Down on the Farm!!!

We caught the ferry early on the 26th from near Roskilde to Århus, which was about a 3 hour trip. Pretty boring, but Heidi made us a packed lunch so we were occupied with that for a while. lucky because the ferry food was SO expensive, for a cup of chips it was $9!! We arrived and were picked up by Flemming, another of Dave's families trainees, who then drove us to his parents place for another traditional Danish meal!! Over Xmas they eat the same thing for like 3 days!! i don't know why or how they do it because we were getting pretty sick of it, but each place was slightly different so it was OK. We had 4 courses of herring, pork, various salads and breads, salmon, liver (yuk!) and more schnapps and special Xmas beer!!!

After lunch (at about 4pm!!) we headed out to his farm. It is such a nice old farm, nothing like we have back at home. The farm house was build in the 1860's and the newest of the farm building was from the 1930's!! It was really cool! we didn't do much that evening as we were pretty tired from all the travel (his place is about an hour away from the ferry port).

The next day we got a sleep in which was very much needed!! we got up and had the full danish breakfast which involved a lot of bread and cheese and strong coffee!! we got the grand tour of the farm then (its a boy thing!!). he has about 300 pigs which were still fairly young, so they were cute but the stinkiest creatures i have even known!! we only looked into the pig yard for about 20 seconds and that was enough!! we checked out the cows, his farm is a dairy farm which supplies milk to one of the large cheese manufacturer in Denmark which exports throughout Europe. He has a cool new automatic milking machine which means he doesn't have to go milking every morning and evening. for those of you in the know, its a pretty awesome thing, and for those of you who don't know, it is the best piece of equipment a dairy farmer could ask for!! basically the cows milk themselves, he doesn't need to be there at all! There was a couple of really young calves, less than a week old, and they were so cute and so tame, you could pat them. it was pretty cool.

We climbed up the grain silo and got a fantastic view of the whole county which was excellent, then we went and saw the horses (the highlight for me!!). Flemming also grows Xmas trees which supply Germany, Denmark and France (he has heaps!!!) so we went and saw those as well. Then on the way back to the farmhouse we stopped and checked out his neighbours barn. Turns out it is the oldest barn in Denmark and was built over 400 years ago!! It was in use up until about 20 years ago, and now it is used as storage for old farm equipment and stuff. it was really cool, the doorways were all really short so people were obviously much shorter than us back then!! all the original oak wooden beams are still intact as well. it was pretty awesome.

In the afternoon we drove down to Randers which is their closest large town and after stopping in at the Volkswagen dealer to check if their new car had arrived (lucky then jealous us!!) we went to the shopping centre for a coffee (much needed!) and to try some local danish sweets (delicious!!).

after cruising around there we went into the middle part of the city for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. it was great as they were sick of danish food as well after everything they had at Xmas! walking to the restaurant was gorgeous, think rundle mall type situation, but cobbled streets, darkness (of course!), Xmas lights strung up everywhere, more than one mall and old style buildings and you can start to get an idea of how gorgeous this place was. as it was an unexpected trip, we didn't have our camera with us (very disappointed) so we cant show you photo, but will do our best to describe it when we get home!

This morning was very difficult as not only did we have to say goodbye to our fabulous hosts Flemming, his wife Lena and their 6 year old Amelie, we also had to get up at 6am to drive an hour into the train station, catch a train for 4 hours into the airport, fly an hour to Stockholm, have the airline lose our luggage and the get to our hotel!!! so we arrived at our hotel in Stockholm (which is fabulous!!) at around 4pm, checked in and then watch an hour of ER to recuperate!! we headed out on a walk around the city to suss it all out, grabbed dinner at T.G.I. Fridays (good old American burgers!!). now its almost 9:30pm and we are buggered!!

A Danish Christmas!!

We caught the train to Roskilde on the afternoon of the 24th of December, it was an easy 40 minute trip which was good! One of the trainees from Dave's parents farm, Heidi, picked us up at the station and took us back to her place. She worked on the farm in Bordertown for almost 12 months, back in 1991-92, but luckily for us both she and Dave have seen much more recent photos of each other so he easily recognised who we were meant to go home with!!

