Australia Day in Eindhoven

I feel very proud of being Australian today. We have a beautiful land, great weather, a laid back and friendly culture and it's home!* So last night to celebrate Australia Day, a dutchman from work (who had lived in Melbourne for two years) organised a Australian dinner with myself and the one other Australian family who work at the smelter



We had tim tams, pies, coopers beer (go SA!), potoato wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce... and pavlova and rocky road for desert! It was a great night!

Tonight I'm off to see "Australia" at the movies, with some friends I met at language course.

These last three weeks since Prauge have been spent working hard and getting to know a few more people here in Eindhoven. But I back on the travelling route with the next 3 weekends booked in different countries.


With the time off that I've had over this weeked, I've finally been able to clean my apartment, after two months of 'tidying' but not cleaning. And while it's in such a clean state, I thought a few photos were in order.

*Although I'm proud to be an Australian I still hope Australia lose today's one dayer against South Africa! Bad luck in the test series... muhaha

Czeching In

I took a day off work last Friday and flew to Prague to catch up with two mates Tom (fellow Tassie Engineer - travelling the world!) and George (mate from high school/college - now wine maker and a world traveller for 3 more days!).

Tom and George - backpackers (can you tell?)

Tom got the word out about Prague, and 5 other fellow travellers he'd met along the way also joined us. It was great to hang out with everyone... and thanks to Tom's organisation skills we rented an awesome apartment and we got to enjoy Prague in style.

The Team and our apartment

It's been pretty cold here in Europe (like -14!!) so it was pretty difficult to walk around the city and see stuff... but we gave it a go!

'Sledgers' in Prague

In the evenings we headed out on the town and found a "Musiek Pub" which was holding a 80's/90's night... needless to say we got into the dancing (unfortunately Simon... no "Mr Vain" was played) I did, however learn a very random Czech dance which involved lots of kicking... not sure whether I'll whip it out ever again, but it was fun!

My first 6 weeks

So I've settled in to my new life here in Eindhoven in the Netherlands!

It's been a busy 6 weeks, getting used to culture, the work, the language (!) and the travel! I'm trying to see as much in the year that I've been contracted to work here.

So here's a quick brief of what I've done so far:

Catching up with long lost family! I last met my mum's family when i was 5... obviously I can't remember much. So it was fantastic to meet my Uncle, Aunt and little cousin. I spent a weekend with them in Brussels (a beautiful city!) and also I spent a fantastic 4 days with them in Paris seeing the sights.

I also managed to catch up with a cousin in Utrecht (Another beautiful city in Holland) I learnt how to say gracht (not easy!) I ate harring (one bite - sorry but it was disgusting!) And I saw the coolest busker ever! This video does not do him justice. It was an amazing atmosphere, as everyone just stopped what they were doing to watch him

I caught up with Bridget (former tasmanian engineer - now professional jet setting traveller). We saw the sights in Amsterdam and got to celebrate Sinterklas (Dutch Saint Nicholas) with waffels, olie bollen and speculas! We managed to fit in a trip to Antwerp as well, where we had for some fine Belgian beers.

I then met up with Anissa and Dave (engineers and newly weds from port pirie!) in Cologne. The Dom, Christmas Markets, Gluwein, Rhiebukchen and the Beer Halls were all highlights - must go back soon!

For New Year's I went back to Paris to catch up with Fadwa. Fadwa is a good friend from Port Pirie - well actually from Morocco/France, but she did a 6 month internship at Nyrstar in Port Pirie. She's now working in France and we had a great time catching up, travelling around with her friend Vincent, visiting old castles in Tours.

The weekends are going very fast, but I feel very lucky to be travelling and seeing these amazing places! I'd love to write more about each place, but unfortunately I'm too tired - I will try and be more descriptive in the future!