September 2007

September was a more pleasant month than the last, partly attributed to my further adjustment to life in Sweden, although, most likely the result of another trip to London!

Without a doubt this trip was the highlight of our summer, and a heavy reminder that living in Europe has very big perks!!! The weather was mostly gloriously dry and sunny for London at that time of year... however, occasionally those nasty grey clouds would come out in an attempt to thrawth my plans of ensuring Hakan fell as deeply and as madly in love with London as I am! The weather was playing a leading role in my desperate attempt to ensure this, in the hope that Hakan would whisk me off away from the evils of viking ancestory, pickled herring and foreign languages to bask in the land of warm beer and mushy peas.

Whilst i sit here writing from Sweden some almost 3 months later we can all safely assume that while yes, Hakan most definatly has a love for London, no there will be no wisking, and no basking - and well, there never would have been any consuming of mushy peas! (and in all honesty I am actually ok with that!)

Our trip to London was one of the most pleasant and EASY weeks we've had since living in the Northern Hemisphere together! I say easy and i mean of the carefree variety - anyone with visions of redlights and Kings Cross need read no further!

While this point may not be solely connected to London, I will however repeat myself - It is a luxury to be able to order food and have complete faith in knowing what you will recieve. and it is a luxury to be able to converse with strangers - trust me stranger danger need not always apply! Now I dont mean to sound like i'm galloping away on my hobby horse, however, I mostly write this mostly to ensure that, I, myself, will always appreciate how wonderful living in an english speaking country can be (when I have that opportunity again) and to never take this for granted.

So as usual I digress - Back to the details of London. I am as I have said before - in love with London. It would seem as though she (my london is always a she!) has grown up a little since i called her home. She takes much better care of herself these days (which i believe is due to the presence of recent Lord Mayors of London and the impending 2012 Olympics). She carrys a newfound sense of modern elegance and perhaps a little wisdom which she displays in the least likely of places. I speak not of the cobble stones and wealth of SW1 but of the inner east around Shoreditch, Hackney, Islington and Stepney Green - and I am certain that the renovation and innovation extendeds far past my visible eye! I felt a mixture of admiration for the new grown up version of my beloved east end, and sense of loss for the inner east I remember, loved and called home. The place that still exists in my memories and of course on Eastenders, but it would appear not in real life!

I am not sure quite how this new grown up version of inner city London has been achieved, as I doubt that addiction, crime or poverty have disappeared, and I wonder if the current and former mayors has simply done a little reshuffling of the masses, in the same way that Sydney moved their poorest and most disadvantaged away from Redfern (i.e. sight) prior to the 2000 Olympics??

Again I digress, without sharing any details of our actual trip. So, as quick as I can.... We arrived on Friday and took our bags to our gracious hosts (Laura) home and managed to find her flatmates home watching the cricket and drinking Fosters - HOW AUSTRALIAN IS THAT!!! so we joined in and they spent quite some time not only patiently teaching Håkan the rules and aims of cricket, but also explaining the difference beetween 20/20 matches and test cricket!!
A little later and we were in Waterloo to meet Lib, Laura and Kell!! Laura and Håkan had box seats at Festival Hall to see Brian Wilson - the lucky buggars.
Seeing as it was a very mild september night, Lib Kell and I got a table outside at The Waterloo Firestation (for old times sakes - I used to meet Jess, Nickers and Scotty there as it was half way to our houses!!) It was a wonderful night, and it honestly felt like it was after work drinks on a friday for me...
Saturday we of course went to Camden, often we left Håkan to the vintage shopping while we went and had Mojito's and tapas :D
The Swede loves his vintage shopping as we all know, however, we were devestated (or perhaps financially relieved) to find the vintage stores by the arches have shut for what we thought was renovation - however it seems for good!!!
www.camdenlock.net/fashion/vintage.html


Lib cooked us all a great dinner and of course spoilt us rotten as only Lib can do.
Sunday we had a lazy brunch at Providores followed by Regent's Park, Spitalfield Markets (also being partly renovated) and a drink with Fran and Steve (fantastic to see them!!!) before we headed to Southbank again for The Coin Street Festival and fireworks.
www.visitspitalfields.com/osm.html




Monday we did a red bus tour - which I am so glad we did, for there is so much of London's history I had forgoten (and well have forgotten most of it again!) and because it felt so wonderful to look at London through tourist eyes again, rather than as a local or ex-local rushing to work or dinner or wherever.

