Scandinavia Initiation: Copenhagen

After a 15 hour overnight train ride, I made it from Amsterdam to Copenhagen. I was sleeping in a little cabin on a very wobbly train. The cabin looked a little like this:

Sleeping Train

On the train I met Bob. Well, I really met him at the information desk at Amsterdam Station. I was there trying to find out which platform my train was going from as I didn’t really believe what I had been told earlier by someone else. He was doing the same thing, except he was clad in leather. Bob was also a Canadian art-director. We got onto the train, talked about all manner of things, but by far the most interesting was the fact that he was travelling around with an 8mm video camera and another oldschool 120 film camera. We’ll come back to Bob.

The other interesting character I met on the train, his name is unknown to me. He arrived in my cabin around midnight during our stop at Cologne and was the first person on this trip who has accurately guessed that I’m from New Zealand and not Australia. We got talking after having to deal with an unruley and obtrusive suitcase belonging to a travelling Jamacian who just sat there in his Timberlands eating piles of junkfood for the entire journey. The talk was definitely interesting, he was a Baroque harpsicord player who travelled once a month from Copenhagen to Cologne for lessons. We talked for around 2 hours, and I think the most intersting thing he told me was how the train system works. The night trains which travel through Germany all stop at Hanover at around 2am. At hanover, depending where the passengers are going (and they are separated by carraiges), the trains start this crazy system of swapping carriages before heading to their final destination. This is why I was initally confused. The sign for my train said Copenhagen, Cologne, Prague, Warsaw and a couple more!

After 15 hours in the wobbely train, we arrived at Copenhagen central in the rain. Although we were in different hostels, Bob and I decided to meet at the station the following day for a wander around. So we parted ways, him walking into town and me taking another train out to the damned airport! Why did I choose the Airport Hostel Copenhagen? Because it was cheap. After a 25 minute walk to the hostel from the airport, a cold shower, and a 25 minute walk back, I had returned to the train going back into the city.

(I can see this becoming far, far, too long. I might have to speed things up a bit!)

I hit the town. I saw the world’s largest carousel.

World's Largest Carousel

Then I witnessed some Mexican buskers, one of which was playing the panpipes while holding their DVD and CDs and constantly glancing over to me (and I suppose everyone else):

Mexican Buskers

Next I walked into the shopping street where I proceeded to lose a small-yet-annoying amount of money to a street gambler. Those of you who know me know that I am not one for the gambling. Don’t ask me why I did it. I only went in for a wee look at what all the fuss was about, then next thing I knew I had my wallet open and a group of Danish men crowding around it, counting how much money I had, and then I had nothing left. That was one lesson learnt the hard way.

I left that scene swiftly and went for a wander around the city. I saw important buildings, pedestrian roads, crazy churches, canals and interesting modern architecture. And statues, oh the statues. Of all the cities I have been in, Copenhagen would be the city of statues. They are absolutely everywhere. I spent a few hours wandering around, but after a restless nights sleep, I became pretty tired pretty fast, but this was ok as I was about to return to my hostel – and a huge party! Just what I needed.

The party went on, the music was terrible, and the bass reverberated throughout the entire house. I finally managed to go to sleep around 3am. This was not all an annoyance ‘though. I met some cool people from Germany, Sweden, Syria, Poland and many more places. But sleeping was a must, the next day was to be a big adventure.

I met up with Bob at the central train station at 12 o’clock and off we set for an extensive wander around the city. Our first stop was the (once) freetown of Christiania. Christiania is an old military base which was taken up by squatters in the late ’70s. For years it was occupied by free-spirits, hippies, yoga afficinados and people of similar ilk. Rules had been set, hash-trade was legal but there was no tolerace of gun, hard drugs or stolen property. This all ended in 2004 when the government raided the freetown, forcing the hash-trade to go underground and change the life in Christiania forever. It is said that within a few years that the community many not even exist, with plans for developments such as a golf course to be undertaken.

Entrance To Christiania

Turkish food was scoffed on the way back into town, and we decided to visit some of the more historical sites of the city. Half of our walk was us looking at the same things that both of us had seen the previous day. We walked down towards the river and found a street full of different coloured buildings:

Colourful!

