Ending One Year, Beginning Another

Hi all,

It's been over 3 months since I've updated this thing, so here we go.

Since lasting posting, my amazing girlfriend, Zoe, finished her schooling, which had been a pretty rough year for her. Along with that came a new perspective on freedom in life, as it did for all of us who've done so. As such, there was planned a trip for her and her family to Europe in December, which I will elaborate further on soon.

My 23rd birthday was celebrated on the 21st of October, and was quaintly celebrated at a cheap buffet dinner (known as 'afterwork' in Sweden - buy a drink, get free buffet!) As usual, however, nights develop with spontaneity for myself, and a bunch of my European friends and myself landed in a friend of a friend of a friend's house for an afterparty. This typifies much of the difference in lifestyle for me; that things seem to just happen. This particular evening was surrounded by a busy time at university, after recovering from a nasty case of pneumonia. Nonetheless, living away from home gives you time that feels otherwise non-existent, so I had a good share of evenings out at university organised parties. One particular event, 'Kick-off', containing live music and free food (you'll notice the trend of me attending event where food flows) also had many prizes, competitions and giveaways, in the name of blatant advertising. I couldn't resist entering the 50 word or less entry for two tickets to 'Törnrosa', the ballet of 'Sleeping Beauty'. Turns out, of the 100s of entries, mine was declared the winner, and I received the tickets for the 16th Dec at the Gothenburg Opera Theatre. As fortune had come my way, also fortune for two friends of mine came, as my flight out of Gothenburg was for that very day!

Halloween has never been much of a celebration for me, though I got into the spirit of it this year, with a massive university party thrown on the night. Shoulder to shoulder costume stores, 10 coats of 'Zombie Skin', tattoos and blood was enough for me to fit the part.



Midway through November, I took the opportunity to go on a cheap 3 day student only cruise to Tallinn, Estonia, from Stockholm. 2000 students from around Europe flooded the 11 storey vessel, containing restaurants, bars, dancefloors, a pool and saunas, supermarkets, shops and rooms of course. I went without many friends from Gothenburg, but nonetheless met a lot of different people, and had the unique experience of dance while the ship swayed left to right in the swell. Did I mention buffet food and drinks! I was also at the time having a sober November with a friend, Sandra, also studying architecture at Chalmers. We gave each other a free 24 hour period in the month though, and this was it.

 

We all arrived in Tallinn, and had the day to roam the city. I made the most of the 2 euro tour through the city and Old Town. Architecturally very fascinating, with a 1000 year old town, enclosed by walls a few centuries younger, sitting amongst a field of scattered contemporary buildings, and slick urban spaces. Very diverse and culturally proud. After walking all morning, we had some traditional and affordable lunch, before having a couple of drinks before my 24 hours expired. A great time all in all.

The cake, celebrating a
street opening

Gorgeous seal in public pond at
 Slottskogen

The crowd for the 600m
 long cake

Liseberg Theme Park - love this ride!

Back to Gothenburg, studying in a design studio, for a Psychiatric Facility in Linköping (a few hours away). A real project, that was by far the most challenging project I have completed. Very informative, interesting and fun. Learning about how architecture can heal and benefit people through specifically demonstrated scientific evidence was very rewarding. This became my full-time occupation until the 16th of December, speckled by dinners, parties, bike rides, soccer games, and trips to the local theme park, Liseberg. Above, was a 600m long cake, celebrating a street opening... see more free food...

Our design for the Psychiatric
Hosptial

Meanwhile, early December meant that Zoe turned 18, and went to Hamilton Island with her friend, Charlotte, before shooting a commercial for Nick Scali back in Sydney (which neither of us have seen air yet). I'm sure some of you would have seen it. Right after that, Zoe and her family were set to come to Europe, where we were both to graciously collide after 4 months of separation. Thank God for skype.

I was to finish my university work, and fly out on the 16th of December to Geneva. I was going to sleep rough at the airport before getting an early flight the next morning to Barcelona. Of course, things don't often turn out like they are foreseen. I decided to venture out into the near parts of the city, and joined a Christmas work party for some large European electrical company. Many of them only spoke French, but they took me under their wing, and served me a three course meal (cheeses, fish, chocolate), with drinks and a Pine Colada sorbet. They then offered to show me the town and the city. I figured that opportunities like this are rare, so we went into the city, and had some drinks and kebabs, them shouting me the whole way (those rich Genevans). I managed to get back to the airport in time for the flight to Barcelona (without much rough sleeping at the airport required).

