Home Stretch

Apologies again for not updating for so long, but we have been very busy, but since the adventure is coming to an end, I thought it best to write something in honor of this conclusion.  Tonight is our last night in the center of London, then we have one more night near Heathrow, and then we fly back to NY on Wednesday.

We have had a great time since our last update.  When we last updated, we were on our way to Aberdeen, where we spent a lovely few days with good friends, eating delicious bar food and visiting castles.  We finally, for the first time on the whole trip broke walking 30,000 steps in one day, on the day we went to Stonehaven, visited the castle there, and I ate my frist deep fried Mars Bar.  About that, if you think a deep fried mars bar is disgusting, you should try it, it is better than it looks.  If you think it will be delicious, you will not be disappointed.

After Aberdeen, we went to Perth to visit David, Mike’s cousin, and his fiance, prior to their wedding the next weekend.  I went to Chrissy’s hen night, which was fabulous, and then we had a few more adventures (including probably the least exciting adventure ever, when we got locked in their flat ).  We helped out a lot over the weekend of the wedding, washing glasses, and helping to organise things, which was fun, and necesssary.  The wedding was in the castle ruins of St. Andrews, Scotland (birthplace of golf) and was really fun.  There was haggis and dancing, and a really great time had by all.  They left the next morning for their honeymoon, and we headed down to Chelmsford, specifically a village called Chignal Saint James, to visit Mike’s Uncle, Aunt, and cousins.  this was pleasantly relaxing, with great food, and day trips to the coast, and to Cambridge.  From there, we said goodbye to Mike’s brother, and then his parents, as they headed back to the states.
The next part of the trip was the most spontaneous and random.  At Toni and Patrick’s wedding, we met Patrick’s cousin Matt, and his girlfriend Jane.  Ad David and Chrissy’s wedding, we met them again, and we told them that we weren’t sure what to do for our last week in England.  They said that we could stay with them, and we took them up on the offer.  They were SO sweet, and let us stay with them in Bournemouth, and even took us to a quiz night, which was pretty great.  Matt is Mike’s cousin’s cousin, which makes him my boyfriend’s mother’s brother’s wife’s brother’s son, which is a funny thing to say. Bournemouth is a very nice area, and we also traveled over to Christchurch, which is the next town over.  It was a nice relaxing few days, before we came into London for our last few days.

David and Chrissy also passed through here at the end of their honeymoon, so we have spent the past few days with them.  It’s still funny to me that I only met them in May, but have since sseen them a few times, stayed with them in their flat, been to their wedding, and spent  few days in London with them.  I feel like I’ve known them much longer than a few months.  On Saturday, they brought us to their favorite restaurant, and in return, we brought them to Primrose Hill, which is my favorite place in London. Since then, wwe have been wandering around, and seeing things around town.  Mike and I went on the London Eye, which was my first time, and I would say it is a worthwhile experience, though it is expensive and the wait is long.  Regardless, We have been having a great time.  In 48 hours, we will be back in the states, and frankly, I’m ready for it.  I have had a fabulous time, and I am very happy I have made these choices in my life, but I’m ready for being home, seeing my family, petting my dog, and driving my car.  I’m ready for the next adventure to begin, and I think I am a better person for having done this.  This may be my last update until we get home, so I hope you’ve enjoyed, and I’m sorry, again, about the last few weeks of silence.  Stay tuned for updates on the next adventure, of what we will do when we get home!

A Brief Review of Munich…

I came to Munich once before, when I was just sixteen,

So when I walked around this time, t’were many things I’d seen,

Some things remembered fondly, and others not so well,

It’s time I dished some comments out.  Below is how they fell…

(Sorry, I couldn’t help myself)

In reality, since i missed so much of my coverage of Munich, I wanted to try to do a quick overview in a fun way, so here goes.  Items will get a positive point value for things I like, negative for things I could do without.  this is completely subjective, don’t hate me if i had a bad experience with something that you love.

