Cultural Learnings of Europe

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Cultural Learnings Of... Swedish High School Graduation
2008-06-01 17:51:00
Some time ago I showed you how Estonians celebrate the graudation of high school, or "gymnasium" (same word, spelt differently in places up here). This week I was in Stockholm for a few days and saw how the Swedish* also celebrate this important time in a young persons life... by getting wasted and riding around in the back of massive trucks with music blaring.  All I had was a gemini and a cassette adapter... happy days. It appears "Time Of Your Life" by Greenday has fallen out of favour with the graduating kidding these days, however I was enthused to see them rocking out to "Living On A Prayer" instead. I can get behind that!Not only were the kiddies riding around on trucks on Friday but there was a massive Iraq conference going on in Stockholm with all kinds of international people like Condi Rice attending. Apparently it was insantiy. For Sweden. Or so the taxi driver said. You get all the good advice from taxi drivers.* I am pretty sure Swede...
More About: School , High School , Graduation , High , Cultural

Cultural Learnings Of... Malaysia (in pictures)
2008-05-25 18:24:00
The inflight entertainment on Malaysia Airlines shows you the direction to Mecca at anytime if you need to praySunrise over KL from 19th floor, Cititel HotelI couldnt get enough of these mobile phone ads at the train station.oohh poor sad face! She seems rather amused by his sad face. At first i thought it meant he called late because something bad had happened. then i realised she is just dating a player. This next one is THE BEST. "He was angry at me. He didnt want to talk to me. So I said sorry through MMS".  I cant decide if I would be more or less amused if that was a white woman.This is the Steam Boat and it is the best invention in food EVER: There are lots of skewers with good food like prawns and fish balls and muscles and tofu and all kinds beauteness. You then dip it into the tub of boiling water for a few minutes until its cooked and then put sweet and sour and chilli over it. Oh man, I could have stayed there all night.You said it buddy...Finally, even th...
More About: Pictures , Cultural

Malaysia - Truly Asia - Truly Awesome!
2008-05-25 10:31:00
Good times in Kuala Lumpur. I have been here  teaching for Customware and on the weekend some of the team took me out to see the sights here. Malaysia is really interesting, they have 3 main racial groups here, Malays, Chinese and Indians and everyone goes about their day and often the common language used is English. This means its very easy for me to get around here on my own but I was lucky enough to be given a guided tour by Kay Nny and Yuen Chi. I told them I like to eat good food from everywhere Id go so they took me to all these small little eating places where I was the only white guy and ordered for me all this awesome local stuff. Some times I hesitate on "weird" food but for some reason I have been digging right into it here, I got stuck into everything they put in front of me and I didnt dislike any of it. The most awesome part was going for dinner with Kay Nny's family in place outside of town where they have their own fish farm and grow them yourself. O...
More About: Asia , Awesome

Australia - The Discovery Channel Was So Right
2008-05-06 14:00:00
COP ALL THE BEAUTE AUSSIE PHOTOS HEREI wanted to post you some photos of my old pets in Australia , its so nice to see them all. Above is my old spidey. oohh i miss you little guy. Below is my pet dog. Funny how he would never bring me the stick when i threw it. He always seemed to want to play in the ant nest, I never did understand.Of course we are seeing the sights tooAnd you know what I think about the whole thing?
More About: Discovery , Discovery Channel , Channel

I Come From A Land Down Under
2008-04-28 15:03:00
The last few weeks in Tallinn have been great, the spring is well and truly here and it changes the place so much, the birds sing and sometimes, just occasionally, I even see Estonian people smile! Yes, its hard to believe but it happens. They weren't even drunk either! Ive been out on my bike exploring Tallinn, from the lovely forests around Pirita, to the large ugly soviet style apartments of Lasnamäe, the weird lake side views of the oddly round Vaike-Öismäe and even Estonias biggest waterfall at Keila-Joa which falls a massive... 5 or 6 metres. its been good days. I am really starting to call this city home, Ive got a great apartment, a stunning flatmate, some nice Kiisu and I meeting stacks of great people, from Estonians, to foreign students to new business partners. I like Tallinn, its small enough I can easily get outside of the city, I feel like I can get a grasp on the place. As for Estonia itself, I feel like I have barely scratched the surface. Its the so...
More About: Land

