Hooray! Last Day of the Aussie Tax Year

And this means that Mum will soon do my tax return for me, which will hopefully result in a nice sized refund to further sponsor my European travels!!

Happy Days

Okay, so I never going to trust my (rather crappy) memory again. I was so so sure that I had put my camera into my handbag and these crafty Zagrebian pickpockets had stolen it. But being wary of my shoddy memory I went to the pub to check if it was there and...

IT WAS!!!

So I have found a favourite pub where I will be going for chillout drinks to commemorate my good fortune!

Hooray!

Trip of Awesomeness

As I said in the below post my sister and I have decided to see a bit of Italy (Lonely Planet Italy) in a week of travelling together, and I am so excited about this!! I am also really excited about seeing Maree, as with living in different cities while being in Australia in the last couple of years we haven't got to spend that much time together...I am also going to schedule in a trip to see here in Helsinki in the next couple of months-saunas and vodka!

Our probable itinery for Italy:

Meet in Budapest- spend a couple of days chilling out

Fly to Rome- spend about 3 days there, very excited about Rome (Lonely Planet Rome)

Train to Florence- a couple of days there (Lonely Planet Florence)

Train to Venice- a couple of days there (Lonely Planet Venice)

If anyone has some Italian travel advice please let me know, I would appreciate any tips.

Oh, and if you think I just keep this weblog to make you all jealous about the great travels I am doing....well you would almost be right!

Bugger Bugger Bugger

Deary me, I had the best day yesterday: work is going well, I have some friends to hang out with at last, and I had just decided in an MSN chat with my sister Maree that we will go to Italy/Budapest in the third week of August. I shot home after a drink with Matt, Sebastian and Gabby last night to take my washing to Ivna's (who is the fantastic washing fairy legend) and didn't get home until 10:30pm. I keep my camera in a pencil case in my handbag with a notepad and few other things- I went to grab it, and it wasn't there. After a thorough search of my room and my roomie calming me down I ascertained that it wasn't there, and seeing as I remember putting it in my bag before leaving the pub it must have been taken on the tram home.

Now this is in a small way (or at least will be at some later stage) amusing because I was super paranoid in Prague about getting stuff nicked, as it is supposed to be full of pickpockets due to the tourists. So I guess I had decided that Zagreb is safe, and became complacent!

Now, it could have been a lot worse- I had downloaded my pics already, and the camera is easily (if costly) replaced. It could have been my purse, passport, MP3 player (which is usually in the pencil case with my camera, but I took it out to charge it, phew) or mobile- all of which would have been a nightmare to try and replace. Plus Maree got a cool new camera just before we left Australia, and digital cameras have got a hell of a lot cheaper since I bought that one.

So plan of action: buying a smeller handbag which I will keep my stuff in at all times, that will be zipped at all times and over my shoulder. Also going to try and find a good price on the shiny Olympus camera my sister got.

So- bugger, bugger, bugger. But things could be a lot worse.

Oh, and just in case I didn't highlight enough above- things are going awesomely here at the moment.

Photo Overload

Hi, well as you can see I am back in Zagreb again. I got in at 10:30 last night, and I am looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight- I am pretty exhausted from all the walking and train travel I have done in the past week. Due to lack of reading material and entertainment on the way back to Zagreb I resorted to daydreaming about potential travels after my traieeship...I have an ambitious plan that I will share in another posting!

One interesting story from the trip back. I had a 3 hour stop on the way back in Vienna, and it wasn't really long enough to go into the city, so I decided to find a nice place to have a coffee...I know how to pick them. I ended up in what was a Greek restaurant and the owner decided to come and talk to me...he was kind of creepy, and then he dissapears and comes back with a huge glass of wine 'from his heart'. Thats nice and all, back I drunk up quickly and dissapeared back to the train station next time he left the table. The wine on an empty stomach was enough to have me sleeping for a good hour back at the train station.

I hope that all the photos load up! Especially on the shitty dial-up connection at home in Adelaide! It is only a few Prague photos, and I hope they give you a little taste of how beautiful the city is.

:) Renee

Not the Lone Trainee anymore

Ivna and Gabby at Tantra Cafe, Zagreb (21 June 2005), originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

For nearly my whole time here in Zagreb I have been the lone trainee, but last Monday Gabby arrived from Canada! (On the right, with the lovely Ivna on the left). We are hoping to get a dorm room together when I move into the same dorm in the next couple of weeks.

Should be some fun times.