In Denmark, Xmas is celebrated on the 24th (in the evening) so we were there in time to experience the whole lot! Instead of taking us back to her house straight away, Heidi took us to her local church for a Xmas service. The whole thing was in Danish (obviously!) and for an hour we sat there not understanding a word!! It was toasty warm though so we didn't mind at all!!

We got back to her house and met her 2 kids, Kristian and Louise (pronounced Louisa) who are 10 and 8, and also met her ex-husband and his mum. They were all very welcoming, and the kids were so excited about us being there, but couldn't speak a word of English!! you could tell they both had so much to say, but couldn't. it was frustrating as we wanted to talk to them as well, but Danish is impossible!

For dinner we were treated to a very traditional Danish Xmas meal (apparently around 90% of the population would have had the same meal as we did!! wonder what Mary ate!!). We had roast pork and duck, red cabbage done in some special way, potatoes done normally as well as done in sugar so they had a caramel glaze on them, bread and crisps!! It was really yum! We also had a couple of bottles of french red wine which was delicious! Then we had this strange stuff which was like rice pudding, but with vanilla, lots of cream and sugar mixed through it. It also had sliced almonds through it which made it extra tasty, but of course Dave couldn't eat it. It was served with hot cherry's and a cherry sauce. Dave got 2 different flavours of ice-cream so he was happy! There is a game where if you find a whole almond in the dessert you win a prize, so both Louise and Kristian won prizes of chocolate and shampoo and toothpaste!!

By this time the kids were hardly able to contain their excitement (although Kristien was too cool for school being 10 years old!!!). As part of their traditional Xmas festivities we lite the candles on the tree and then danced around it singing Xmas carols. Dave and i followed along, but of course didn't sing as we had no idea what they were even singing!! Then it was time for the presents!! Kristien and Louisa ripped into theirs straight away and were very excited about everything they received. Dave and i were also spoilt with some gorgeous Xmas tree decorations from Gorge Jensen (i cant spell it in Danish - sorry!!). Louisa also made us a card and a box with decorations all over it.

Presents out of the way we sat down to coffee and traditional Danish sweets while the kids assembled their latest toys! All in all it was a great experience, but exhausting!! We finally fell into bed around 11pm!

On Xmas day the Danes usually visit all their family for lunch, but instead we watched Louisa horse riding and Kristien on his bike. The have made a track in their yard with hills and water obstacle so they were riding around that. It was so cold, but they didn't feel it at all and were having a great time! After lunch (again traditional Danish food; herrings, bread, eggs, tomato, cucumber, ham, salami, pate, salmon etc.) we went for a drive around Roskilde to visit Heidi's brother and see his farm. We then went to Heidi's mum's place where the whole rest of the family was. We tried some of their Danish food as well which was amazing. a pork braise thing and some patties of some kind!! They also introduced us to their tradition of drinking schnapps!! lots of it too!! I don't know what it was called but it wasn't at all like the yummy flavoured schnapps we have at home, it tasted like burning!! it definitely kept us warm though, all the way down!! Apparently that one is for the boys, but i was having none of that and kept up with the rest of them! We then tried the "girls" schnapps which tasted like really really weak cordial with alcohol in it!! Dave also had some traditional Danish Xmas beer which he enjoyed as well - i think because it is stronger than normal!!

That evening we had more Danish food, hot dogs!!! We also had pork patties, and seafood filled pastry cups, more Danish beer and wine!! We watched some Danish xmas movies which were entertaining even though we couldn't understand a word of them and then went to bed ready to catch the ferry up to Århus where we were getting picked up by another of Dave's families trainees (called Flemming) and driven to his place in Nimtofte where we'll spend the next couple of days.