- Touristiness: The last time I came to came to Munich, it was February.  In February, Munich was cold and relatively desolate compared to what we experienced this time.  Japanese tourists, retired brits and stag and hen parties were everywhere, which made the city feel even more touristy than it is, which says a lot.  Munich is a VERY touristy city.  -2

- Thalkirchner Strasse: We stayed on a lovely street south of town with views over a park/cemetery, and within easy walking distance of a couple of bus lines and the town center.  We had a choice of grocery stores, ate well, and were right around the corner from a Paulaner Beer Hall/Biergarten.  All in all very pleasant. + 2

-Deutsches Museum: If I were fluent in German, it would take at least 3 or 4 days to thoroughly see this museum.  That said, i would estimate that only about 1/3 of the displays are in English, and even at that, we were there for 6+ hours and were totally burnt out.  It is fabulously interesting, and at the same time exhausting.  the only place I know where you can experience the conditions of working in mines (both in the past and in current times), check out the inside of a fighter jet, and perform chemistry experiments.  Also enjoyed the “scaled solar system walk” that starts at the museum and ends at the zoo! +3

- Neuschwanstein Tour, optimist view: the castle is really beautiful, and definitely worth a trip.  As I said that day, some castles are drafty and cold, and make you not want to live in one, but this is the complete opposite.  It is warm and homey inside, with luxuries like running water.  Our state-provided tour guide within the castle sounded very Austrian, Arnold Schwarzenegger style.  Also, our tour guide through Mike’s Bike Tours was a great magician/guide named Brad from South Africa, who brought us on a really nice bike ride to Swan Lake, then took us on a hike up by some absolutely gorgeous waterfalls up to Mary’s Bridge, which was a big hit with me, as I love views.  During lunch, and after the castle tour, he gave us a great close-up magic show, which made me feel like a little kid.  They also give you a DVD pre-tour-info-intro on the bus ride down, which provided a lot more information about “Mad” King Ludwig.  I highly recommend this tour to anyone who is going to Munich. +5

- Neuschwanstein Tour, pessimist view:  Running at 49 euros for the bike/hike tour + 8 euros for castle admission, + money for lunch, this was a little rich for our tastes.  The day started out a little overcast, and on our bike ride the skies opened up.  Luckily they gave us some ponchos when we left the base garage, but my arms and legs were soaked by the time we came back for lunch.  The state-run tour of the castle was a bit rushed-feeling and weird. -4

- Food: The last time I came to Munich, I lived on Pretzels.  I was a fool.  Now, granted, I still love these Bavarian pretzels in a way that is borderline inappropriate, but I missed out on so much.  Any potential vegetarian friends, you may want to skip down to the next bullet now.  My friends and I coined a term, “delusting,” which you may notice is a combination of “delicious” and “disgusting” with just a hint of “lust” in the middle.  This word applies often, to things like Molten Lava Cake, and good alfredo sauce.  It also applies to what I ate the other day from a little place called Opatija.  It was a “Cordon Bleu Schnitzel” which was pork, stuffed with cheese and bacon, then breaded and fried.  It was heavenly.  There is a place near the university called Pommes Boutique, where you can get really great fries with your choice of 20 different bottomless sauces. Excellent Excellent Excellent.+4

- Bier: Seriously the one thing I wish I could bring home with me is the beer.  I’m not really a big beer drinker, but for german weissbier I make an exception.  Getting a fresh half liter in a bier garten on a warm evening is something you just can’t recreate in the states.  Even the brands that they sell at home taste better here, because they haven’t been shipped in bottles.  -Sigh- +3

- CSD:  The Christopher Street Day festivities commemorate the gay rights movement in NYC, and after going to the parade in Berlin, I wasn’t going to miss the one in Munich.  I have to admit, I was a little disappointed, but not really surprised.  Munich is a tourist town in the religious south of Germany, so it’s not surprising that the parade was much smaller, and the drag queens looked a little older and a little less… choreographed.  They did put together a 2 day street party though, which was pretty great.  Probably my best part was watching a tour of concerned looking women in a tour group wander through Marienplatz, through a HUGE crowd celebrating homosexuality.  +1

Correction, my favorite part of CSD was the walk home from Marienplatz to meet Mike, where I was walking right in front of this guy who started singing “I Will Always Love You” (and clearly it was the Whitney Houston version, not Dolly Parton.)  After a while, I turned around and said “I’m really glad that I’m walking in front of you right now.  I am really enjoying this.”  he thanked me, then got quiet, which was not my goal.  I said “Oh please, continue!” and with the encouragement of his other friend, he sang Mariah Carey’s “When a Hero Comes Along” for most of the rest of my walk home.  It was glorious. +3

