It's all Greek to me ...

So, you last left me in Vienna, a city of great beauty, unexpected heat and lovely buildings!! I met up with my friend Christoph, and we had a great night out, partying with Austrian students!! On the Thursday, I wandered around the former Royal Palace, definitely a sight to see!! After the traditional Vienna Schnitzel, I headed to bed very early, as I had foolishly booked a 6am flight to Athens the next day!!

I eventually arrived in Athens later on the Friday, to discover I agreed with most people's assessment - leave ASAP!! The Acropolis is duly impressive, but the rest of the city is rundown and unpleasant feeling. However, I then headed to Santorini on Saturday, which was just beautiful!! Black beaches, high cliffs, volcanoes, and all those lovely little blue and white churches you see in photos - definitely what I wanted from a Greek island!! I was alone, again, as my poor friend Anika has collapsed a disc in her back, but after some periods of loneliness, I met some great American girls, and we went on a volcanoe tour, and saw the sunset in a beautiful location with our Greek guide - photos next week!!

I then headed to Mykonos, for more traditional beaches and Eurotrash - drinks and umbrellas on the beach, very relaxing and very touristy!!

Now I am in Venice, after having to walk for about 2 hours from near the airport, after storms brought down trees, cancelled music festivals and blocked roads!! I love this city, so pretty, so warm, nice people, great water ...

Anyway, Germany, then home soon - yay!!

Another reason to hate Dubya ...

So, my crazy 3 weeks of travel has begun!! On Sunday, I got to spend 7 hours at Leeds airport, while they fixed 'technical difficulties' in our plane - this included time when we actually boarded the plane, flew for 20 minutes, then had to return!! So I finally arrived in Prague at 11pm, rather than 3pm as originally planned! After successfully negotiating bus, train and tram to my hostel, I chilled in the bar, chatting to fellow travellers (I love feeling so worldly - 'oh, yeah, you should definitely go to Budapest ... I love Berlin ... Spain is great!).

Monday morning I went bright eyed and bushy tailed to Prague Castle, one of the most beautiful in the world. Well, I wouldn't know, because it was closed for Monday and Tuesday, the 2 days I was in Prague. Why, you ask? Because bloody George W. Bush was visiting!! So, yeah, not happy Jan!!

Anyway, I had a great day - I went to St Nicholas Church, a crazy Baroque thing of gold and beauty, walked across the Charles Bridge, went on a boat tour, read some Czech authors, and finished off the night with a performance in a church by the Prague Brass Ensemble and organ - really great!!

Tuesday was warmer and sunnier - I went back to Charles Bridge and climbed the tower for great views. I then finally chose a Babushka doll (I love those things!!), then went to the Mucha exhibition - such great art!! After a relaxed lunch, I wandered back to the hostel, bought some fruit, then found my way to the correct train station to say farewell to Prague, and head to Vienna!!

That's where I am now - the 30 degree heat has caught me by surprise, but it is pleasant to be warm - although being in a landlocked country means no beach, alas!! I met up with Christoph, who I met in Denmark and is Austrian, and we went to lunch, then out to the cemetary - as one does!!! We saw Beethoven's grave - quite cool!! Then we wandered around Stephensplatz, seeing the great church, and then I saw all the lovely buildings on the Ring road - architecture is lovely here!!

No photos, sorry, no way of uploading them - but I'll bore you all with them in a couple of weeks!!

Athens on Friday - bring on more countries, I say!!

Another day, another country left ...

After a whirlwind few weeks of last Dutch experiences, I have left the Hague!

My flatmate Mike and I had a joint party last Saturday night, (to celebrate his birthday and my leaving) which was well attended and highly enjoyable! And no police were called (a rarity in Dutch parties), so all was well!! This photo is of him in his 'birthday boa and hat' - we convinced him to buy accessories when we spent the day in Rotterdam - it was quite fun to dress him up!!


My last day at the Tribunal was busy but nice - my team took me out for lunch, and gave me a farewell bear and book, and then I left the building - quite sad, after having spent 5 months there, but refreshing to have no responsibilities for the next few weeks!!


