The Real Life Fantastic

There really is nothing quite like staying with my grandmother and Lindsay in their house in the Middle Of Nowhere, Australia.

You never know when some interesting animal might decide to pop over for a visit. My grandmother likes to feed the goana lizards that live in the neighbourhood, and they will come up to the porch and practically eat right from out of her hand.



( Animal invasions and other things )

In the evenings, before dinner, a glass of bubbly with some strawberries thrown in is not an uncommon sight. (Beers, or even glasses of Gin and Tonic can sometimes be spotted by the keen observer.)

Avid readers will find themselves in paradise. Books full of murder mysteries, politics, history, Australian wildlife, Icelandic geography, famous literature, short stories, poetry, photographs and anything you could possibly want to read about, abound.

Would-be farmers would be happy here. Last week we were invited to go with Lindsay to the University of Sydney Plant Breeding Institute to observe the annual Field Day. This consisted of eating delicious barbecued food and looking at a lot of wheat. We heard Lindsay give a talk on the history of the different wheat species that the University of Sydney has been involved in breeding, and heard about a lot of different research projects that Ph.D. students are working on. Wheat is being made to need less water, resist disease, resist heat, become more nutritious and generally do whatever we want it to do. It's fascinating!



On Saturdays a market springs up alongside the river in Narrabri - perfect for bargain-hunters. This weekend Þorri and I went with my grandmother to have a look. There was a man with an ice cream machine! He put scoops of vanilla ice cream inside, along with a scoop of raspberries or strawberries or whatever kind of berry that you wanted, and out of the machine came perfect berry flavoured soft serve ice cream! I want one of those machines.

I bought honey from a nice lady who first tried to get me to taste all the different kinds of honey she had for sale, and Þorri bought a lovely straw hat. (No-one tried to make him taste all the hats first.) My grandmother bought some beautiful flowers.

Life in the country is definitely something special. Plenty of animals and plants to keep you company, books to read, naps to take, bubbly to drink and all kinds of activities to keep you occupied.

For example, tomorrow me and Þorri have been invited to see the cotton crops get planted. I've never seen anything like that. (Iceland is not exactly famous for its agriculture.) Apparently there will be huge machines involved. I just hope my hey fever doesn't give me too much trouble.

Prague has been amazing!

I've spent two days exploring the city. Yesterday I went to the Prague castle, the Strahov library, and the Loreta church. The treasury in the Loreta is full of shiny things, the library was very cool, and the castle had a place called 'The Golden Lane' where I was able to shoot a crosbow! I totally managed to hit the target. Once. Out of four tries... I also walked over to the Charles bridge and wandered around the old town for a bit.



The weather was a bit cloudy and drizzly, but I had an umbrella and some warm clothes that I now feel vindicated for hauling around with me.

Today I started by walking around the Vyšehrad area (since I'm staying right next to it), then I went to the Klementinum library - it was gorgeous - saw the Astronomical clock do its little show, walked around the Jewish part of town for a bit (it was boring because all the Jews go on vacation or something on Saturdays) and then I checked out the Museum of Decorative Arts. I really liked the dresses at the museum. Pretty! ♥

Also, I tasted garlic soup, Czech dumplings, rabbit and 8 different flavours of Czech beer.


Sour cherry, banana, nettle and coffee flavours were among the ones I tried.

My impression of Prague is very favourable. It would have been nice to glimpse some blue sky, but you can't have everything. The people seem nice enough - although it's every man for himself on the subway - the food is delicious, and walking around town is sort of like walking into a wormhole and being transported to medieval Europe, except not smelly! I can understand why my friend Elín loved it here.

Tomorrow I'm going to Krakov in Poland!

Phew! Finally a chance to post!

I've made it to Marseille in one piece after a wonderful week in Paris with Thorri. It was horrible to say goodbye to him yesterday, but I'm trying not to dwell on it. I have a month to see Europe, and then we will be together again! Two whole months together in Australia before Real Life takes over again.

Last time I updated I told you about the Louvre and some other stuff. I'm going to give you a brief overview of the other sights that Thorri and I took in while we were in Paris.



( Oui oui, tell me more! )

Yesterday was truly our last day. Thorri had to leave for the airport soon after we woke up, but I was able to stay longer since my train left in the evening. Paris said goodbye to us by giving us beautiful weather, almost as if it were tempting us to stay. I tried not to miss Thorri too horribly (although I let myself wallow with a cocktail for a while) and did some tourist stuff. But eventually the weather tempted me to settle down in the gorgeous little park next to the Hotel Esmeralda - where Thorri and I stayed for our last two nights in Paris - to read and enjoy the view.