Old Town Square

Old Town Square, Prague (June 2005), originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

EVERYWHERE you turn in Prague there is a beautiful building looking down at you, begging to have its picture taken.

The old town square was a great place to sit down and have a drink of my Liptons Mango flavoured Iced Tea, just looking at the lovely surrounds.

Golems are real

St Vitus Cathedral Golem, at Castle Grounds (Prague, June 2005), originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

I thought Golems were made up in cartoons and books, but no they were all over St Vitus cathedral.

Inside St Vitus Cathedral at the Castle Grounds

St Vitus Cathedral at Castle Grounds (Prague, June 2005), originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

I took this photo before a guard came and told some other people near me off for taking photos... Everything inside this church was beautiful. The Europeans really know how to do churches.

My first travel buddy

Renee and Klara at Breclav, Czech Republic (22 June 2005), originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

Klara and I met running to get our Vienna-Prague connection. She is a Czech studying in Prague, and it was cool to chat about Australia, the Czech Republic and other random stuff on the train, and when we met for coffee on Saturday.

Prague View

Prague View 01, originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

I found this great vantage point when I followed Lonely Planet's restaurant advice and ended up on the top of a hill looking down on the beautiful city.

Just magic.

Charles Bridge - Tourist Hot Spot

Charles Bridge, originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

This is one of the bigger tourist attractions in Prague, Charles Bridge. I first walked over in on a Thursday, and it wasn't that busy, but when I passed by again on Saturday (when this photo was taken) it was seriously chokkas.

Prague was the first time I have seen large numbers of tourists- there seems to be very few here in Zagreb, a few more in Ljublijana, and a substantial amount in Budapest. But in Prague every turn you take you are faced with large numbers of tourists.

Jewish Cemetary

Jewish Cemetary, originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

This is one of the few places within the Jewish part of Prague that I could take photos- all the Synagogues are off limits.

This has an interesting story to it. The cemetary is not all that big, probably about the size of two good house blocks in Australia. It was not big enough for what was a substantial Jewish population prior to the Holocaust, however the government would not grant any more land.

So when the graveyard was full of people a couple of feet of dirt was layed on top, all the headstones raised, and more people buried. This apparently happened a few times. The result is today an area just crammed with headstones, all in Hebrew.

Barbie Exhibit

Barbie Exhibit 01, originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

This is one of the far too many photos I took at the Barbie exhibition. You've got to love a girl who has had as many careers and makeovers as Barbie!

Emerging from Hany Bany at 4:30am

Portuguese Trainees - Paulo, Duarte, Nuno (Prague, June 2005), originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

(L-R) Paulo, Duarte, Nuno. These are three of the Portuguese trainees I went out with on Friday night to the early hours of the morning. There were also two other Polish trainees, but they piked early.

Prague - Amazing

The last couple of days have been a pretty mammoth experience for me...I hope the following account isn't too long winded!

Wednesday: Zagreb-Maribor (Slovenia)-Vienna-Prague

Well the first day of my trip was pretty much taken up with being on the train, which I still find quite novel, and staring out the window at the scenery is cool. The most notable part of the trip was being half an hour late for my connection at Vienna. I made friends with a Czech girl, Klara, who was also sprinting with a big backpack to make the next train. We chatted all the way to Prague (she is studying English and English Literature, so has excellent English), and at our hour stop just over the Czech border she shouted me a Coke at a cool little pub near the train station, as I didn't have any Czech currency.

When I arrived at the train station Deepak, an Indian trainee, was waiting to pick me up (very nice of him, he also had a spare metro ticket for me too!). Now is comparison to the rather modest dorm accommodation, the trainee flat which is about 20 minutes by metro out of the city is luxury: fridge, stove, oven, 1 shower to 4 people and even a washing machine (so I will have clean underwear to wear to work on Monday, Hooray!). It was interesting talking to Deepak- he is a software engineer, and pretty much a workaholic. He has not really seen much of Prague in the time he has been here, and hasn't done any travel around Europe. I learnt some interesting things about Indian culture (for example in India he lives in a sort of compound with something like 100 family members, and they do things like eating and socialising all together), and also told him some stuff about Australia. Questions about cricket were very fast to come up. I crashed before I got a chance to meet Paulo the flat's other trainee, who is Portuguese.