A nice canal view on the walk to work


The Tribunal in all its glory!!

Me and the sign!

So after sending 3 boxes of clothes, dvds, books and shoes home to Australia, I have embarked on my final three weeks in Europe. I flew this morning into Liverpool, travelling to Leeds to see Charlotte and her family. On Sunday I will fly to Prague for 2 days, then Tuesday evening train to Vienna. After catching up with my Austrian friend Christoph, I will fly to Athens, where my friend Anika will join me for a week on the Greek islands in the sun!! On the 15th I fly to Venice for the weekend, seeing my friend Diego, then to two parts of Germany, Stuttgart and Hamburg, to catch up with Anna and Marte!

So it will be a busy three weeks, of seeing people I became close to in Denmark, and seeing places I have wanted to see!! On the 21st, I leave Hamburg to fly back to Sydney - yay!! So I'll be home from the 23rd of June.

E-mail is the best way to contact me over the next few weeks, but looking forward to catching up with all you Aussies!!

Canals, Pearls and other Dutch things

So, I haven't been writing much, as I haven't been travelling much, focussing more on enjoying life here in the Hague over the past few weeks.

Queen's Day is a public holiday on 30th April, where the Dutch celebrate the birthday of the previous Queen. Queen's Night, 29th April, is a massive street party everywhere in Holland, with people dressed in bright orange, waving flags, drinking and being generally merry! It was a crazy and enjoyable night, with all the drama usually associated with big nights out - relationship crises, fist fights, and general dancing mayhem!! But great fun!! Amsterdam is the place to be on Queen's Day, if you're on a canal, however after battling the crowds on Queen's Night in the Hague, I decided to opt for a more relaxing beach public holiday experience!

Which was lucky, as the past few weeks have been highly unpleasant weather - cold, rainy, windy to the extreme - lucky I haven't sent my winter clothes home yet!!

Friday night a couple of weekends ago we went on a canal tour - it was great, sailing around the various waterways of the Hague, really seeing lots of the city that you otherwise wouldn't get to! Some of the bridges are quite low, however, so we had to crouch in the bottom of the boat!

I finally found my way to the Turkish fruit markets this weekend, and bought so much cheap fruit and vegetables, it was great!

Saturday night we hosted a Eurovision party at my place - lots of fun, laughing at the various acts - our top votes were Georgia, Greece and Ukraine, however Serbia won the day (very political for us, as we are prosecuting war criminals from there!)

Sunday I went to the Mauritshuis, which is the art gallery here - it houses the famour Vermeer 'Girl with a pearl earring', among other lovely Dutch works, so it was a great way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon!!

So, in other news - I will be home in July!!! I decided that many months of vague travel plans with limited funds didn't sound like as much fun anymore, so I will finish my internship at the end of May, travel around for a month (Prague, Vienna, Venice, Croatia, Greece), and then head home late June/early July, to start work at Allens 11th of July. So, Sydneysiders, prepare yourselves, I'm coming home!!

Tiptoeing through the tulips ...

So, in the spirit of experiencing Holland in the best way possible, as I have been spending quite a few weekends relaxing at home in Den Haag, on Saturday we went to Keukenhof, a giant flower exhibition about 45 minutes away. Words really don't describe fully the amazing flowers - lots of tulips, but hundreds of other types of flowers, of all colours and shapes and sizes - so lovely!! So find below some of the many photos I took - it's basically a giant garden, with different beds of flowers scattered around - crowded with people, but well worth the effort!!









Nearby to the actual exhibition are many tulip fields - we were going to hire bikes and bike around (trepidation on my part, considering I cannot actually ride a bike, and have successfully avoided being a cyclist in 2 bike-obsessed countries over the past 10 months!!!!), however all the bikes had been hired, so we settled for wandering in one field nearby, which was quite spectacular in itself, as you can see below!!


I'm a flower faery!!

My flower compatriots - Antonia, Megan and Emily, Megan's US friend

Very Dutch - tulips and windmill!!

