Sachsenhausen

Today we headed out to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp just north of Berlin. We went by guided tour as it's not easy to find and you get so much more history. Our tour guide, Torben was an American who has been living in Berlin for 5 years and he took on the train trip out to the memorial site.

We both weren't sure what to expect of the camp, not knowing how much of the place was still standing but we were both surprised by how huge the place is (and we only got to see a small fraction of the entire site) and just how horrendous life was there for the prisioners. The more I see this side of humanity, the more I love my cats.

I don't have much time on the over-priced internet in the hostel so I will post more about the camp later but needless to say we took lots of pictures and Torben did a great job in explaining the history in context of the Nazi regime and of the Soviet control after the war finished in 1945.

If that trip wasn't cheerful enough, on our return to Berlin we went to the 'Topography of Terror'. This is a section behind a piece of the Berlin Wall (there is not much left of the wall in Berlin, it seems the thought to preserve it was an after thought) that is now a walking outdoor museum built on the site of the old Gestapo headquarters and what was eventually the HQ of the Schutzstaffle (or the SS - Hitlers Army). We used the headphones to guide us through as all the text is bizarrely only in German. The trip consolidated what we learned earlier at the concentration camp and with our tour with Terry Brewer.

We are now off to find something to eat after another day of not much food and too much walking! We're thinking of trying the Greek place across the road as our trip down to the canal in Kreuzberg was a bit odd. The place looks like war-torn Bosnia full of nutters and punks so we decided to give it a miss.

Next stop will be Prague, we catch the train tomorrow and I will get to see my Mum and Step-dad for the first time since last February. Yay!! :)

Willkommen in Berlin

We have arrived in Berlin, the most unhelpful city in the world. When we got to Berlin Tegel airport we headed straight for the "Information" desk to find the best way into the city. The desk was manned by a gruff German man who didn't seem that interested in helping. He finallz sold us two bus tickets and we had to change here, get off there, change here. We got a cab. In complete contrast to Holland where everyone is helpful and the trip to the city is easy as pie.

Our hostel here in Berlin is OK, it's very new and IKEA-like but somehow it lacks charm and atmosphere. Our first night we took a walk to Potsdam Platz in the city and were amazed how new and modern all the buildings were. It was like being in the future!

The next day, Thursday we decided to do a walking tour as we had heard that was the best way to see everything. We joined Brewer's Walking Tours at 10:30 and hoped to join the 4 hour tour. When we got there we were early for that tour but we could join the full 8 hour tour, so we thought why not for an extra €2. It turned out that the trip would be hosted by Terry Brewer himself and the day turned into a massive 10 hour walking trip of Berlin and all it has to offer. Terry was the best guide as at 70 years young he lived through the second world war and worked for the British Intelligence service and has spent many years in Berlin before and after the wall. If there is something Terry doesn't know about Berlin, it's not worth knowing. The man is an encyclopedia of information and has no problems with days, months, years of nearly every event to ever happen here. I think we must have walked about 40KMs but it really was worth it. The picture is of the Reichstag (parliament building) near the Brandenburg Gate.

After the mammoth walking trip yesterday we thought we would take things a bit easier today and go and have a closer look at some of the things we saw yesterday and take a visit to the Stasi Prison. Before we could do that we needed to book our train tickets to Prague so off we set for Freidrichstrasse Station. We got in the queue and politely asked the lady behind the "Information" counter if she spoke any English. She curtly replied "Nein." and that was that. I felt like saying "Rude cow" to see if she really didn't understand English but Jodie pulled me away.

Onto the "Tourist Information" centre at the Brandenburg Gate. The office is the size of a pea and 99% caters for German tourists! We picked up a leaflet to the Stasi Prison and asked the man how to get there as the leaflet was in German, he was nice and told us and also printed out the train timetable for Prague so we could just show the person behind the desk what we wanted.