Barcelona welcomed me with the rich Mediterranean and 21 degrees. My mission was to get a bus that 17th Dec to meet up with the Zoe and her family (the Grants) to San Sebastian, on the north coast. The bus ride took most of the day. The Grants had been campervanning around the Pyrenees mountains in Southern France, flirting with Andorra and the Spanish border. Meeting with the Grants for the first time in 4 months wasn't without a couple of hiccups. Getting off the bus, it was pouring buckets of rain, late at night. My instructions had just been messaged to me (to "go to the big white campervan that will stop near the bus stop... you can't miss us)." 30 seconds later it arrived, and I ran up to the van with all my bags, right up to the drivers door. To my confusion, two very Spanish looking men driving the van. I awkwardly walked back to the bus stop, laughing inwardly at the coincidence, while onlookers laughed in a more outward fashion. 2 minutes later, the real white campervan pulled up, and finally Zoe and I were reunited! After much travelling, meeting again felt like I had returned home.

The campervanning adventure began, and with far too many stories and experiences to share here, I will create some kind of summary. We spent most of our evenings parked in remote places off the highway that linked us through our Northern Spanish loop. I shall let some photos do the talking:

Frank Gehry's "Guggenheim Museum", Bilbao. Very exciting!

Where we stayed one night in the Picos Mountains

Hiking in the Picos

Viewing platform off the road

Cool sculpture in Madrid

Circus in Madrid

Turtle pond in the marketplace

The 'rock' walk

Walking through the quite dangerous walls of a town I can't think of the name of.

On the city walls.

Gaudi's "Sagrada Familia" in Barcelona

The loop completed at Barcelona. New years eve and a late Christmas was spent here, before flying out to Geneva on the 2nd Jan.

Arriving in Geneva on the 2nd Jan, we then caught a bus to Tignes, France, which was far from safe. The bus driver driving erratically up the snowy mountain before having a head-on collision with a car. No one hurt, except the driver's dignity. The icy road gave little traction to the unchained tyres of the bus. As such, they span, and we rolled backwards down the hill, not far from the edge of a steep descent. The whole busload panicked, and we all got off the bus, before she spent 90 minutes or so trying to move and put chains on. Very scary.

I spent one week skiing there in Tignes le Lac, and what a week it was! Staying in a very nearby apartment, the snow had fallen copiously, one night registering a 50 year record. This made for powdery conditions I hadn't experienced before, and it took me a couple of times losing my skis in the metre-deep snow to get the hang of it. Powdery snow does give you the confidence to attack the hill a bit more aggressively.. and that we did. Andrew (papa Grant), Kallen (Zoe's little brother) and I were out there all day every day, more or less, both of them snowboarding, and me skiing. It was a massive and beautiful site, that we couldn't cover all of. We went off-piste a lot and had "some of the best snow ever" for each of us. It really was fantastic, and we got lots of video footage to remind us (thanks Andrew). Zoe and her mum, Gaia came out on their boards as well, and supported Kall and I on the bag jump competitions. A chilled jump contest, where the contestant lands on a massive bag filled with air. I did some sloppy but valiant moves, and didn't place, but Kallen, being the upstaging 14 year old prodigy that he is, showed us his skill with the smoothest backflips, grabs and twists, amongst the adults. Avalanches were being dynamited all over the mountain, due to the constant dumpings. I shan't describe any more, other than with the photos below:  

Crazy bus driver stuck on the icy road

Us about to enjoy some French cuisine at the local patisserie

Low cloud made the top of the peak the clearest to ski for this day.

James Bond's "A Time to Kill" filmed at this very spot, and I lavished the opportunity to ski it.

Me attempting something strange at the bag jump competition.

 After flying back to Gothenburg on the 11th Jan, I was straight back into university duties, having to present my design project with my group on the 12th and 13th. The 12th was internal at university, and the 13th was at Linköping, for the real hospital clients. That was a great experience, and a very good success. A very entertaining studio class which took us around Sweden to see other examples of psychiatric facilities as well.

The last couple of weeks I have been beginning my new subjects for my 2nd semester. It's promising to be another exciting semester, being selected to go to Slovenia in Feb/March to create a restoration proposal for a 1000 year old castle near Graz. This just before Zoe and her friend, Emma come to visit me in Gothenburg. Easter will then contain a trip for us to Istanbul, where the majority of the Wrathall family will arrive from different places around the world.