Bella Roma!

So, my Easter weekend was lovely, warm, full of gelati, and also quite holy - because we went to Rome!!

A long travel to get there (Ryanair cheap flights always seem less appealing after you actually travel from home to train station, train to next city, bus to airport, fly, then bus to city - 9 hours later ...), but so worth it!!

I have been to Rome before, but travelled with 5 other friends - Camilla and Megan from Melbourne, Megan from California, Mike from Montreal (my flatmate) and Bente from Norway - both Megans had also been there before, while everything was new for the others!! We stayed at a great hostel that Megan had been to before, where they gave us little packs of snacks on arrival, and even some wine because they remembered Megan!!

After a lovely Italian meal, we saw some of the sights at night - Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Victor Emmanuel's monstrosity - everything is lit up and lovely!!

Me and the Colosseum

We strike a pose - myself, Megan, Bente, Megan, Camilla

Victor Emmanuel by night

Trevi Fountain by night


Friday dawned sunny and warm - we were so excited not to have to wear our coats!! Europe has done terrible thigns to my thermostat, that I now consider 19 degrees a warm day!! While the others went on a Colosseum tour, Megan and I walked along the lovely river Tiber, lunched at Piazza Navona, did a spot of shopping, then met the others for a relaxing dinner at an authentic Roman restaurant (ie no tourist menus with 5 different languages!!) We then went to a funky wine bar before bed.

Colosseum by day

The lovely Tiber

It's a hard life!

The Pantheon

Saturday was also warm and lovely - both Megans and I wandered around the Vatican while the others went into the Vatican museum, and we lunched and sunned ourselves - ah, it's a hard life!! We then went to the Spanish steps, and after some dinner, we ventured to Trastevere, a funky area of Rome with lots of bars and restaurants. Later that night, after much urging from our Norweigan counterpart, we sampled Rome's nightlife, at an area called Testacchio, where we partied with many Roman men, and realised that Italian men can be a little too friendly sometimes - such obvious groping is not what I am used to!


Green is the theme - Mike, Camilla, Megan, Megan

Fountain at St Peter's - quite close to the front of the square, and where we stood the next day to see Il Papa!

The lovely river Tiber

Ponte St Angelo (bridge of angels - so pretty!)

Laura and Spanish Steps

Sunday morning, I dragged myself out of bed after only 4 hours sleep, and joined Megan and Mike for the Easter Mass at St Peter's, presided over by the Pope, which then leads into his Urbi et Orbi speech, which is his little sermon to the world. He then wishes Happy Easter in about 40 languages - the square was packed with thousands of people, and it was amazing, like the Catholic Olympics, with everyone waving flags, cheering when they heard their language - a great experience!!


The Crowd at the Catholic Olympics ...

Il Papa rocking the crowd!!

We then wandered around, more pizza and gelati, then relaxed in a lovely park - definitely the theme for the weekend, a relaxed tour of Rome!! We then had an enjoyable Easter banquet for dinner, and a relatively early night, before embarking on our journey home on Monday. All in all, a great Easter weekend!!

Holland has finally recognised spring, with 27 degree weather this weekend - so my life resembes a resort, as the beach here sets up bars and sun lounges, with table service - it's a hard life, lying around being served!!

Buda and Pest

Yes, it appears they are separate cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube River - who would have guessed!! But I thoroughly enjoyed my experiences in both cities!!

I travelled with two Aussie girls, Antonia and Camilla, and we partied with a variety of international students who study in Holland, where Antonia was last semester.

After an annoying baby/parents combo on the plane to Budapest (crying baby, annoying parents), we made it, later than we expected, so headed to bed to be fresh for the next day. Friday dawned rainy and cold, so after a fortifying Hungarian breakfast (including paprika omelette, the spice of choice in Hungary!), we went to the Museum of Terror, which used to be the headquarters of the Hungarian Nazis and Communist bad guys - a great museum, well laid out and good provision of information!! We then decided to go to the ballet, as one does when one can get tickets for $10, so 'Gone with the Wind' the ballet was an enjoyable way to spend the evening, especially as the Opera House is a gorgeous building!!