We hopped on a tram at Alexander Platz and walked the distance to the Prison. When we got there the lady behind the desk told us that we were too late and there no more tours in English today. Grrrrr. The leaflet explains (in German) that the Prison can only be seen by guided tour at certain times. Now, my GCSE German is about 12 years old and to say it is rusty is an understatement! It has completely oxidised and discintergrated! We asked if we could just join a tour in German so we could at least wander around. They let us do this and didn't charge us the entry fee. There were some signs in English and the place is facinating, but not as facinating if I actually understood what the guide was carefully explaining to his group of (rude) Germans who clearly didn't want us (and the Swedish guy who also wanted a tour in English) tagging along. So we did our own self-guided tour and tried to work it out the best we could. The picture is of inside the Stasi Prison, looking down a corridor with cells on each side.

More updates soon...

Last days of Amsterdam

Our day trip to the Dutch country side was good fun. We took a coach out to the towns of Marken and Volendam and walked around and took in the sights. The towns are tiny and only seem to exist to please the tourists that pass through each day and every where you stop for a talk or an explanation by the cheesemaker, fisherman or clog maker they are ready for you with a gift shop!

We met some other Aussies on the trip so we shared our experiences of Amsterdam so far, which were fairly similar. We had all done the same trips and walks and been enjoying every minute of it.

The trip to Anne Frank Haus was sobering, as you walk through the house and discover the history of what happened there not very long ago. The hiding place of the Franks was surprising big but very basic. The pictures that Anne put in the wall to brighten her bedroom are still there as she wasn't allowed to even look out the window much. I knew the story but I wasn't aware of all the detail and watching the recording of the interview with Otto Frank (the father) about how he found out that his wife and daughters had all perished in the Nazi Concentration camps was moving.

Onto our trip Rotterdam was amusing. We got on the train, which took about an hour and arrived in Rotterdam in the pouring rain (a common theme of our trip so far). The Tourist Information Office is brand new and ultra modern, a shame this can't be said for the rest of the city. It's like it can't decide whether to be old or modern. For a city that was heavily bombed and nearly wiped of the map in World War II there are a lot of new buildings but nothing really for tourists. We spent a few hours walking around one of the biggest shipping ports in the world, took in the shopping (which was very good - heaps of shops) before heading back to Amsterdam.

We have been taking in some of the 'local delights' that Amsterdam has to offer too. By this I of course mean the beer and hot chips with mayonnaise! What did you think I meant!

Impressions of Amsterdam

It's our third day in Amsterdam and all is well. We finally got to check into our room and despite the brain-dead mongoose behind the desk the hostel is surprisingly good! Even though we are slap bang in the middle of the Red Light District (a-hem) it's a very central place and full of activity.

We have spent most of the time walking and enjoying the sights. We went to the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum yesterday, today we are off on a day trip to see all the touristy stuff like clogmaking, cheese factories, windmills etc etc.

Walking around Amsterdam is a great experience, if you can manage to not get knocked over by either; a person, a bike, a car, a tram or a bus (there is always something and you have to look each direction 10 times!). At each corner is either a coffee house, bar/cafe, canal or a market. I've sampled several beers (all of which are good) and Jo has discovered why Holland is famous for beer and not wine :)

I'd love to be able to post some photos but the computer at the hostel won't let me so I will try to post some either at the next stop or more likely when we get to the UK.

We're planning a trip to Rotterdam and Delft in the next few days and we'll probably do a canal boat trip too as you just have to. We've also got tickets to Anne Frank Haus so that will have to be tomorrow.

I love holidays :)

Goedemorgen from Amsterdam!

We have finally arrived in Amsterdam after a seriously long trip! We had an 8 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur and a 2 hour lay-over. Then another 12 hours onto Amsterdam (with no seat-back TV!!).

We arrived safe and sound, albeit a bit tired and aching and in need of a shower. We got the train to Amsterdam central to find our hostel when we both realised neither of us had the address! Doh! We bumped into an American guy who was also lost and he accompanied us through the streets as we asked strangers where the hostel was (thank god everyone speaks English!). We eventually found it and here we are. Everyone is still stoned from the night before and we can't check in to our room until 3pm (another 6 hours) and it's raining. Boo!

Still, that's the fun of travelling. We are off now to the Information Centre to find out what we can do today to kill some time until 3pm when we can hopefully have our long awaited shower.

Get set.......Go!

