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Published: August 28th 2006
Vikingland
Im not sure if Vikings actually came to Nyhavn or not but it still looks cool and has a "boaty" feel to the place.Im kinda angry becaue travel blog screwed up my last journal because I "maxed out" the text and the last 5 lines I tried to write would be deleted every time I tried to save, so instead of finishing Western Europe off in one last journal, I have to have a lingering Hamburg 3 night stay to write about in this one, which I wanted dedicated to Copenhagen and the Baltic ferry crossings, of which there were two. So instead of complaing I should start typing this new journal up. So yeah, you may gorge your eyes and rot your spare time reading my journey from Hamburg, including a run in with the "run off" from Wacken Openair festival, which if you dont know it yet, you soon will. After a big night on the town and then some other stuff, it was off to Copenhagen for my first foray into Scandinavian life. I also add a Swedish one night stand and the journey to Lithuania, which was bizzare but also quite interesting. Prepare to be dazzled.
After arriving from Cologne, Hamburg was looking quite huge, a port city that I could spy from my little window. I saw a
Alsterwasser
Hamburg's most extreme tourist attraction aside from the Reeperbahn is actually very nice. submarine wreck down below with a sign with the web address that I forgot to check out in the end but hell did it look cool. The sunlight was dying and darkness was the star of the show as I stepped off the train in Hamburg's Hauptbahnhof. I sent Erika an sms declaring my arrival and she instructed me to wait 30 mins or so in the Mc'Donald's and she would come find me. So I wondered around a bit and booked a ticket for my trip to Copenhagen and then slowly made my way to the Maccas, of course I didn't buy anything I just sat there reading for about 20 mins when suddenly I was confronted by a sweet red haired woman, she was dressed just as she described so it had to be Erika. Ive known Erika for about 3 years through the same internet gang of music fans that the other 3 people were from, so I had no doubt she would be cool. I was worried about her real life english skills though because of her not so english background but I was pleasently suprised to hear just how good it was. It was almost
Harbour to end all Harbours
Ive always seen 'Hamburg Süd' containers back at home, now Ive seen where they came from. wow. university level grammar, her use of proper words and only the
occasional error made her english 100 per cent bearable and easy to communicate, not that the other guys were bad, they just had a few more errors! no offence please! During the first 30 mins or so, the conversation was great, we talked about whatever but mainly Erika was talking, I was still in my shy phase, trying to work out how to approach this new person in my life but eventually I worked it all out. After a coffee and a chat, Erika invited a friend of hers to join us because he must have been bored. After awhile Andrew appeared, he was from Switzerland but from a Scottish family. A very interesting combination. His mother tongue was english so it was super good because even slang words and murmuring wouldnt trouble his abiltity to talk. Andrew seemt like a decent guy and all 3 of us sat around and enjoyed a beer at the Trainstation. Hamburg's main trainstation is pretty good, a huge food court and at least 2 bar type places. One even specializing in my favourite bavarian beer, so needless to say I enjoyed a
Farewell Western Europe
... the view as Germany disapeared from my life. So sad :( half litre of that stuff. After the 2nd half litre we all headed back to Erika's apartment which was situated 5 stops outside of the main station on the u-bahn (subway) I tried to memerize the location so that I could find my way back there over the next couple of days. Even in the dark I think I worked it out quite fine, well I never got lost so I guess I did. Back at the apartment we all sat around and talked for a bit before Andrew headed home and I got quite tired and headed to bed. My own room! a large open space with my own door and a huge and extraordinarily comfortable bed. Total luxury. Erika's apartment was very nice all together with 3 floors of space. I think only 1 was hers, with a possibilty of 3 different people, or small families, to stay there but for now she didnt share the entire space with anyone and the whole thing was quite cool. I slept very well that night.
When the morning came, my temper followed. I was on the phone immediatley to call Lufthansa and Singapore to try and change my flight
Wheels of Strain
My free city bike did more damage to my legs than walking but got me around twice as fast. home but nothing was happening and I was getting highly frustrated, not to mention Erika who had to leave for work. After being on hold for at least 45 mins of that time I was ready to explode. After getting nowhere, Erika and I left for the u-bahn and headed into the city. After surveying some rocks that Erika assured me were special in some way (and I believe every word) we said good bye and went our seperate ways. I began my tedious 'exploration' of the city routine as usual by walking in one direction until I got lost and then checking the map and getting frustrated because I couldn't find where I was. Eventually I find a landmark that may appear on the map and then it's all good and I can continue on my merry way. I stumbled through the turk-zone of cheap internet cafe's and then I found my way to bum-zone where the drunkards hung out and sipped shitty beer all day. These places weren't really seperated by anything specific. The bums in Hamburg seemed a little more mean than their cousins in other parts of Germany. I tried my best to avoid them and
Horse on a Pedastal
This statue was part of my bike trek, I think it was of King Frederick on a Horse, but I could be wrong you know. especially avoiding eye contact. I walked the residential streets, I was hoping that I was reaching the shore line, the harbour because I like harbours and wanted to see the almighty Hamburg dockside but as it turns out I was walking the wrong way, well technically at least. I accidently waked into the 'St George' district which happens to Hamburg's gay area. I should have known with all the rainbow flags hanging about the place and slighlty homosexual artworks shown everywhere. I quickly left the area and I could see some water down a sidestreet, at last I thought I made it to the harbour. I walked there only to find a giant lake. Still I couldn't find exactly where I was but at least I could see a lake on the map. I decided to walk 'back towards the direction I came' instead of the other way because I saw a church spire I thought I recognized in the distance. I took a pleasent stroll along the lake and finally the gloom of being lost and bored disipated and I started to enjoy Hamburg a bit. I followed the lake all the way to a bridge which I crosed