- Zoo: The Munich zoo is really great.  They divert some flow from the Isar river through the zoo, so the park is full of flowing streams and bridges.  Many areas are left to grow wild, which makes it seem less like the sterile cage collection that so many zoos feel like.  If you go, and need a snack, so to the cafe near the Baboons.  they have tables set up right there to watch the animals.  Some of the overgrowth makes it a little hard to view the animals, but they probably like it better than being ogled all the time.  The high/low point of the day was in the petting zoo, when we were trying to feed the baby goats and one of the bigger goats decided that if we wouldn’t give it food, it would find it’s own: it stole our map and wouldn’t give it back.  There was a panicked “It’s got the map!” then some “Let go! Let go!” before I managed to rip away the remains of our map, minus the 1/8 or so that the goat ate.  +3

So, if my count is right, I believe that is a solid 18 points for Munich, with the good parts far outweighing the bad.  On to Scotland!

Running for the Train

Whew.

So, we just had our first real “run for the train” event on this whole trip, which is pretty good, all things considered.  We flew today from Munich to London, and we are currently on a 7 hour train ride to Aberdeen Scotland to visit a good friend of mine.  Since the wireless is free, and it’s been far too long, I thought I would write a little posty-post.

Today’s event:  This morning we got up at 6 to get to the airport on time, only to have our flight delayed about 30 minutes.  This shouldn’t have been a big deal, with the exception that London Airports are generally designed to prevent you from actually seeing the outside world.  I figured when I bought our train tickets that 3 hours would be enough time to get from Gatwick to King’s Cross, where our train to Scotland would leave at 2:00.  We landed 1 hour late… passport control and bag collection took another hour… the train to the city takes 30+ minutes… the Tube can be very unreliable (and can we talk about how a single ride on the Tube costs 4 POUNDS! That’s over 6.5 USD!!!).  We were very lucky.  We made it on the 1:05 Gatwick Express, which got into Victoria station at about 1:40, where we ran to the tube, but unfortunately we had to get tickets, along with the dozens of other schmucks.  When we got down to the platform, a train was arriving in 1 minute.  6 stops, we’re at St. Pancras, sprinting (as it is now 1:57 according to my watch), jam my creditcard into the machine, and out spit the tickets, glance at the departures board to see the platform number, and ran to the train.  There was a man outside the train who was supposed to be checking tickets, but he just waved us in, to make sure that teh train didn’t leave without us.  Sweaty and tired, but we arrived.  The train started moving before we even took our seats.  When we sat down, I said to Mike “No trip to Europe is complete without one adventure like that.”  I really hope that’s it though.  I really hate waiting in line, or being stuck on a train and watching time tick away.

On the plus side, as far as today goes, I didn’t get made fun of by UK passport control today!  Our gentleman at podium 1 was very nice, and even asked if we wanted to take him along to Scotland to translate the local dialects for us.  It was a pleasant chance from being told I have a man’s name, or being called useless.  Mike points out that I inferred this second one, but it was still mean.

Also, “running for the train” refers to part of the reason why I haven’t updated in a while.  Since arriving in Munich, I had been torturing myself with thoughts of what I am going to do when I get home.  I’ve spent a lot of my spare time doing research about jobs and general information for my desired living locations.  I felt like I needed to be further along than I was, like there was some point of information and I also had to get talked down by one of my friends who told me I need to stop, and enjoy myself right now, and cross this inevitable bridge when I come to it, and not before.  I feel, in a much less literal way, that I am running for a train, and I am going to miss it if I’m not careful.  I need to relax.

Okay, I’m going to relax for a little bit, since it has already been a long day, but I may update again before this train ride is over (there’s about 5.5 hours left) with some details about our adventures in Deutschland!

Drinking Through Europe

It seems fitting now that we’re in Munich to give an update on the beer consumption of our past couple months. Usually the easiest beers to find are the mass produced watery/ugh ones of the nearest brewery (Budweiser, Heineken, etc), but in Munich it’s really hard to find a poorly brewed beer. Anyway, most of the beers I’ve had are alright, but a couple times I’ve been surprised with a damn fine product.

Starting off in Italy, the main beers (that we could find) are Peroni and Nastro Azzurro (and along with Birra Moretti are the main Italian beers you can find in the USA). Both are mass produced and Peroni is Italy’s most consumed and enjoyed beer. Incidentally, Peroni brews Nastro Azzurro also and is based in Rome, which could explain why they were more prevalent than Birra Moretti. I prefer Peroni, but there were plenty of better choices for imbibing at the Irish Pub. The beers are easy to drink lagers and that’s about all I can say.