....and they're off! Our final morning at home in Sydney has been quite relaxed so far. We've been drinking lots of tea and double checking our packing to make sure we haven't forgotten anything Dane & Alyse will be pleased to hear that the Quick-Dry garters have made it to the final pack :).

Not much left to do now, we're waiting for Claire who has kindly offered to drop us off at the airport. Apparently this is one of her favourite past-times so we were more than happy to oblige. I could tell she was excited about taking us when we were all watching "Hello, Goodbye" last night on TV. This is total reality TV of the "Can I hear the bottom of a barrel being scraped?" variety, which means you love to bitch about it but then still sit down and watch it.

Next stop is Kuala Lumpur and then finally Amsterdam. We will say "Goedemorgen" from Holland to you all soon.

Een goede dag verder!

Fancy a pint?

Whilst searching the internet for a good pub to meet up with people in London I must have gone through a hundred websites all claiming to know the best places to go.

All of these sites were lacking in one way or another; they provided too little information, had no pictures, were reviewed by monkeys or seemed incredibly out of date.


I was thinking to myself that there must be a website out there where you can get this information; I mean it’s not exactly researching to find the Holy Grail.

I finally stumbled on this fantastic website which was exactly what I needed. The site has a huge range of pubs, covers all of London, will list pubs by location, nearest tube/rail station or by rating. Each pub has a short but quality review along with a photo, directions/map and even the type of clientele.

I can’t help thinking that the guys who run this website never ever eat at home and must truly love pubs above everything else as it is so well researched. They are also pretty handy in website design as I found this site super easy to use.

My only comments would be:

• There are a few too many pubs with a “3 pint” status (out of 5) where the rating seems to be better than their review suggests



• The site is missing the magnificent ‘Monopoly Board’ route from their list of “Pub Crawls” (I successfully completed this in 1999. It started at Elephant & Castle at 8am and finished at Bond Street (I think) around midnight – my liver has never been the same since.)

It would good if there was a Sydney version, although this would probably have to be called www.fancyaschooner.com.au for NSW drinkers :)

World Cup 2006

So the World Cup is nearly upon us again (see my countdown timer on the right for the exact length of time left to go!).

As a pommy living in Australia one tends to notice certain differences in attitude towards sport by the two nations. My observations thus far are:

England loves to…

• Support their team by drinking copious amounts of beer and shouting/chanting witty banter at the opposition (case in point: The Barmy Army – they are masters at this!)


• Really get behind their team until they lose and then pretend that you never expected them to amount to much anyway


• Treat any English talented sports person with suspicion


• Turn any 12 year old who can kick a ball into a celebrity and then when they start playing for a team write articles about their love live and how overpaid they are

Australia loves to…

• Sing their National Anthem at sporting events!


• Proudly support all ‘Aussies’ who are competing (and by placing the word “our” in front of their name in the media


• Practically adopt anyone who has ever been Australia as Australian in some way, shape or form


• Support their team 100% - even if they lose they are treated like heroes for ‘having a go’ and doing their best


• Really foster young talent (usually by sending them to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra which is just a sporting legend factory if you ask me)

This World Cup will be especially interesting as Australia actually made it into the finals this time round. They aren’t expected to do that well (even in Australia there is a far amount of caution when predicting results). But for a country of 20 million where soccer is by far the least popular football code (after AFL, Rugby League & Union) they have done pretty well. And let’s not forget their team does include some good players in Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Mark Schwartzer, Tim Cahill and Brett Emerton. And please don’t remind me of the 3-1 victory in the friendly they played against England in 2003 in London. They are in for some hard games in their group, playing a solid Japan, world class Brazil (!) and Croatia.

England on the other hand truly has the weight of nation on their shoulders. If they could win it would mark 40 years since the first and last World Cup victory. But without Rooney and potentially Owen they are in for tough ride even if they play in “1966” red.

The team selection leaves me torn between thinking Eriksson is a total genius or an absolute fool.

His choice mean Beckham will be leading a mixed team onto the pitch that could potentially contain a 17 year old who has never played in the Premiership (but who could turn out to be a masterstroke), and some of the old guard. I’m and yet again surprised to see Owen Hargreaves get a call up (who in my opinion doesn’t deliver that much) and Darren Bent not even making it to the reserves. Only time will tell if Sven has picked a ‘team’ this time and not a bunch of individuals.