The lovely opera house

Myself, Antonia and Camilla at the Opera

We then met up with the Nymegan crew, went across to Buda (our hostel was in Pest) to a nightclub at the top of a shopping centre, and danced the night away!!

Saturday also dawned rainy and chilly, so we headed to the Baths, which are awesome - lots of different sized and temperatured baths, from 18 degrees to 38 degrees, and a variety of saunas, including a cinnamon flavoured one!!

Poppies en route to the baths


After a post-bath rest, we went out for a hearty Hungarian meal, which included lots of meat and cabbage!! We then met up with the internationals at a funky garage-type bar, and realised the folly of trying to keep 25 people happy, as we changed locations frequently!!

The funky club in Pest


Sunday was sunny and warm (well, around 12 degrees!!). We walked across to Buda castle, which has amazingly beautiful walls, statues and churches surrounding it, although the castle appears now to be used for offices and an art gallery.

The view across the Danube from Pest to Buda - myself and Antonia

View from the top!

Castle Gates

Castle walls

More castle walls

I really loved the castle walls - so pretty!!

We had a chilled out night of coffee, cake and drinks in Buda.

We also successfully negotiated with taxi drivers - Hungary is still on the Forint, with around 150 to the Aussie dollar, and taxi drivers frequently don't put the meter on, but just estimate how much it will cost - we worked out the best option was to call one with a price, and then bargain down to that price on the return journey, as otherwise most taxi drivers took advantage of tourists by tripling the price!!

Monday was our last day, so we had a relaxing brunch, wandered around the markets and then headed back to the Hague! All in all, a relaxing, cultural and partying weekend - definitely worth a visit!!

Ay, to be sure ...

Well, I have spent two relaxing but busy weekends in the Hague, and one out of it in the past 3 weeks, so lots to report!!

After a relatively quiet weekend after Berlin, going to the movies (I recommend 'Notes on a Scandal') and celebrating Emily's birthday with a lunar eclipse and some margaritas, I spent the next weekend enjoying the Hague - I went to the Scheveningen beach both days (not to swim, still waaaay too cold!!) It's actually quite nice to walk along, although nothing on the beaches at home! Lots of house parties and dancing meant very late nights (or early mornings, depending on how you look at it!!) Also some time spent at my new place, relaxing on the couch with my new flatmates - I'm settling in well, so nice to have a proper kitchen and living room, although fun getting used to living with boys again!!

I am also still busy at work, helping sort out our witness statements and facts, which can be a bit tedious sometimes, but then when you see what you're doing actually have a direct effect on the trial, it's worth it!!

So, last Friday night my former flatmate Chelsea and I headed to the lovely city of Cork, Ireland, for a St Patrick's Day weekend! We spent 3 days in the company of a number of drunk Irishmen (with lovely accents!). When watching the parade on Saturday, we bought oversized green hats, which seemed the norm.

Our newly purchased hats at the parade

One of the better floats at the parade

However, when we wore them out that night, we realised that as Cork is not that touristy, we were in a dressed-up minority - this was fun, however, as it ensured we got lots of attention, drinks, new friends!
Crazy girls out on the town!

The atmosphere

On Sunday we visited Blarney Castle, and yes, we kissed the famous Blarney Stone (backbend and all!), so now I am even more eloquent than before! It's a lovely spot, actually, and quite relaxing to wander around, although the random hailing did present the need to head indoors every so often!!

Blarney Castle

Me kissing the stone - ah, the backbend!

View from the top

Sunday night found us being serenaded by a random KISS cover band at a local pub - all part of the travel adventure!


Crazy KISS cover band

Monday Chelsea headed off to Belfast with her friend Kelly, and I stayed in Cork, to visit the Butter Museum - who knew Irish dairy was taking over the world!! Then back to Den Haag on Monday evening.

The St Anne Church at Shandon, above where we stayed

The famous Butter Museum - to quote the flyer, 'worth a scone!'