The beer served all over Barcelona is Estrella Damm. If you wish you are able to find other beers at supermarkets. I wouldn’t go as far to say you should do this, but it wouldn’t hurt to get a second opinion of Spanish beer. My second opinion was San Miguel (Especial). If you try Estrella Damm and then San Miguel I would suggest that you get a third opinion. Despite the fact that we were in Barcelona for a month I don’t remember trying any other beers, I was probably somewhat saddened by my choices up to that point. San Miguel isn’t really necessary. Well, the Especial is bad, but a quick Google tells me that they do offer a cerveza that is somewhat appreciated. Estrella Damm can be refreshing sitting out in the sun, but don’t expect to be wowed.

Budapest had a whole slew of brews that seemed difficult to pronounce, but once you get the hang of the letter ’s’ you’re in the clear. I was able to try Borsodi Borostyán and Soproni. The Borostyán was ok, but like many of the other beers already mentioned it was just another thing to pour down your throat. I was actually really surprised by the Soproni. I only got to have it once, but it was remarkably refreshing and easy to taste (not amazing, but not boring either). It went wonderfully with my meal of Chicken Soup and Chicken Wrapped in Bacon with a great plain of mashed potatoes. I should also mention that all this cost somewhere in the region of cheap.

In Stockholm I was fortunate to have a go at three beers; Pripps Blå (Blue), Falcon, and Karhu III. I got a 6-pack of the Pripps Blå and managed not to finish it, so take what you can from that (although I did finish the San Miguel pack and that was definitely far worse). The Falcon was also ‘just another beer.’ A bar we went to, where I tried the Falcon, seemed to have this strange phenomenon of everyone buying the same beer. Sure, there were some renegades (me for one), but in general about 85% of the beer purchased was Karhu III, which wasn’t on tap. So I fell in line, if only to see what all the conformity was about. I wasn’t blown away, but I did find this Finnish beer (maybe all the Finns in Sweden go to that bar) much better than the two Swedish beers I had had. There is a bear on the bottle (swedish = björn, finnish = karhu). Bear beats Falcon not to mention whatever a blue Pripp is.

Copenhagen is the home of the Carlsberg brewery, famous for being the shirt of Liverpool FC, an English football (proper) team. What you should also know is that their motto is extremely considerate at “Probably the best beer in the world.” Also their main brews are more of the “just another beer” variety. If you try some of their seasonal or special brews you can find a pleasing drink. However, the beer I will talk about is an experience in itself. Mikkeller is a young (2006), small, Danish brewery that makes craft brews instead of simple, tasteless beers. One day we were walking down a street winding our way back home. In the window of a store I spotted a display of beer and in that display I spotted an enticingly named beer. The store was closed so we wrote down the address and made sure to return a couple days later. We returned and from the severely out of place looking cashier (bodybuilder does not scream wine and beer merchant) I got my Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast. This is a heavy beer. People tend to say that Guinness is a meal in a can, but this beer is like a days worth of food. I was only able to drink half of it (large bottle) with my dinner the first night. Then I finished it during the course of the incredible USA-Spain match.

In Berlin I had a Hefeweissen that I don’t remember the name of and a bottle of Hans’ favorite, Jever. Generally I’m not a huge fan of bitter beers, but Jever is an exception and a good one at that.
Beer in Munich is pretty freakin’ awesome. Biergartens and Brauhaus’s galore. If you can’t find a beer you like here then you’re either not drinking beer or you’re not in Munich. Another great thing, beers come in half liters or liters! German Hefeweizens are absolutely incredible and second to none (they did invent it) and the other beers aren’t anything to be disappointed in either. At the Hofbräuhaus, which, if you’re just passing through Munich for some reason, you should definitely make a stop at, a liter or two of beer and a brotkorb (bread basket of a slice of bread, a roll, and two pretzels) will keep you happy and nourished for a good while. Beer and pretzels are two good reasons to come to Munich…and stay there.