Thursday: Sightseeing and Trainee Dinner

On Thursday morning I woke up just in time to meet Paulo before he headed off to work. I then had a great shower, and headed on over to my new favourite European supermarket, Albert (formerly a tie between Spar and Kaiser) where I stocked up on cheese, salami, bread, and my new favourite flavour of Lipton's Iced Tea: mango. I bought the stuff on my credit card, and then I had to go through the ordeal of trying to get some cash to buy a metro ticket. In the end I braved it to the next stop without one, and found an ATM there (it might sound paranoid, but I have been inspected three times on the metro and tram here in three days). Finally I reached the city.

And what a city, everywhere I turned were beautiful building, really amazing. On Monday I will put up a couple of the good shots I got. But to give you at idea in Budapest, Graz and Ljubljana I just took 20-30 photos, here in Prague I have taken about 100 photos, because everywhere I turn there is a building that I have to capture. So I did the real tourist bit, which I could tell I was doing as there were hordes of tourists wherever I headed. Highlights of the day were:

• The views from Charles Bridge, and the bridge itself (which was not too crowded as it was a weekday...but today - Saturday- it is absolutely chockas).
• The Castle compound, and the St.Vitus Cathedral in it. The churches here are just so amazing. There were also Golems on the outside...I thought they were just an invention of Terry Pratchett books, so I got a few shots of them.
• The Toy Museum (also in the Castle compound). I really enjoyed wondering about looking at the old dolls, train sets, and all that sort of thing, but the best was the special Barbie exhibit. I was never that into Barbies when I was younger, but looking at the history of such a huge Pop Culture figure was interesting.
• St.Nicholas Cathedral. On the way back down from the Castle Hill I stopped in here. I was glad I paid the entrance fee to see the inside of another magnificent church.

That night I headed out to dinner with a few trainees and AIESECers from Prague, so it was good to have a chat with some other trainees and hear their stories too.

Friday: More sightseeing and trainee clubbing

Ah, another full on day of walking walking walking. In the morning (after another stopover at Albert for some lunch supplies) I headed into the city and to the Jewish part of the city. To access all the Synagogues it cost me about AUD$25, and I was so glad I wasn't a tightarse and paid for the ticket. The two highlights:

• Pinkas Synagogue: For centuries Czech Jews came here to worship, but it's walls are now covered with the names of the over 80,000 Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust by the Nazis. It was pretty moving. You watch movies and documentaries about the Holocaust, but actually seeing thousands and thousands and names on all the walls really puts it into perspective the millions of lives that were taken.
• The Spanish Synagogue: This was something else. Absolutely beautiful inside, and very different to the beauty in the churches and cathedrals. All of the walls were covered with a gold star of David type pattern.

Then I headed off the the Museum of Communism. Now my knowledge of history is pretty shocking, and so it was informative and very interesting to walk through this exhibit that tells of how the Czech Republic fell to Communism after World War II and only came free in 1989!

Then what a night. After having dinner back at the flat with Paulo we headed out for drinks with some other trainees. I met a cool guy from Iceland- I mean how often does that happen! Then I headed out clubbing to Hany Bany (pronounced Hunny Bunny) which I was assured was not a strip joint. It was however a complete meat market (which I should have known considering I was with 5 guys- 3 Portuguese and 2 Poles), but it was fun dancing to trashing 90's dance music until 4:30am, when we emerged from the club to find the sun rising, and Prague looking absolutely amazing! Then waiting for the first metro of the day...and finally bed.

Watch this space for the story of Saturday and Sunday...and some photos.

:) Renee

Chill Out

More than a few people would probably suggest I make this my mantra...

This is going to be the first weekend I have been here in Europe that I can truly chill out. Why? Well ever since I have been here I have been constantly stressed about not having enough money, and wondering how long I should stay, and playing 'what if' (I had waited in Australia for another week to see if the Deutsche Post traineeship came through). However things are REALLY starting to come into place (I know I have said it before) because I have a payrise confirmed (retrospective from when I started) which will give me enough to live on, and even put a little aside for traveling. Plus I finally have work...and it is looking like this should continue.

So yes I am going to have a blast in Prague, and I am going to party with the trainees on Friday and Saturday night, but at last I won't be running contingency plans through my head!

Thanks to everyone for their support while I have been trying to get this to happen.

Look for some Prague updates coming your way soon! Renee

Sidebar Additions

One of the things I do when I have had a shitty day is go home and look at the BIG map of Europe hanging about my bed, look where I have put the stickers of places I want to go, and read my Lonely Planet, dreaming and scheming.

I thought I would let you in on the fun...or in the case of a lot of you, just make you jealous. He he.