Alas, no rest for the wicked, so I'm heading to Budapest tomorrow for 4 days - yay!! And then a weekend off, and Rome for Easter - it's a hard life!!

Ich bin ein Berliner

Why, yes, I am a jelly doughnut!! The famous JFK statement means that - take out the 'ein', and you are saying you are a Berliner - which is a good thing to be, I think, as the city is great! I spent 3 days there last weekend, and enjoyed every minute of it!!

I travelled to Berlin with my American friends Acadia and Megan. Firstly, our plane was delayed, which was a tad annoying, as we changed gates 3 times, and got in at 11pm rather than 9, so our first night was a little shorter than planned! However, Acadia's friend Todd met us at the airport, helped us find our hostel and a nightcap drink, so all was well!!

Megan, Acadia and myself at the Brandenberg Gate

On Saturday morning, relatively bright and early, we made our way to the Brandenburg Gate for the start of a 4 hour free walking tour, which had been highly recommended by many previous travellers. They were right - it was a great way to get one's bearings around the city, find out a lot about the history, and see things you otherwise wouldn't notice, such as Hitler's bunker, the monument to the Nazi book burnings (which is actually underground!), and the matching French and German churches. Our guide was lots of fun, informative and entertaining, and although it was cold, the 4 + hours didn't seem that long!! And I must say I learnt a lot - the history of the city is so rich, with wars, the Wall, numerous nationalities coming and going - and when you think it's only been 17 years since the Wall came down, it's quite amazing that the city is functioning so well!! There are reminders everywhere of it's history, however, such as bullet holes in buildings, and sections of the former Berlin Wall still standing.

The Holocaust Memorial

Laura and Berlin wall!!

French Church

German Church - spot the difference!!!

Humboldt University - where the book burnings happened

The Book Burning Memorial - empty shelves, enough to fit all the thousands of books that were burned.

After that, we waited in line then climbed the Reichstag, which is the parliament building, a giant transparent dome, that offers a great view of the city, as well as the parliamentary chamber below, so that the politicians always know that the people are above them!

The Reichstag

The people's view of the parliament from the top of the Reichstag


We had a nap, then headed out to meet my German friend Magdalena, for drinks at a funky bar with a great view of the city. A late dinner later, we waited in line (there's a pattern here!!) to get into a club in a converted brewery - it was worth it, free drinks and 4 different dance floors - a great (but late!) night!!

So after my 5am sleep time, I was a little weary on Sunday morning, when we had to check out, however undaunted we continued to the bombed out church, from WW1, which has been left partly destroyed as a reminder of the horrors of war.

The bombed-out church

We then went to the Berliner Dom, which is a great old church, and climbed that for another wonderful panorama of Berlin!


The Berliner Dom

View from the Berliner Dom

Feeling we hadn't done enough (although after plenty of coffee breaks out of the rain!), we then visited the German History museum, for a quick snapshot of some of the major events in pictures and artefacts. Acadia and Megan then left, as they were flying home Sunday night, while I went to meet Magdalena, with whom I was staying for the night. We had some dinner, then went to a funky Russian themed café in East Berlin, chatting about German and Australian politics – a great Berlin experience!!

On Monday I went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which details some of the more daring escapes over, under and around the Berlin Wall – it is, however, a curator’s nightmare, as information crowds every space, repetition abounds, and a general feeling of confusion reigns!!
I found the Jewish Museum later that afternoon much clearer and enjoyable – it focused on the overall history of Jewish people in Europe, rather than only the Holocaust, which I found interesting as I didn’t know much about what had happened before. Then, alas, it was time to head back to the Hague, brain full of history and information!

The Jewish museum - old meets new!

The Brandenberg Gate at night


I also moved house last Wednesday, which was great – my new place is highly enjoyable, so nice to have a proper living room and kitchen, still close to everything, still nice flatmates – all is good!!