Familiar Furniture

Throughout our travels there have been many pieces of apartment furnishments with vaguely analogous themes or designs. IKEA is making our world uniform. Not uniform in the sense of everything being exactly alike since they do have a wide variety of furnishings in order to create a large combination of room layouts, but there is just something about IKEA products that make you realize it is an IKEA product. There is still a simplicity in design, but it isn’t the same as a four-legged wooden table with four four-legged wooden chairs. It’s furniture exudes a subtle aura of IKEA that wafts into your brain and rings the IKEA light…or flashes the IKEA bell. Occasionally you walk around and someone mentions “That’s from IKEA” or “Did you know we got this from IKEA?” Yes, we know, we’re human and IKEA recognition has now been built into our DNA, you don’t need to announce it. So we enter each new apartment and immediately the inner monotonous monologue begins “IKEA, IKEA, not quite, IKEA, IKEA, IKEA, ooooh, what’s this thingy? Oh, never mind, IKEA.”
We spent two weeks in Stockholm. One day we went to the largest IKEA store which is located somewhere in the outer reaches of Stockholm. We went to a furniture store in order to visit it…not buy furniture…well, we also got lunch there. Ok, they sell non-furniture items, but there was never any intention to buy a single thing except for instant nourishment. After a while of having Aubrey give me the grand tour and try to convince me of the wonders of IKEA I had the vague notion of things getting repetitive “Yes, so you like the comfort of that disgustingly colored couch, but the color of that uncomfortable one. You can’t get these two things to sync up? I don’t know, I don’t work here. I’m going to go pretend to watch TV on this large screen hollow box.”
In the end furniture just appears to be functional to me. If it is comfortable, doesn’t break, and I don’t have to overpay (in general or in comparison to the other products) then I am all for it. Maybe I can form an opinion on outward appearance every so often, but usually I won’t be able to match colors or motifs or whatever else there is. All I need is a couch/futon, a table, and a TV. And a bed. And a desk. Desk chair. Night stand. Book shelves. DVD shelves. Maybe one of those neat chairs that looks like its from a 1960s view of the future or the one that belongs in a hipster’s living room…that light ball is pretty cool…oh, no…I DON’T LIKE IKEA.
Anyway, we are now in our almost entirely IKEA furnished Munich apartment and from the looks of things, the Munich-area IKEA store gets the bastard products. Our subtly IKEA simple table wobbles like Muhammad Ali and the sharp knives aren’t sharp (although maybe they just need to be sharpened) and the bed is a masterclass in failure to employ logic.
There is a headboard against the wall with two sides and an end piece that are all about a foot high. Along the inside of the two sides there runs a metal ledge the entire length and down the middle from the headboard to the end piece runs a metal beam. Running from the ends of the middle beam there are skinny metal strips that connect diagonally to the side pieces. These four metal connectors appear to do nothing as all but one of them are bent horribly out of shape. One of them is bowed out just so it can reach the correct part of the side piece despite that fact that their lengths can be adjusted. So, yes, the bed employs poor design and was manufactured by someone who plays with twigs for a living. There is a thin mattress that rests on top of the structure, but there is an additional support piece that goes into this contraption.
Several wooden slats are fitted into a cloth sheet that has individual slots for each slat (fun with words). This gets placed across the bed structure supposedly resting on the middle beam and the ledges on the side pieces. Once again, several facets aid in the spectacular failure of this product. The cloth slots allow the wooden slats far to much room to maneuver and thus they can achieve a slightly diagonal arrangement if they so conspire. The middle beam is slightly higher than the side ledges, which, when coupled with the fact that slats are just short enough that they can slip under the ledges with the right pressure (a sneeze will do), means that the bed is in a constant state of pissing us off. I figure that if I hit the mattress at the right velocity I could vault Aubrey out the window…or from her side, she could loft me into the kitchen to tend to the dishes. Don’t get me wrong, the bed works out fine, if you don’t mind fixing it at least every day or the occasional wooden *chunk* sound whenever you shift your weight. Ok, the bed is miracle of functional inability.
—
We went to the Deutsches Museum today. It’s a cool place with tons of science and machinery and airplane and etc. exhibits. It is enormous. Open from 9am-5pm and that still isn’t enough time to see everything. I did learn a lot about myself though. I am a child?
We began by looking at everything we walked past and reading everything that was in English and pushing the buttons and observing what happened. After I while I tired of this and regressed to just looking for the pieces that had buttons or knobs and playing with those. Eventually even that burned me out and I devolved to absent-mindedly pushing buttons and not even bothering to watch what happened as I walked by, mouth hung open and zombie-gait in effect. Luckily closing time came around and we left.

