Paris part 2

After Lies and I had dwelled among the skeletons for a while, we skipped off to do what you should always do when you are visiting Paris for the first time...the tower!

After waiting over an hour to see some bones though, we were rather apprehensive about the line up to go up the tower. Sure enough, when we got there there were a few people about and Liesl, I assumed somewhat jokingly, pointed out that if we wanted to take the stairs up we would not have to wait in line. She was right of course, there was no queue to climb the stairs at all! When I laughed it off, she said she would have done it if I was keen. That was a flat out challenge. So climb we did. I don't know how high it is or how many stairs it was but I think it is safe to say that it is a fair way up.

Actually, it turned out to be not as bad as you might imagine and of course the views over Paris from the top and from the viewing points along the way were well worth the effort...and surely they look more stunning after you feel like you have earned them. One of the best things about walking up was all the little signs along the way that gave you some trivia about the tower and gave you an excuse to take a breather. Did you know that some crazy kooks actually rode motorbikes down the stairs sometime back in the 70s. Crazy!
We were indeed a long way from home...
And you never know who you might meet along the way! You have to assume this guy had a sense of humour but he was walking around as if wearing a Napoleon replica hat was part of his everyday life. So funny.

Of course everyone wants to have their photo taken in front of the tower, so Liesl and I took several 'selfies' to try and achieve this. This one is my favourite. Can you see the tower? I promise it is there...somewhere :)
On the way to the tower, we walked through Luxembourg gardens, which are always beautiful.

This time, all around the edge of the garden was an exhibition of huge photographs that had over the years appeared in a French current affairs magazine. They all had small captions explaining the shot. They were so beautiful, so sad, so uplifting, and just so stunning that strolling the streets was given new meaning. This is one of the things I love most about Paris. Art, beauty and unexpected inspiration surrounds you at every turn.
Makes you want to skip with joy...

xxx

The Sister Adventures...part 1

Liesl and I have just returned from a wonderful 3 week adventure , which I am again going to have to blog about in pieces! As this was her first visit to Europe, Liesl insisted that we visit Paris. Of course I was only to happy to acquiesce to that request! Paris is truly a lovely city. And I am not a city loving girl! But once again, I was completely charmed by it and easily managed to find wonderful things to see and do for the full 5 days we spent there.

The trip did not have the easiest of beginnings for poor Lies though. She came over following a 6 month stint working in Kentucky at a horse hospital there. She had a hell of a time getting out of the USA and lost her luggage along the twisted mad dashing route from Lexington to Bergen. This was made complicated by her arriving in Bergen late on Friday and us scheduled to fly to Paris early the next morning. This meant that she had no stuff and could not dump all the things she meant to leave in Bergen while we backpacked around. Fortunately we got it in Paris eventually. Unfortunately we had to drag a huge amount of unnecessary shit around for the rest of the trip. Fortunately, much of the unnecessary shit turned out to be useful...especially the bottles of booze, the sewing kit and the nail polish remover!

We began our stay in Paris with a stroll along the street market by our hotel and coffee and lunch in a cafe. Then we headed for the Catacombes. Spooky.

You descend straight down into unbelieveably long tunnels under the city. All stacked with the bones of formerlly living breathing people just like you and me. Kilometers of them. Arranged from floor to ceiling. Bones. Human bones. Human bones beautifully arranged in tunnels under the city. A city seething with living breathing people that will end up as bones. Bones like the thousands of others you see. Bones of people just like you and me.

It was a rather intense and very interesting experience.

Surprisingly there were loads of other living breathing people just like you and me that also wanted to see the catacombes that day. We lined up for over an hour to get in. We lined up to see skeletons. We lined up with hundreds of other people to see skeletons that day. Strange?

True.
xxx

Bologna

This will be just a quick blog to post some pics and tell some stories of our visit to Bologna - the medieval city that actually looks like a medieval city! Lots of crazy brickwork and towers everywhere. Beautiful, in a kind of dark way...

There was also lots of covered walkways...about 40kms worth actually! And thank god there was since once again it poured with rain for almost our entire visit!
J and I stayed in a bed and breakfast that was in a fabulous garden rooftop apartement, with a super eccentric owner and who knew the history of Bologna like the back of her hand and was more than happy to spend hours telling us about it and about how she was, well, a witch. She was very sweet, crazy, but sweet. The offer to drink her wine at any time sent J a little crazy!