Further walking saw us finding the statue of the Little Mermaid. We both knew about this statue but neither of us had originally thought we would see it – this happened by mistake as we were headed towards the Freidericksburg Fort, a star shaped inland island complete with bridges, cannons, buildings which was originally self-sustaining. Oh and the first proper windmill which I had seen!

The Little Mermaid

Freidericksburg Fort Windmill

We had been walking for hours and had covered most of the inner city, so after the fort there was only one placce left to visit for the day, the Royal Gardens.  As we were walking there, we spotted one of the coolest bike stores I’ve ever seen. This place made its own bikes, including the frames, and let the buy choose all the options, colours, etc. How grand!

Bike-tastic!

Then it was on to the Royal Gardens, public gardens which are locked at night and house a large number of crazy sculptures. And afterward, for me, almost an hour more walking + a train ride to get back to the hostel.  Luckily for me that night there was no party. Most of the hostel had cleared out and there was only 5 of us left – two german girls, another NZer and I, and a girl from Malta – who just chilled out and watched some well deserved films.

St. Bob and the Dragon

The following day, Ricky, the other NZer, had left. The girl from Malta was moving into an apartment with a Chinese boy, and the German girls  and I decided to have one last look around town before we all left the hostel. They were intent of buy presents for their entire extended family + friends, even though their holiday was only 4 days. So, after much, much, shopping, we decided to check out the Round Tower. I had some documentation but I’ve now lost it so could not tell you what the use of this tower was, but now if you like, you can ascend the never-ending circular ramp all the way to the top and involve yourself in a spectacular view of the city.

View from Round Tower

There was one last stop before we departed for the afternoon, that was the Almond Man. I had seen these around, and they smelt so good that I had to have some – pronto! I’m not exactly sure what these are, but they are Almonds that are coated in some kind of caramelized, crunchy and sweet coating. They tasted amazing, expsecially the hot ones, but after a while you actaully felt very ill. All three of us decided that we weren’t feeling too good after this, unfortunate cconsidering the magnitude of the taste!

Almond Man

“Goodbye,” I said to the German girls, and headed back to the airport to pick up my bags, where I then headed right back on to the train, bound for town. I had slept two nights in the hostel, but I was here for four – the next two were my third CouchSurfing experience. Mee and Mathias were both Business School students (Mathias also produces synth music for advertising, TV and film) who lived together in a pretty massive three bedroom apartment in Freidericksberg. For two more nights I stayed with them. The only full day I was at their place, I actaully only left the house to get something to eat, the rest of the time I spent planning the next stage of my trip and trying to begin to organise how I was getting to the north of Norway.

The following day at 11:32am I was off on another train, leaving overcast Copenhagen for sunny Gothenburg!

Things I Did In Amsterdam

As I’m writing this on a night train to Copenhagen, I’ve decided to change the format for this post. Usually I write things in a pretty linear format: this day, then that happened and it keep adding up. This post will just be a series of points with no time structure, hence the title ‘Things I Did In Amsterdam.’

I spent hours each day walking around the ’straats’ (streets) and ‘grachts’ (canals) until I was too tired to walk any longer. I got lost many a time. They told me the city is shaped like an onion, I prefer to think of it as a rainbow with veins.

Amsterdam Canal

I slept in a dorm with two Swedish girls who were horribly ill, fearing that I might catch what ever they had.

I almost got hit by a bike while using a pedestrian crossing.

Bicycles!

I visited one or two of the famous Amsterdam coffeeshops and then proceeded to wander around the city in marvel at almost everything. I also went onto a balcony and who ever was on the balcony above me was having a laughing fit, which in turn I contracted, me laughing at some guy I couldn’t see and vice versa.

I went on a pub crawl, drank too much then went for felafal with two Canadians. Before our kebabs were ready, the store workers brought us each a bowl of an onion-tomato mix and a bowl of tatziki for putting on said kebab. Being in the state we were, the three of us just started scooping out the onions with the spoon, dipping them in the tatziki and eating them. The sauces were gone before the kebabs arrived, half of it in our stomachs, the other half all over our faces. Following that, we managed to cover the entire table in lettuce. I highly doubt the store owners were impressed.

