Ik ben Zwarte Piet!

Yesterday I got to take part in a crazy dutch tradition - dressing up as Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) and giving candy to lots of children! It was so much fun!



Sinterklas is the Dutch Santa Clause, only 100 times better and the Zwarte Piet are his helpers. Everyone in Holland gets into it and lots of the kids really believe the story. So my boss (Martin) invited me to help out at his son's soccer practise by surprising the kids with a little visit


Martin's son is the boy on the right in the picture below - he's just like his Dad! Really cute kid!



Another nice part about it was the fact that when I was young we also celebrated Sinterklas. Good memories!

You'd be scared too!

A while back I got a visit from some friends back home - engineering and focus buddies Jerome and Simon! We caught up in Amsterdam and decided to go bike riding... and I thought it would be smart idea just 'dink' on the back of Simon's bike.

Nothing against Simon's bike riding ability, but it was one of the funniest/scariest experiences of my time in Holland.

Jerome in the background - having a little trouble?

And I finally got to see the famous "I Amsterdam" sign... lots of tourists, lots of posing

It was great to see the boys from Tassie, I believe their back home probably enjoying the warm weather (I hope!) I wonder if they're keen to go for a bike ride through Hobart's streets together...?

What is worse than a bad moustache...?

Two bad moustaches

Noud and me.

See you later!

I worked with some amazing people this year - I couldn't have asked for better collegues!

I've been working here in Holland for a year, and finished my initial contract. I'm taking 3 months off of unpaid leave and heading down to Australia for a month, then to Africa for 2 months. I'm really looking forward to it, but I will have to say that I will miss the fun of working with everyone in the celhuis!

p.s. the trophy was made by Noud - the craziest, funniest and most helpful mechanic I will probably ever meet...

Movember in Holland

I think I'll shave it off tonight...

A week in Portugal

I'm in Portugal! I flew into Porto late Friday night and have been seeing the site, enjoying the weather and meeting new people.

I tried my hand at 'funky shots' in a door frame... didn't really work!

I met my room mate Andrew on the first night in Porto and we've been hanging ever since which is have great!
And yesterday I went for a 2hr run! I have a 21km race this Sunday (the day I get back to Holland!) so I'm trying to keep fit - needless to say I got a few strange looks when I got back to the hostel

A photo which never should have been taken....

I found this photo on my camera after leaving it at a friend's house...

And in other news - I'm off to Portugal for a one week holiday!

Fierljeppen

I got to compete in a traditional Dutch/Freisland game.... Fierljeppen.

I asked what the literal translation is and noone could give me an answer. The sport orginated from farmers who had to cross lots and lots of streams on their property, so rather than building lots of bridges they adapted pole vaulting - but in order to cross really wide streams they learnt to balance the pole vertically, climb up to the top and then land it on the other side. Pretty amazing!

So a friend from work invited me to compete in a team with him and one of his friends. I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be quite a big carnival and lots of fun! Many people were giving it a go, and there were quite a few spectacular crashes (one guy got carried away in a stretcher...)

The locals were quite excited to have an international competitor in the event and I managed to get interview with the Eindhoven newspaper! Our team ended up winning and I got the furthest jump of 8 metres (the 'professionals' can do 20 metres!).

To top it off...

The details...

So after a week to debrief and settle back into 'normal' life, I'm now ready to give the details of my trip to the Balkans.

In case you can't be bothered reading everything here's the summary (Don't worry, I won't be offended!)

Bulgaria - surprisingly modern - funky student town clubbing area - beautiful scenery. Great to go to a Bulgarian Church.

Serbia - spent 24 hours there - and around 18 of those hours in the hostel - it was fun!

Bosnia - AMAZING - favourite country and biggest surprise. beautiful scenery, intriguing history and lovely people. two thumbs up

Croatia - fun times on the boat - very cramped - great weather - sunburn/peeling/tan :) beautiful cities.

Beginning at the Beginning

I started my trip in Sofia, very daunted by the idea of travelling for a week by myself (I haven't done much backpacking before!). The first day I got there I met some girls in my room who were friendly and fun, so spent the next day hanging out in a Monestry in the mountain rain forests 2 hours drive outside of Sofia. That night we went to a very random student town. It's based in the middle of nowhere, with communist student buildings surrounding about 4 or 5 clubs. It was fun!

