Nobody likes a Brussel pout

What: speedpost
Where: hotel in bordeaux, france
Why: no laptop
How: stolen from a friend
When: at Brussels midi railstation

Travel route so far (highlights and photos to be added):

Copenhagen, Denmark
Highlights: my friend and I got a 'insiders' guided tour of the parliment, including old nordic cuisine lunch. Pigs head? Nom nom nom. Also some funky alternative stores. Unlike Sweden there is somewhat an emphasis on spices. Swedens idea of hot sauce on a kebab is the garlic version of the Swedish mystery white sauce.

Personal tourguide! the insiders look.

Artist designed funky room.

Amsterdam, Netherlands + Rotterdam
Funfact: according to one of the barstaff that had previously worked in the red light district, 70% of clients are from the UK, I cluding people from booze cruises.
Highlights: beautiful city, friendly barstaff, Anne Frank museum, relatively safe feel, pancakes with cheese.

Houses with some serious differential settlement.

Pancake with cheese. Killing two Dutch birdswith one stone (mouthful)

Brussels, Belgium
Highlights: waffles, very cheap beer and middle eastern food (flat breads, sweats, lamb kofta), nice city tourbus
Lowlights: getting my day bag stolen when I left it with a friend, he got distracted by one person, while the partner in crime stole it from behind him, still not a fan of Belgian Chocolate.

One of the biggest and most beautiful places I have seen. Place for law.

Plain waffles where amazing.

Amazing cheap food.

The Atomium structure

 Paris, France
Highlights: iconic buildings, walkable city, french onion soup, croissants, cheese.
Lowlights: customer service at some places.

Caen(Normandy region), France
Highlights: crazy busdriver ragging on us for fun. Seeing white sand and sunshine.
Lowlights: spending 4hrs in whoop whoop and $80 on a taxi due to a friends google mapping mistake...


Bordeaux, France
Highlights: wine tasting,

Lyle learning the art of weighing your own fresh produce before taking it to the cash register.

Montpellier, France
Highlights: more wine

Barcelona, Spain
Highlights: deserves a couple of days of walking. Goudy's creative architecture, city views from the hills. Salmon and spinach quiche.
Lowlights: being secretly sprayed with womens makeup upon arrival then having two suss strangers try to clean us. Attempted robbery I would believe.

 

Goudy's amazing buildings, Left: hotel, Right: Church.

Supermarket

Tapas and Sangria

Amazing view after a nice steep walk from the city to the fort

 Another beautiful view in Spain.

Flares for New Years Eve

Some Spanish country side

Malaga, Spain
Highlights: Paella, sugary goodness.

Seafood Paella

Lisbon, Portugal
Highlighs: Portugese tarts with cinnamon, seafood & lingerie shopping

Simple (sea)food, done well. Nom nom nom.

It's all east from here!
Off to Munich, Germany(flight stopover visiting a friend)
Then to Siberia

Sisters and yellow snow

So I finally saw it snowing! I had to ask some friends what snowing sounded like as I wasn't sure how to define hail from snow... I was soooo excited, one of my German friends was over at the time, and thought I was retarded getting all excited. So far this December it has only snowed twice with it melting by the next day.

My first real (but wet) snow

So a little snow before Christmas made me happy. :). Here is a Christmas film made by a friend/groupmate from my software engineering class. Very funny and professional.
http://www.dragonawardnewtalent.com/en-us/filmview/tomten-santa-clause/

Left: Spicey christmas coke (out sells cocacola at xmas time), Middle: University Xmas Party, Right: Giant Xmas tree surrounding the giant-drop ride at the amusement park Liseberg.

Finally went to the Liseberg 'Christmas Markets'. Pretty lame except for the reindeer pitabread and kanel (cinnamon) chocolate.

My sister arrived for some travels. Sadly it rained for her for a whole week, and the first day the winds were so bad they had to close the bridge due to high winds, and the tunnel due to flooding. To warm up we had some yummy indian dinner at a friends house.

Awesome Indian dinner made by a guy friend, dal, aloo gobi, raita.

Also did some travelling around the city, even the sun made an appearance.

Left: What looks like an old container ship converted into a floating carpark, Right: view from Göteborgs giant wheel

After my university work finished headed up to Kiruna. 22hrs by train, but well worth the trip. We snowmobiled to and from the Icehotel. I managed to tip ours into a big pile of soft snow... luckily only egos where damaged. It was a relativley warm winter with temperatures around -2 degrees and only 30cm of snow. Being North of the Artic Circle this is amazingly warm weather for December.

All photos at Ice Hotel, except bottom right at our accommodation in Kiruna.

Fun Facts about Kiruna-

# Worlds largest underground mine (Iron Ore), going to relocate the city because of these activities.

# Approx. 1 person every year dies by driving a snowmobile onto thin ice then drowns (usually drunk, going home)

# The icehotel is made with artificial snow, due to its insulating properties and reflection of sunlight, compared to ice which is harder to mould, doesn't insulate and melts faster.