Just in Case
Copenhagan + Cars = Drowning/Mayhen/Carnage of course and on the other side I was greeted with the view that you see in the pic, It was an engrossing image. A nice lake with a fountain as the centerpiece surrounded by ancient churches and buildings. I was quite impressed and decided to do a long loop around this smaller lake. Later I read the bridge I crossed was a tourist attraction and major landmark on it's own. I thought it was rather small but looking back now, I guess it was kinda nice, too. After the lake I was bombarded with tourists. I had hit the tourist zentrum, the Rathaus, or Mayor's House which im sure ive stated before (perhaps?) The building was VERY cool, one of the best pieces of ancient architecture I had seen in Europe and I thought I was over old buildings and shit like that but this place looked cool. I took some nice pics well at least I thought they were nice til I checked them later. I really screwed up with the light and they turned out too dark or they would have appeared on here. The small canals in this region were filled with swans, seems like there's
Gardens and Royalty
Numerous huge gardens with enormous castles dot Copenhagen (well at least 2) and make for an excellent afternoon stroll. swans all over Europe in these dirty canals. I wonder if they have anything to eat apart from what tourists throw in there. Kebab meat and soggy pomme frittes wouldn't be a healthy diet for a swan. At this point I hit the subway system and had my barings so I decided to finally hit the harbour. The harbour was quite fancy. Tons of tourist tours available, all for 10€ but I saw one for 7€ but his boat was kinda crappy and I didnt trust him. I decided against a boat tour in the end. I walked around enjoying the nice sunny weather and scenery and avoiding all the other tourists as much as possible. After awhile I got very hungry, like I can put off lunch up until it starts to hurt so I thought I better eat something. I walked into a harbourside bar offering 'hamburg'ers and fries, so I went in there sat down in a nice environment and enjoyed a hearty hamburg of decent size aswell as a semi-cold local beer. It wasn't 'that' local because we sold it back at my old workplace. I powered on afterwards, I even tipped the waitress because she
The Streets of Copenhagen
The image I had of Copenhagen before I arrived and it didn't let me down. spoke english to me and was friendly. I eventually made it to the renound 'reeperbahn', Im not sure why it has 'bahn' in the title because it's just a road. Maybe there was a tramline down here some years ago. The Reeperbahn is set in the district of 'St Pauli' in Hamburg which is quite famous apprently. Lars, from Münster was telling me all about it back when I was at his place but I hadn't heard of it before. The place is pretty much a German version of Amsterdam's red light district. It had a really horrible aura, an aura of dirty old men. The promise of 'peep shows' on every street corner. The people who lured young men to the stinking holes were not attractive girls who could squeeze a whole heap of cash out of a guy but instead old balding men in cardigans. Im sure they must have been big pimps in the 60's but now they kinda looked crappy and well, I sure wasn't attracted to these peep shows or live shows. From the look of Hamburg's prostitutes, Im sure the shows in these booths would have been something very gross. I liked the Reeperbahn
The Rain of the Vikings
A Superior Museum, ruined by possibly the worst weather of my entire Holiday. because it was a giant road of filth and depravation and also there weren't as many tourists and families here to gape at the weirdo's that filled the street. A much more organic feel, one could say but that also made it alot more creepy. After I left, I knew id be back. I made my way back to Erika quite weery from 7 hours on foot. I forgot that she wasn't working but at Uni doing stuff, so she said she would be home in the afternoon. She wasnt there when I got there so I pulld out my phone and began to call (rarity) when it started ringing and it was Erika. She asked where I was and I informed her and then I organized to come meet here at the Hauptbahnhof again and we would do some shopping for dinner, so back I went to the u-bahn and then to the station. I quickly found Erika and then it was back on the u-bahn again and 2 stops shy of our usual stop. We started talking and it was great, Erika is a very warm person and I enjoyed every second of conversation with her, no matter
Inside the Outside
Nice warmth filled the room, aswell as recovered Viking ships, doesnt get much more kult than this. what it was about. She was a bank of information and stories and I like stories, no matter how crappy they are, aslong as the other person enjoys telling them. We stopped off in this 'nerd store', a type of store where you can buy Dungeons and Dragons accesories and new card sets for Warhammer etc. Im sure most people will know what im talking about. For those in Adelaide who dont, it's the store utop the 2nd set of escalaters enroute to Hindley street from the train station. The one tucked up in the corner near the exit (details!) but this store was diferent. It prided itself on being a store devoted to medieval clothes (clothe-es in euro english) The plump maiden in the store enjoyed showing off the clothes, we browsed the weapons section as she gave descriptions of all the swords and things in a mixture of german and grotesque english, kinda how I would talk german if I needed to. Erika was fond of the clothes but I doubt she would
actually wear them. The plump maiden tried selling me a tunic, it sure looked splendid and would fit me perfectly for hours on end once
Welcome to Sweden (finally)
Karlshamn, possibly THE quiet fishing village I had saught for so long. I get Neverwinter Nights II and sit at home for a couple of weeks playing it non-stop but I wouldn't wear it outside, I mean it might get wet. We left just as the maurauding nerds started filing into the back room with their Warhammer boxes in hand, ready to play for ages and ages, perhaps til the last bus came home or when their mums would agree to pick them up. I shouldnt diss nerds. At least they're interesting and I am half one but half is still better than full blood in this case 😉 After some shopping at the supermarket for food stuffs we were back on the u-bahn and then to the apartment. Andrew was invited for dinner and after I had a shower it was on with the show ...