Hope you all had a great Xmas, I'm sure it was totally different to ours, so we'll have to share stories when we get home!!
luv Al and Dave
xxx

Copenhagen in December

We arrived in Copenhagen on Friday afternoon and it was already dark (it was only 3:30pm as well!!). We organised ourselves and found the right train to catch into the city centre, and then it was only a short walk, maybe 5 minutes, to get to our hotel. We stayed in a place called the CabInn, which was set up to be like a ship!! It was really odd because nothing about it was ship like except the actual rooms, which were exactly like cabins on a ship would be i.e. tiny!! they were comfortable though which was the main thing, and they were very central so we could walk to everything we wanted to see.

The first night we walked down the Stogart, which is the longest pedestrian shopping mall in the world. It was all lite up with lights which made it look gorgeous. lots of shops were open so we wandered into some of them, mostly to get out of the cold rather than to shop!

We grabbed dinner at a gorgeous little diner, which we though served Italian, but then found out that it was actually a combination of Italian and Mexican which was their specialty!! an odd combo, but it was super yummy!! It was also really warm which made everything taste even better!!

We walked up to Kongens Nytorv which is like a big square and it had a big Xmas tree in the middle of it. there was an outdoor ice skating rink as well with lots of people skating. we saw one girl do a massive stack, i think she was about 10 or so, but then she just lay there in the ice wailing and crying. her mum was right there, but she wouldn't move until someone else, with no skates on, actually picked her up and moved her off the ice. she must have been freezing, but she was so stubborn!! she didn't appear to be hurt though and was up and cruising around again in no time!

By this time we had almost frozen because it was totally dark and only around 5 degrees!! we found a big department store and headed straight for it! it was so so expensive, we both found lots of things we wanted to buy, but everything is much more expensive here than in Australia and even the UK, so we decided only to get things we couldn't get anywhere else i.e. not much!! We walked around inside until we had thawed out then headed back to our hotel to decide what to do tomorrow and to catch up on all the latest danish TV!!

The next day, Saturday, was really our only day of daylight when we could get to all the Copenhagen sights so we were very well organised! We started the day by walking along the canal up to the Knippelsbro bridge, which was supposed to be lavished in copper, but it was more like it was lavished in oxidised copper as the whole thing had turned green with time!! Over the bridge we headed into Christianshavn (which is an island of Copenhagen) and to the Vor Frelsers Kirke which is a big church with a spiral staircase up the outside of the top spire which is a big lookout. It is unfortunately closed for renovations!

We then headed into Christiania which is a free state within Copenhagen governed by its inhabitants, around 1000 people. it has no taxes or rent, but they sell HEAPS of drugs there so there are lots of riot police around all the time!! It was like of like a commune, talk about seeing how the other half live!!

Next stop was the University library which holds an old cannonball as well as remnants of what that cannonball was shot into, ironically a book entitled "the Defender of Peace"!! This was closed for the holiday season!

Vor Frue Kirke was next on the list, this is the church were Mary Donaldson and the Prince got married! it was really pretty and also completely different to the UK churches i have seen. Lots of white-cream walls and also many life size figures of saints, but not really ornate like the English ones are.

We then headed to Rundetarn, which is another lookout - we were determined to see the city from a lookout at some point, and luckily for us this one was open!! There is a big spiral walkway which leads up the tower then the last part is stairs which got quite narrow by the top! The view from the lookout was excellent! you could see so much and i never noticed until then that Copenhagen has so many churches!! i could see spires shooting up all over the city!! We also got some great photos from up here.

We grabbed a late lunch at a restaurant along the Stogart which was the best potato soup i have ever had!! i don't know what they put in it, other than potato obviously, but it was soooo good!!

By this time it was getting dark so we walked through the Kongens Have which are the gardens which surround Rosenburg Slot - an old castle which was built as a summer home for King Christian IV and it where the crown jewels are kept. It has a moat and guards which parade up and back with big guns!! This was also closed so we didn't get to see the sparkle of the jewels this visit!!

After all the walking and sight-seeing we had done we were both tired, not helped by the fact that it felt like about 9pm, when in fact it was only around 4pm!! we walked back through the city and just took in the atmosphere before heading back to our hotel.