One of the highlights for me was being able to visit the University of Bologna - the oldest in Europe - so old that Copernicus was a student there! Now that is old! Established in 1044...if you can believe that. Around the library are university crests from around the world, very beautiful!
Of course the real reason we were in Bologna was because of the birthday present I gave J this year - a trip to visit the Ducati factory and museum. J said that his life long dream was fulfilled that day....awww....
I actually found the factory very interesting but I think the opportunity to see, smell and sit beside Casey Stoner's world championship winning bike from last year was J's highlight...
So that was the trip to Italy! Well actually, after Bologna I went to a conference in Rovigo for a couple of days but all I saw there was the inside of a conference room. Although as it turned out, I knew a bunch of people there and actually had a really fun time! I am actually starting to feel like a part of a research community, especially when I go to an international conference and know at least half of the scholars there...some of whom are actually really great people! Surprise Surprise!

I had to blog about Bologna today because tomorrow my sister and I will take off for our three week European adventure - Paris, Rome, Sorrento, Capri and sailing the Adriatic. So can't wait! And I really can't wait to see her at the airport today and show her my home here in Bergen! So I guess this will be all for a few weeks until I return home and can tell something about all these wonderful new places we will see! xxx til then...

Venezia

After visiting the JRC and Lago Maggiore, I took a commission bus for commuters back to Milan on Friday afternoon. It was lovely to drive through the countryside and have a small but impressive bus tour of Milan before I arrived at central station around 6pm. A short stroll to a hotel room and I must admit, I totally collapsed. It was the first time, day or night, that I did not have an activity arranged for me for over a week (even though it was arranged that I would be on a train at 8am the next morning). When I found an english movie on TV, I ordered room service and lay back to do absolutely nothing. I was constantly nagged by guilt for not going out and exploring Milan, but I was also exhausted enough to ignore it. The justification was that if I move to the area next year, I will have plenty of opportunities to explore Milan. So sorry, no pics from Milan...yet!

The train I was on the next morning though was to Venice, and I do have a few pics from there!

J and I had said we would meet at the Vaparetto (Water Bus) stop outside the railway station. I got there no problem. J got there with lots of problems. His problems began with a strike at Bergen airport, which meant that to even start the journey he had to take a 9 hour overnight busride to Oslo. When he got to Oslo they told him the flight was closed. When we finally got to Venice, the airport bus did not show up. When one finally did arrive, he got off at the wrong stop. When he took another train and arrived at the main stop, I could not see him. Poor guy. Thank god for mobile phones. It hurts me to say that. When we finally found each other, we both spun out at the beauty of Venice.

In a way it was exactly as I imagined it would be. My imagination did of course include it being packed with tourists and having the unfortunate accompanying cheesy side! The real delight for me though was that it was not all like that. In fact, it was incredibly easy to escape the crowds and get a sense of Venice as you think it should be, as it must once have been, as parts of it still are. Just a couple of streets off the main drag and away from the 'must see' sights, you just become lost in tiny, quiet, gorgeous, little canalways with window boxes full of flowers, hidden court yards and runabout boats tied to steps down into the water. I think our experience was greatly helped by the fabulous place in which we stayed. It was a guesthouse, so a private house, just a few narrow winding streets and bridges from the action, but in an area that felt completely quiet and local. The owner served us breakfast in their large garden courtyard and told us wonderful places to eat that were also frequented my locals, and directed us to some of the special sites that were not on everybody's radar. The best thing about our accommodation though was undoubtedly the view from the room.
Here is how it looked straight ahead through our swinging shuttered windows...

To the left...

And to the right...

For me it was classic Venice. I just loved seeing and hearing the whistling gondoliers paddle under the window and when I woke up at night I loved to sit up and see the footpaths and canals all glowing under streetlamps. It was really very very beautiful. Even though it rained, and I mean completely poured, torrentially rained, for a lot of the time we were there, that is not what I remember. J and I killed ourselves laughing at how crazy it was when thousands of tourists, all with umbrellas, were inching their way through the couple of popular narrow streets and at how hilarious it was that the covered footpaths around St Marks square were packed like a rock concert moshpit while the enormous square lay empty and under about a foot of water. The rain did not dampen our mood or our enjoyment of this wonderful city though. In fact, J enjoyed it so much he shared the joy by dolling out cigarettes to the bums. Awwww... the kindness that kills slowly...

