Top five awesome things we don't have in NZ

My first year of studying politics I had to write an essay detailing five major points that I would build my campaign for Prime Minister around. Since visiting Europe, my campaign plan now revolves around the introduction of the following!

Squirrel in Madrid, Spain

5. Wildlife - we really missed out on the no-mammals thing, because Europe has some pretty cool wildlife. Admittedly, the things I think are cool are at best considered as normal as sheep are to us and at worst considered pests, but I still think they're awesome. Like foxes. I saw my first fox running through the snowy fields in Germany at Christmas and it was awesome, and Hauke's mum's look of bafflement in response to my excitement made it even awesomer. And then I saw a fox in London, running through the middle of the city, how crazy is that? Squirrels are another one, these things are like tiny balls of fluff on crack, watching them run around is always so entertaining.

4. Window shutters - If I ever build my own house in New Zealand, I am totally going to import shutters. If you're like me, shutters makes you think of those old fashioned wooden ones of the outside of American houses that I could never imagine anyone actually using. In Europe, they have modern metal or wooden ones that roll down electronically and keep the heat in (or out, in the case of Spain) and the light out when the sun rises early (or you're too hungover to face the day yet!). Windows also open in freaky directions, like you turn the handle different ways and they open inwards or outwards or tilt open a little bit to one side. Its crazy.

The 'F' on the left stands for France...obviously!

3. Car license plates - ok, I hear you thinking 'but wait, we have those in NZ too', but you do not have them like Europe has them. Here, license plates have country codes on them, causing me to point out cars from all of the countries like Lithuania and Poland. I'm sorry to anyone who has spent any length of time with me within view of a road, I realise watching me get all excited over license plates goes from cute to old real fast, but I still can't get over it, in NZ all the cars are from NZ! I have also spent large amounts of time pondering which codes belong to which countries, like during a night out in Spain when I may have had a few drinks, forgotten that Spain is actually 'Espana' in Spanish, and then gotten so perplexed by the 'E' on license plates there that I took a photo of it so that I would remember to Google it the next day. Opps.

Accordion bus in Mainz

2. Accordion buses - Buses that have two or three sections linked like train carriages are, with that stuff that looks like an accordion. Apparently they're called 'articulated buses', but I started calling them accordion buses when I first cast my amazed eyes upon one in Gottingen, and Wikipedia tells me that accordion buses is actually a legitimate synonym (shame Hauke for laughing at me!). I since seen them in probably every city I've been in, (why the hell don't we have them in NZ yet?), rode my first one in Mainz and now ride them into Antwerp all the time, but I still can't stop chiming 'accordion bus' with a big smile on my face everytime I see one! Wikipedia also tells me that they're been around since the 1920s, which is pretty crazy. New Zealand barely had electricity back then!

Speculoos!

1. Speculoos - definitely the greatest thing I've discovered in Europe so far, I first tried Speculoos spread for breakfast in Liege, Belgium. I've since discovered that the spread is a new, 'award winning invention' based on the old Dutch/Belgian Speculoos biscuits, and my obsession has seen me hoard Speculoos while I was in Spain and use any excuse to bake something containing it. I'm pretty sure New Zealand is sick of hearing me rant about this magical spread that you can't lay your hands on anywhere there, so to infect you all with the Speculoos bug too, if you ask nicely I can post you some.