Work and Carnivale

So, I've been quite busy at work this week, as I helped to proof a witness for trial (which involves going over their original statement with them, and clarifying any issues), and then was actually in the courtroom for the examination of this witness, which was very interesting!! There is simulataneous translation in English, French (because our presiding judge is French, the Chamber actually works in French!), and BCS, which is the acronym used for Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian, the Yugoslav languages - there are slight differences between them, but there is a sort of central version known as BCS - sort of like the way Italian is used in Italy, but there are still vastly different dialects within the regions.

So it's much easier to understand the demeanour and reactions of the witnesses and the parties when actually in court, as often a lot gets lost in the translation, particularly when watching it on screen. There were some interesting confrontations between our prosecution side and the defence, also, but our witness held up quite well in the face of all the activity!!

Last weekend was Carnivale and Mardi Gras, which is basically when the Dutch and the Germans dress up and go crazy as a precursor to all the deprivations during the Catholic Lent. So after a big night out for my flatmate's birthday on Friday night, we had another big night out Saturday, for Mardi Gras, where we all dressed up and danced the night away! (See my little kid's faery costume below!)

In other news, I will be moving house next week - my current apartment is way too expensive for what it entails, including no living room, faulty electrics, and a hostile landlady, who moved 2 random guys in for 4 days, allowing them to smoke in the kitchen, our only common area! Considering she is treating it like a hostel, I have given her a week's notice, and am moving out at the end of the month, as I have found a much better deal! My new place is much cheaper, and has a huge living room and kitchen (including an oven!! and a couch!!), and even a garden out my window! I will be very sad to leave my lovely flatmates, but as they will be leaving at the end of March, and we work together, we will still keep in contact! My new flatmates are a French Canadian guy and a Dutch guy, both of whom are very nice.

So, that's me for the moment - tomorrow I go to Berlin for 3 days, so I will have lots to report on next week!!

Snowy Stockholm

I have just returned from a lovely three day weekend in Stockholm, Sweden! I travelled with a friend from work, Megan, and a friend of hers from college, Mike, who is studying in Madrid, and met us there.

So, on Thursday, it snowed all day in the Hague, which was very lovely to watch out my window at work (see pictures!) It also meant we could leave work at 2pm - the Dutch don't handle snow very well!! We were worried that the trains and planes wouldn't be running, and as we were catching a train to Amsterdam, and a plane from Amsterdam, we left work at 3pm, only to find that everything was running on time, so we were early enough to grab food and relax.


We arrived safely in Stockholm, found the hotel and Mike, and went for a drink in a funky pub nearby, enjoying the really cold weather - minus 5 degrees! The next morning we switched hotels (a long complicated story, our first place was a bit far out of town, so Megan had found a better deal in a more central location), and then went for a wander around the town. It was snowing, and very cold, but so pretty - Stockholm is a city made up of islands, so all the lakes were frozen, snow everywhere! And lovely old buildings and streets - such a nice city!







We went to the Vasamuseum, which is where a 15th century warship is housed - it was built to fight the Danes, but sunk after an hour on its first outing!! But it for some reason didn't rot under water, and is perfectly preserved - it's pretty amazing to see!



After lunch at a lovely little coffee shop, and some more wandering, we had a nap then headed out for the night. We had been given some good recommendations from one of Megan and Mike's friends who used to live there, so we went to the Blue Moon Club, which had a nice fancy dinner, and a floor show - 5 guys singing covers of well known songs, sometimes in English, sometimes in Swedish, with funky dance moves! They performed 3 times throughout the night, with a fun DJ in between, so a good night was had by all!!

On Saturday we went for brunch at Mike's cousin's place, who is Swiss, but married to a Swedish girl - very nice to have some traditional Swedish food, and see some photos of the country! Then we walked to City Hall, where the Nobel prize is presented, (past some lovely frozen lakes, strong enough to walk on!!), and then coffee in a converted prison!







After another nap, we went out for dinner at this crazy Thai place, where you wait for 2 hours for a table, in the bar, but then go into this fun huge decorated place, with waterfalls and lights and paintings everywhere - we ate dinner in a rickshaw!