At just a couple of hours by train away from where I could be living next year, anyone who comes to visit me would be mad not to see Venice! xxx

Lago Maggiore

After the Gorizia workshop, I headed off to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, situated in the small village of Ispra. Ispra is one of many little villages scattered along the shores of Lake Maggiore, which is, incidentally, the second largest Lake in Italy! I was going there to present my research, chat with colleagues/friends, and as it turned out, to check the place out as a potential place of work. A few weeks ago, and long after the visit had already been arranged, the centre put out a call for grantholders to work on research on "Emerging Technologies: Governance under Conditions of Uncertianty and Complexity". Surprisingly, this could be considered exactly what I am doing! So I applied, which means I sent off the 2-3 page CV required under the European template. Fortunately for me, before travelling to Italy I was told that I had been ranked as the best candidate for the position, and that there would be no interviews, just offers!

While in Gorizia I was hanging out with and chatting with two of the people currently working on this topic at the centre - the previously mentioned Silvio and the as yet unmentioned, Matthieu (who was, incidentally, the organiser of the nanotechnology group in Gorizia and is the guy on the right in the group pic of the previous post!) Matthieu gave me a lift from Gorizia to Ispra (about a 5 hour drive, with food and fuel breaks) and served as my totally fabulous and delightfully attentive guide for both my visit to the centre and to the whole lakes district as an area. The tour began in Varese. ..

This is the largest city near the research centre and many of the people working there live here and commute, Matthieu included. Although Varese is not on Lago Maggiore as such, it does have its own lake to make it feel special! After arriving from Gorizia I spent one night in Varese and took a small walking tour of the city with Matthieu the next day. The smell of money was evident in both the size of the hotel beds, the style of the city parks and the design of the government buildings facing the park...


Very beautiful areas also surround the city, which feels very green when you head out into the suburbs. Matthieu showed me the area where he lived, his local park (also beautiful), and his incredible house. He is renting a converted old stables of a huge villa that sits within a enormous fenced gardens in the suburbs of Varese. This is the villa (that the owners use for about 1 week a year in August). No joke. After seeing this I must say, the position was looking appealing...

After getting a feel for Varese, we headed off to the research centre (JRC in the local lingo). It was about a half an hour drive but of course the Commission has buses cruising around all the surrounding areas so as to take care of their commuters. After passing various intense security checks, I was in. It is a strange centre in a sense. Long sterile hospital corridors, lots of shared offices and various layers of division where people do not tend to know each other or intereact much in a work sense. You basically work on your own most of the time, which at the moment also has elements of appeal! It is also strange in that it is an almost totally contained little world. About 30 odd buildings within a fenced forested area, complete with 2 huge canteens and a separate coffee bar, where staff briefly gather for their schluck of espresso after lunch. The people I met were all great though, and my talk seemed to highlight exactly how closely both my current research and PhD interests fit with the action group I would work for (the action group, incidentally, is called "Quality of Scientific Information for European Policy"). After the first day of visiting the centre, I had a rather mixed impression - it was no doubt a great opportunity, but it would also clearly involve some sacrifices in terms of a really healthy, enjoyable, and productive collaborative work environment at Bergen. I was to continue mulling it over as I spent the night in Angera, a village about 10mins from the centre and on the lake shore.

Matthieu and I had long discussions over yet another delicious meal and some fine red wine, and after a lazy morning stroll along the shores of the lake the next day, I decided to say yes and accept a position working in Italy next year. Of course there remain some hurdles, me being Australian rather than European, and me wanting to start later than they would like. Things are in motion though and it is now looking like a very real possibility. Very Very Exciting! A little overwhelming, but Very Very Exciting!
xxx

Italy Adventure

I have just returned from my very first visit to Italy. As it was a jam packed visit covering 5 different locations and a range of work and leisure activities, this Italian blog may come in a couple of stages...

The adventure began with a 4 day workshop in Gorizia, in the far North East corner of the country and right on the border with Slovenia. The workshop was for a European research project called 'Risk Bridge' in which so called experts from different fields came together to talk, exchange insights, and apparently engage in mutual learning on the topic of risk. The different fields covered in the event included climate change, electromagnetic fields, stem cells, sediments and in my case, nanotechnology. Can you say Junket? When the conference dinner involves 9 courses, some of which include a kind of guinea pig pate, you know that you are not in Kansas anymore Toto!

Before the workshop began though, my boss Roger and I were taken on a wine tasting tour of some of the fabulous vineyards popping up all over Slovenia. With the alps as a backdrop, the countryside was just absolutely stunning, so stunning that these photos can not do it justice!

In addition to all the wine that was sampled, there was also some grappa, of course!

The most interesting of which was one made from celery, which not only had a very distinct celery flavour, but which was also celery green in colour!