So sad to leave Sweden today, but time to see some more of Europe, then head home for the SUN!!!

Nakey, observatory

So, the visit to the local space observatory was pretty weird. When we went it was raining and where then told that only on 20%  of days there is clear sky... I should've made the connection! But what was great was having some traditional food, including the typical meatballs and herring, along with some new additions such as an anchovy potato bake and a sweet spicey bread. Also got to talk to some old Swedish man who had much interest in Swedens military ect. Was interested to find out the abundance of weapons that Sweden has produced in the past. I think they said that they directed funds away from nuclear to planes, so at one stage had one of the biggest airforces in the world. Crazy when you consider Sweden is only 10million.

Found out that the student union actually has TWO sauna / residential properties by the lake. The Woodfired one I have posted about before, and a smaller electric double room sauna which we got to ourselves this time. The accommodation was really nice with 20beds, lots of couches, wifi, fireplace and great cooking facilities. Cost less than $200 a night to rent. If only it wasn't so rural I'd live there, :P. Nakey sauna was nice. but nakey swimming in Australia is a lot nicer, as it isn't 4degrees.

Hopefully some snow in the next week when my sister comes to join me! Can't wait to explore the Christmas markets with her and show her the city.

Poker and Rubber, Below Zero

Weather:
# one of the warmest Novembers ever, but on one morning it was -2, and I survived!
# last year was -5 and had half a metre of snow, whereas right now it it +7celsius.

Rant about condoms:
So at some stage I was reading a sexual health survey survey and discovered that in Sweden condom usage is relatively low at only 30% for 15-29year olds (http://www.thelocal.se/33026/20110405/), and STI rates are high, particularly compared to the moderate number of average sexual partners. (Durex 2005, this survey may be fairly biased, but it is interesting all the same). The only place I have seen condoms for sale is at one checkout where a few 'original' packets" are placed at the highest point on the shelf so everyone behind you sees you reaching on your tiptoes for them. The second place I have seen condoms is the government run pharmacy, whereby the 5types available (all of the same brand) were sold out. Also expensive. Does Sweden really need a population boost? It's all a government conspiracy. The student supermarket I visited in China had every counter and the end of every Isle stacked with condoms. *insert random memory of condom sock puppets here*


Events:
-Poker night- not last, but far from 1st.
-Thanksgiving dinner- my US friends got us into their tradition, 25people, 2turkeys, stuffing, sweet potatoes (boiled, fried then baked!) enough desert to feed an army. I made salad and corn.
-Dancing in the kitchen, nightime wandering
-Lead climbing course- where I had to climb 2metres above my last rope-to-wall connection and jump off. You fall around 5metres, and the belayer gets flung off the ground....scary but fun.
-Persian food- lots of Iranian people studying here in Göteborg, and after I saw some food posts from an Iranian-Swiss guy I met at the WEC conference I realised I had never had persian food before. One of my friends here was so nice to show me one of his favourite restaurants. I should have to ask him the names of these foods again, but the stars of the show where sour yoghurt drink, eggplant dip, kebabs, rice with a pastry thing and tomato. Very nice! I would love to visit Iran and that place of the world sometime.
- Speaking of food- this week with the help of my European friends I realise that nearly everything they consider 'xmas' isn't practiced in Australia. I can understand why in the Northern hemisphere people get out the German Gluwein or Swedish Glögg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulled_wine), bake cookies and listen to daggy xmas music. Its pitch black at 4pm, and doing these things with my friends really keeps you happy.
-'The reflecting engineer' was a series of lectures by the Chalmers Students for Sustainability. Other than awesome free falafel kebabs the lecture by Bo Rothstein on Quality of Government was really interesting.
-Rotary dinner- my residence has biannual dinner party in the sittning style.
-My friend from project management leant me the book 'It's your ship' by Abrashoft. Well worth a read.


I went on three Geotechnical site visits for my Infrastructural Geo course, really nice to see different systems, and get yummy free lunch/snacks ect.

1. Road/rail upgrade- What struck me at this site (and a lot of smaller construction works in Göteborg) is the reduced safety measures compared to Australia. Ten metres away from an operating roller, piling rig ect. little old ladies where walking by, and there was no barricades at all for the whole site. Deep holes simply had a sheet of plasterboard on top. Another interesting point about this site was the technique used to ensure excavation stability of around 1.5metres deep, when excavating about 1m from traffic. When they where building the other section of road, they placed fill in layers of around 20cm and wrapped it up in a geotextile. between each layer of wrapped up soil, a plastic material was placed to join the layers to a vertical mesh with reo supports.(photo coming).
2. Quarry- was a 120m mountain, now a 60m hole. Produces 3 streams of aggregates supplying to a 20km radius from the site. The blast every Wednesday, the only one blast expert has been around for decades. Very fine particles from the process are sold for pipe bedding materials.