As you can see there are a few categories. In 'Cities I want to Visit' the places with stars are places I have actual plans to go to, but haven't locked in yet. The 'Countries I want to visit' are countries that I only know a little bit about, and am still looking into visiting, and some of them are a bit out of the way.

So as time goes by the list of cities I have been to should keep growing.

Labor succeeds in a second Northern Territory term

Going a bit crazy on the postings today.

Just before I turned 18 a historical event happened in my home territory- the Labor party beat the CLP (Country Liberal Party) in a landslide election after the CLP had been in government since the Territory was given self-governance in the 1970's. The CLP is the Territory branch of the national Liberal Party, and if possible is more racist, and back in the day more corrupt and self-serving. The Labour Party should take 18 of the 25 seats (CLP getting 6), and again be led by Clare Martin. This is a pretty dramatic change over a bit less than a decade: in 1997 the score was CLP 18, Labor 7; and in 2001 the score was CLP 10, Labor 13.

A few interesting bits of info:

• There were about 105,000 people enrolled to vote (voting is compulsory in Australia), so with 25 seats that is about 4,200 people per seat. That means that most politicians can door-knock their entire elecorate, and that seats often come down to a margin of literally a handful of votes.
• The NT is the only place in Australia where the candidates photos are on the voting card (which can allow an race element in the vote). This is because a large portion of the population (about 25% of which is Aboriginal) are illiterate or do not speak English that well.

So even though the Territory is not really my home anymore (I now call South Australia my home state, and I am registered to vote there), but I still find the politics the most colourful and interesting there. Although with the boring SA politics of Mike Rann and whoever the opposition leader is, its not hard!

Happy 21st Laura!

Sharmini and Laura at Ding Hao (Adelaide, May 2005), originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

Happy Birthday Laura,

I am sure that this is the start of what is going to be an amazing year for you: at least one jaunt about Europe, graduation...and who knows what else. I wish I could have been there for the dinner! Have the best time when you get over here in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!!

Love you matey! Renee

(Laura is pictured here to the right, with Sharmini on the left, who's birthday was also a few weeks back. This was my going away Yum Cha at Ding Hao in the wonderful Adelaide Central Market district)

Ljubljana-ness

P1010013, originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

This photo sums up the city prett well for me...beautiful building everywhere set around the (not as clean or beautiful) river with these great bridges criss-crossing everywhere. This pink church overlooks one of the main squares where we sat and chilled out for a good hour on Sunday arvo.

The other thing about the city was it was quiet- almost to the point of being dead. There were no shops open on Saturday and Sunday, so once the markets closed shop it was just the cafes and restaurants open. Definitely a nice break after bustling and crowded Zagreb.

City Mascot

P1010015, originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

You've got to love a city who's mascots are dragons!

HUGE Pizza

P1010020, originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

Now the Pizza is Zagreb is fantastic, however out Pizza brunch in Slovenia was the best pizza ever, only made better by the HUGE size of the pizza. We ordered 2 family size pizza's and were delivered these monsters. They were sooooo good. The company was also good, (L-R) Ines, Marr, Sebastian and Chris).

Ljubljana

What a random weekend!! Well on Friday after work I went down to the AIESEC office here and met Matt (the national committee office is only a few tram stops away from my work). When I arrived he was randomly talking to Frances on the phone, so I also got to have a chat with her. Then off we went to the train station via the money changed and hamburger join (for Matt) and ice cream shop (for me). We met up with Sebastian, and just got our tickets in time to catch the train with about 10 minutes to spare ($30 return is a pretty good deal too!).

We had some interesting chats on the way, and the most eventful thing was the border crossing. Matt (Canadian) and I just got our passports stamped. However Sebastian has to go through a mini-interrogation: why are you going to Slovenia (produces invitation letter from AIESEC Slovenia for 'business meeting'), how much money do you have with you (if invitation letter was not produced would need to show at least ?100 for each day, in this case had to show the border policemen his cash and credit cards), how long are you staying. Then conversation with other Slovenian border policemen, then radios in the passport details so they can be checked out. One of the reasons for this (although he also got hassled on the way back into Croatia) is that Slovenia is in the EU, and a sort of gateway for Romanians trying to get to Italy to work. It made me feel lucky to have my trusty Australian passport.

We met up with Matt's Canadian friend Chris, who is on the Slovenian MC this year (the Canadians have an evil plot to take over the Balkans this year, I think there are another 2 Canadians on National Committees in this region this year). We went back to his place (which is comparison to our dorm accommodation is a 5 star luxury hotel), chilled out a bit before going out to a Reggae festival. This is so far the most random thing I have done on my trip- a reggae festival in Slovenia? The only non-white people there were the black people on stage playing the music and MC-ing. So then we didn't get home until about 3 or 4 am and we were screwed!