Many many great adventures... and still so much to look forward to. Life doesn't cease to entertain if you keep searching for that which is wild and unknown.

Apologies for the length of this post, and congratulations if you read it all. But I'm not lying when I say this is as condensed as I could have made it without understating my last 3 months.

To those in Australia, I will return late June/early July, pending another one of those changes.

Norway - Architecture Trip

View of a fjord chasm swept by low cloud

Outside the Opera House in Oslo were two tanks facing
each other. The opposing one said "YES".
I was blown away by it...

Huge fjord mountains with waterfalls etching the laziest
path toward the massive river below

Last week myself and 77 other architecture students ventured out to Norway, on a trip to discover typical and atypical vernacular and international Nordic and Norwegian architecture. The first two days were mainly spent looking out our bus window at the amazing landscapes of huge fjord cliffs and stopping off at unique modern and ancient architecture sites, from a church built in 2009 to an original 'stave' church built in 1183, which was covered in a circus-like canvas and scaffolding to aid it's restoration.

After staying in a beautiful motel, we moved to Oslo, staying in much cheaper hostel accommodation. We spent much time wandering the city and were not disappointed by the vast multitude of recent architecture. I learnt quickly that you can spend money very fast in Oslo, ergo, McDonalds learnt very quickly that I could eat cheeseburgers very fast.

It was a great time for the architecture students to bond, and the diversity of Europeans students is quite amazing.

Sydney to London to Gothenburg

Hi everyone, and welcome to my first blog for my 2011/12!

The near 24 hours of flying to Gothenburg, from Sydney, via Abu Dhabi and London was atoned for by such a densely filled few days.

After queueing in Customs for 2 hours at Heathrow Airport, the officer did not like the fact that I didn't know where my home-providing sister and brother-in-law lived, or a contact number for either. Nonetheless, I squeezed out the doors and into the tube bound for British cottages wrapped with large trees and squirrels, with dormer rooms that are strictly capped to fit into what seemed like a well managed building height zoning.

Kat & Pete showed me the cafes, pubs, public transport, and streets, before taking me through a sublimely wooded reserve, with wildly delicious blackberries, massive swans that nibbled on my fingers for kicks and vast floral fields that provided much of a running and jumping platform, ala the sound of music.

That night we went to see West Bromich Albion play Chelsea FC in and English Premier League game, which  was, in the end, a great experience of atmosphere and cheering. We'd had a few ticket retrieval problems beforehand (which I'd booked by phone in Australia), having us think we would not actually see the game. Then, when I inadvertently queried the king pin of the WBA supporters while he tunnelled his entrance, he helped us out, and we ended up getting our tickets.

The following day Katrina very kindly devoted to guiding me round the tourist hotspots. We saw Big Ben (above), before walking to Westminster Abbey, and then through St. James' Park to Buckingham Palace. I'd not realised they were all so close. Then we found one of many 'Barclays (Boris) Bike' stalls, which allow cheap day bike hire. So we spent the rest of the early afternoon tearing through the streets, seeing the Gherkin, and St. Pauls Cathedral, before the Fort and eventually Tower Bridge and the scenery that goes with it. As if that were not enough, Katrina's uni friends had some kind of discount offer to go roller blading in some sports centre somewhere. Long story short, we went, and ended up in a 70s style disco hall, with predominantly young children packed around us. It was definitely a novel experience. After that we decided to pitch a baseball in the Mayor's Park before going into what I can only describe as Indiatown, where we were incessantly beckoned to dine for ever reducing prices.

The 2 days had gone so fast before I had to leave that 3rd day to Gothenburg. So I said my goodbyes to Kat, Pete and London, and transitioned a couple of hours north-east.

Next to me on the flight was a guy called Frank, who I befriended, who had lived in Gothenberg for most of his life, and had been studying Naval Engineering. I'd arrived at about 6pm, and Frank helped me get a SIM for my phone, and also offered for his brother to drop me into the city, near where I was to stay (in a student hostel that I didn't yet know the address of). So they dropped me off at Chalmers Uni (where I am studying), so I could use the library's internet to find the hostel I was staying at. I was given internet access despite not being supposed to (possibly because I was carrying 30 kgs of luggage and sweating). Because I could not print, I hand-drew a map of where I was to walk, and a few details, and started walking. I arrived at about 8:00pm, and found that the reception had closed at 7pm. This was the reception that was to provide me a key to a room that night. I sat on a bench outside, thinking for a while that I would be sleeping on it, before inquiring at a nearby Pizza shop. Kindly, one of the workers, read the security instructions in Swedish, and called security. Eventually, I was able to speak with them, and they gave me a code which sent a key in a toilet paper roll down a pvc chute into my hands. It was quite a nice surprise, and I couldn't believe how friendly the Swede's had been until now.

