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Published: August 30th 2007
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And here i am, back in Prague.
I'm only here overnight though, just passing through to Cesky Krumlov. It was here a few weeks ago that i broke off the Busabout itinerary to head off to Poland. I wasn't quite expecting that i'd continue up north until Estonia, and was even less expecting to be spending a few days in Sweden, and then Denmark. But i did. And was glad i did.
From Tallinn i caught a 17 hour ferry to Stockholm, Sweden. I got the cheapest ticket i could, so at first i wasn't looking forward to the ferry ride. But when i jumped on the ferry and found i actually had a bed in a room with a few other guys, and that they had a TV, shower and toilet in the cabin, i was ecstatic. I was fully expecting to be shoved up to the top deck in the rain for the entire ride!
Stockholm was amazing. Definetly, on a population to cleanliness ratio, it was the cleanest city i've been to so far. It's basically just an archipelago of islands, with the major part of the city being on the biggest island, the old town on the
Stockholm
Some kind of parliment building. next biggest and there are a few other major islands that have been developed on. I spent the first half of the day just wandering around the islands and the next half at Skansen, the 'original' open air museum.
Skansen is a similar concept to Sovereign Hill (for those that know it), in the way that it is like walking into a big village right out of the middle ages. The buildings are all authentic, and in the buildings you can see how the Swedes used to live hundreads of years ago. The bakery cooks traditional baked goods, you can watch the blacksmith using authentic medieval tools, see the engineering works etc... Atop of all this there are other sections to the "museum" as well, such as the native animals zoo, greenhouses that grow native flowers and plenty of old churches.
Unfortunately, my night in Stockholm was not as fun as the Skansen museum. It was broken up into two parts, part A being sleeping on various park benches and part B consisting of me arriving at the train station as soon as it opened (3.30am) and spending the rest of the night there. Considering i had a 6.20 train,
Skansen
An old medieval building in the Skansen museum and hostel prices in and around Stockholm are outrageous (and the cost of everything in Sweden for that matter!), i couldn't justify paying for a few hours in a bed.
So at 6.20 i was on the fast train to Lund, a university town in the south-west corner of Sweden. The train ride went very quickly, most probably because the train was travelling very quickly - being a fast train and all - and i was met at the train station by an American named Bob, who is good friends with the couple i was going to be staying with over the weekend. After grabbing a bite to eat at his favourite Thai take-out, Bob took me on a castle tour of the area. There are still plenty of castles in Sweden which are privately owned, so we were not going inside many of them, just taking them and the beautiful scenery in as we drove around. The rest of the weekend was spent with some of the nicest people i have ever met. Kenneth and Tina, a couple I met in Krakow (who insisted i come up and stay a couple days) and there son Anton were extremely kind,
Bear
from the native animals section at Skansen cooking me traditional Swedish food, showing me around their district and even taking me out to a couple of local parties happening in the university-populated town. I had a fantastic time and learnt there is no better way to take in a country and it's culture then to live with the locals.
Monday morning i was on the train (yes the train) to Copenhagen, Denmark. The train goes over a recently built bridge between Copenhagen and Malmo, and as such doesn't take very long at all.
Copenhagen is also very clean and on the coast, and as such a beautiful place to be. Still, Scandinavia charges for it's natural beauty and cleanliness, because Denmark too was very expensive. I was shattered when i discovered i'd been out sightseeing for too long and missed the supermarkets. So it was off to McDonald's for dinner (the first time i've had it on my trip by the way!) and i still paid twice what i've become used to paying back home. One of the islands in Copenhagen (i think it is called Chrishavn) has it's very own free state called Christiania. From what i could find out it was formed in the 60's
The Little Mermaid
A VERY famous statue in Copenhagen, although i'm not quite sure why. All i know is her head has been knocked off twice, and she has had her arm and leg stolen once each... by the hippies. Up until a few years ago you could still openly buy the hippies' drugs as well. But even today as you walk through you can tell it's a very laid back place. Vibrant graffiti is everywhere, as well as stalls selling "Free Tibet" badges and various other messages of peace.
I spent only one night in Denmark (it was a VERY expensive town afterall) and then caught a bus to Berlin (via ferry). I spent two nights there, and while waiting to jump back on the Busabout bus and get back on tour (if you can call it a tour) i squeezed in a bit more sightseeing which i didn't have time for the first time round. This included walking to the top of the parliment building (the Reichstag) which had excellent views of the city, three museums (including the Pergamon which is home to the Gates of Babylon) and an all-you-can-eat chinese restaurant for 6 euro (which i'm still recovering from).
That brings me to now, one nights stop over in Prague, and i'm off to another Czech town called Cesky Krumlov tomorrow morning. From there i'll follow the busabout route for a bit longer (Vienna,
Gates of Babylon
The famous Gates of Babylon, hmmm... dunno what else to say! They were big. then Salzburg) before breaking off again to do some more Eastern European exploring.
But considering i'm in Prague again, i'm off to make the most of delicious Czech food and Bohemian beer all at rock-bottom prices! (now i feel like i'm some kind of sales rep trying to con you into coming here... but really, Prague is awesome.)
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murphy
non-member comment
Yeah, well, III'M eatin' Twisties.