Author: Gustav

My name is Gustav, as you probably know. I write for and maintain this blog together with my wife, Linnea.

Christchurch (17 – 18 September)


We are home now from our New Zealand trip and will publish a series of posts written during our trip. We will also post a video later summarising our trip. Hope you enjoy!

After a day (or half a day) of packing, we got up at 4 am in order to catch the train to Sydney at 4:39 am. First thing, we checked Uber. There were a couple of drivers around, and we ordered one with a time margin in mind.

As we got out of the house, the car had started driving the wrong way, and we started to become stressed. So with less than fifteen minutes left ’til the train was due to leave, we ordered a taxi.

Of course, as soon as the taxi appeared so did the Uber. The Uber was first, so we got into the taxi drivers dismay. (We did apologise to him, though).

The Uber driver drove like a maniac, in what I assume is not a completely legal fashion. But we got to Hamilton station with time to spare, so all was well.

Half groggy with sleep, we rode the train for three hours. When we got to Sydney at 7:11 am, we changed trains to get to the airport. At the airport, we noticed the architect did not assume people would come by train and decided just to put in one escalator and one lift.

One long escalator queue later, we managed to find our way to the check-in kiosks of Air New Zealand where we got our boarding cards and bag tags, and then dropped our bags at the counter.

Side note: Air New Zealand has one of the most beautiful graphic profiles we’ve seen. It is present through everything from the aeroplanes to the clothing of the personnel.

The flight was a bit late in departing, but it was pleasant otherwise. We got our second breakfast, which we thought seemed fitting for the occasion as the LotR fans we are.

In the seat next to us, a businessman sat who seemed really hang over. He didn’t eat any of his food and only ordered two Bloody Mary drinks. He gave Linnea his breakfast muffin, which was nice.

When we had landed, we got through immigrations and customs fairly quickly. Before getting out of customs, we withdrew some money and took some brochures, during this time we were sniffed by a customs dog four times. He was sniffing for fruit and other illegal items.

From the airport, we took the bus into town and walked the rest of the way to the Airbnb where we were going to stay. It took some time to walk, but we managed to find a park which we could walk along. The park was filled with daffodils, which we associate with Easter in Sweden partially because they are called “Easter lilies” in Swedish.

When we got to the accommodation, the hosts weren’t home, but they had given us instructions on how to get in. We got settled in our room and greeted the hosts when they arrived. Our hosts were Andy and Kat, two Germans who have been living and working in Christchurch for two years. They were kind and gave us some suggestions on where to eat.

We went out to a Moroccan place where we had a sharing plate. It had falafels, olives, carrot sticks, and more. As we were leaving, Gustav bought a Turkish Delight because he wanted to try it. It was good too. When we were walking back, fireworks started some distance away. A nice way to end the first day in New Zealand.

We started our second day with complimentary breakfast, muesli with milk and mocha coffee. After that, we headed out to the city with our first stop at the botanical garden. The botanical garden was really big, and we walked around there for a couple of hours. The roses weren’t blooming, but many other flowers were blooming.

We looped around the park and got back to where we started. We went into Canterbury Museum which stands in the garden, where we say a couple of different exhibitions. First, we were in an exhibition about New Zealand starting with the Maori people and their evolvement, then come the colonisation and the immigration. There was also an exhibition about Air New Zealand in order to celebrate their 75 anniversary.

After our museum visit, we went to the Re:start mall which is built using containers and was built after the earthquake in 2011. We bought and ate some food, and then we went into some stores and had a look around.

We ended our tour in the city by visiting 185 empty white chairs, a memorial artwork for the 185 people who died during the 2011 earthquake. Every chair was different and selected for the person it represented. The most heartbreaking with was to see the baby car seat in the front row. The artwork really makes you think about life, how precious it is, and how sudden it can be taken away.

Next to the artwork stood a church called the Cardboard Church, which also had been constructed after the earthquake. It had interesting architecture and a unique kind of window art.

As we walked home, we bought some ingredients, and then we made burgers when we got back to the accommodation. We talked a bit to Andy and Kat as we ate, and it was interesting to hear their views on the life in New Zealand and how it is different from Germany and Europe.

Hugs,
Gustav and Linnea

Weekend in the Blue Mountains, Day 3 (28 August)

Our third and last day in the Blue Mountains started, as the Saturday with a nice brekkie prepared for us by Rosalie. As it was our last day in the Blue Mountains and our stay with Rosalie, after breakfast we pack our bags and “checked out.”

We didn’t have any major plans for the Sunday, but Jenny had given us the advice to visit Leura, the town next to Katoomba if we had time left.

We walked to Leura; it was a fair bit to walk especially because of the hilly countryside. Well in Leura, we visited a local crafts market and then set off in search for what seemed to be a good lookout spot.