3. Hallandsås- controversial rail tunnelling project in the south of Sweden. Began in the 90s with an inexperienced contractor. 8km tunnel. Water inflow is incredible, like a waterfall, and magnitudes larger than most projects around. First section of the tunnel we saw was done using pre-grouting of the next ~20m of the unexcavated tunnel, then drilling and blasting. Pregrouting is done by drilling boreholes in the wall top be excavated, then pumping them full of grout so that the cracks bringing water into the tunnel can be sealed. Cement based grout is the cheapest option, but a silica sol is required to seal cracks less than ~200um. The degree to which cracks are sealed depend on the environmental impact of groundwater table reduction. Things that went wrong: first tunnel boring machine got stuck and presumably had to be dismantled, poisoning of cows in the area due to chemical contamination into the groundwater from the project and an access tunnel has been constructed, but money will need to be spent to fill it in, since it would require to much political effort to get it approved as a deviation from final design.

                     Concrete segment lined, TBM                                         Crosspassage, Drill and Blast

                      Some Autumn Winter Colours and nice houses in the countryside

Was amazed at how clean the Chalmers Geotech Labs were:

Tonight I am going to the space observatory with the Chalmers Aerospace club. I'm so excited, I love space nerds!

Halloween & Waste Incineration

Got over my post exam blues with some good old fashioned fresh air and exercise.

Wandering around the city. 

It's so strange for me seeing most trees without leaves. My privacy from the trees screening my window no longer exists.

Last weekend was Halloween. Friday night headed out to a friends-friends huge fancy seaside house. Cool party in a decorated basement. So many people turned up in the end the party was cancelled.Worked out well because a friend and I took advantage of the clear still night and went exploring. The backyards of the rich seaside houses where lots of fun, where there were beautiful jetties, benches and walkways.

Seeing the clear sky it made me want to know about the stars here in the Northern hemisphere. I'm going to join the Chalmers Aerospace Club, even though I wont be around for much longer.

On a less nerdy note, I observed something very wrong on my way back from the seaside.

Pick the goon bag...

Yup folks, that 'handbag' is actually a cask of wine.

Saturday there was a wicked pre-party where my friend had decorated her kitchen Dexter style and had an amazing costume to match, very creepy!

Preparty.

Then to the big university party in the student union building. Earlier in the week I had waited for 40mins in a 200m queue just to get a ticket! Sold out in a couple of hours. Well worth it though! really cool music, magicians and vibe. Everyone gets a little crazy in costumes. We got there early so had a chat to a few of the djs and were surprised that they were not getting paid a cent!

Halloween at the student union builidng. The usual 6 dancefloors & 'photo committee'.

START BORING
Two subjects finished, and two just started. Totally different class dynamics in all of my four subjects, here is a summary:
Project management: great teacher, participatory style and seminars, organised, software engineering students (mainly Swedish male) engaged, analytical and social, weird huh!
Wastewater engineering: informative, problems with marking assignments and scope definition since every group given different problem to solve, seems unclear (or seems limited) about what previous studies have been taught,  maybe I'm being harsh since this is where I have most practical experience at work, many international students and 50/50 girl/guy ratio.
Geotechnical project: most people are falling asleep or leave, many teachers, some with the ability too make an interesting topic boring, students mostly male and Swedish, students seem low energy and boring...
Environmental System Analysis tools: new teachers with lots of knowledge, environmental students with strong values, energy and assumptions that they express a lot. Many international students and 50/50 girl/guy ratio.
END BORING (just kidding)

It's kind of cool that 3 of my 4 subjects have field excursions. The latest one was to the waste treatment plant, which incinerates general waste, and uses heat exchangers to supply the city with hot water. What may be of surprise to some people is that the plant was located near lots of residential properties. This reduces the transportation energy cost to the plant, but requires strict odour control. The manager who took us around was a stirrer to say the least, one example was when he was talking about how people are selfish and don't sort their waste, suggesting "we all have a mini Hitler inside of ourselves". Hmm...

Only 4 operators are needed in waste management the plant. Prerequisite, to win a prize in the grab games.

The incinerator.

Here is a cool practical task that some of the students participated in.

Student made bridges across the fountain.

There were not many clubs at the student union day, but there was a pyrotechnics club and a hot air baloon club.

Photo of the Chalmers hot air balloon passing over my accommodation during a BBQ.

At the beginning of our stay we were given a sheet full of coupons to experience the city. One of these was to visit the Maratime museum with a tour guide. The guide was great, explaining a lot about Sweden's history aswell. The extent of the migration out of Sweden particularly to the US is incredible.

Nemo on tour in Sweden. Maritiman.