Ok there was a lot of other things, such as a lomography exhibition, tate modern, harrods etc etc but I will leave it there as I have babbled on for more than long enough and I havent even mentioned that September also say Hakan's bday - which he happily got a cigar box guitar for (earlier in sept) and he also did a little bit of busking with Johannes during september. There is some great money to be made in busking let me tell you!!!
Oh and I got a job!! But I will elaborate on that in October's blog!!!


oh yeah... and Håkan and I got asked to pose for a photo for fashion/media students doing an assignment of Fashions of London!!!

August 2007

While Spain was everything we needed, August seemed to throw curv ball after curv ball at us. While we weused are getting quite used to being poor and living on the poverty line, having wisely spent our savings lounging around Spain - gotta say sent some shock waves through the Doyle/Lanz Household!!

I started at a new swedish school - one that was free, but also one that had me reciting the alphabet over and over..... While I readily admit learning Swedish is not my superskill, I didnt need to be feeling as though i was in preschool - most days i would leave fighting back tears of frustration - because I wanted to learn... I just wanted to learn something new!

Nevertheless we decided to behave in a waý that is typical of us both - we went to Copenhagen for the day to pretend we werent poor and almost destitute! It worked..... We shopped... well actually we tried to shop. It was that silly "inbetween the seasons" time of year... While it was technically summer still, I was not going to fooled into believing i would wear summer clothes again this year (I had a denim skirt leggings and summer top on and i thought i would freeze to death!).
We ate, and we even sat in a pub. An actual pub. We bought beer that someone poured from a tap for us. Other than on holidays we had been to a bar once since i had arrived!!!)





I got my first job in Sweden. And well as most of you know... I lost it again almost the same day. Apparantly my version of swedish is not quite the same as those who call it their native tounge! I missed out on a visit to Aureol in Stockholm as well - initially i thought i would be working LOL!

Oh we took a trip to Lomma pier - and even though it was August - it felt as though it was August in Australia!!
Looma Pier has a 2km jetty you walk along to reach a large glass walled cafe with the obligatory attached sauna so you can do the scandanavic "overheating" in the sauna followed by a dip in the freezing ocean!!!
I believe people do it all times of the year! ewwwwww... NOT FOR ME!

Well it's been a while!!!

For the last five months or so I have said to myself every week 'I must get the midsommar photos and update my blog'
Guess what - I still dont have the midsommar photos through no ones fault but my own of course... But i also figured seeing as it's almost mid winter - perhaps it's time to update anyway!!

So I might do it month by month!!
June.
Other than our midsommar celebrations which were great - Luckily we sat outside so the smell of herring didnt curdle my stomach quite as badly as it did at easter :P We were appropriately dressed for a swedish midsommar in jumpers raincoats hats and wellingtons!!
We celebrated in a small village in Skåne (and the name escapes me now as it was so long ago!) with Håkan's parents and some family friends. Everyone made me feel very welcome and even put a small Australian (toothpick size) flag as well as a swedish flag on the midsommar staff on the table.

July.
Was a bit of a rocky month. I considered comming home to Australia - I didnt think i would cope in sweden for much longer - in my defense it rained for 5weeks straight and this was ment to be the summer :(
I finished my first Swedish language course - and to be honest i'm not sure if it did me any good. While it was a social outlet, it cost a bucket load of money and the teacher ignored the fact we always spoke english to each other - and well often to her ???????? anywhoo i met some great people and it was nice to have somewhere to go!
We attended a wedding which was nice... Mostly what i'm used to except only the bride recieves a ring at the wedding - you exchange rings when you are engaged in Sweden, which is also when you recieve your band... then when you are married or "gifta sig" the bride recieves her pretty ring :D Kinda fitting with the whole day really. Who ever thought it was about the groom???