Again, we walked for some time. When we got to the place where the map said the lookout would be, it looked to be inside a park with paid entrance, which we didn’t feel like doing.

After closer inspection of the map, Linnea realised that next to the park there was a pathway leading down past the park. This pathway led to the Elysian Rock Lookout.

The view was amazing, and when we arrived, we were completely alone. So we occupied the very well placed park bench and had some fika.

When we had taken in the view and the fika, we left on another track going on a short walk alongside the cliff before making our way back to central Leura. When we got back we sat down at Lily’s Pad Cafe for a soup lunch and then got some additional food from Woolies. Then we rushed to the train station where we had to take the train replacement bus (because of track work).

The Blue Mountains was a really nice place to spend a weekend in with amazing views and a challenging workout all in one. People recommended it to us before we went to Australia, and we’ll certainly recommend it to people in turn.

/ Gustav & Linnea

Found ‘påskliljor’ in New Zealand! ?

Found ‘påskliljor’ in New Zealand! ?
#itsasmallworld #linneaandgustav (http://ift.tt/2cz1BwZ)

Weekend in the Blue Mountains, Day 1 & 2 (26 – 27 August)

On Friday 26 August after Linnea had her Friday class, we went on the train to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, to the town of Katoomba, to be precise. The train ride took four hours, but we had brought food and things to listen to, so the trip wasn’t boring.

In Katoomba, we had booked a room through Airbnb. The house was located really close to the train station and the area that makes out the centre of Katoomba. At the apartment, we were greeted by Rosalie, our host, with whom we shared the apartment and also with her cat Tigy.

After we had left our bags in our room, we went out to get some dinner and to buy som food for our hike the upcoming day.

On Saturday, we got up at 10 am and made our way to the sunroom in the apartment where we were served a nice brekkie that Rosalie prepared for us consisting of toasties, coffee, and strawberries.

When we had eaten and packed the things needed for the day, we headed out towards Echo Point which is one of the main lookout points in Katoomba famous for the view of the Three Sisters, three rock formations as seen in the picture below.

At Echo Point, we got to see the majestic view that is the Blue Mountains. Looking out over the valley, it was hard to grasp that the green cover far below was trees, big trees.

After we had taken in the view, we started walking along the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. There were some really great lookout points along the walk where we stopped and at one well-placed bench we stopped to eat our lunch.

We continued after lunch to the Furber Steps, walking down the valley through the cold rain forest and along the bottom of the canyon. While walking down had proved quite easy, walking up would prove to be harder.

When we got to the bottom of the canyon, we decided to take the route towards the Great Stairway instead of taking the cable car up. Looking at nature, so different from back home, while at the same time convincing ourselves that it was too cold for snakes to be awake kept us busy.

The Great Stairway was really engaging. Most parts were really steep and narrow, but there was railing in good condition mostly. My, Gustav’s, strategy was to climb as much using the arms as the legs when getting up the stairs. I would say that it was a winning strategy and a good workout, although I might have looked a bit like a monkey.

When we finally got to the top of the Great Stairway, we discovered that it ended at the Three Sisters, which was cool and felt like a good way to end the hike.

The passage of time is hard to capture in the form of text; we walked a lot. At the end of the day, we had walked 13 km. Looking at a map over Katoomba and the Blue Mountains distances does not look far at first glance, but that’s before you know there is a hundred meter drop that separate point a from point b.

The Blue Mountains was a really cool place to visit. Stay tuned for our next post about our third and final day in the Blue Mountains.

/ Gustav & Linnea

Hunt & Gather Markets, 20 August

The third Saturday of every month, a market called Hunt & Gather takes place in downtown Newcastle.

We’ve come in contact with this through one of Linnea’s university courses, the one called Furniture, form and function. The assignment for the whole semester in that course is to create a furniture piece that could be sold at that specific market. So naturally, when the first market day of the semester came around we went to check it out. Honestly, this type of field research is incredibly fun!

Even though our main objective was simply to observe the market and talk to a couple of stall owners, we ended up staying for a big portion of the day. The reason being that we were having a great time. We ran into some of Linnea’s classmates and also the two sisters that are the masterminds behind the market (they held a lecture for Linnea’s course, so she recognized them at the market). We talked with them for a while, then had lunch at the market, after that Linnea got a henna tattoo in one of the stalls, we got some coffee and continued going around the stalls and talking to the owners… A lot of them felt excited talking about their experiences and knowledge of the market.

After shopping some clothes in one of the stalls, we felt tired and decided on heading towards Newcastle beach, which is less than 5 minutes walking distance from the market. But before we had time to make our exit, a guy at a table asked if we wouldn’t mind being painted by him for a ‘cartoon census’ that was taking place that day. We said sure and sat down for a while, talking to the guy as he painted. The guy’s name is Ben Mitchell and apparently, he has a class at UoN in graphic design which Gustav thought about taking when we were selecting our courses. The world feels very small sometimes.