The next day I headed into the city with Matt and Seb. Our first stop was the markets to grab some meat, cheese and bread for a picnic in the town square. Then we just walked about a bit before heading to the train station where they headed off the Kranj to join the AIESEC conference that was going on. I spent a bit more time walking around, grabbed something to eat and headed back to Chris's place to sleep.

On Sunday we were slightly more active, after we had pizza for brunch (that's the life) we walked up the castle hill (you're not a city in Europe unless you have a castle). After that we spent some time having coffee and ice cream and chatting. Unfortunately the train we were going to catch doesn't run on Sundays, so we then grabbed some burek for dinner and had more random chatting before heading back.

So now I have a couple of days to recover and wash my clothes before jumping on the train to Prague on Wednesday morning!

:) Renee

Irish People are CRAZY

*Please note, I mean this in a positive way.

My former Irish experience is limited to Frances, who was Irish, despite being born in Canada, and having spent most of highschool and uni in the US. I thought that living on the edge, being loud, inspiring infectious laughter and being pretty crazy were just Frances traits...which she was trying to pass off as being Irish.

Last night I met up with Karola, and her two friends Helen and Andrea. We had dinner with a heap of MC members and the like (that's AIESEC speak for AIESEC people), with much interesting discussion about what it means to be Irish, Australian and Canadian, about Irish culture, the small size of Slovenia (and the habit to mix it up with Slovakia, where Karola did her traineeship), George Bush, Americans...and many random things in between. It was also great to chat to Karola about her traineeship, plus she gave me some tips for my weekend in Prague.

The night after dinner can only be explained as very very random. The girls were eager to get out dancing, after a lull in going out since Saturday night last week in Prague. Now I haven't done much going out here in Zagreb, so I was all for it. Thanks to Dunja (an AIESECer here) for her gallant effort at trying to find nightlife, but it was not to be.

What!! I hear you cry- you can even find somewhere to go out in Adelaide on a Thursday night, and we always thought it was a bit of a hole (please note that this is what I have found the opinion of most Adelaideans to be of Adelaide, not my own- Adelaide is a cool place to live). Well in Summer it would appear that most of Croatia's happening night life heads to the much celebrated coast. This is sort of okay with me, as I am more of a sit and chill girl for most of the time, and there is more than ample venues (everywhere in Zagreb at every turn has a great cafe where you can sit and chill with a coffee or beer) here in Zagreb.

After a tour of a few places in Zagreb that were not really jumping, ending in a gay bar (my first, and probably last gay bar experience) at 2:30am (please note I get up at 6:30am for work!!) we called it quits and parted ways for the night.

It was GREAT to meet the Irish girls, and although random I had a great night. I am definitely planning a trip to Dublin in the near future (next six months)!

Rollercoaster

Since my arrival, and especially in the last week I have been an emotional rollercoaster...Not much of it gets up here on the blog, and my roomie (Nina), some of the AIESECers and my family get the bear the brunt of my angst. However I hope a little bit comes through, because although I don't want everyone to think I am having a shitty time (I'm not, I am really happy to be here on the whole), I do want people to get a real idea as to what things are like here too!

But, anyhow onto the news of the day. Those who have been following my so-far-not-so-good work saga will know my two main issues have been lack of work and lack of pay. Well today I had quite a good day workload wise. I did stuff, it was interesting, there is more stuff coming, and some of it sounds quite cool...this could be an experience that will give me a great view to working in commerce and in a multinational company, which would be great for giving me some ideas as to what I want out of a career. I have also been told that my airfare is to be refunded (although I will wait and see what happens with this one) AND that my salary is increasing. I should find out before I go to Prague next week what it will rise to.

So I am hoping that the rollercoaster will plateau somewhat, soon!

Quiet Week

This last week or so has been extremely frustrating for me- I have had virtually no work at all for roughly 8 hours a day (by virtually I mean I have had something to do for half and hour or so here and there). I am now almost at the end of the 5th week of my traineeship and really hope that I start to get busy soon. On the pay front, today there is supposed to be a meeting between HR here and HR at head office (in Belgium) to discuss the issue. I am unsure as to what I will do if the salary is not increased.