After my melt down I took myself off to London for a few days - where honest to god, I felt like a new person from the minute i arrived. Firstly it felt like i was home (scary thought!) and second of all it felt so nice to just be confident in ordering a cup of coffee - trust me you dont know what a luxury it is to KNOW you ordered the right thing.
I was waiting for Kel at Victoria Station feeling like a champion for making it from Sweden to Victoria station by 9.15am when two very gay men starting talking to me about how fabulous i looked (purple suede boots with all black people!) While it was a silly little thing, it was enough to restore the confidence that sweden had knocked out of me over the last few months. YAY me!!!
Found kell - was rudely reminded how much the tube can suck!
Shopped - well dreamed of buying everything (it was summer sales), had a beer in covent garden and off to Brick Lane for dinner it was.
Oh my god - Brick Lane area is amazing. AMAZING! cleanish with lots of designer and vintage stores. Very very very london!
Had a meet up on Saturday with Lib, Helen and some of Helen's friends (luckily seeing as Helen is now up the duff and no future drinking sessions in sight) Hope and Anchor in Islington... Got a little lost because Islington looks sooooooo different. Remember the days where all there was in Islington was the walkabout and an all bar one. Not anymore! Also we went to Brian Jones Town Masacre... strange... very strange. ahhh.... lets just say it was great night despite the strangeness!

Also did the usual Camden on sunday and Hawley Arms for a pint. Somethings will never change (well actualy the Hawley is new for me because my old pub is now a chain pub)

Lib introduced me to an AMAZING cafe in Marlybone on the monday - Providores. Owned by NZ chef Peter Gordon - soo soo nice to have a flat white!!! http://www.theprovidores.co.uk/
absolutely recommend it to anyone!!!








Wednesday I flew to Girona where i met Håkan - whose flight was late and he didnt arrive until midnight. We then drove to Barcelona (after we stopped randon men working to ask how to get to Barcelona airport.) Now remember no one speaks english in spain. so after 5mins of charades me feeling all the more confused, Håkan trying to utilise the 15 spanish words he knows to make sentences - the men finally indicated we should follow them (we hoped).
After 35mins of driving - including a highway in the opposite direction to what we anticipated we decided either these men were the kindest in the world, or we were about to die.
Luckily they were the kindest in the world, and we arrived at the airport collected Laura and Kell and off we went to Benicassim.

Arrived in Benicassim at 6am aggghhhh....
Couldnt pick up tickets until 9am... cant enter camp site until we have our tickets :(
By midnight that night I felt as though i would prolly fall over if i didnt sit down... but it was good.
Lets just say that the tone of Benicassim was pretty much set by this - complete lack of sleep.
Ran into Clydey's friend Carlos that he used to work with in London! It's a small small world!!
I didnt enjoy the food as much as i had anticipated in that region of spain - although this could possibly be influenced by the fact that the small coast village of approx 80 000 was invaded by 100 000 for the festival. Made everything very very difficult!!
Håkan managed to pass out on the day after the festival was all over. I think we all caught some type of virus that gave feelings of verdigo and nausea (yay!) and that combined with dehydration and lack of sleep - and well it was a recipe for disaster really.
Valencia was wonderful - although we ended up staying miles from anywhere.... The Original plan was to rough it camping - however the whole passing out incident made me think we should stay somewhere with aircon etc etc... I would love to go back to Valencia another time and stay in the centre of the city and avoid hangovers.... It is beautiful beautiful city with wonderful architecture and the old town is fantastic. The gelato also rocks!
Madrid.
Madrid is also fantastic. We had great accom in the centre of Madrid. Food is to die for. Paella Tapas and Sangria... hmmm tapas! We had our wonderful little restaurant we went to and ordered paella potato calamari olives bread and a jug of sangria - all for about 10euros each :D :D :D
Håkan's cousin is living in Madrid at the moment studying spanish and we are so so so jealous! yep madrid we will definately visit again!!
just a few photos of Spain for you!