Dinner was great. Erika outdid herself with a pasta sauce almost as good as I could make myself. After some chitchat, Andrew and I left to 'hit the town', it was the plan all along, to head out and check out some bars and shit. I was hoping Erika would come, too but she's not a huge drinker and was quite tired. She missed
Decending to Sea Level
I thought I was sick of cobbled this and cobbled that but the streets of Karlshamn had an odd charm. out on a fun night. Andrew and I caught the u-bahn to the hauptbahnhof and we were to meet a friend of his over from the USA for the world famous 'Wacken Openair Festival' which is held in Wacken, a small town nearby to Hamburg. Andrew had known this character for some time over the net and they eventually met up 3 years ago at Wacken. Andrew himself attended Wacken this year. Some years ago I would have liked to go, aswell but I couldnt think of anything gayer than being surrounded by drunken metal yobbo's into shit bands. Parsha or was it Parcia? Well either way that was the dude's name. It's quite a gay name for a metal head. Infact it's quite a gay name for anyone. We waited in the lobby for him at his hotel, an expensive one and there was a large metal chick sitting accross from us, a bloated metal piglet. Alot of metal chicks that size all look the same. After some time she was joined by 2 more metal people, one dude who looked kinda goofy and had major acne issues and then one smaller but still round metal chick who had
Countryside Industrial
Pointless pic but it looks nice. The sweet village was linked to a major seaport. Kinda spoilt the place. those 'evil eyes' that dont really mean much when she listens to mainstream 'evil' music. It's all hilarious and quite stupid really. Maybe you dont understand how much I hate metal people. Eventually Patria came downstairs and I was introduced. He was wearing a Burzum shirt, very underground. I was warned he 'knew his stuff' but I doubted it. He looked like a college boy but with longer hair, in a pony tail. A nice mommies boy. Not very tough at all. He came downstairs with this blonde danish girl, she didnt look very metal infact she was kinda hot in a way. Partia was bragging about how she was drunk and on his bed and it was obviously the only way he could get girls. He failed at that aswell, poor guy but the rest of the evening was based on him trying to get this girl, who wasn't even slightly interested, and then failing. As it turns out these people were part of the 'gang' and we all headed out. I was hating it already. Every place you go with metal people they complain because the music doesnt suit them. 'Oh its too much punk here', or 'ew
The Boat
The ferries running accross the baltic are rather large. I actually took this pic from Klaipeda, so it's not really in Sweden ... I tricked you. look at those losers' and of course 'I hate alternative music'. All the usual fare from metal retards. As we walked the streets people were staring at them and giggling at how ridiculous they looked. Like burnt clowns, charcoaled but still as funny to look at. They were nice enough though, the evil eye girl even spoke with a form of repect to me even though I was wearing normal clothes. The hot danish girl didnt have time for me and her attitude sucked anyay. The goofy guy turned out to be okay for a greek metal head. A genuine nice guy but clad in crappy band attire and with fat friends, also clad in bad clothing. They hated the first place we went to. Andrew and I quite liked it but still we went somewhere else. We walked the backstreets of st. pauli, dodging the gross hookers and seeking cooler places to go have a drink. We walked passed a nice place but no-one else liked it, then to another place, but this one was closed. The blonde girl decided they should take a taxi to the metal club 'ballroom' and Partia wanted to go with her of course.
Farewell Sweden
After Just one night in Sweden I was gone but I'll be back unless I die here or the boat sinks on the way back from Lithuania. I was happy for them all to fuck off, totally irritating spoilt children but Patria liked Andrew and didnt want to abandon him. So the girls all went in a taxi and so did greek metal lord. Partia, Andrew and myself walked to the Ballroom, a nice walk down by the warf. We eventually made it there and the music being played was exactly what I hated. Mainstream metal garbage. Something like In Flames of Amon Amarth? Oh god I hate those shitty bands but there seems to be so many and when you goto a metal club that's all they play, even at 'underground' places you have to be LUCKY to hear something that doesn't suck horribly. We enjoyed a beer there and the metal folk stuck to themselves and after I got the initial eyes from the metal losers, all escapees from Wacken who are overstaying there welcome in Germany and should go home. I was wearing a jacket and not a Dimmu Borgir t-shirt with tight black pants. I also wahed my hair. The sad part is that I would have at the very least a 1000000X level of knowledge of the bands even they worship. Oh well, I really dont care about those people. The blonde girl was now being chatted up by the bouncer, he was much more attractive than Partria and seemed to have all the required pimping skills to pickup a blonde danish slut. He was also twice the size of Parsha. After awhile of drinking and watching Partia almost breakdown into tears watching his chance with this girl get washed away like her throwing back the free Jagermeiter shots administored by the bouncer, we decided it was time to leave. He did a shaky bye bye to the girl, almost begging to see her before he left and she was 'yeah yeah whatever' while the bouncer grinned like an asshole. On the walk back to the reeperbahn, Partia started moaning about the girl and getting quite defensive about everything. I really had to keep my mouth shut because I just wanted to make fun of him but Im much nicer these days. I felt sorry for him in a way. Its not like I have alot of luck with girls, especially those horrible 'metal chicks', but then again I dont try either. The blonde danish girl was a worthless slut, a rude and arrogant whore but when you're drunk and male that shit doesn't matter. He just needed to sleep it off. So we set him on his night bus and said bye. We said we would see him tomorrow but had no intention of doing such a thing. Andrew and I decided to head back to the nice lounge bar place round the corner. The beer was slightly cheaper and the music wasn't crappy metal and there were no metal losers anywhere. Bliss. They even had a PS2 and a huge TV setup, quite a cool thing for a bar I thought but that was the vibe of the place. The music was similar to 'crown and anchor' music, there was grunge stuff, Helmet, maybe Nirvana aswell as more nu-metal gear like Slipknot and Deftones. Not exactly my kind of stuff but it was actually pretty cool. Andrew and I drank a shit load of cheap beer, 5 bottles or so and got pretty wasted and talked about lots of great things that I can't remember anymore. It was a nice evening and very enjoyable. I like drinking beer in a cool place and talking about music amongst other shit. Perfect night out, would be cool with a couple more people but metal heads aren't people. They're smelly beasts and dont like nice places because they feel awkward and stupid aswell as looking awkward and stupid. At 4am we hopped on the night bus and made it home. I said bye to Andrew knowing chances were thin that i'd never see him again. Another slightly meaningless friendship made on this holiday, only to exist here on this journal and my fading memories just like so many others. I woke Erika up and she let me in, I fell asleep about 4:45am, I think I was alseep before my head hit the pillow. What a great night.