I went on a walking tour of the city and learnt the history of how Amsterdam was built from just a marsh. How drugs and prostitution become the norm, why all the buildings look like the are leaning over (and they actually are) and a whole lot of other interesting facts about the city.

Leaning Houses

I walked around the Red Light District and checked out the nice ladies in the windows.

I went to the Anne Frank House. The place where Anne Frank and her family hid in an annex behind her fathers office for 2 years during WWII. This was amazing and utterly moving.

I went to the Sex Museum and saw all sorts of artifacts from ancient Greece and Asia, to modern day porn that you wouldn’t tell your friends about.

I taught a small-town Swedish girl to play snap and then I proceeded to lose for an hour. She then taught me how to shuffle cards (by God am I clumsy with cards).

I caught up with Isa, a girl that Matt and I met in Byron Bay when we backpacked around Australia in 2006.

I saw a hidden Catholic church from the days with Catholosism was banned.

Hidden Catholic Church

I shopped in the ‘Nine Streets’ district and bought myself a pretty cool t-shirt after trying on some pixie pants. I also found an excellent market with the craziest used clothes stand ever – it was just a tarpolin with mountains of awesome clothes on it. Crazy! Mama, you’d be in heaven.

I wished all you guys reading this had been there to share this with me. We are definitely all coming to Amsterdam one day, it is so awesome!

I ♥ Berlin

From Prague we drove to Berlin. Initially I hadn’t planned to visit the city, but I’m now very glad that I did. What an amazing place!

We arrived in Berlin in the afternoon, found our hostel (Ollie and Xanthe even agreed to join Willy and I there) and got settled in.  After a short while, Willy and I took a walk around our Eastern Berlin suburb and ended up at what is now known as the East Side Gallery. Rather than being an actual art gallery, this is the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall which has been turned into an area decorated by local artists in memory of Berlin’s past.

East Side Gallery

The following day we decided to check out one of the free walking tours which was on offer. This one was run by a company called New Europe and it was really pretty good. Our guide Maria took us around numerous sites within the city over approximately 3 and a half hours, all the while being incredibly enthusiastic and knowledgable even though she was actually from Sweden! A few of the sites we saw were Hitler’s Bunker, the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby off of the  balcony, various Jewish and Catholic churches, Museum Island, the Jewish Memorial, the book burning square, Berlin Wall + heaps more. It was incredibly informative and amazingly interesting. Berlin is a city with so much history it is unbelievable!

Jewish Memorial

Brandenburg Gates

That night we decided it would be a good idea to go on the pub crawl run by the tour company. It took us to a number of bars in the central Berlin region (three of which I remember) and was pretty fun. There was heaps of free drinks and plenty of people to party with!

The next day I was feeling marginal to say the least. But that wasn’t going to stop us going on the Berlin ‘Alternative Tour.’ The idea of this was to take people around the sites of Berlin which you wouldn’t usually see as a tourist. It was not as informative as the regular tour but we went to some interesting places. Of particular importance to this tour was art. We saw so much street art and began to hear some of the stories behind it.

Little Lucy

Little Lucy (above right), for example, is a character seen sprayed up all over town. It is a story which follows the antics of a little girl named Lucy who is given a cat as a present but soon finds out that the cat does not work as a ‘toy’ should. The above picture is just one of many Little Lucy pieces around town. Around this corner from this Lucy was a very cool steam-punk style mechanical bat-like monster which hissed and flapped it’s wings after a euro was inserted into it. Very cool.

Mechanical Bat-Monster

The tour also took us to a pretty cool rooftop beach bar, a faux waterfall, an apartment building on which all the support pillars are painted with famous faces – called the 50 Faces Gallery – , a shop which sold camping equipment, absinthe, and bongs, and a really cool place – the name of which i forget, which has been an artist squat for a number of years. The entire building was covered in graffiti both inside and out, and you could go inside and talk to the artists and stuff, it was an amazing place but sadly I hear it has been commissioned for demolition. I also managed to buy a pretty cool jacket from a 2nd hand shop which sold its clothes by weight!

