Jun 2008

apparantly I do have time to blog seeing as I'm stuck in the train station in Malmo as although the trains to Gothenburg were SUPPOSSED to be every hour, the next one I can get on isn't until 15:08 and even that is without a guaranteed seat. Namely, it's entirely possible I could be standing for THREE HOURS! And so I thought I would book my train to Oslo while I'm here but apparantly part of the line is down so I have to get a bus (aaaarrrrgggghhh, I dread getting buses because you never know where you are and might miss the stop... oh no :-( ) and change to a train later on. *sigh* typical, huh? Anyway so things that have been going down... well I think I forgot to tell you all about these scrumptious fillo pastry twists covered in poppy and sesame seeds that I had for breakfast everyday in Denmark because it wasn't included and they were just so good! And I'm still losing weight would you believe? Travelling is miraculous! Anyway, lol I had a pretty good time in Malmö, it's quite a cool city. Umm...cool ethnic market, Sweden's tallest building the Turning Torso which was quite cool but my feet didn't appreciate the treck all the way out to the industrial part of the city to see it but nevermind, Sweden's oldest Renaissnce castle and some other stuff besides. Hostel was really amusing - had it's own sauna, a guitar to play if you wanted to serenade the other guests and amusingly a basket of knitting to help you relax. That seemed to have been quite popular actually and it resulted in a mass that might have been part way towards beeing a very large sock but with a handle and some bobbles etc. lmao. Apparantly knitting is something Swedish people like to do I guess! Bonded with a couple of Italian girls in my dorm over being so tired then woken up at 0:30 by a woman who came in and turned all the lights on and started rummaging around! Thank god for ear plugs and filthy looks lol! Anyway, next day onto Ystad. When I got to the tourist office I first asked about going to Ales Stenar the next day -seeing as the bus only goes each way twice a day- and then asked for directions to my hostel as I couldn't see it on the map. "Ah" she goes. "That's because it's not actually in the town." WHAT???" OMG no wonder it had space!!! Thankfully 'twas only about a kilometre and a half though let me tell you that's no joke with all my stuff but anyway it was pretty, walking along these foot paths right beside the sea with all the birds nesting there - a few little cygnets amongst them. And then when I got there about 14:00 and the reception was closed with no where to leave my stuff until 16:00, I'm not going to lie to you I just went and sat on the beach and pretended like it wasn't freezing with my strawberry and white magnum (which I've only just discovered but are wonderful! mmm...). Anyway, next day got up insanely early so as to be sure I didn't miss the first bus to Kaseberga and when I arrived there I saw that I had been foolish wondering which Kaseberga stop to get off at. If I tell you that Kaseberga's population is 150, will you get what I mean? Anyway I set off up the hill to find Ales Stenar and was thinking how nice it was on this little path high up surrounded by fields and then I realised that to get to Ales Stenar I was actually going to have to walk through a field. Indeed, I made friends with a couple of curious cows and actually from the cow pats up there I imagine the animals are allowed to wander pretty much as they please throught this ancient monument. Ales Stenar when I got there was cool -a bit like Stonehenge but in the shape of a ship and directly overlooking the sea. I stayed enjoying the peace and quiet and did a little yoga (well, why not?) until 10:30 or so when the tourists began to arrive and then wandered down to go and have a look around the village. Well, I kid you not, I walked the entire length of every single road in Kaseberga, wandered down to the harbour and sat watching the fishermen for a bit and I kid you not I was still done by 12:00 and had to hang around for another hour for the bus by which time I was like "get me out of here!" even though it was very cute so I definitely know I'm still a city girl! As such can you imagine how excited I am to be going to Gothenburg which is, I believe, Sweden's second largest city? Then onto Oslo and Bergen before back across to Stockholm and then Finland.

sorry,Ive got a train to catch and Im not sure Ill have time to blog until after my interlude in Norway but just tolet you know, Im ok