At about 9am the alarm blared in my ears. Time to get up. Erika needed to get to work. I needed to go out and do things. Noooo. The pain of the hangover was minimal, nothing to even worry about. Most german beer seems to provide enough vitamins so you dont feel like a corpse the next morning. After explaing Parsha's exploits to Erika and making a sombre morning quite fun indeed it was time to go. Erika gave me some idea's of places in Hamburg to go visit. So after we parted at the HBF, I hopped on an s-bahn train and headed to where she said to go. I got on the wrong direction and left the city on the wrong side. I got out at one stop and waited for the train to come back and right my wrong. I sat on this train and had no intention of getting out at the intended stop. I was tired as hell. So I sat on this train all the way to the end of the line. I was too exhausted to do anything and the train ride was smooth and I was getting a nice view of the city's suburbs. I caught a different train at the other end and also caught this one to another terminus, which was way way out in the sticks of Hamburg and by this time I was getting bored but bordom is better than Exhaustion. I eventually exited at the HBF and had a Mexican lunch before hopping on the train again, also the wrong one haha and then I eventually made it to the location Erika reccomended. The area was around the UNI and it's surrounding suburbs. I walked along the main road to some housing apartments and wandered the streets for an hour or so. The place was very nice. The streets were lined with small and cheapish cafe's all filled with an assortment of different people. They all seem relaxed and content, not the busy people of the inner city. I continued to walk after an icecream and enjoyed the quiet surrounds. I agreed with Erika, this place really was very nice. I eventually made it the Botanisch Garten of Hamburg. Botanic gardens are a sure fire way of finding a cool place to chill out and do nothing. So thats what I did. After a short walk I found a shady place looking over a lake surrounded by trees and hidden from passers by. I watched some squirrels fight and chase each other jumping from tree to tree, small minds entertained by small things! but I dont care, it was very cute. I sat and read for an hour before the rains came. I walked back to the train enroute to an internet cafe where I would spend the next few hours waiting for Erika to call and say she had finished work. I ended up spending 6 hours doing a journal I didnt finish and chatting to people. Eventually Erika called and we agreed to meet at a certain time. She missed her subway though and I ended up waiting for near an hour at the HBF for her to come. I had the unfortunate luck of wanting to ride the u-bahn after a soccer match. A local Hamburg game and the crowds were heading home on the train. I got on the same car as Erika but there was no way of seeing her let along sitting anywhere near her. I was crammed like a herring against someone's armpit all the way back to Erika's u-bahn stop. After making it off the train I met up with Erika and we walked back to the apartment slowly. Over a hot drink we shared some stories about the day amongst other things. It was realy the only time we had to spend together and it was sad because I hadn't really the chance to get to know her aswell I would have liked but unlike other people who I was lucky they could work their life around me, Erika's job was very stressful and took up alot of time. It sucks but that's life and im not complaining about it, just that it's a shame I don't know Erika as much as I would like ...
More phone calls for absolutely no help started off this morning. Useless Lufthansa, were ruining my day. My nerves were on fire as Erika and I left the apartment. We hopped on the u-bahn for the last time. It was sad and after a hug and a goodbye, I left Erika to go onwards to work and for me to try and fix my ticket problem before heading to Copenhagen. I marched into the travel shop and the lady told me where the Lufthansa office was, I was on a mission to get this mess sorted out. I had to ALMOST scream at the woman behind the counter to get this shit fixed. She was telling me she couldnt do it blah blah. Passing the blame as always because theyre TOO LAZY to do ANYTHING themselves. I continued getting angry and rasing my voice and guess what? SHE FIXED IT, it wasnt that hard but she needed a kick in the right place to get moving. Seriously it's frustrating dealing with lazy individuals here in Europe, Germany being the worst for LAZINESS but eventually everything was fixed and I could hop on the train.
The train was boring for the first hour or so and everything was written in Danish, I couldnt understand a word of it but it was kinda cool. It was more interesting than French for instance. I was happy and satisfied that my ticket situation was fixed and that I could move on with my holiday. The train got better because at the coast there's no bridge to Denmark, you have to cross the Baltic Sea. So the train is loaded onto a giant ferry, it's pretty cool sitting on a train and getting out and walking around the ferry as it crosses the sea. The ride only lasted 45 mins but it was great. Sad too watching Germany fade behind me, my lst glimpse of Western Europe disapearing into the Horizon. So many fond memories and people I had met. Mainly my internet associated more so than Hostellers because I stayed with more people than hostels. My european leg was alot cosier than the the North American one in that way. Eventually I could see the Danish coast... at last Scandinavia! The whole point of my overseas trip was to come to Scandinavia and as I boarded the train and it sped off onto land again there was no turing back. The train glided towards Copenhagen and I was getting my first glimpse of Danish landscapes. It was actually very nice. Flat and green but the trees looked different and the fields were different shades. This was a whole new world to the Southern Europe down below. The towns we passed through looked different and of course the trains looked different and as usual I couldn't read any of the advertisements! It was all a new and exciting challenge for me. Arrival at Copenhagen was direct on time and I left the station with 'detailed' instructions on how to find the place. The first 3 lines were easy to follow and after being blown away by how cool Copenhagen looked in the first 100m from the station I began to walk toward the hostel. 30 mins of walking and then I was totally lost. I found a street corner mentioned in the instructions but had no idea where to turn. My first contact with someone in Scandinavia was a dude who owned a sandwhich store. He was Turkish or something like that but spoke english of course! He went to his car and took his street directory out and found the place for me, he was such a nice person and a great help because I really had been walking for an hour now, 30 mins of instructions and then 30 mins of being lost. I planned to come back and eat there at some stage but I forgot in the end. Sorry mate.