However there are some cool things to look forward to:

• Tonight I am meeting up with Karola, and two of her Irish friends. I have been reading about Karola's traineeship in Bratislava, and she is now on a tour through Eastern Europe. Her stop today is Zagreb.
• This weekend I am going to Ljubljana (Slovenian capital) with Matt (Canadian) and Sebastian (Romanian), both on the National Committee here. Ines (who is Croatian, and also on the National Committee) will be joining us on Saturday night. It will be good to do some travel with some other people!
• I have got two weeks of work approved by my manager: one at the end of July to go to ISP (International Summer Program) in Split (on the coast of Croatia)...that should be some good fun. The other week off is at the end of August to catch up and maybe do some travel with my sister who is taking a break from her break (she is going to catch up with the rellies in Holland on a break from Au Pairing in Finland) to see me here, and maybe going to Italy... :)
• The gym. Yes the saga of trying to find out about the special offer through work has almost reached its culmination. I know the prices, the address and have found it on the map. It is quite cheap, and close to work, so I am going to check it out on Monday before joining.
• I joined the video shop near my house, and I think it will be a once a week treat to get a DVD out. On Tuesday night I got out National Treasure. I knew it was going to be a fairly weak rip off of 'The Da Vinci Code', but it was still good.
• Thanks to the first two modules of Pimsleur's Croatian my Hrvatski (Croatian) vocabulary has at least tripled (more a reflection on how little I knew before, then on how much I have learnt). I think that after the ten modules I should have some building blocks to learn some more. And hopefully I can buy stuff without sign language.
• I am of course leaving for Prague on Wednesday morning! Hooray, this should be good. I will be getting back on Sunday night.

Also- thanks to the various people for chats over MSN and emails in the past week, listening to my frustration and worries. I really appreciate it!

Cheers, Renee

Gemaltes Haus

Gemaltes Haus 02, originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

I actually walked straight past this building on my way in, because I didn't think that there would be a beautiful painted building atop a shop selling trashy supre style clothes.

Schlossberg Stairs

Schlossberg Stairs, originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

260 (!) stairs was how I walked up Castle Hill. If I keep this up my calves are going to be super buff by the time I go back to Oz.

View from Castle Hill

View from Castle Hill 07 (with view of Grazer Kunsthaus on left), originally uploaded by Renee de Jong.

One of the things that struck me about Graz was the old building co-existing with the wacky new ones. This photo is from the top of Castle Hill. That grey blob of a building on the left is Grazer Kunsthaus- a contempory art gallery, and more to the right in the middle of the river is Murinsel- an artificial island housing a cafe and club.

More Croatian-ness

Nuns: I don’t think I have ever seen a nun in Adelaide. I have seen quite a few in Alice Springs- I think there are a couple of groups imported to work with Aboriginal people, and they go about dressed in what look like hospital bed sheets (white sheets with a blue border) which I am sure are much more practical for the heat than black habits. Everywhere you go in Zagreb there are nuns: having coffee, doing a spot of grocery shopping, riding on the tram. When I have mentioned this to a few people they have told me that they knew someone from highschool who became a nun (normally also mentioning that they were shy or a bit weird).
Mormons: These guys are not as widespread as nuns, but there are Mormons with the white shirt-tie-black plastic name badge combo about the place too.
Status symbols: After going to Adelaide Uni I am used to seeing people in super expensive clothes. When I got to Zagreb I noticed that a lot of people here are wearing the same sorts of things: Puma sneakers (about $200), La Coste polo t-shirts ($100+) and the staple clothing item, a United Colors of Benetton T-shit (for $50+ you don’t even get ‘colour’ spelt correctly). I of course thought that these items must be cheap, until I looked at them in the shops and saw the prices! The reason I find this strange is that the GNI (Gross National Income) per capita is about US$5,000 compared to about US$25,000 in Australia. This overspending is also reflected in the cars, with a lot of people driving around in brand new European cars (they are cheaper here than Australia, but not that much cheaper). When I have asked the AIESECers how people afford this I have been give two explanations. The first is that a lot of people are in debt to foreign banks that come in and offer cheap credit, and the second is that there are a lot of people wearing brand name clothes without much food on the table.

Graz

The trip to Graz on the weekend was well worth it, with Graz being a beautiful city. My day started at 4:30 when I got up so I could make the bus on time. The bus ride to Graz was almost as interesting as the actual city, as I again got to watch the country side, and for the first time experienced going through border stations. Now Croatia is not yet a member of the EU (the reasons for this I will post later on when I know them in more detail, but I believe one of the main factors is not chasing their war criminals with too much zest to hand over for trial at Den Haag) and so border crossings involve everyone getting off the bus and having their passports checked and stamps. We first went through Slovenia, and then into Austria. Both times the border guard people did a double take when they came to my passport as I was the only one out of the 50 or so people not to be Croatian.

