour your own pint there. We (Cormac and I) missed this last time (probably in the rush to get to the bar).
Thursday November 16:
We fly from Dublin to Rome, where we are staying for three nights (I booked our accomodation yesterday).
Sunday November 19:
We will be catching a train from Rome to Florence, probably first thing in the morning as we are only staying one night. We are considering going from Rome to Pisa, having a quick look there and then going on to Florence.
Monday November 20:
From Florence, we go by train, again, to Venice, where we will stay for two nights.
Wednesday November 22:
This is where the plans cease to be certain. We will probably catch a train to Milan in the morning, where we will spend the day having a bit of a look around. We were going to catch the overnight train to Paris, which leaves Milan at around 11pm, and I was about to make the booking too, but then we realised it would most probably me cheaper and more comfortable to fly to Paris and stay an extra night there. So maybe we will fly from Milan to Paris, or we could skip Milan and fly straight from Venice. If anyone has any wisdom on the joys (or lack thereof) of sleeping on a train, please share.
Thursday November 23:
We will either be arriving in or already be in Paris.
Friday November 24:
Still in Paris, but this day gets a special mention because we are going to see a show at the Moulin Rouge. This is the booking I made today!!
Monday November 27:
The plan is to catch a train to Brussels in the morning, have lunch there and then catch the Eurostar back to London. It's just so decadent, isn't it, going to Brussels for lunch.
Tuesday November 28 to Saturday December 2:
During this time we will be staying in London, though we plan to hire a car one day to go and see Stonehenge and to visit a friend of Simon's who lives somewhere around Windsor.
Saturday December 2:
We fly out of Heathrow at 11-something am.
Sunday December 3:
We arrive in Sydney at about 7:30pm.

Well, now you all know the plan. We're trying to cram a fair bit in, but it's not seven countries in fourteen days like Gen and Damien did recently!

Advice and recommendations of things to see and do are always welcome.

Scotland

On the weekend just passed (well, a slightly extended weekend: from Thursday night to Sunday night), I was in Scotland. It's where my parents, my sister and my brother-in-law were so I went up to join them.

We stayed in a cottage on a farm near Stirling, and there were Highland cattle ("coos") in a paddock on one side and sheep in a paddock on the other side.


During my trip, we did lots of sightseeing (as you do). We went to several castles, and we frequently discussed claiming them as a Stewart family birth right (the Stewarts having been one of the most significant dynasties of monarchs in Scottish history). All I ended up with though was a couple of packs of Royal Stewart tartan playing cards!

The best castle we visited was Doune Castle. This was partly because it was the least touristy: there were very few signs about the place and no directions on which way to go, so we were free to explore, climb stairs not knowing where they went and discover various rooms. The other reason it was the best castle was that it was where numerous scenes from Monty Python's The Holy Grail were filmed, including the taunting scene.


Other highlights of the trip were a visit to a whisky distillery (sampling of the product included at the end) and finding the TARDIS in Glasgow. Could that be the 11th Doctor and his companion?


One thing I did not do, however, was try haggis. I came close to ordering it for an entree at dinner on Saturday night, but then I made the mistake (or not) of asking to be reminded what was in it and after that I just couldn't do it.