After finding the hostel and having a shower, it was time to go and eat and also to check out prices for the first time! I walked back to a place I stumbled on earlier, a main road lined with Kebab shops. Cant go wrong here for a feed. I wrote down all the currency rates for the Scandi countries so had a basic gist about how much shit was. I got a pizza and a coke for 60sek which works out to be around 11aud or 6,50€ so it wasn't that much more expensive after what everyone else was telling me. I come from Australia where neither Pizza nor Beer is cheap so I think I can handle spending money on shit in Scandinavia. Of course this was Denmark, Norway was going to be more... maybe ALOT more and I'll be singing a different tune in a couple of weeks time. After being filled with cheap greazy pizza I headed back to the hostel where they served Carlsberg on tap, to promote the local brew. I enjoyed a cold glass and sat there in the social area being rather relaxed. A few people were chatting away including a pair of cute asian girls. I waited for my moment to jump into the conversation even though the 2 guys talking were Americans, one was half mexican or more but lived in LA. I eventually bit the bullet and leapt in. At first the conversation was shit and I was regretting my choice. They all planned to hit some bars and I wasn't in the mood but when the time came and id finished checking my emails and shit... I decided to go. The 2 american dudes, one a teacher from the ghetto of Philadelphia and named John and the mexican dude, lets just call him Alvarez because I cannot remember his name, then me, then the 2 asian cuties and then 2 more American dudes, Frank from Boston and a dude from ALABAMA! of all places... his name was Parker ... well we all headed out. Quite a funny bunch. Oh I forgot to mention the 2 asian girls were both born and raised in California. What luck 😊 We marched into the city all changing positions along the way to talk with each other and eventually everyone was everyone else's friend. These are the things I like about hostelling, there's a whole heap I despise but these moments are nice. After coming from a 3 week stint staying with mates, hostelling starts to look pretty shitty. The streets of Copenhagen looked fantastic, a prelude to my day of sightseeing the following day. We went to one place that was kinda cool... I think? well it might be my sort of place. A dark underground lair filled with 40 degree heat and the walls covered in Grafiti. It was pretty cult but filled with too many people and I didnt want to pay for beer so we all left in a hurry. We hit a 7/11 and picked up a can of beer each, I reccomended Carlserg's Elephant beer which is 7.2% alc volume, so in a 500ml can it does more damage than your average can of beer. The 2 asian ladies had difficulty finishing their beers, I had to finish one of them but they became rather flirtatious afterwards. Another good thing about hostelling. We hit some other place but it looked expensive and lame, so I sat in a corner with the 2 girls who agreed with me and just sat there talking to them for a couple of hours. One of them seemt kinda more interested in me but I didnt take any advantage, just incase I was wrong. I forget both their names now, it's a shame. After we watched the rest of the group spend money willy nilly and get really drunk and foolish, we left. Not before Capt. Mexcio tried his luck with the asian girls. Too bad, I got to walk them back to the hostel by myself. I felt tough. Back at the hostel everyone just went to sleep. Just aswell... tomorrow was a big sight seeing day.
'It always rains at some stage in Scandinavia', words to behold. Praise Lonely Planet guides. Sometimes they suck and sometimes they preach the words to end worlds and holiday aspirations. The first morning in Copenhagen and the world was filled with grey skies and driving rain. I sat in the hostel talking to Parker and the 2 girls before I decided to brave the weather. I made it 5 mins and returned to put jeans on instead of shorts and I also took a jacket because I knew it would get worse. Now's a good time to mention my shoes, they will play a great role in my next journal. Firstly, I hate them, they look stupid with jeans and only bearable with my shorts. They just sucked but my Oma bought them for me to replace my old ones and im too cheap to buy new ones. The reason they were cheap is because they were imitations. Imitations are shit. The soles cracked and for the first time I realised what was happening. Each step I took my shoes were getting more and more soaked and my socks were also getting soaked and my feet began to get cold. It was all pointing to a 'haha you gonna be sick for your last month or so on the road, boy!' so I was getting kinda angry and depressed because my shoes and feet were so cold and wet. The plan today was to hop on one of these 'free city bikes' I read about and also saw on Rick Steve's fantastic travel show. The deal with these is that you enter a 20sek piece into a slot and take the bike, like a trolley at a supermarket. 20sek = 3.60aud, so it's cheap. Once you finish with the bike you drop it at a diferent slot location and get your money back! Sweet deal! The bikes are total crap and look really lame as you can see from the pic but look who's laughing with his FREE BIKE haha! It wasn't easy finding one because they're either stolen or very popular but I had the location of a slot stand marked on my map and I found a glimmering beacon of hope sitting there waiting for me 20sek peice. I formed a special repor with this bike. We became like best friends. I covered an immense amount of territory with the bike. I saw all the tourist shit one can handle all on my yellow beast. First off I rode on the cobbled lanes and passed the wonderful royal palaces or even places that looked royal, I wasn't sure what was what. The whole area was filled with giant buildings. It was kicking the shit out of Southern Europe's prissy churches. This was amazing an a breath of fresh air for someone who had seen at least 14,000 churches on his trip so far. I couldnt resist the temptation of one church though. I read about it and it's spiralling staircase which you could walk up on the outisde of the building to get to the top and get a great view of the entire city. After the steep 20sek admission I walked to the top. I left my precious bike parked downstairs unlocked. Only some asians were there eating their lunch. I made it half way up to a balcony overlooking the church yard and I could see the asians. One of them had my bike! That bitch!!! what could I do from up here??? how could I say 'HEY LEAVE MY FREE BIKE ALONE!!' ... I gave up. I had lost my bike and my 20kronor piece. Perhaps the view from the top would cheer me up and it did. I gazed for what seemed like 1 min or so at the surrounds. A maginificent city. I peaked at places that I would like to ride to if I still had a bike, making mental notes before decending the stairs and checking to see where the asians were. They were gone but my bike had been returned! Praise the gods! I hopped on and started riding again. I rode to Christianshavn, a different island to where the main city is built on. This place had all the old dockyards and old ships and things. It was very cool. A Bohemian place called 'Christiania' is also located here. It's dubbed as a 'free state', totally