Port Stephens & Newcastle

Our last weekend before the trip took us up to Port Stephens and Newcastle. We headed up on Friday night to drop the cats off at the five star luxury holiday camp (otherwise known as Jo's mum's place). After the worst trip ever (our cats and the car do not mix) we finally arrived in Nelson Bay.


It really is a beautiful part of the world and I love to visit there for a weekend. This time however we spent most of the weekend in Newcastle with friends. We met up with Tanya and Paul to spend an afternoon on Paul's boat (see picture) relaxing. We were truly spoilt with Paul making fantastic chilli lobster for lunch with a nice glass of wine. After lunch we took the boat for a spin around Newcastle harbour and took in the sunset after a gorgeous day.


And to top it off, we tucked into a Black Forest Gateux when we got back! Hehehe.

One week to go

We're on the final week of holiday countdown (the picture was too funny to resist), only 7 more days to go.

Actually, this time next week we will probably be at the airport.

Things left to do include:

1. Organise money
2. Send cats to luxury holiday camp (Jo's mum)
3. Find a good pub to meet in London (otherwise it will be VB's at the Walkabout - hahaha)
4. Pack bags
5. Maybe do some work as still have 4 days left

Tick tock.

Have we found the best pizza in Sydney or even the World?

YES....It's called "Bar Reggio" location on the cnr of Crown & Stanley St, Darlinghurt. We stumbled upon this restaurant when we were out with friends on Mardi Gras evening a couple of months back, we were all impressed by this place but I have to say it's nothing flashy to look at but the experience says it all.

Last night we caught up with some good friends Nicci, Joe & Mellissa and decided to take them to "Bar Reggio". We arrived around 7.30pm and the wait time was around 20 minutes which is well worth it. Our friends were really impressed and said that they will definitely be back.

Everything about this place is fantastico! The food is bursting with traditional flavours and you just feel like you could be dining in Italy for the evening, the ambiance is great and just so buzzy! For a large pizza your looking at $15 and a small $12 and it's BYO and they don't charge anything for corkage - what more can a girl ask for? I just love the this restaurant and would recommend it to anyone!

Jo & Lou's top 3 pizza's would be:
1. Crown Street - eggplant, mushrooms, capscuim & parmesan (plus I ask for chilli)
2. Trecolore - mozzarella, prosciutto, garlic, rocket & drizzled with balsamic vinegar
3. Supreme - mozzarella, hot salami, mushrooms, olives, capsicum, pineapple, chilli

Can we find better in Italy? I don't think so but we will definitely be eating lots of pizza and putting "Bar Reggio" to the test :)

The Perfect Project

Just a little something for anyone who has ever worked in IT or been on the receiving end of a new system...

Aston Villa

Another season, another lucky escape for Villa fans. The Villans managed to pull out a fantastic 16th place out of 20, and the only thing to smile about is that Birmingham got the chop down to the Championship.

I have to say, I don't follow the soccer as much as I used to (Note: I hate using the term 'soccer' but here in Oz there are three other far more popular football codes) but I do what I can to keep up. It's also been a long time since I've seen a good Villa game and I was still doing my GCSE's when they were a good top 6 team. Players and managers have come and gone but there seems to be a bermuda triangle in the midlands where football is concerned.

When we can scrape up enough cash to actually buy a player, they were usually doing pretty well at their previous club. As soon as they step foot at Villa they seem to either:

a) Suffer a season long injury in their first game (well, practically - Martin Laursen)
b) Forget how to play football (nearly everyone)
c) Barely perform well enough to make it to the reserves even though we spent millions of pounds on them (Savo Milosevic, Stan Collymore)

AND to make matters worse, when we finally off-load the muppets who couldn't kick a bucket when in the claret and blue (mentioning no names, Peter Crouch) all of a sudden they are now the man to lead us into the World Cup. Groan.

What is it that keeps us coming back for more? I have no idea, but I'm already looking forward to next season!

