The life and deeds of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, the Blood Countess to you and me, read like a real-life Game Of Thrones. Her ancestral line included a dragon slayer which is why her coat of arms includes three dragon’s teeth. She was an absolute, unaccountable ruler in Central Europe at a time where the leader […]
First World War in Vienna
This is the weekend when, 100 years ago, the major powers in Europe started declaring war on each other. The First World War affected every country differently. In Britain, we hear a lot about Flanders, the Somme, poets such as Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen or Rupert Brooke and, of course, the restrictive alcohol licensing laws […]
New Zealand Funny signs
We all love mistranslated menus and hilarious signs on holiday, don’t we? The main source seems to be SE Asia where funny Chinese signs have their own pages on Buzzfeed and get shared as much as cat pictures. But what about baffling signs from a small Antipodean English-speaking country? The oddity of signs and placards […]