Boats, bikes, and Berlin!

So, regardign the earier post, we did go to the Viking Ship museum in Roskilde, which was very good, but we didn’t get to ride a replica viking boat, because they were still working with school groups on weekdays until the end of school. :-/

Despite this slight upset, we still had a great last few days in Copenhagen.  One afternoon we rented bikes, which was an interesting and exciting change of pace.  Copenhagen is an amazingly bike friendly city, with bike lanes on almost every road, and drivers who bike most of the time and as such respect the riders.  Also, who would blame the people for riding bikes, when gas prices that we checked were between 7 and 9 US dollars per gallon.  Bicycling in Copenhagen was a humbling experience to me.  I am used to walking around cities, and frankly, sidewalks are not very exciting places: every once in a while you need to negotiate passage with a pram, or a group of teenagers, or a sidewalk cafe, but this is usually easily done.  I have never physically moved this quickly around a european city, ever.  Or been so close to so many moving vehicles at once wthout a steel bubble around me.  Even at home, when I ride my bike around, it’s usually on back roads or in parks, so the possibility of being hit by a truck is pretty low, and the consequences of potentially falling down are not so catastrophic.  That said, I wish that the US was as safe a place as Denmark when it comes to bicycles.  I hope to improve my cycling when I get home.

We have since arrived in Berlin, and are staying with friends, who are fabulous.  Hans went to school with us in the states, and let us stay here the last time we came through.  He is also a great tourguide, and yesterday brought us to Potsdam and also to get the best curry sausage in Berlin.  We have had many discussiona about politics, tourism, and the world, and are having a blast catching up.  Currently Hans is playing mash-ups of famous songs for me on his computer (have you ever heard Guns & Roses and the beatles play together in the same song?).  Off for some new adventures!!!

I never thought I’d say this, but…

Copenhagen is EXPENSIVE.  I don’t know what the history is of the exchange rate between US dollars and Danish Kroner, but right now it is awful.  I am generally very laid back about the costs of things.  My thoughts on gas prices, which are not often shared with the people around me, is that they are generally too low, and although I don’t like paying a lot to fill up my tank, I understand that there are purposes to higher prices.  Of course, that’s a whole other discussion.  That said, everything is expensive here.   The current exchange rate, at time of publication is 5.37 Danish Kroner to 1 USD.  A single ride on public transit costs 21 kroner, or almost $4.  The standard price for a beer in a bar is between 40 and 45 kroner, or between $7.5 and $8.5.  Everythere else that we have gone, we have been able to find a decent, filling meal for a few euros.  I’ve been to London, Rome, and Barcelona, all places that people warned me were outrageously expensive.  But it’s different.  Pizza in Rome could come for as little as 5 euro.  Kebabs or falafel are usually pretty reliable for well under 5 euro.  Denmark cranks all these prices up by about 25%.  Buying groceries helps a little but even those are about 25-30% more expensive than the equivalent anywhere else.  I would get some cheese for my whine, but I can’t afford it, and anyway, the shops close really early.

Anyhoo, it’s about time for bed, because we are going to Roskilde tomorrow to the Viking boat museum, and if Thor is smiling on us, then we might actually get to row a (replica) viking long boat in a real life fjord!  I’ll let you know tomorrow how that goes…

Well, Hello to you too, Denmark.

So today started out like a normal transportation day, but became an epic comedy of errors that made a 30 minute trip turn into an 80 minute adventure.  It was a grand how-do-you-do from Denmark.

We arrived early from Stockholm, and wandered around to where the baggage would come out, and it took a little while, but both of our bags were in the first 10 onto the carousel.  So, with pockets full of Danish money, we start to follow our directions to our flat.  Here is approximately when things start to go downhill.  We get to the metro, and the machine only takes cards with pin numbers, no bills.  This shouldn’t have been a problem, as I have one of those.  I complete the transaction, and am greeted with a little piece of paper that says receipt.  No ticket, just receipt…  So I show it to the lovely danish woman who was helping everyone, and she says that it is showing that my card was denied.  I hate those words, because it always send me into a little state of panic, that I am going to have no money, and be stuck somewhere, yadda yadda yadda.  She tells us where the proper ticket office is, and we go, try the card there, once again it doesn’t work, so I buy tickets with cash.  Issue one solved.