I forgot to mention that in my hostel in Odense there was an ice cream parlor and as there were so few people the lady behind the counter asked if I'd like to do a taste test. Well what would you have me do? Dissapoint her??? In the end I settled on a scoop of this basil sorbet which sounds incredibly odd but was actually very refreshing and good, probably enhanced by the fact that she said most of the ingredients for the ice cream were grown locally and some even in the hostel gardens! So ANYWAY...next day I went to Helsingor aka Elsinore which was pretty good though I must admit Rosenburg in Copenhagen was better with the crown jewels but anyway...! Um, the casemates (beneath the castle) were probably not for the afraid of dark or claustrophobic as they only lit every fourth room or so and there was a quite horrific modern art exhibit in the torture chamber -a perfect place to take your children for hallowe'en though! Also an interesting story with the statue of a viking that in time of need will come awake and save Denmark. (You know a bit like those King Arthur stories) Anyway, it was quite nice to see another town in Denmark particularly as this was right on the Baltic and so beautiful if very very windy. I hadn't anticipated I was oing to the seaside! Little fishing shacks and so on. Actually that said, if you couldn't feel the temperature even though it sounds crazy Denmark looks sort of like the Italian countryside did. Lots of green and beautiful blue skies as a backdrop to yellow and red houses with terracotta rooves. Lovely. And I'm sure you now all think I'm crazy but nevermind!

I got the train to Malmo Sweden today and so I'm off to explore a new country. There is a saying: "Haur du sitt Malmo, haur du sitt varden" which apparantly means if you've seen Malmo, you've seen the world so we shall see!

So to make you all happy, here's my itinerary as it stands at the moment.
23-24/06: Copenhaguen
25: Malmo, Sweden
26-27: Ystad
28-29: Gothenburg
30-2/07: Oslo, Norway
3: Bergen
4: Oslo
5-8: Stockholm, Sweden
9: night ferry yay!
10-11: Turku, Finland
12: Tampere
13-15: Helsinki

Nothing else booked beyond this point. Am having a lot of trouble even getting hold of a letter of invitation to Russia so it's looking a little like that isn't going to be happening atm. I'm going to keep evaluating my bank balance and I think possibly I might like to go back to the Netherlands for a bit longer but I haven't decided about that so who knows? I change my mind all the time so...! Anyway just to keep you updated! Went to Odense yesterday which is Hans Christian Andersen's home town and so old and quaint -or at least some of it was-! I was pretty impressed by the museum too which had all the info you could ever possibly want on him and then some, including his dentures in case you were interested! Anyway I had fun as you all know how much I love fairytales! And to be frank I haven't felt any signs of growing out of that anytime soon. Anyway Helsingor tomorrow -a place you may know better as Elsinor. Still not ringing any bells? Hamlet my dear, Hamlet. Oh btw I think I forgot to tell you -I booked a bed in a large dorm in Copenhaguen as my guidebook said about 30 beds which was a little unpleasant to think about but I decided to just suck it up and save the money. Then I got here and he was like: you're in number 54. 54!!! How many are there??? 64. Yay!!!!!! (I guess it meant 30 ish bunks, 2 to a bunk) Ah can you just imagine how happy I was at this news? That said, it was only 110 ddkk -about 12 pounds- and I slept like a baby. So why complain really?

There was one quote at Hans Christien Anderson's hous I want to put:

"To travel is to live."

Enough said really.

So did a self-guided walking tour yesterday that was supposed to be 3 hrs long. Well. Maybe if you ran the whole way and never stopped to take pictures or as it went to wait out the occassional thunder storm. Anyway I saw a huge swathe of the city but to summarise: some cool little alleyways, Nyhavn (which was pretty much what people think of when they think of Denmark), Little Mermaid statue, Changing of the Guard at the winter palace, Christianborg Slot -home of parliament-, citadel complete with windmill, outside of Rosenburg Slot, Round Tower...as you can see I was pretty busy! For today: Christiana -you know the 'you are now leaving the eu' free town where everything is so green because a sewage pipe broke and ran into the water hence lots of nutrition in case you wanted to know! And maybe Rosenburg Slot I think. Tommorrow; Odense then back to Copenhaguen for a couple of days before on to Sweden.