Our first stop was Seizburg shopping centre, a huge shopping centre with H&M, CA, and a hundred or so other shops. The second stop was another huge shopping complex with an IKEA attached. Then after the majority of Croatians had jumped off to shop we went into Graz. After Zagreb, Graz seems so much cleaner and less busy- the trams were not full to bursting point, and although there were a heap of cafes and it was busy, it was not buzzing with the same intensity of Zagreb. My first stop was the tourist office where I picked up a city guide. Then I spent a couple of hours checking out the city: Castle Hill (260 steps up and down…that’s more steps than you think! The view of the city was great), walking by the bank of the Mur River, Murinsel (a great glass and metal contraption built as an artificial island in the middle of the river with a café and club inside), Grazer Kunsthaus (a huge acrylic building that looks a little out of place amongst all the other buildings, housed an art gallery), and just walking the streets taking in all the old buildings.

As I walked to the information office I was distracted by the shops on the way. It wasn’t until I had the map in my hand that I realized above all these shops were beautiful old buildings. It is amazing that a modern teeny bopper clothing store can be housed in the ground floor of a beautiful old building! I also had a wonder around a fresh produce market- next time I go I will have to buy some of the yummy looking Austrian sausage I saw!

Oh- One more random thing. Everyone in Graz was white (something I am getting used to) apart from these African guys on every corner trying to give out pamphlets…I seriously saw at least 20 of these guys trying quite aggressively to give me what I am pretty sure was religious literature written in German.

Going to Austria on the weekend

Well I didn't have anything on this weekend, so I have decided to go to Graz for the day on Saturday. (You can see it on this Lonely Planet Map in the SouthWest). Until about 15 years ago I have been told that it was difficult to buy fashionable clothes here in Zagreb, so people would go shopping to Graz and Trieste (in Italy). Although there are now more fashionable shops in Zagreb than you can poke a stick at, people still go to these places to shop, and because of this there is a cheap bus connection on Saturdays to each city. So I will be leaving Zagreb at 5:30am (hooray) and arriving back at about 7:30pm, giving me most of the day to look around...so there are definitely going to be some photos to share on Monday! I might do a little bit of shopping too- my goal being to have enough clothes so I only have to handwash my clothes once a week.

I am planning a trip to Trieste...I am still coming to grips with the concept of other countries being a few hours drive away!! Also, an update on my trip to Prague, I have now booked my train ticket (a little more expensive than I hoped at about $180...I'm going via Vienna, and I think my transit time should give me a chance to grab lunch and see a tiny bit of the city) and my accommodation (4 nights at a nice looking hostel for about $75), so I should have a great time.

;) Renee

PS- I big thankyou to Ines (on the MC here) for her help as my travel agent (because although the grumpy old man at the train station speaks enough English to tell me how much my ticket costs, he chooses not to!!)
PPS- I am hoping that when I finish Pimsleur's Croatian course (which Sebastian, also on the MC is giving me) I will know enough Hrvatski to buy a train ticket

Trans-Siberian Railway Blog

As is often noted on the nomadlife.org site blogs are becoming more and more popular. While I was reading the news at the ABC (Australia) I found a link to a blog about a couple of Australians doing the Trans-Siberian railway (a trip of about 10,00o km across Russia). These two are not average Australians though, being Emma Griffiths and her partner Simon Johnson.

Emma has been ABC's Moscow correspondent for the past year, and bought world events including the Beslan school siege and political changes in Ukraine and Russia to Australian TV screens and radios. Simon is on leave from being to ABC Chief of Staff at Paliament House and has been working in Russia for European networks as a cameraman, editor, TV producer and photographer.

Their trip has only just started, and will be interesting reading. Go to it by clicking here.

:) Renee

Prague- Looks like I'm actually going

Well I didn't want to post about this until I was more sure I was going. Organising train travel to Prague has been a little harder than to Budapest, so a big thanks to Ines (on the MC here) for ringing the train station to find out the ticket would cost $155 return, and left every day at 7:30am (instead of $155 each way, only leaving on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which is what the train station people told me!!). I should be going to book a ticket tomorrow after work, and will be going from the 22nd-26th of this month!