Jervis Bay

We're just back from a great weekend down at Jervis Bay. We picked up Bo, Claire and Elvis on Friday after work and set off on the trip down the coast. It wasn't long before hunger got the better of us and we were tucking into Claire's home-made empanadas. Yum!

We got to our cottage in Jervis Bay around 8:30 and cracked open the wine! We had a really nice relaxing time, lots of walking on the beach (see photo), BBQs and wine :) Elvis the poochy had a great time and was absolutely knackered after the 2 hour beach walk.

Between the four of us we took down 6 bottles of wine, which seemed a little over the top but was worth it! Everyone took the P*#@ out of my Rieslng ("Oooh no! Riesling is disgusting"). How sweet it was when everyone took the first sip and was lapping it up. Ha. Speaking of sweet, Claire brought along this bizarre sweet Shiraz (served cold), which the winery said was best tasted with chocolate to bring out the flavour! It just doesn't get much better than that!

Back to work tomorrow and we're on the count down until we head off to Europe, yay! Only 9 more work days left...

Work Nicknames

I was having a conversation with some of my work colleagues yesterday and as we were talking it struck me that our chat must sound very bizarre to anyone who happened to be eavesdropping on us. Why is this I hear you ask?

Work Nicknames. This conversation was loaded with them! It hadn’t really occurred to be before how these names had evolved and by coincidence a friend (who lives in America) on instant messenger was telling me about a work colleague she hates and she referred to him by his work nickname. So we had a sharing session of these names we had bestowed on people.

"Good afternoon, Darth Hideous speaking. How can I help you?"

As we were comparing I observed that Australian work nicknames tended to be more metaphorical in nature, for example:

- “Penguin” – he looks like The Penguin from Batman
- “Emu” – she has a bit of a ‘beak’ and is always looking around
- “Jessica Simpson” – given to any dumb blonde we come across but is mainly used for one person
- “Frogman” – hard to explain but it’s to do with the face and eyes mostly, with hindsight should probably have been ‘Toad of Toadhall’
- "Hurricane" - from category 1 to category 5

American ones were more descriptive of someone’s personality, for example “Whiny Pants" and my personal favourite…. “Darth Hideous” (inset) – given to someone with a particularly nasty heavy breathing habit. My friend found out that even she is not immune to this phenomenon and her nickname (I think she got off quite lightly!) is Jessica Rabbit (of Roger Rabbit fame). I’m not sure if I have one at my work, but I think the saying ‘Ignorance is bliss’ fits this situation quite well!

If I had known when I was at University just how professional people are in the corporate world that most of the day is given up to miscellaneous unproductive bitching and that everyone is given a nickname, I might have been tempted to do my final year dissertation on the subject instead of my riveting 10,000 words about Software Development Methodologies.

I’m interested to hear other stories of work nicknames and how they were created. Comments please.

Jammy dodger

Well well well. Luck must be on my side! I have just won a competition at work!

A few weeks ago I was surfing the Intranet at work and saw a link to enter a competition promoting my company's new advertising slogan. It was one of those 'In 50 words or less' type things which I usually ignore but this day it was early, no-one else was in the office and there was nothing urgent to do so I thought "Why not?".

In less than 10 minutes I had crafted my 50 words (precisely!) and submitted my entry and my choice of prize. I then got on with my day and forgot all about the competition, until a few days ago when I got a call saying I had won!!

This was exciting for several reasons:
1. The prize. I had chosen a $500 Myer voucher
2. The prize also included a paid day off work - yes!
3. It would also include my television debut (albeit on the internal work tv station to be presented with my prize, but you have to start somewhere)
4. I had already won a free 3 day trip to the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne through work last month, and this means I am now on a hat-trick :) I'm off to buy a scratchie!

Hence the post title of 'Jammy Dodger', which is what we used to call exceedingly lucky people when we were kids! It's all very exciting as I am not normally of the 'Jammy Dodger' variety and I feel like I must have contracted the luck virus (Red Dwarf style) or something. It may also just make coming home and back to work after 5 weeks off a little more bearable as it is something to look forward to.

Bring on the shopping! As I have been saving up for the trip there hasn't been too much shopping of late, so with this free voucher I will be like Carrie Bradshaw in a Manolo Blahnik store!