Tallinn Riots, One Year Later
2008-04-28 14:32:00
This last weekend past was the one year anniversary of the riots in Tallinn , remember the ones where they moved the old Soviet statue and the young male Russian population of Tallinn went bezerk and trashed the joint? Its kind of funny because before the event, there wasnt much happening in Tallinn, I mean big and international, if two old guys got together for a farting contest, it would have been on the front of the newspaper. Since then, its all about the "Russian problem" here and whos to blame, what to do about it and most importantly, will the Russian guys try and get their hands on the season 2008 lines from the Gucci store again this year.I am happy to say that no shit went down over the weekend, the town was peaceful but the police were very obviously out in force, Im pretty sure all coppers had their holidays cancelled for the weekend and you couldnt sneeze without some law enforcement noticaing. They even had the municipal police force out... shit no one even kn...
More About: Year , Riots

Travel Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
2008-04-07 10:43:00
Reading over this blog, I remembered that I once had an apartment in Tallinn... Estonia... I remember that place... I moved there right? What do you mean I have an apartment there? Plus a flatmate? Now you are kidding me!Its been about 4 weeks since Ive been home, Ive been giving training courses, doing the hard slog. Im off to Prague for 4 days this week and then finally, I get to go back to my apartment. Sad news is we lost or current kitty too, we had been looking after a cat for a local service in Tallinn which places homeless animals with new families and our Kiisu is now living in a nice home in Tartu. Its tough but thats part of the deal, we can now bring in another little guy off the street and help him too.Anna and I had a lovely time in Sardinia, check out all the Italy photos here.Ive been in Stockholm for the past week, giving more training and catching up with old friends. The weather has turned up here and it really feels like spring, the days are much longer and its g...
More About: Travel , Heart , Grow , The Heart

You Know You Are In Sweden When...
2008-04-07 10:29:00
As seen on a Swedish letterbox..."No Advertising Thank You... But Gladly The IKEA Catalogue"What is missed here is that this sign isnt even needed at all. The IKEA catalogue is not advertising here, its more of an annual cultural bible. An Swede without their IKEA catalogue is like a Swede without salvation.
More About: Sweden

Greatest Travel Book EVER
2008-04-07 10:23:00
Many of you know, of all the things I have done in my travels, language is one of the things ive struggled with the most. I can speak some Estonia, some Swedish, some German but its not enough to have a conversation and despite my want I can always find something else to do beside sit down and study a text book.However it doesnt matter now because I discovered the greatest book you will ever need, now I dont need to learn anything else!Its a picture book for travellers and instead of having to point that things or shout extra loudly when the french cant understand you, just point at it in the book. Its easy. Want chicken? You dont even need to open the book!What the hell is "over 1 3/4 Million"? 1.75 million what? combination of pictures? chinese people confused? Also "Graf Editions"? What the hell does that mean? Is the authors name "Graf Editions"? Boy, hard parents. If not then what does "Graf" mean? Did Steffi Graf put down the old tennis ...
More About: Travel , Book , Greatest

Sardinia, Italy
2008-03-25 19:59:00
Anna and I are spending the week in Sardinia, the island off Italy and its pretty nice here. The sun is out now and we have hired a little Fiat Puntio to punto us around the island. Its only 200 km long so its easy driving around and all the little towns along the coast are gorgeous.It seems a year and a half on from Spaintrip I still havnt worked out siesta time, it seems nothing is open until 6pm here and the non touristic places are just that, I hope you like pizza!This place aint bad and its easy to see the differences in the south of Italy to the north.  More updates later. View Larger Map

Party Webcam!
2008-03-15 18:35:00
Tonight, live, for one night only the old eurotrip webmcam has been brought back to provide you with live images of our kick ass party in Tallinn! Baltic Party Cam Click HereKeep it open and it will refresh. Admittedly its no HDTV peep show but its these slow internet lines to Estonia ya know.UPDATEAll the photos can be found in the gallery: blondies, kiisu and the politsei
More About: Webcam

Frankers - Forever Staying and Learning
2008-03-13 21:44:00
Ive spent the last few days in Frankfurt, a city which on any given day I dont rate too highly, yet everytime Im here I seem to enjoy myself. Frankers was the first city the eurotrip touched down in, we rolled into the hostel at 7am and met some drunk Irish kicking on from the night before. Turned out they all worked at the pub around the corner and sooner than you can say "luck of the irish" we were having a rocking time. Speaking of Irish, ill be back here next week for St Pats day, Im sure it will be the next best thing to Dublin, tobesuretobesure.Despite being here for work, Im staying back at the same hostel the "stay and learn" named so because theres a language school attached at at some time in the past your hostel booking used to entitled you to a free german lesson, however these days its not available and such things must be practised over in the local pub instead.  The hostel is right in the middle of the red light district, opposite the Hauptbah...
More About: Learning , Forever