unaffected by the laws of the rest of the city. Almost like a hippy commune. Apparently it used to be the place to buy your drugs and things but nowadays its more of a tourist attraction. There was an intense police pressence though which was kinda weird. The whole place was draped with anti-violence signage etc. It was typical hippie stuff. I really can't handle hippie shit for so long. I like to see corporate force crush the opposition with superior technology just to prove that power and the law make for winners and all those who oppose shall suffer. Its weird because I kinda feel sorry for hippies, they make a good point but maybe if they lived in a forest or on the moon it would be better. I hate whining it doesnt matter what side of society youre on. Everyone raved about Christiania, all the guide books, everyone, it's so beautiful and great but I thought it was rather shit and over priced. You would think a hippie place would have cheap food but nope it was the same as non-hippie food. Id go as far as saying Christiania is a shitheap and a waste of time but everyone has their own opinion. An example being me, the only person in the world that thinks Amsterdam sucks. I contined along Christianshavn to a Supermarket where I bought a coke and a packet of muffins. A cheap lunch and very fullfilling even if they were just ... muffins. I continued into a more industrial zone along the warfs, or warves. I looked into the water below only to see natural filth. The place was going through an algae breakout that was so intense that the water seemed to be curdled with a thick layer of green skin on top. It was very disgusting and smelt like puke but it wasn't Amsterdam and the problem couldnt be helped here. I was getting tired by this stage but powered on. I checked out the whole dockside of Christianshavn before crossing the bridge and heading to the main side again. I rode along that side of the water, still mezmerized by how awesome Copenhagen was. Every sight was filled with proper boats and people working on them, each canal lined with something great to watch. I just sat in one spot drying my socks and reading for an hour at one stage and it was a magical moment. The canals had those typical danish buildings on the banks and the atmosphere was just superb. I continued to Nyhavn, the place where all tourists go and for what reason! the place was great apart from the people but t wouldn't be Nyhavn if it wasn't filled with humans going about their business. As you can see from the pic, the place looks very nice. Afterwards, I went to another royal palace, the man on the Horse was the center piece, surrounded by 4 indentical palaces and a round cobbles area all around the horse and between the buildings. Each building was patrolled by a guard in traditional royal attire. It was all very nice but the show must go on. I rode passed 'The Little Mermaid', a famous statue built in the water near the shoreline. Famous from the old fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark's favourite son. The statue was pretty lame. It was almost impossible to get a shot with less than 11 people standing next to her in stupid tourist poses. I was hoping some of them would fall into the rocks and die or at least into the water and get soaked. After continuing my journey and watching a Ferry depart for Oslo, I slowly made my way back to the hostel. I checked a few things on the way back including an ancient army barracks and a windwill! but at these stage I couldn't care less. I left my 2 wheeled friend at the same coinslot and got my cash back. It was a sad parting. I went back to the hostel, went out bought a kebab. Then at 9pm I retired to my room and chatted to the asian girls a bit about there day before being invaded by 2 canadian guys who would probably prove valuable tomorrow. The 2 asian girls needed to leave early the next morning, so another friendship evapourated as I lay my head down to sleeeep.
The next day the rains came and it was the same shit as the day before, I walked into the city again, my shoes automatically soaked but this time I was joined by Parker (from ALABAMA!) who was heading to the Train Station to catch a train (of all things!) After I left him and lost him without saying goodbye I found a cheap 'all you can eat pizza buffet' I fell for their trick. The salty pizza was dry and very crap but they made money off your thirst. I think charging like $5 for a glass of water. I survived not buying a drink as I had a liter of it in my bag but the food sucked anyway. Aftewards I went to a National History museum to get out of the rain but it was a tragic experience. The entrance was free but my legs and feet ached... I had no patience for a museum to I had to pretend to be interested. I saw alot of great things but after 2 hours I gave up. Exhausted. The food gave me no energy. I just wantd to collapse. I eventually found a corner store and bought a coke. The sugar gave me an almost instant boost of energy and I contiuned to walk. I made it to Nyhavn again and wandered about for a bit before deciding to SLOWLY meander back to the hostel, in hope to meet someone cool. It was possible afterall. On the way back I walked through a park with a giant royal castle in the middle, this one also guarded by armed guards but I have no idea what goes on inside that place. The sun was out now, it had been out since Nyhavn and I made up my mind that Scandinavia followed a pattern. The mornings were always wet and miserable but the afternoons were the time to go out and do something in the long daylight hours, the sad part though is that most of the attractions are closed at this stage so... the weather here just plain sucks. After my nice walk through the gardens I walked further along the road (the kebab road) and found the botanical gardens! I couldnt help but walk through them, too and I must say they made Hamburg's gardens look second rate. Scandinavia does everything better than the south, it seems. Back at the hostel I showered and got ready for a funpacked night ... I got myself a beer and sat down with the 2 canadian guys and we started talking. They were cool even though they tended to act more American than Canadian and that was kinda shitty. The conversation got more interesting after the 2nd beer as they usually do. After a while this American dude lurched into the conversation and my initial reaction was 'here we go' but as it turned out he was a decent guy. His name was Scott and he was from San Diego... quite a popular little town isn't it. Anyway we started chatting a bit and ended up playing a game of chess, yes chess! The 2nd time ive played it. The first was in the extreme sport capital of Europe 'Interlaken'. The game was cool, I think im slowly getting the hang of it even though I was crushed mercilessly. After this time, the 2 Candadian guys left and I bid them farewell, 2 more people I would never meet again ever. No big loss this time, though. After the game of chess and a chat with this other american girl who I had spoken to earlier, I decided to goto bed. I had big plans for tomorrow. The girl didn't say goodnight to me even after how nice I was to her and listened to her boring stories. It annoyed me actually. I told Scott i'd say bye in the morning but really, I didn't think that was going to happen. So I guess im just as much as ass as that girl was (if not more).