One of the wonderful things about this wine/grappa indulging jaunt in Slovenia was that not only did it occur in a fabulous cellar in an ancient castle set in the beautiful Slovenian countryside, it was also guided by the fabulous company of one Silvio Funtowicz and his wonderful wife Bruna De Marchi. If you don't know who they are, don't worry, but if you do, I hope you are suitably impressed! Here is the one and the wine...

While the risk bridge workshop itself was a little dull, on the last day the nanotechnology group had their own separate meeting and that was wonderful. A really great collection of people debating ideas and sketching collaboration projects, all the while enjoying the fabulous coffee that Italians are deservedly famous for! Academia as it should be! At the end of this day, the group was again escorted by Silvio and Bruna into a fabulous little outlying area for some more spectacular food and wine. This time we went to a town called Cividale, established by another guy you might know, a little someone called Julius Caesar...

Cividale was so beautiful that the whole group had to stop and admire it!

And as it turned out, Bruna happened to know a man that owned one of the medieval towers in the village and he allowed us to come in, climb, and admire the view of the city and surrounds from the top. It is not every day that that happens!


Unfortuantely I have no pics from the very top as I was worried about climbing the rickety ladder and squeezing out the tiny hole with my camera in tact, but here is one from the window before the final climb! Also rather beautiful I think you will agree.



All in all the trip to Gorizia was really fantastic, but I must say it was more for the food, the wine and the company than for the quality of the work :) It is a tough life I am leading here in Europe I must say! Next time, news from Lago Maggiore...xxx

Final Hurrah

Last weekend, J and I travelled to the mountains with some friends to enjoy the snow for the last time for the season. Six of us drove up to a friend's cabin in a place called Oppheim, about 2 hours from Bergen. All Norwegian families seem to have a cabin that they like to escape to on weekends and holidays. Sometimes it is in a great position for winter activities, sometimes for summer, and sometimes for both! The cabin we went to was one of the latter I would say. Situated on the edge of a huge (currently frozen) lake with an amazing view over the mountains, it has a top quality skiing resort only 15 mins away. This was the view from the verandah...

Here is a shot of the cabin, good old Cedric and a hound or two happy to be free range out in the countryside!
These Norwegian cabins (from my limited experience) all seem to have similiar elements of design and decoration. To begin with, the walls inside must be wood paneling...lots and lots of wood paneling, can't get enough of that good stuff and oh so scandinavian! Then there has to be lots of single bunk beds, especially in the attic, so as to fit in as many people as possible. Then there has to be games of the old school variety, cards, board games, wooden puzzles etc, and of course, a few Donald Duck comics...in Norwegian! This was a particularly super fabulous cabin, with all these essential elements in place, and it provided a wonderful place for us all for the weekend. Here is the clan sitting around the kitchen table...

Of course lots of time was spent telling stories, drinking red wine and generally having a good time...


When we went to the slopes on Saturday, it was raining and threatening to be miserable. The three guys and me had snowboards while the other two ladies were going cross country skiing for the day. We agreed to meet in the cafe to eat our 'matpakke' (packed lunches - sandwiches wrapped in greaseproof paper and some fruit) in a couple of hours and headed off into the drizzle. To celebrate the end of the season, a live band was playing, a grill cooking, and a competition water jump was even set up. It was almost for the benefit of no one though as the conditions meant that the whole place was almost deserted. The boys immediately headed to the top of the mountain while I chose to practice my new footing arrangement on the beginners lift and slope first. After an hour or so they came to 'kidnap' me to take me to the top. I was initially highly dubious about my abilities to ride a snowboard on a T-bar for 3kms straight up a mountain face, but somehow I managed it and it was amazing! Up the top of the mountain it was snowing rather than raining and the conditions were fabulous, with not another person in sight...well except for once or twice...It was really great fun and I finally managed to pull off a few forward turns without completely eating it :) Oh, I ate it plenty of times trying to do them don't worry, but sometimes, just sometimes, it worked! As this was the first time I really managed this, I was very excited. It felt great to return to the same resort we started snowboarding at and see how far we had both come. The first time J and I didn't even buy a lift ticket! While the last time, we were riding the T bar right to the top and pulling off some fancy moves all the way down! Unfortunately I have no photos from the snow on this day as the rain/snow conditions did not make for ideal camera conditions, and besides, we were having far too much fun to take any photos!
So here are some photos of the dogs having fun instead...


And finally, a picture from along the way home. Take a good look, it will probably be the last blog about snow for quite a while...xxx