Inside the artist squat

On the way back from this tour, we happened to bump into a Hamburg-Berlin road rally, containing some awesome cars.

Kadett C, Hamburg-Berlin rally

That night we decided to go into town and see what was going on.  What was going on was the prostitution scene. In Germany, street prostitution is legal so long as the girl is registered and paying tax, etc. Willy and I were accosted by these women who looked like high profile pornstars on at least 3 occassions, all of them wanting to know if we were keen for pleasure. One even offered for us to take two girls back and swap half way through! Europe is crazy! And I thought NZ was quite liberal… it dosen’t seem so after seeing things like this.

The next day was shopping day. Willy bought shoes, I bought a t-shirt (but not ’till later in the day). We really just chilled out and checked out the local scene. We also thought about going up the TV tower but the line was ridiculously long. The next day it was time to leave on a train: 6 hours to Amsterdam!

Prague and all it’s wonderous tourists

Our first night in Prague was the last night we would be camping, well, that Willy and I would be anyway. It was proving more of a nuisence than anything else – most of the campgrounds were far from the city centres and the lack of facilities was becoming frustrating.

We stayed in a camp ground which had almost nothing. The showers were button operated which you had to press evvery 5 seconds to keep the water running, there was no laundry and the only computer which had the internet was taken over by the local cab driver, a huge man who spent all day playing starcraft waiting for someone from the bar who wanted to be taken home. Unfortunately for him I doubt that anyone would really want to go to that bar unless they were staying at the campground.

The morning after, Willy and I packed up our gear and said goodbye to the camping experience with Ollie and Xanthe. We headed into Prague town and after a confusing start to the public transport system and an encounter with a hotel receptionist who seemed like she was on speed whislt giving us directions, we found our hostel. For this leg of the trip we had booked a two bed room which was nice, although the beds were even less comfortable than staying in the tent. But oh well, sleeping wasn’t really the reason for this trip.

After we were all set up, we headed into town by tram. The first thing you notice about Prague is that it is completely overrun by tourists. You can barely even see any of the sights and attractions which you have come to see through the washes of people. I have never been anywhere like this in my life, absolutely out of control. Lunch was had and we headed towards the sights. The good thing abour Prague is that everything is pretty much in walking distance so we found the Astronomical Clock with ease. This is pretty awesome, it not only shows the time, but also moon phases, solstices, constelations, and even tells you what you should be doing on ach day of the year regarding crop havesting and such activities.

Prague's Astronomical Clock

Next we walked towards the river and headed over Charles Bridge. This was like a sea of tourists, buskers, portrait artists and other gypsys selling all sorts of goods. There is no way you can even take a photo of this bridge unless you move to a much further away location (which we did).

Charles Bridge

We followed the river side for a while and came across an incredibly steep street which for some reason we decided it would be a good idea to walk up. This was not a bad plan in the scheme of things, as at the top was the entrance to Prague Castle, and was was possibley the most disappointing castle of my trip so far. Again there were so many tourists it was out of control and it just didn’t really seem all that regal. It could have been easily built in the last 100 years. But inside it was not all bad, there was a pretty amazing Romanesque church called Basilica of St George. We went inside briefly but decided that we would return tomorrow to take decent photos and have a better look around

St. Vitus Cathedral

Other than this, the view over Prague was pretty amazing from up on the hill.

View from Prague Castle

We spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering around the alleys and streets of the Old Town. That evening we met up with one of Willy’s old friends, Brendon, who had moved to Europe about 2 years earlier and Prague around a year ago. He took us out to dinner and both Willy and I had a pretty nice chicken spaghetti. Afterwards he took us to a street with a couple of bars and we spent the night hanging out at one which upon secondary inspection was incredibly seedy – there was even a group of drug dealers hanging out by the toilets totally known by the bar staff. After a few beers here we left and headed back to the hostel.