The next day we went into Rådhuspladsen, which is the central square of Copenhagen and is situated along the Stogart. It is very open as it sees more foot traffic than anywhere else in the city, so there are not barricades or anything around it to make it difficult to cross through. There is a big statue of Hans Christian Andersen which is a bit of a landmark in this city (they love that guy!!) there is also a large column which has a statue on the top of 2 vikings which is supposed to be quite imposing, but i didn't think it was!! The Rådhus, which is the city hall, faces out into the Square. It is an amazing building and i have taken loads of photos of it, from all different angles. We also found a really nice garden type thing in the middle of the building which we took shots of as well. I'm teaching Dave to use the camera so we have lots of repeated shots!!

Then on the 24th of December we got up and headed to catch the train to Roskilde where we met Heidi who stayed at Dave's parents farm for almost 12 months back when Dave was about 12!! His whole family have been over to visit and she has been awesome by kindly taking us all in!! She has just announced that dinner is ready so i will fill you in on our time here in the next few days, xxx

Christmas in Heathrow??

Prepare to be jealous!!! i am currently sitting in the BA lounge in Heathrow airport waiting for my flight to Copenhagen!!! Dave's company paid for him to get a Qantas Club membership which is linked to the BA club so we are in the lounge with free Internet, food and drinks while we wait for our flight, its great!!

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have heard much about this, but there is a crazy amount of fog here at the moment and loads of flights have been cancelled. Basically all internal flights in the UK have been cancelled and about half of the internationals have been as well. Lucky for us, our flight is still on track but it is chaotic here because of all the others. They have erected these big marquee's outside the airport where they are sending everyone. you are not allowed inside the airport until you have been called and its passengers only!! you can imagine the scene!! so you go into the marquee and wait until they call your flight. Then you get to leave the marquee and get in a line which leads into the airport. once you get to the front of that line, you progress to the check in line!! Once you check in you go through security, so any liquids you are carrying have to be left behind (there was this poor girl who had some expensive cleanser and toner which they wouldn't let her take!!). anything which is under 100mls you can take through, but they then check it with this other thing. i don't really know what the drill was for that because we didn't have any liquids. Then its the typical shoes off, body search type stuff and then you finally get to go through into the international departure part!! what an exercise!! in all it took a little over 90 minutes to get through it all, and now we are just relaxing waiting to board our flight.

We are heading to Copenhagen next which is exciting!! neither of us have been there before so it will be brand new. The flight is delayed a bit so I'm not sure what time we will be arriving, but we'll head straight to our hotel and then suss it out from there.

will keep you posted!

At Home in Bristol

Dave's house in Bristol is great, he did such a good job in finding it. Its on the top floor, so we have great view down the street. The houses are so typically English, but the sad thing is that these gorgeous houses, which were once 4 story homes, are now divided into 4 different flats. this means that in common areas, so like the stairs and front foyer are very much falling to pieces!!

Bristol is a lovely town, its really small though so i don't think i could be here too much longer doing nothing! They have a shopping centre (a westfield type thing) which we went to on Tuesday night. It was pretty cool because it was inside so it was warm, but outside, by the car parks, was an ice skating rink!!! an outside skating rink!! it was really cool, but i can imagine that parents would hate it because they would have to walk past it every time they went shopping there and I'm sure their kids would hassle them to go skating!!!

Yesterday i went into the town centre. there is a fair bit of construction going on at the moment because they are doing massive extensions on the shopping centre down there. it was so freezing here yesterday so i think it was a bad day for the town centre as most of it is outside. there is a small shopping centre, but its mostly a food/coffee place with some hairdressers thrown in.

i went to Starbucks as i was dying for a coffee (well anything hot would have done!) and it was so bad!! i don't think they actually put any espresso in my coffee!! luckily, just like home, there are a million different coffee places so i will easily be able to find good coffee elsewhere!!

today is Dave's last day at work - yay!!! we are catching the bus into London this afternoon and then flying out to Copenhagen tomorrow morning. at least we hope we will be flying out!! the last couple of days there has been crazy amounts of fog here, so a lot of flights have been cancelled. so far ours is still on schedule. all the domestic flights have been cancelled and about half of the internationals have been as well. because its Xmas all the flights have been fully booked so there is a bit of chaos at the airport!!