Ja, I Want The Schnitzel Baby
2008-03-03 12:05:00
Upon arriving at Vienna airport this morning my taxi wasnt there... but I should have gone with this guy instead. He clearly knows where its at.
More About: Baby , Schnitzel

Cultural Learnings Of... Cultural Learnings Of Australia
2008-03-02 21:54:00
I had a good weekend, last night I went to a birthday party for a mate of mine Taavi who comes from a small town in the central north of Estonia called Lehtse. It was a good night, Taavi brews a mean home made beer, went into his authentic wood sauna and then ran around in the snow after it. It truly is very invigorating!I met some new people at the party and at one stage a guy comes up to me and says "hey, I watch this Australia n TV show... ummm pizza hut... or pizza shop... ""errr you mean "Fat Pizza?""yeah thats the one! paulie is the man!"HAHA, fantastic, I thought that noone outside of Australia would ever get to watch Fat Pizza let alone understand the jokes! God knows how he found out about it originally.Then after the sauna and snow I was walking around in my "Kevin 07" shirt, yeah Im a dork who still wears it 100 days after the election. Again another guy speaks up out of nowhere"HEY!! Kevin 07! Chasers War on Everything! I ...
More About: Cultural

The Difference Between Sweden and Australia
2008-02-27 15:25:00
From The Local in Sweden Woman uses fishing line to cheat bottle deposit systemA 42-year-old woman in Köping was caught by a security guard on Tuesday using a fishing line to claim multiple deposits on a single recyclable bottle at a Willys supermarket in the central Swedish town, several local media report. In Sweden, if you use some fishing line to get extra money from the bottle deposit machine, the police catch you on video and charge you for fraud.In Australia , if you use some fishing line to get extra money from the bottle deposit machine, you get given the Australian Of The Year award for your ingenuity and respect of all your mates. Hello Australia!Do we even have bottle deposit machines? Maybe in South Australia only where they have doubled the refund recently. Its time for a good Kramer scam!
More About: Difference

Good To Be Home
2008-02-25 23:59:00
14:40 from Stockholm to Tallinn this afternoon was particularly delightful, it was a sunny day and we flew in from the west over the islands. More than other cultures I know, Estonians have a bond to the land and looking down over my adopted home, I can start to understand why.Ive had a good two weeks on the road, it feels like winter is really over for me. Portugal was loads of fun and even being in old mother Britian stirred a few patriotic strings in me. I used to be in favour of an Australian republic but now, after being away from my culture for so long, I kind of like it now. When I go to England I can feel the connection and plus, shes a nice old lady too. I say we stay in the Commonwealth while shes around. Atleast Malcolm Turnbull and I agree on something.I am back i town for atleast a week and Ive got plenty to do, courses to learn, people to meet, estonian to learn. Its good to come back to my own apartment, its going to take time but Im starting to really think of this a...
More About: Home , Good

Cultural Learnings Of... Portugal Police
2008-02-25 23:28:00
This is a two photo set I call "Portugese Police are a big bunch of nancy boys who need to find some real wheels"Segways? Electric gogo mobiles? Harden up Portugese coppers!
More About: Portugal , Cultural

Cultural Learnings Of... European Map According to EastJet
2008-02-25 23:24:00
In Berlin Schönefeld airport EasyJet show all the places they fly in Europe and what an accurate map it is! Ok im covered in Estonia and Latvia is good but if your Lithuanian then sorry, you are all part of the great unwashed mass to the east. Add into that Belarus, Ukraine, Romania and Balkan nations, including our newest country, Kosovo. Oh wait, thats the one Russia does want. Have you seen Putin lately? Hes getting fired up, its awesome. Come on red tanks, roll east!
More About: European , Cultural

Happy Days In Lisbon, Portugal
2008-02-17 12:34:00
Welcome to sunny Lisbon where winter doesnt involve long dark days, its fantastic! I have been working here for a week down here in Lisbon, Portugal which is pretty much as far as you can go across Europe. I have REALLY enjoyed my week here in a big way, ive got a great impression of this country.The food! Hot dang, seafood! Grilled calamari, fresh garlic prawns! You know it! Fry some home make potato chips, grill a nice serlion and stick an eggs on top of it and you have Portugese steak. You all know, when Im full im happy so they did good just on this one.Nice people too! Every portugese person ive spoken has been friendly and open to me. The hostel im staying at is owned by a retired Portugese guy who had time and money on his hands so opened a super nice new place here in the old town, hes always giving you the local advice and asking about how it went, it really feels like hes doing it for the fun, god bless him.And the weather! It has been sunny all week which has been good fo...
More About: Happy , Days , Happy Days