Okay, so today's plans went like this. Wake up in Copenhagen, use my first day of my scanrail travel pass and hit Roskilde, a town 20 mins west of Copenhagen for the Viking Ship museum they have there, then hop back on the train to Karlshamn on Sweden's South coast for a nice night before my giant ferry trip the following evening. A wonderful plan. So I left Copenhagen behind, pretty satisfied with the social attention even though the hostel was a 6/10. The train ride was short but was annoying because it started raining heavily while I was waiting at the station. The walk there was rain-less and I was inspired to believe that today would be dry. As the train powered through it's 20 mins of rain, I was getting worried that today would end in wet ruin. I stepped outside the Roskilde train station and was bombarded with extreme rain, not just showers but a violent rain storm. It was a sunday morning and I decided it cheaper to walk all the way to the docks, which according to my lonely planet guide were about 1km away. No worries. After I crossed the first road my shoes and socks were soaked through and my feet were chilled to the bone. I continued to walk though and pretended to be interested in the town. The streets were empty, possibly because the weather sucked so much. I saw their world heritage listed cathedral, completely veiled in Construction wrap and scaffolding. So even this 'reconstruction' bullshit had followed me accross the baltic sea. The walk was okay apart from the rain, it would have been a pristine little town had the sun been out. I walked along this path and something jumped out from a bush at lightening speed. It was a fox! wow wildlife! I like wildlife and the first cool thing I see in Europe besides a boring female deer is a fox. It ran accross the path and then full pace accross the large field without looking back or stopping. It was very cool. At this point I could see the museum but my clothes were 100% drenched, similar to me falling into a lake or even a fjord, finally I was near a fjord. My scandinavian excitement levels were rising. The museum was more expensive than I expected but I handed over my VISA card anyway, I ran out of danish currency as I was finishing this evening in Sweden, I had enough for the museum I thought and maybe lunch... but now just lunch. I meandered around the Viking exhibits but most were un-attended. The knot tying place was empty. The bow maker exhibit was empty. So much for 'hands-on'. It was annoying after paying the money to get in. I read all the literature instead and it was interesting but nowhere near as fun. The call came for a viking ship trip out on the fjord. It was still raining so I didnt even consider going out on a boat. Another thing which would have been cool in 'summer' even though mid-august is still tourist season in Scandinavia. Poor me. I walked into the indoor area of the museum where I went to the WC and tried to dry myself under the handdryer. It didnt work too well but it's the effort that counted. At this point my camera batteries ran out and I got even more angry. After walking around and reading all sorts of things and looking at the actual recovered ships from the bottom of the fjord it was time to walk back to the train, in the rain, what a pain. I stopped for an overpriced and rather crappy hamburger in a turkish run fast food stall. Can't get away from the turks. Back at the station the underground tunnel between platforms was flooded by like 10cm deep rain water so I had to tip toe through the lake but it didnt matter I was already drenched. As I waited for my train I took my socks off and rung them dry, a train driver looked at me and laughed as he walked by. Smartass.
Now after a change in Copenhagen it was onward to Sweden. A very special country. No.2 of all black metal countries, well it's up there near the top. Marduk the only band immediatley springing to mind which is a shame. Sweden is more famous for death metal which spurred from Goteburg, Sweden's 2nd largest city but I covered that in the last journal. Besides Goteburg death metal, blonde girls, IKEA and Volvo's, I wasn't sure what to expect from Sweden. I heard reports that most of it was foresty, lakey and flat, with little to see as far as natural wonders were concerned. The train went over a giant bridge which links Copenhagen to Malmo on the swedish side. It was quite nice being on a bridge so large, I guess. The trip was uninteresting really and eventually I arrived in Kristianstad where I changed onto a bus to take me to Karlshamn. I did look at some newspapers and listened to Swedish people talk on the train and it was frightening. I had no idea what the hell they were talking about or what the papers said. Lot's of weird symbols like 'Å' for one and the old favourites from germany like 'Ä' and 'Ö' but at this stage where I write this I kinda have an understanding of pronounciation even though it doesnt help in Finland! The bus ride was far more interesting than the train, as the roads led through farmland and forested areas. It was all rather picturesque. I enjoyed seeing all the new petrol chains and things. Each country has it's own brand of petrol and fast food or bakery chains. It's interesting in a shallow level of observation. Even from Denmark, only 2 hours away from where I was, it was a totally different place. The bus dropped me off at the Karlshamn trainstation. The train line between Kristianstad and Karlskrona (Karlshamn on that line) was currently being reconstructed and would open in June 07', too late for me but the bus proved fine and accepted my eurail pass, so it's all good. So here I was, in Karlshamn. Over a year ago I told Liudas I would visit him in Lithuania and I worked out where the ferry in Sweden left from and that port was Karlshamn. I studied the place on the net, an idealic fishing port on the southcoast with numerous coastal trails rich in viking history. This town was one of the most important places in my itinery. A name always at the back of my mind when I thought of Scandinavia and my time there. The first thing I did was get lost. It's a small town you can't get too lost. I had a rough imprint of where the hostel was but I was very wrong. I walked along some nice cobbled streets (god bless cobbled streets). After about 10 mins I was in despair and I spied an innocent woman on a bike to my right. She had a thing which looked like a postal trailer for holding mail. So she looked at me and I walked over to her and politely asked if she spoke english. She said the usual 'a little' and acted all shy. I asked here if she could help my find the hostel address and she said yes of course. How nice! Not only did she help me but she took me there, walked with me the 10 mins right up to the front door. She also offered to dump my backpack in her bike cart, I declined politely but how nice was this lady? Unbelievable niceness. My first impression of Swedish people and it was a great one. She didnt even work for the post office, it was just a grocery cart. I signed into the hostel and was greeted by the nicest room ever. A 2 bed dorm with private shower and WC aswell as a fridge and TV. Just like a hotel as a hostel price! After my shower I realised I was going to have the dorm to myself all night. It had been awhile since I had an entire space to myself. So after an excellent walk around the town and a home cooked meal (I made it) I lay in bed and watched Swedish TV. It was great. American movies with swedish subtitles. Marvelous. Shitty movies though. I feel asleep and had an awesome rest in a highly comfortable bed in a private room. Such bliss.