Not much else to update everyone on, I'm fully recovered from my jet lag, thanks to sky TV (the UK's equivalent of foxtel) and our real holiday starts tomorrow when we will both be able to relax.

Hope everything is going well back home,
luv Al
xxx

One Weekend in London

So i have arrived in London!! I arrived at Heathrow at stupid o'clock and had to wait ages for my bags. some idiot managed to get theirs to clog up the machine so no one else's would come out! walked through customs in about 5 seconds flat, which was a nice change from the normal!!
So i walked out of the arrivals bit and saw Dave waiting for me and in all my excitement i jumped on him!! not sure if he expected it or not, but he caught me with ease, just like in the movies!
We parked the car and caught the tube into our hotel in Paddington which was cheap and nasty, but in a great location. We ditched our bags and headed into fabulous London. It was like coming home, i love this city!! We walked down oxford street and spent the day trying to keep me awake! jet lag kills me so that was harder than it sounds! Dave did a great job though and i didn't fall asleep until 8:30pm!!

We caught the tube to the museum of natural history and walked through there for a couple of hours. It was excellent with all those dinosaur bones and all the old taxidermy specimens! your not allowed to kill and stuff animals anymore, but what they had from years gone by was fantastic. it gives a great idea of current animals as well as extinct ones. there was this awesome polar bear there, i never realised they were so much larger than brown bears!

There was an ice skating rink outside the museum as well as a market which was really cool. it gets dark here by around3pm so it was all lite up and was just awesome! we bought some Xmas decorations for our tree (we don't have any but by the time we get home we hope to have a whole tree's worth of them!!)

On the Saturday we walked through Harrods and caught the ferry down to Greenwich which is where Greenwich meridian time is from. unfortunately we got there fairly late so once we finished looking through the maritime museum (Dave's idea obviously!!) it was closed. annoying, but what can you do.

Then yesterday we wandered through the Covent Gardens markets which was really good. There was some amazing photography there but i hope to take my own photos which will be just as good!! lots of great stalls, and also a lot of mulled wine?? crazy poms, it smelt yuk, and it was warm??!!

then we had to catch the tube back to our hotel to get our stuff and then out to where the car was parked, then drive down to Bristol (about 2 hour drive). Dave gave me a quick drive through tour of Bristol and it looks like a really nice town, typically English!! i have taken lots of photos but i cant put them up because i don't want to connect my good camera to Internet cafe computers, and i didn't bring my small camera connection cord. i will put up a fabulous selection when i get home though.

so now i am at Dave's place in Bristol waiting for him to get home from work. i am about to head out on a photo hunting expedition!! hopefully i will get some good shots, although its pretty cold out so i don't know how long ill last without gloves!!!

So you know who im talking about!

i figured that so many of my mates havent actually met each other, so im going to put up shots of you all! Now you can put a face to the name!

This is us at Claire's engagement (yay Claire). Left to right are Kimbo, Leanne, Jules, Me, Ness and Kelz. These girls are the greatest mates you could ever ask for!

These are the PHOS girls. Our boys all play footy together and this is us at the footy club ball. Me, Ebony, Emma, Shell and Kate!

Shell, Kate and Me at the Oyster bar celebrating Eb's birthday!!

These are my beautiful uni mates! Dan, Maz and Claire! They helped me survive honours!!

This is my amazing boyfriend Dave. He is in the UK at the moment and i am going to visit him in 3 days!! i cant wait!! That is why i decided to start this blog, so when we are away i dont have to email everyone the same thing, you can just look in here and get the updates of what is going on - easy!

i have some more photos of people i want to put up here, but they are too big, so i need to figure out how to compress them then ill get them up!

This is Me!!!

This is me! i needed to figure out how to get a photo attached to my profile, and this is how i managed it!