Mike and myself, in all of our backpack-endowed glory, take the seats at the very front of the train, because there is a window in the front, and you can watch as we zoom across the land, and then through the tunnel, which is frankly cooler than I thought it would be.  Basically, I’m saying we are children, but more on that later.  The trip is pretty uneventful until we get to the main central station.  We need to get 2 stops past there, but the train doesn’t move.  The bells ding, the doors close, then open, and his repeats for a few minutes.  The conductor comes over the intercom and makes an announcement in Danish, and everyone groans.  More of the same, and then another announcement, and everyone starts to move.  Asking the girl behind us, we learn that everyone has to get off the train because the doors won’t close.  So we dutifully get off the train, which was very full, and since Mike and I were in the very front, we are the last people off.  This means that when the next very full train pulls up, we are the first people in, and our backpack-lugging butts end up on the opposite side of the train from the doors we will need to get out of in just a few minutes.  And yet still, the train does not move.  Another announcement: someone in the train going the other direction pulled the emergency brake, and if they don’t move, we don’t move (info courtesy of red-headed lady in front of me).  Other train leaves.  We don’t.  Finally, after waiting in this station for about 20 minutes, we start moving.  Next stop, people get off, people get on, and we’re still in the back.  Our stop: the women in front of us know we need to get out, and Mike pushed through.    I get tripped up bu someone’s rolling bag, and as Mike steps off the train, 3 people rush into the gap he made, and trap me in the train.  The doors close.  Mike does a complete 360 looking for where I ended up in the station, and locks eyes with me as I bang on the door.  I am hot, tired, late, and want to sit down.  The guy next to me calmly says “you can just go to the next stop, then go back.”  Of course I know this, I just didn’t need this.  After chatting to a couple of english-speaking guys about how crowded the metro was (They were heading somewhere, but forgot to tell one of their friends who wanted to go with them.  They called him from the metro, and got yelled at by him), I was reunited with Mike, and we were off to find the bus that would bring us to our flat.  Our interesting dilemma here was that I didn’t have enough cash with me to payoff the rent for the flat, as I was expecting to be able to hit an ATM, but if we tried to find one before getting on the bus, then we would be even later meeting Lisa, who at this point had already been waiting for us for an hour.  Also, our 60 minute tickets would expire, and after our first fiasco, I didn’t want to risk having to try to buy a new ticket.  The bus was fine, and pleasantly uneventful, and once we got to the flat, things have been lovely.  Lisa, who owns the place, is really fabulous, and we talked to her for about a half an hour after she gave us the tour.  She is coming back on Monday to pick up the rest of the rent.  I have also since then used my card successfully in a bankomat, and I have cash, so all is well.  This has definitely been our rockiest arrival, but that’s okay.  It’s just more stories to tell.

Anyway, we got back at Denmark a little bit this afternoon.  This goes back to our being children, and also my love of languages.  As we were walking around this afternoon, I said to Mike “We should find out how to pronounce the letter ø.”  Mike, in true Mike fashion, responds “Oh.  That’s easy.  The letter ø is pronounced ‘butt’.”  We then proceeded to spend the rest of our walk home (which ws a good 20-25 minutes) looking for every sign that had a ø and pronouncing it “appropriately.”  My favorite was “PAPEGØJECENTRET” which I pronounced “pa-pege-butt-je-centret” there the g was soft like the second one in the word garage.  Other good words are søster and mørke , or sbuttster and mbuttrke, if you spell them phonetically.  Really, it will be incredible if we have any friends when we got home.

Farewell, ABBA-land

So tonight is our last night in Stockholm.  Tomorrow we leave for Copenhagen, but I figured I’d write a little more about our adventures here.  Things have beeen pretty calm, which is good, but not very interesting to write/read about.