Happy with that we had taken part, we headed towards the beach. There we sat down in the sand and contemplated for a bit what a wonderful Saturday it was. We sat there until the sun was about to go down, then we felt like it was time to head on home. But we’ll definitely go back to the market before our time in Australia is up, you can count on that.

Hugs,
Linnea & Gustav

Enjoying our weekend in the Blue Mountains! #LinneaAndGustav #nofilter

Enjoying our weekend in the Blue Mountains!

Enjoying our weekend in the Blue Mountains! #LinneaAndGustav #nofilter

Our First Live Rugby Game (Sunday, 14 August)

Our Sunday was eventful as well. We were going to our first live rugby game! We had gotten a really nice deal through the university that included the tickets, a hat, and a scarf. The game we were going to watch was a National Rugby League (NRL) game between Newcastle Knights and Penrith Panthers.

We went to Hunter Stadium together with a bunch of other international students. Outside the arena, we got our tickets and our accessories.

Inside, we bought an ice cream and got to our seats and waited for the game to start. There were a lot of sponsors that needed to get their names out there. When each player was presented, they were also sponsored by a specific company each.

Another interesting thing concerning the sponsors is that the ads shown on the field on television are added live during the broadcast while the field itself only has the Newcastle Knights logo printed in one place. For more about this technology, watch Vox’s video about it:

The game got started, it started off in a good way. Both teams were very active, and the score was close. As we’ve seen some games on the television, we have started to get a hang of the rules in rugby league, but still, it was hard sometimes to understand why the game progressed in the manner it did.

At halftime, the score was 6-6, and the other international students and we were escorted away for something special. So, we got to go down onto the field and stand at the entrance of the field to greet/cheer/high-five the players as they exited for the second half, which was very cool. A VIP event apparently, and it was very exciting!

As we were getting back to our seats, we went to buy some coffee. The queue was very long and when we got back to our seats, half of the second half had elapsed and Knights had managed to keep their 6 points fixed while Panthers were in the lead at 26 points. The game progressed in the same manner and ended 42-6 to the Panthers.

Although the crushing defeat, it was interesting to watch and the weather was lovely. So, it was a good way to spend the Sunday.

(PS. The roads were jammed after the game. Cars everywhere.)

– Gustav & Linnea

Wine Tour in Hunter Valley (Saturday, 13 August)

On Saturday, 13 August, we went on a wine tour in Hunter Valley. The wine tour was arranged by the student association Newcastle University Affordable Wine Appreciation Society (aka. The Goonion), and we went by bus from campus at 9 am.

After about 50 minutes on the bus, we arrived at our first destination, Tamburlaine Organic Wines. We were ushered into a warehouse where stacks of wine-filled oak barrels were stored. In the warehouse, we were greeted by a man called Tumbleweed from the vineyard who were going to guide us through the wine tasting. He was an alumni from UoN and was one of the founders of The Goonion, so some of the other participants knew him from before.

We tasted eight wines at Tamburlaine, a sparkling white, a sparkling rosé, three white, and three red wines. One of the white wines was a fruity but sweet, late harvest Riesling wine, which we really liked so we bought a bottle. We bought the wine from Tumbleweed, and it turned out he was going to Sweden in two weeks. He asked for some advice for good places to eat in Stockholm or Gothenburg, so Gustav suggested two places nearby Klarna’s office in Stockholm.

Next stop was at Hunter Distillery, which (yes, I know) is not a vineyard. They produce and sell flavoured spirits, and that was what we got to taste. So you might ask, “After drinking eight kinds of wine, how were you able to drink eight kinds of spirits without getting drunk?” First of all, I didn’t tell you there were eight kinds of spirits; we tasted ten. But to answer that question, we got a 1-millilitre sample of each spirit, and they were served in a chemistry style test tubes, see the above picture. Out of the different flavours, Linnea liked the Chocolate Vodka the most, while Gustav preferred the Blackberry Schnapps.

The third and last stop was at Kevin Sobels Wines, but we arrived a bit early so we walked around in Pokolbin Village and browsed in the stores there before the tasting. The tasting was quite similar to the other wine tasting. They started with a sparkling white wine and continued with two white wines followed by three red wines. They ended, however, with two fortified wines; a white and a red port wine. The red port wine was really nice.

After the tasting, we browsed some market stalls before we ate. At one of the stalls, we found a dog that we played with for a bit. For lunch, we had some BBQ. Still, the definition of BBQ seems to be sausage or veggie burger on a slice of toast bread. But it was nice and tasty.

When we got back from the wine tour, we ended our evening by watching the sixth and final film in the Maria Lang series that we’ve been watching. It was good; a nice film to watch after an eventful day.