The first week I lived at this hostel, and also attended all of the many reception events at university. The Chalmers Student Union is quite amazing. The image to the right is the main entrance to the Student Union Building. It is compulsory for all students to be a member, and they offer so many discounts on food and things to do, as well as running parties and games, and events. They definitely make you feel like you're a part of a community. They had what I would have guessed to be about 500-600 exchange students attending these briefings and tours and events, most from around Europe. The below image is a just a small scattering of the students amongst the volunteer leaders (in yellow shirts) atop Skansen Kronan, a 17th Century fortification, which afforded wonderful views across Gothenburg.

A number of football playing students have created a facebook group 40/50 strong which now organises regular games on a free local pitch, which I've been a part of, and is great for exercise. I spent much of this first week walking around the city, and the main avenue of shops and lifestyle. Most things in Gothenburg can be reached by walking, or at least riding.

I've been quite fond of the amount of greenery, soft landscapes, old cottages, the lack of rubbish, and the lack of powerlines. The air is fresh, and the smell is soothing. The photo on the right is of a small park I passed while walking into the city, and I thought is quite beautiful. I did go back there one overcast day to sketch just that view. I know of many more parks which I can and will discover, and I've heard of there being many deer in the park, which is exciting.

I did have a bad experience in the grocery shopping, but only one. I thought 'Filmjölk' meant 'full milk' (to compliment my muesli), but it is more 'fermented milk', and was very thick, very sour, and destroyed my appetite. I discovered later, that this product is quite commonly used by Nordic folk with muesli, although, I will use my new photo method to steer clear of this mistake again. My photo method has quite necessarily been to take photos of things I like or dislike, to create a visual shopping list, as I can't read as yet.

After a week or so, I had an opportunity to meet with a couple looking for a good English-speaking student to rent a room in their apartment. The place is right next to university, and considering the circumstances of difficulty finding housing here, this was quite promising. The male, Pontus, in his early 30s, is Swedish and is in the later stage of studying law. Shirin is originally Iranian, but moved with her family to Sweden when she was 4 or 5. She is also studying Law, and is 29 I think. They've been together for 2 years, and met, funnily enough, in the context of law. Yes, they did write a 5 page contract for me to sign, but it did make some good agreements. So it was that simple. I am now living there with them, and have done the last 4 weeks. Here they are (above), after having taken me to a Swedish ice-cream shop, and we sit ashore the main river running through Gothenburg, Göta älv.

The university itself is fantastic. They treat everyone like a human, and are very relaxed. They also have a great system where they run one subject at a time. So for instance, I might have Course A, B and C to complete in one semester. In Sydney, you spend 13 weeks doing all 3 simultaneously. In Chalmers, you do 4 weeks just Course A, 4 weeks just Course B, and 8 weeks just Course C. It helps you very much focus and recall on the work you are doing, and forces assessment times to be spread out. I've already finished Course A, and Course B is just beginning. Chalmers also offers many guest lectures. The architecture students were offered one by the visiting Peter Cook, from Great Britain. Peter Cook founded 'Archigram' (a controversially futuristic group of architects) in the 1960s and has also designed many quirky and crazy buildings. He gave a presentation, which, for a 74 year old, was very youthful and witty. He was certainly a strange character. He also talked about some recent buildings he's commissioned to build in Brisbane.

The last 9 or 10 days, I have been quite unwell. I originally became quite weak, and then accompanied that with nausea, headaches, fever, coughing, back pain, lack of appetite. I went to the doctors a week ago, and received antibiotics (for what they described as possibly pneumonia or influenza), which I've been taking, and feel quite much better now. However, the fever still remains, and a irritating cough, as well as still having no appetite, and since been in bed for 9 days, I have little energy to go outside. I am not sure if I was given the correct antibiotics, or whether they just didn't properly work. I may have to go back in for a re-prescription. Either way, this sickness has been quite debilitating, and it caused me to miss the end of Course A, and threatens the beginning of Course B. So my current focus now is on killing this bacteria or infection.

As a summary however, as a whole, I am very much enjoying Gothenburg and look forward to the more it has to offer.