The final day of this journal and it began with leaving the hostel and heading towards the tourist office. I needed directions to the ferry terminal for the ferry to Klaipeda, Lithuania. I bought a vitamin juice for like 20sek, $3.60! and enjoyed that trying to forget the price at the same time. I sat in the main square in town and enjoyed watching a retarded man chasing birds around. He looked at me once and moved on to chasing birds again, thank goodness. The town was just starting for the day and people were doing their morning stuffs. I enjoyed being the sightseeing boy and this morning the townsfolk of Karlshamn were my attraction and all this for free, too. I visited the tourist office and was greeted by an insanely attractive blonde girl who went out of her way to help me. I got a map with the route marked on there to the ferry terminal. Sadly it was 5km out of town... for reasons I could not comprehend. Maybe because there's not enough room in the small cove or the water's not deep enough for a passenger liner but I didnt think of that at the time! The girl let me leave my luggage in the tourist office. I had 6 hours to kill before the ferry left. I decided to take a scenic walk along the cliffs and it was breathtaking. The swans being the star of the show and the red wooden holiday homes, so famous in Sweden dotted all along the coast. I walked for an hour or so before sitting there and taking in the sweet coastal breeze and just relishing my brief time here in Karlshamn. I really loved this town. I walked back to the town and bought a reasonablly priced hamburger and got a free can of coke with it! The hamburger was great, too, better than most ive had in the USA actually (aside from Red Robin). After lunch I went and grabbed my bag from the tourist office. I had decided to walk the 5km, a leisuely 1 hour stroll along a highway in the middle of nowhere. The taxi would cost 100sek, aprox $18 for a 7 min ride. I thought it would be healthier to keep my money. The walk was full of chaos. There was no footpath so I had to walk along the side of the road with giant trucks passing every 5 seconds. The toughest part was dodging trucks and timing it just right to cross the road bridges along the way. If a truck came I would have to 'leep' with my 15kg bag over the railing so I dont get run over and ultimatley killed. During this trip I also dropped my phone without noticing it and had to backtrack 10 mins to find it. Luckily it fell onto the road itself and no car ran over it but I could see it. It could have fallen into the shrubbery and been lost forever. I got to one corner and according to my marked map I had to turn and I saw a sign pointing to 'Klaipeda' and a small picture of a boat next to it. I was on the right track! I could see the ferry too. The last stretch before me. I made it to the passenger terminal and my shirt was soaked in sweat, like I had once again been swimming in a sick twisted lake made with human sweat. Very gross. I got to the terminal 3 hours before the boat left like reccomended but not even the check in window opened for 90 mins after I got there, so I sat there basting in my own stench. After some time I got my boarding pass and returned to my seat. A dude started talking to me, turns out he was from Norway, so we started talking about his country and Australia, too. He was a world traveler so an interesting bloke to talk to. After some time, this dude and I walked through customs when the girl behind the counter had a seizure at seeing an Australian passport. Alarms went off and armed guards stormed the building. I was getting worried I would be tortured or something. After awhile the woman came back from calling the armed forces and returned with a SPECIAL stamp JUST for my passport and finally we could decend to the bottom of the terminal to board a SPECIAL bus for passengers. For some stupid reason, the Lisco ferries from Lithuania dont have Passenger access, only a car entrance for cars of course and then for buses carrying the poor passengers who arent taking their vehicle accross the baltic. We sat and waited in the bus without moving for half an hour before eventually getting on board. I dumped my gear in my cabin which looked nice and comfy even though I spent an outragious amount of cash on this ferry crossing I was still impressed with my basic cabin, even though I had to share it with a weird man later. After ages the ferry slowly departed Karlshamn's shoreline and the sun was out in all it's glory and the waters glowed. Breathtaking moment, something ill remember for a long time. As the ship got speeding I began to talk to an american dude I actually met in customs. He was born in Karlskrona but lived in Boston. He worked for a box making machinery company haha... kinda strange job but his company paid him to travel the world and do business to it's not that bad, I guess! We had a great chat and I explained to him my holiday and he told me all about what he did when he was my age. I got some cool and crazy ideas from him so there will be more adventure to come on my behalf over the next few years I think. After it got very cold and Sweden became a blur on the horizon I wandered around the ship and bumped into the Norwegian dude. We introduced properly and his name was Sven (yes, really!) and throughout the course of the night and a couple of beers we had a good time. The evening was filled with laughter. We watched an elderly swedish man trying his luck with the hot eastern european girls on board and failing miserably. He almost got into a fight with a number of scary looking Lithuanian guys. This was my first real glimpse at Eastern European culture. The people looked weird and different already and their taste in entertainment was err... quite strange, too. Later on I realised how important and special the ferry crossing must be to them but to me, it was just another step in an increasingly induldgent journey. I had money to burn apparently while these Lithuanian people, bottles of vodka on every table were quite poor. I'll leave my Eastern observations to my next journal which will take place entirely in Lithuania, beggining with the next morning after I woke up out of my cabin bed. After the lithuanian folk music and fat man Vs. Synth with old Lithuanian women drunkedly dancing around with their vodka drenched husbands, I thought it was time to turn in. I said bye to Sven and said id look for him in the morning. It's a bit hard to run away when you're on a ferry, no matter how big it was! I liked Sven anyway. He was 40 years old, an old man for my standards, not an annoying teenager or american so it was different. My sleep was only interupted by my non english speaking Lithuanian Vodka sipping room-mate. He made a bold entrance to the cabin and began to not only snore but talk in his sleep ... creepy. Post-soviet Lithuania was going to be something extraordinary for me, a new challenge but I was really looking forward to. I also couldnt wait to meet my 2nd longest known internet comrade whom I have known for almost 5 years. I promised him i'd make it there and even though the cost was so high ... I was halfway accross the Baltic Sea, no turning back now ...
... until next time, whenever that may be,
Thanks for reading.
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Thomas Birdhunter
non-member comment
It's Shoetime
Warm, sunny day here in Adelaide but I was chilled to read about your cheap shoes and soaked feet in soggy Scandinavia. My advice is to dice them immediately and invest in a quality pair even if they do stretch the budget. Anyway, enjoyed the latest blog and look forward to reading about your side trip to Lithuania. Cheers for now.