Love,
Gustav and Linnea

Exploring the City – or Gustav Has His Head in the Clouds (Sunday, 7 August)

We started our Sunday by finally getting our running habits brought back to life on the other side of the planet. We went on a 5K run on the sidewalks in our neighbourhood up to a nearby park, which turned out to consist of mostly a baseball and softball field. Although we rather would have liked to run in a forest or a park, the mere feeling of finally running again was joyful!

In the afternoon, we decided to go into town and have a look around. We ended up walking up this huge hill in the neighbourhood “The Hill” (shocking, right). At the top of the hill, we found the ruins of a lighthouse and the monument The Obelisk. The Obelisk is very similar to Washington Monument, although the first mentioned is smaller. It was actually built before its bigger sibling in the U.S.

The reason for the construction of the obelisk is also interesting. Where it stands, a windmill was ordered to be built in 1819. After the mill had become succeeded by other mills, it was demolished to the distress of the shipping companies, which had navigated by the landmark. So, therefore, the obelisk was built.

As it was starting to get late, we went down to Darby St where we looked for a place to eat. We settled on a restaurant called Zinc on Darby. Linnea ordered a nachos plate and Gustav ordered chicken schnitzel. We shared a pear cider from the New Zealand brewery, Monteith’s. It was really nice.

After dinner, we walked to the bus and went home to have our usual Sunday night skype date with our parents.

/ Gustav & Linnea

The first week at university (26-29 July)

Here’s a summary of our first week of uni! We both started at 9 am on Tuesday because we don’t have any classes on Mondays.

Tuesday

We biked to uni with a fair bit of time to go, but still, we arrived just in time for class. It’s about 5 km to uni when biking and much of the way to campus is at a slight incline, plus at one point we have to cross an extremely busy road. We’re still getting used to biking in Australia as it’s quite different from biking back home in Sweden.

Gustav had a lecture in Supply Chain Decision Support in the ICT building, aka the car park (as it is built on the third story of a car park). Linnea made her way to the Architect “island” on campus, where the faculty of Engineering and Built Environment has its headquarters. Three of her four courses take place there. The course she’s taking on Tuesdays is called Design Development and Management.

At noon, we met up and ate lunch together. UON was serving a “free BBQ lunch”, where BBQ refers to your choice of veggie burgers or sausages on a slice of toast bread. It was quite alright; it was after all free… and what student can say no to free stuff?

Gustav went to his second class at 1 pm, which was a tutorial in the same course as earlier. Linnea only had a lecture that day, so she stuck around and had some coffee with the Swedish crew on campus, and later went to play squash with a campus association called GOALSS.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Linnea started at 9 am and Gustav at 11 am. Nevertheless, we biked to uni together. While Linnea went to her lecture in a course called Furniture, Form and Function, Gustav went to study and prepare for his class.

Linnea’s lecture was over at 10 am, so she went home while Gustav went to his class at 11 am, a workshop in Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Innovation. After that class, he had a break until 3 pm, when he had his lecture in Business Analysis.

In the evening, we bought some Thai food for dinner and went back to uni to Black Light Party @ Bar on the Hill, our first student party in Australia! It was interesting to see how Aussies party. Compared to Sweden, it started kind of early as it started at 7 pm and stopped at midnight. We had a blast, and we randomly found a doppelgänger for Linnea’s friend Svante. The doppelgänger both looked and acted like Svante, so we were stunned.

Since the buses stopped going quite early, we tried Uber for the first time to get home from the party. We were picked up by a guy who had been a student at UON before, and overall we thought it was a very convenient way to travel. We’ll probably try it again sometime.

Thursday

On Thursday we both had only one class each, although at different times. So, Gustav went to uni for his lecture in Leadership and Entrepreneurship at 10 am. After the lecture, he biked home again to find Linnea still anticipating her first workshop in Introduction to Management which didn’t start until 3 pm.

Overall, a bit slow (and hungover) day. Stopped by the store on campus to get some sketching materials. Otherwise, we had our hands full trying to get back into ‘study mode’.

Friday

Finally, on Friday, Linnea had her last introduction lecture of the week in Computational Design and Modelling. The lecturer in that subject reminded her a lot of a professor back home at Linköping University, so she felt quite at home in her courses already after the first lecture.

While Linnea was at uni, Gustav was home enjoying his day off.

When Linnea got back from uni, we ate lunch together and went into town. We stopped by the doughnut shop Doughheads and had some fika.

Then we continued walking out to the beach and made our way alongside Newcastle Beach while the sun was going down.

We walked all the way through the Memorial Walk to Bar Beach.

Once there it was dark, and we headed back into town to catch the bus home.

We went to bed early in order to get up for the low tide on Saturday morning, but more about that in the next post.

Hugs and kisses,
Gustav & Linnea