Sunday was basically check out and wander around, and then we headed back home to the Hague - it was really nice to get away for the weekend, and have a relaxing time - and after minus 10 degree temperatures, it feels positively balmy to have 7 degrees here in the Hague!!

Training it around Holland

So, after spending a few weekends not doing a great deal during my days in the Hague except working, sleeping and chilling out, last weekend I began exploring the rest of the Netherlands. There's a great train discount pass which gives 40% off all train travel in Holland, for the bearer & 3 friends, so this has opened up a new world of travel options!

After celebrating Australia Day in style, with drinks at the Embassy, then lots more drinks in the town with the multicultural other interns, and not really getting much sleep, we headed to Amsterdam last Saturday for the day. We wandered around, soaking up the atmosphere, and getting in a bit of sale shopping! Amsterdam is only 50 minutes away by train, but so different from the Hague - much much busier, much more touristy! I then stayed and met up with Ryan and Leah for dinner, which was nice, before heading back for a couple more parties in the Hague - it's a busy social life!


Megan (US) and Bente (Norway)


Acadia (US), Emily (NZ), Frida (Sweden)

Then on Sunday I headed down to Utrecht, a student town about 40 minutes in the other direction from the Hague, to visit my friend Yu, who is finishing his exchange there. It's a nice little town, although I only spent a few hours there - but I don't envy their living arrangements - Dutch places in general are very small, and Yu shares a room the size of mine with another guy, with bunk beds with desks underneath - very compact!! It's funny when I mention to Europeans that I headed to Utrecht just for hte afternoon, for coffee basically, because for me, it's about the same distance as heading to the North Shore to meet someone, Sydney being so big, and I forget that it may seem strange to head to another city in the same way!

Last week at work became much busier, my assignments becoming more detailed - I will be helping to prepare witnesses for trial from next week, so that will be very interesting! We have also been getting quite a bit of general training in international law, with daily lectures as part of our induction training on various parts of the ICTY statutes, and general international law principles, which I'm really enjoying, as it gives a much fuller picture of how what we're doing each day fits into the general scheme of things!!

This weekend was a bit quieter, thankfully, as I went out almost every night last week - my friend James and I went to a play on Wednesday night (in English), called 'Copenhagen', which was about World War II and physicists discussing possibilities for the world - very well done, and always nice to get a bit of culture in!

Friday night, I benefited from my nationality, as a New Zealand judge at the International Court of Justice had invited all young Australian and New Zealand lawyers to 'eats and drinks' at his place - it was good to meet him, and the Australian Ambassador, as well as other ANZACs in the Hague! We then went out dancing, as per usual, so another late night!

Saturday we went to Rotterdam, only about half an hour away. It's a very different city to most of the rest of the Netherlands, much more industrial, less little cobbled streets, but still very nice! We visited the International Film Festival, watching a Danish film, 'AFR', in which a director has taken a pile of interviews with world leaders & Danish politicians and manipulated them into a story about the Danish prime minister being assassinated by his gay lover - very well done! We went for a nice dinner, then an early night!


The Euro Tower


James (Aus), Anamaria and Acadia (US) at the harbour in Rotterdam


Me and the harbour

Views of my world

My street


Sunset over the canal

Just a quick post to show some photos of my new adopted city - I finally spent some time wandering around it the other weekend, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine (not warm, but pretty!), so I took some photos. I also took a photo of my street, to show the lovely little streets I keep talking about!

Work is starting to get busier, with increased access to programs meaning increased amounts of information to analyse, sort and enter. We watched some of our case this afternoon in court, which was very interesting - the mix of common law and civil law procedures is very interesting, with the judges and even the defendants able to interject with questions at any time - something I'm certainly not used to seeing!!