Cultural Learnings Of... Australians Saying Sorry
2008-02-12 23:32:00
Some of you may have actually seen Australia in the news the last few days and its not because someone famous died (oh I cried when Fatso the Wombat from A Country Practise passed on) or because of our crocodile wrestling prowess, it is because our country is about to do something it should have a long time ago, say "sorry" to the Aboriginal people.So whats the deal? Like many other indigenous peoples, the Native Americans or the Sami up north, our Aboriginal guys had a rich and deep culture and then some British dudes rocked up, steam rollered the place and displaced them good. There is one particularly bleak part of this history, around the 1960's when we had this nasty piece of legislation called the "White Australia Policy" (sounds good already right?) where any Aboriginal childen who were "half cast" or looked a bit whitey, were taken from their families, their land and their culture and placed with white adopted families and told to just "be...
More About: Cultural , Australians

Home Sweeeet Home
2008-02-09 12:16:00
One week now in Tallinn and things are cruising along, I just got myself a fresh new haircut, however I smell conspiracy in the air (if you ever come here you will know it), they gave me a cut like an Estonian man! Never say they dont welcome you and help you blend in.The place down on Poksa street is our beautiful little love nest, check it out.Already I must leave our beautiful home however, I am off to Lisbon in Portgal tomorrow to teach next week and then to the UK the week after to teach again also. Its a bummer to be away after being here such a short time but thats the lifestyle, jetting off from exotic location to exotic location.  It is still quite a surreal experience to be here, to imagine the days in stockholm are over and I dont need to get up and go back to the same desk again each morning. I feel the same way about the winter here, it feels like it has been going on forever here, like the memory of the long summer days is something of childhood years ago. Why wou...
More About: Home

48 Hours In Estonia
2008-02-05 13:03:00
Its been 48 hours in Estonia and times have been tough. Being greeted by my friends getting off the boat, seeing some lovely Estonian seaside, showing classic aussie films over a few bottles of red, moving into our HUGE new apartment and being really warmly welcomed by everyone I know. Man this place is the pits. Getting my phone hooked up in 5 minutes. Dry cleaning at one third the cost and done overnight. No, please! one day will kill you, how can you offer such service?? Its terrible to open your laptop any place in old town and be able to find some free wireless to use, thats a bad one. Having the supermarket down the road stock a huge range of beer for sale between 11 and 20 EACH DAY. Oh god your killing me, stop it, stop it. Hello Tallink, is that the 6pm boat? Better get me a first class ticket outta here, I can hardly stand it.
More About: Hours

Ma Elan Eestimaa (almost)
2008-01-24 13:25:00
Its now a little over a week until this happens....Im finally doing it, Im moving to Tallinn! This last year in Stockholm has been fun, Ive met good people, learnt lots about the ins and outs of Swedish language and got my career back on track but its time to do one thing Ive always wanted, go and live in that small little country just to the south, Estonia!Keen readers will know I have a long history with the country, I even know a few people too and its with their most appreciated support Ill be living in Tallinn with Meelika, hows that! Rent an apartment in Estonia and get a free hot chick along with the deal! Who could refuse??... if you can find a good apartment that is, one thing I have learnt today is that which country and cultures may change, Real Estate attracts the same type of personality the world over. You know what im talking about.So what I am doing there? Oh you know me, Ive got lots of pots on the boil, while they all simmer nicely Ill be giving more training cours...
More About: Elan

Suisse Alps
2007-12-25 12:10:00
More and more photos!Yesterday we tracked down from Sankt Gallen to Maloja which is right near the border of Italy and its marvellous here, simply marvellous. Switzerland has charmed me over the last few days, the weather has been bright blue sunshine, its minus 5 outside and the snow covered mountains which constantly surround you leave you in absolute awe, I could spend all day here just looking at the peaks from the window in front of me.We stayed in a small hostel here last night which was filled with German families and it was so cute when the kids got their presents last night, it was lovely to see. we have been doing some stunning drives around the alps, the Fiat Bravo is perfect for the territory, the top of 3rd gear has power up the wazoo and makes the hills a lot of fun. Theres also good times to be had just cruising and enjoying the views, these mountains have a way of putting your mind together, helping you keep it all in perspective.Of course there is video! Heres a sho...
More About: Alps