The following day our route of the sights was pretty similar. We saw the clock and castle again in the morning, we saw even more tourists than the day before and decided against going back into the Basilica of St George as the line was huge but we did see the changing of the guards which was very cool. We met Brendon again, this time for lunch. I had was turned out to be a ‘very Czech’ meal of potatoe, ham and onion dumpings on cabbage. After lunch we decided to head up to what can only be described as a giant metronome, situated on the hills next to the castle. We ascended the 200 or so steps and ended up in a place that obviously not many tourists make it to, it was all in pretty bad condition! Thankfully there was also a beer garden next to the metronome so we headed there and had a beer in the heat of the day.

Giant Metronome

That night we encountered something very interesting: the guy who wanders around trying to get people to visit the largest strip club in Prague. His speil went something like this:

“Hey guys, you like sexy girls? Come to our cabaret show! We have over 50 girls; African girls, Indian girls, Russian girls… girls from Slovakia, Czech Republic, everywhere. We have live sex shows, lesbisex shows, snake shows and even midgets if you like that. Maybe you like the big girls, 200 pounds plus, we have those too if you are into that. You can even have private dance, lap dance, table dance, dance in our limosine. And at the end of the night we can take you back to your hotel for free and if you like you can take any of the girls home with you. If you like your night and want to come back tomorrow, we can give you a number and we will pick you up from your hotel too.”

We politely declined and for the rest of the night checked out a few other bars and joked about how ridiculous that strip club was.

The next day we met up with Ollie and Xanthe again for our final car ride from Prague to Berlin!

Českỳ Krumlov

The afternoon after we left Vienna, we crossed the boarder into the Czech Repbulic. We were on route to Českỳ Krumlov, a town of similarity to Bruges but of course in a more Eastern European vain.

Upon crossing the boarder, the landscape changed drastically. The language on all the signs changed from German to Czech and the only buildings to be seen were large numbers of small casinos hiding behind a patina facade. Not only could you see a casino everywhere you looked, but almost every 500m you could find yourself a brothel or prostitute hanging around on the side of the road. Whether they were looking to be picked up, or just for a ride to the next town we didn’t find out.

Soon we had arrived at our campsite in Českỳ Krumlov, and after being yelled at in Czech by some woman trying to tell us where we could and couldn’t park, we finally managed to arrange accommodation for the night and set up out tents.

Once all was arranged, we took our first walk, through the streets with more casinos, over a bridge resembling the one from Beetlejuice, past some derelict and abandonded buildings, and into the heart of the old town – a place with variable altitude, littered with cobblestones, hosting a river and overlooked by a castle. This small town had almost everything a small town should. It even had a multitude of tourists – in fact, they seemed to be the only people there!

Beetlejuice Bridge

Českỳ Krumlov from the castle tower

Again we were only here for one night (which really was enough), so we decided to make the most of it. We spent the afternoon wandering around the town, exploring all nooks and crannys but leaving the castle for the following day. Dinner was had and it was time to check out some bars. By far the one which stood out was called the Horor Bar. This was housed underground with stone floor, and a rounded stone wall/ceiling. It came inclusive with skeletons and other props to add to the horror theme. Willy also decided it would be a good place to try out the local absinthe. And by God, this absinthe was like nothing I’ve ever had before. I’m pretty sure we were drinking pure alcohol infused with wormwood. But it was cool as it came complete with the absinthe spoon and caramelised sugar – it just killed you to drink it. The look on Willy’s face upon tongue contact was hilarious.

Horor Bar

That night we slept next to a tent housing the loudest snoarer I’ve ever experienced.

In the morning we packed up, and as Ollie and Xanthe pissed around, Willy and I walked into town to check out the castle. To be honest, it’s not much of a castle, but it does have a pretty cool old tower which you are able to climb.

Českỳ Krumlov Castle

It also has a bear moat. Yes, that is correct – and the bears are still in there. I guess they would have thrown prisoners down into it back in the day.

Bear Moat

But I think, by far the best part of Českỳ Krumlov for me, was the dungeon sculpture gallery in the castle. This was a three level network of underground passageways and dungeons set under the castle which housed some interesting sculpture. I did take a lot of photos in there, but it was so dark that most of them came out blurry. ‘Tis rather annoying.

That afternoon it was time to leave again, the schedule was becomming a little to fast! But we were off to that magical city, Prague.