And my social life continues to thrive, as usual!! Last week we had severe storm warnings, meaning we were sent home early from work, told to stay indoors, and they closed all the train stations! These are part of the severe storms that have been killing people in Britain and Germany, so we were lucky to only get some wind and rain in my little part of the world! Emily, who is here from New Zealand with her brother Patrick, got stranded, however, as Patrick had gone to Amsterdam with their one set of keys, and couldn't get back because the trains weren't running! So Emily stayed at my place in an impromptu sleepover :-)

On Friday night we went out to a fun club, dancing til 3am as usual, which meant my Saturday was unproductive again! Saturday night we went to a Kiwi party, of a Shell Oil employee that Patrick had met in a club the previous week, so another late but fun night! And Sunday night we watched the last half of the 'Death of Yugoslavia' documentaries we had started the previous week, so now the history of what we're working on makes a lot more sense!!


James (Aussie) tearing up the dancefloor


Frida and me



Emily and me

Big Australia Day plans for Friday - the Australian Embassy here has invited us for drinks, and then we will show all the other interns how to celebrate in style! I may also head to Amsterdam for the weekend (it's only about an hour away on the train) - busy busy as always!!

Den Haag, I say!

Well, I have been so crazy busy this week that I've barely had time to think, let alone blog, but I thought I'd give you all a quick update!!

After having to move out of my place in Denmark last Thursday morning, I lived on Charlotte & Fabrizio's couch until my bus to the Hague on Saturday. I had a nice farewell party on Friday night - it was really sad leaving Denmark and all my friends there, but thanks to the combined wonders of Skype and e-mail, I still feel quite close to everyone (and, of course, geographically, I still am!)

After a quite pleasant (I slept most of the way) 12 hour bus ride, I arrived in Amsterdam, to rain, cold, and the need to drag my heavy bags to the train station! I caught the train to the Hague (Den Haag in Dutch), and called my landlady to meet me. And called, and called - she wasn't answering! After a number of messages and calls, it transpired that she had forgotten I was coming on Saturday night, and was at a dinner party!! She finally picked me up and took me to my new home - a cute little 3 storey terrace in a lovely little street. I was exhausted, so after some food, slept and slept!!

On Sunday I met my 5 new flatmates - Diana and Chelsea from America, Frida from Sweden, Ellie from Austria, and Andrea (the only guy) from Italy. They were all really friendly and lovely - Frida was also starting her internship on Monday, but the others have been here for a while, so were able to give us some tips. I just relaxed on Sunday, in preparation for a big Monday!

Frida and I walked to the ICTY on Monday (only 15 minutes from home is great!), and then spent the rest of the morning meeting the 25 other interns from all over the world starting that day - Americans, Aussies, Kiwis, Bulgarians, Italians, Romanians, Belgians, French, Norweigan, Swedish - even a girl from Cameroon! We got our official UN security passes (very exciting!), and then were divided into our 2 groups - I and about 15 new others are at the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), which is the part that actually prosecutes the accused, and the others are at the Chambers, who work with the judges and the court. The two parts are quite separate in terms of work, but most of my flatmates are from Chambers, so there is quite a lot of social interaction!!

So in the afternoon we met our supervising attorneys, and were assigned our cases - we all work on a particular case, and I am working on an on-going case, that has been in trial since May last year, so I will actually be helping to prepare witnesses and documents for a live case - very exciting!! Although it is hard to get my head around all the details of the changes in the political and geographical climate of the former Yugoslavia - very complicated!!

The rest of this week has involved some training on computer programs we will need, some team meetings about how our case is going, and preparation for various aspects. I won't actually be able to describe in much detail what I do all day, as a lot of it is confidential, but it will be very hands-on, which is great!

My social life is also similar to my exchange experience, which is great - a fair few of us meet for lunch every day, and we had a drinks night on Tuesday night at a nearby wine bar, which was enjoyable! It's nice to then walk home with my flatmates and chat before going to bed - although there is no sound proofing here, and the kitchen is quite small, the friendliness of having 5 other people around is really nice!!

Tonight I went to the city centre for the first time, as we live between the city and the ICTY, and I have been too busy to get there! It is a cute little centre, cobbled little streets with small cosy bars and restaurants - it was a nice change to eat out, without exhorbitant Danish prices! (Although things are still expensive, the Euro seems much nicer than the Kroner!)