Nearly everything I have read about Prague is good, apart from it being chocka block full of tourists...some links are the Lonely Planet Guide to Prague and the alternative view from a site I came across, In Your Pocket Guide to Prague (there are a heap of guides to some more alternative Europeans cities). I am in the process of contacting some trainees there (and I think a few of you have visited my weblog), so hopefully I will be able to meet some other AIESEC trainees, which would be cool.

So I know its not for another few weeks...but there is an adventure on the horizon. If you have any Prague tips, let me know!

In a country far away....

There was a girl who was yet to see Star Wars Episode 3, and finally last night she saw it! Last night I went to the movies with Matt (who is working on the National Committee here, he's from Victoria, Canada) and saw what I have been waiting to see for the last couple of weeks. It was cool, there were more special effects than you could poke a stick at, and after a while you don't see the huge Croatian subtitles that take up about a fifth of the screen. The most hilarious part of the movie was the Madagascar preview during the shorts...it somehow seems okay that a zebra, hippo, lion and giraffe would speak in English, but it is just weird to see them talking in Croatian!

In other news I have reserved myself a copy of the sixth Harry Potter book...coming out on July 16th!! I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get myself and English copy over here, but I will be able to pick my copy up at midnight like everyone else in the world. I might wait until after work on the day instead though, but its nice to have options.

Now I always thought I had seen a lot of cool wildlife in Australia: kangaroos, wallabies, emus, snakes and lizards. Now I live in the suburbs here, not on the edge of a forrest or anything. So a few days ago I was hanging my washing out after work, and I thought I was hallucinating when I saw this squirrel thing being chased by a cat, and these two guinea pig things frolicking in the bushes. When I asked some AIESECers what these animals could be they explained that the squirrel thing was a kuna (which is the name of the currency here...the English translation is a mink), but couldn't explain the guinea pig thing. However when I was walking home from the movies last night I came across the culprit- it was a hedgehog...quite cool!

:) Renee

End of Week 4

Well not quite, but this Sunday I will have been here four weeks.

I remember before I left talking to Mel and Cassie (hi guys) about the hardest period from their experience (Mel has been to Switzerland on exchange, and Cassie on exchange and independently)...they both agreed that the first month was the biggest hurdle.

It certainly has been a challenge, and at the moment although I am enjoying myself I am leaving the office really frustrated on a lot of occasions. The salary issue is still under negotiation, and instead of AIESEC (at the global partnership and national level) doing most of the work, I feel like I am, and at the moment I am not getting very bloody far. If I cannot get my salary raised I am going to have to shorten the traineeship (otherwise I cannot afford it) to about 6 months, and that is annoying, as one of the reasons I wanted this traineeship was because it was longer.

I have finally started getting some work, but it is fairly loosely defined- the next week will be a good indication of what the next few months will bring I think. It is also an adjustment to being called an AIESEC student. In Australia trainees are graduate interns or trainees, and at their companies are treated as full employees. Here when I ask any questions to the HR (human resources) department I am told to ask AIESEC Croatia, as I am not an employee. A nice personal touch. AIESEC can be interesting sometimes.

Outside of work things have been better. I am still trying to meet people and get a social life, but I know it takes time for me to make friends, which is hampered a bit by being one of the few people in my workplace who is under 30, and by it being exam time for the people in AIESEC and my dorm. This weekend I will have a BBQ, which should be fun, and I am going to continue traveling, even if I go alone. In a couple of weeks Gaby, a Canadian who will work here at ZP with me will arrive, and at about the same time 3 Irish trainees who have been in Slovakia will be visiting, so a few cool things are happening.

In the last few weeks I have learnt a few things about myself. One is that I am a lot more capable of being positive than I thought. When things have been going a bit wrong I have been looking at ways to fix or get around them instead of being shitty for ages (I guess this is partly by necessity). Another is that I am more resilient than I thought- I think I had painted an easier picture in my head of moving to another country than it actually has been, but for the most part I am pretty proud of how I have been going. I also was skeptical as to my ability to buy a ticket to Budapest, get the train, find accommodation, and then find my way around!

I hope all the above doesn't sound like a big whinge, but that is the reality of how things have been feeling at the moment. It has been a big help to email my sister as she goes through many of the same things in Finland, and it is great to see that she is having a good time exploring a new world too. Hope you enjoy the upcoming metal festivals and the like sis.

Enjoy the weekend wherever you are. If you are in Adelaide go to the Central Markets for me! I will endeavor to have some adventures on the weekend so I have something to write about on Monday!

:) Renee