I then went to Veliko Tarnovo which was a much more scenic city than Sofia. I managed to meet up with a church there who were taking part in world prayer day, and it was great to see them worship. I listen to them sing "Great is our God" and "Ancient of Days" in Bulgarian - strange, but cool!

I took an overnight train (surprisingly painless) and went to Belgrade, Serbia. I arrived early in the morning and tried to look around the city and the sites with a guy I met on the train who randomly was also going to be my room mate on the cruise in Croatia. It was ok, but not as nice as the other places I visited - plus it was raining. So we went back to the hostel, and met up with some hilarious Irishmen. We had a great time chilling in the hostel - and that was my serbian experience.

I then went to Sarajevo, Bosnia. I stayed at an awesome hostel and learnt a heap about the history of the seige of Sarajevo. Incredibily interesting and moving. To hear how these people survived in state of war for 4 years - in the the 90s!!! I could say a lot more - but it would be far better if you just go yourself if you haven't already! Do it!

Again, beautiful scenery in Bosnia made it a great trip from Sarajevo to Mostar. I arrived in Mostar at 9 in the morning and went straight away on the most full on one day tour ever! we learnt heaps from our awesome tour guide, jumped off an 11 meter bridge, swam below a waterfall, mucked around on the rope swing, drank coffee with a bosnian grandmother, eat out at an amazing restuarant, and then checked out the second largest freshwater source in europe. got back to the hostel at 12:30am - bus leaves at 6am :(

Croatia was a week of sunshine, boating, hanging out with some great people and drinking a few cocktails (not too many mum!). I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

And to end my holiday, I spent a night in Bristol, England with Sarah and Dave :)

It's over :(

I'm back from my trip and I had a fantastic time! I'm missing the backpacking already, but I'm sure I'll quickly get back into life in Eindhoven.

As you can see from the photo - it was raining when I got back to Eindhoven and I had to ride my bike back to my apartment. Doh!

I'll try and put some posts up in the following week about my travels!

Vakantie! (Holidays!)

This week I'm backpacking solo around the Balkans (Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia)

Next week I'll spend a week sailing through the Croatian islands on a tour.

I'm really excited!

Some dutchness...

A couple weeks back, we had Queen's Day (Koninginnedag!) here in Holland. It's the 'biggest' day of the Dutch year. Heaps of people converge on Amsterdam to celebrate, and everyone sets up stalls in the street and sell whatever they want! I caught up with some very funky people (Andrew and Calli) and we spent the day selling some handmade teddy bears and other assorted items. It was great weather and our stall overlooked the canals so we had lots of boats and loud pumping music all day long.
And I've just come back from a day in Rotterdam, where I caught up with a friend I met travelling (Anouk). She was a great tour guide as she pre-empted all the things the real tour guide was saying when we went for cruise on the harbour.

I'm glad I bought a GPS - some of the highways are crazy!

Spring in Europe!

Well I'm back in Eindhoven after a big month! I had a great time catching up with my family and friends in Tassie again. I love Hobart's open space, the mountain and the river. It's pretty special! I was actually very sad when I arrived in Amsterdam, to think that I wouldn't be back for a long time. One redeeming fact of coming in to Eindhoven was to see all the trees, plants and flowers have suddenly come to life! It was 25 degrees when I got back, and I was warmer here than I was in Sydney!

Before I left for Australia, I managed hop over to Ireland for a weekend and I caught up with Bridget in Galway. It was fun to get a taste of the Irish life and hear that crazy but very likable Irish accent!

Since then I competed in my first canoe polo tournement hosted by my club. It was big with over 300 paddlers from lots of countries all converging on our home turf. It was a great experience, and I felt quite inadequate with my paddling skills.

And I've just come back from a great weekend in Amsterdam getting back into some linyhop dancing. Here's a pretty cool video I found of some awesome teachers improvising and mucking around. (I got taught by them in England earlier in the year!!!)