Munich to Sankt Gallen - Approaching Warp Speed
2007-12-23 20:00:00
Check the latest photos of the triprock and roll! Tonight Jack and I are in Sankt Gallen which is in the upper east of Suisse and I love it here. Something about Switzerland just charms me every time, the mountains, the old towns, the funny shaped square flag, their resistance to joining the EU because it would expose all the nazi gold in their accounts, god bless it all!Plans are crazy, they are almost completely different to the ones I described before, thanks to some hiccups I got to München late and all we could get was a a Fiat... hmmm thats not a 1 series BMW.... hmmm but it has 4 wheels and I hear even a steering wheel so we accepted it... only to realise its an awesome Fiat Bravo with 100Kw and a factory fitted turbo! we have already had it going 230 down the german autobahn... WHICH IS TOTALLY LEGAL. Did I tell you how much I love this shit? Turns out Greg couldn't come so Julie from Perth came instead, except she already took a train back because she felt sorry for l...
More About: Munich , Speed , Warp

Christmas Eurotrip 2007!
2007-12-21 09:33:00
Dont tell scotty, its eurotrip time again!Wondering what to do with our Christmas , Jack and I are going to keep it a family affair and spend the holiday season doing what we do best, crazy euro road trips! Jacks got an NZ mate along for the ride too!Given the demise of our beloved Eurotank we are hiring a car for 7 days and you know the way with rental car companies, however this isnt amercia and the choice isnt for a saturn... the car class is either a BMW 1 series, Volvo C30 or VW Golf. Needless to say we are praying to high heavens for the BMW, first time was the ring second time the austrian alps, a good sequel? I think so!Tomorrow Im flying Stockholm to Salzburg where Jack and his mate will meet me, having rented the car out of  Munich. Then its off to Innbrucks for the night, then across the alps into Swiss to Sankt Gallen to see Judith, then its time to head south and push into Italy! Both Jack and I havnt been there so a flirt with the north will be rocking. Its around ...

Old friends, Reunited again
2007-11-25 19:31:00
After a long and drawn out battle with Deutsche Post and Swedish Posten, I have been reunited with two of my old friends, the license plates from Eurotank, now the only remaining part of our dear Volvo after the fat german man took her away earlier this year. Do you hear me Vägverket (swedish road authority), you aint getting them back, Ill say the car was stolen in Romania or something, they will believe that for sure.
More About: Friends , Reunited , Unit

Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Australia
2007-11-11 20:53:00
Oh you dont know how long ive waited to use that title for a blog entry! Im back here now, in Stockholm Sweden, enjoying the simple pleasures of a normal Scandinavian life in the winter months... that is walking around in the freezing cold saying "Its colder this year.. but not as cold as the big chill of '05"... Oh how the years move fast up here.  However, nevertheless I am back and not in America anymore, so this is the part where I give you my deep and personal cultural insight into what Ive seen, where after you read it with glee.... as quickly as you can so you can go to the photo section and look at pictures of any cute girls ive taken lately. Ive got one new good looking gal in there, shes a big one alright and shes a greenish shade.. and I dont mean Elphaba from Wicked, which I might say is a fantastic show which I throughly wave my wrist to and give 3 eggs up. Check my last set of NY photos in the pictures sectionIll start with New York, a city that blew me...
More About: Australia , Nation , Make , Benefit

New York, Day 1
2007-11-07 07:50:00
Just a quick update because im friggin tired, its 1:45am here and we have been going all day. Myself, Adam, Mandy and James have made it to New York and I can now say this place is amazing. Its 10 amazings. no wait, easily 100 amazings! I love this town already, I am staying with my friend Tatyana who lives in a most lovely apartment down on 23rd street and its so cool to just wonder the streets, have a coffee and a bagel and take it all in. No photos of NY yet, but there is the rest of the Pittsburgh ones including the Steelers game. HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!i gotta sleep. no. no sleep till Brooklyn!
More About: New-York

Cultural Learnings Of... Dieters Wedding!
2007-11-05 03:07:00
Last night the big event went down last night and it was a really beautiful and lovely event!So we all got to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, myself, Adam, Mandy and James and we have been having an absolute non stop blast ever since. We have been staying at Carisa cousins house and each day has been full of great events and getting into American culture. Everyone here has been so kind to us and really shown us a great time.The wedding itself was great, I was humbled when Dieter asked me to be his best man and I was proud to be there for him. The ceremony was touching and I must say, struck quite a cord on my heartstring, it got through to even mr ice man over here. Carisa looked gorgeous and she really looked like the happiest girl ever. If any of y'all are thinking "wow dieter quinn, married!" let me tell you that if you were here and could see him, you would have no doubt this is the one for him, he is a content man.I was happy with the speech I gave on the night, a bit long ...
More About: Wedding , Cultural , Ural , Earning