Last week, we went to a place called O’Leary’s, which made me really happy, becasue it felt like home.  It is a “Boston-style Sports Bar,” which means the walls are plastered with Boston sports memorabilia: sox hats, pats jerseys, Globe articles, a “Yawkey Way” sign, and more pictures of Larry Bird than you could shake a stick at.  I would have thought I was home, were it not for the soccer on the TV, the strange beer selection, and the people speaking swedish…

We went out the other night, which started awkwardly, and continued that way until we left.  Sodermalm is the island south of the main part of town and the historical center, and is the “hip” part of Stockholm, where the kids hang out.  So we dutifully looked in our guidebook for a bar, and found two that were conveniently next door to each other, and figured we would try it out.  We wandered over, and chose one, and as we went to go in, the bouncer at the door stopped us, and said something in Swedish.  I made noises of non-understanding, to which he repeated his statement.  I said, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand, I don’t speak swedish.” He said “Good morning.” and laughed, along with the other kids who were standing out in the rain, puffing their cigarettes.  I smiled, and walked in past him.  It was only later that I saw him checking people’s passports.  He probably asked me to see mine, but I’m too much of a spaz.

After sitting at the bar and drinking our first drinks, a character walked into our lives.  We learned later that his name was Alex, and he was awesome.  Alex works in construction, and he is Finnish, and he didn’t do well in English in school, so our conversation was interesting to say the least.  Also, I’m not saying that to be judgemental, he told us he didn’t do well in English in school.  He also told us that he got picked on a lot as a child for having glasses, and he didn’t like the finnish class he was in because they all picked on him, but then he moved to a Swedish class, and they all liked him and helped him to exact his revenge on the finnish class that had picked on him for so long.  He also compared Mike’s arm to the arm of a red-headed girl he was hitting on (she didn’t speak swedish either though) to determine that Mike was more “speckled.”  *Tangent: Mike doesn’t get a lot of comments about his arm freckles, but when it happens, it’s memorable.  On the Amsterdam canal cruise we went on in 2006, someone asked him is they were a henna tattoo*  Alex talked to us in that awkward way that only someone who has had a few brewskies and is not talking in their native language can do.  He talked in cliches, and occasionally theme songs, and changed the subject often, whenever we would start to move out of his comfort zone of conversation.  I don’t blame him, and it made for a very interesting evening. At one point, he started singing “Bad Boys” and making comments from COPS.  Potentially my favorite part was when Alex turned to the female bartender and said something in Swedish, which she blew off with a smile.  He then turned to us (remember she is filling pints right in front of us),  and said “She didn’t like it.  Swedish girls don’t get it.  You say ‘I like you’ and they’re all like ‘Okay.’ They don’t understand that Finnish boys mean it”  So there’s a lesson to you girls: if a Finnish boy tells you he likes you, even if he’s drunk at a bar, Alex vouches for him: he means it.

One last note, one of my favorite moments of our time here was turning around the corner of a building to hear them literally pumping ABBA into the streets!  Just turned the conver and there was Dancing Queen!  Needless to say, I was much more excited about it than Mike was.  They also were mentioned on our tourboat, and are a genuine point of pride for Sweden.  Now, I can’t speak for all younger swedes, but as a whole, Sweden hearts ABBA, and so do I.

Final fun fact: Björn means “Bear” in Swedish.

I am Serious about Reviewing These Tourist Cards

In many major European cities it is possible to obtain a tourist card that offers discounts to many of the major attractions. Except in Rome. There is a card, but not for much, although the entrance for the Palatine, Roman Forum, and Colosseum are all on one ticket (get up early and spend the day wandering around them).
When we went to Amsterdam about 3 years ago we used the I amsterdam card that will set you back about €58 for 72 hours use (now, we don’t remember what the cost was back then). It offers free entrance to many museums and discounts for others, you also get a free canal cruise and discounts at some stores and restaurants (or a free beer or dessert).
In Barcelona we had the choice of the Barcelona Card, Barcelona City Tours Bus, or Bus Turistic. We opted for the two-day Bus Turistic pass that cost €27. You get to travel extensively around Barcelona on three different routes with an audio guide to prevent you from talking to your travel partner. It also comes with a coupon booklet that gets you discounts to the main attractions of Barcelona and deals at some Spanish fast food places. You can even get 10% off of a Barcelona FC ticket…assuming there were ever any available. Ok, there were, but they weren’t together and we weren’t about to pay premium prices to watch Barca march out their B squad to face Osasuna (not a compelling match-up). Some Spanish teams have pricing levels like baseball teams do. Anyway, the Bus Turisitic deal is highly worth it if you’re spending a while in Barcelona, since you receive a service (tour of city) and you can save a lot more than you spent with the coupons (although you’re still spending money).
In Budapest we go the Budapest Card (go figure) which is 7500 Forints, or about €27, for three days. It is very hard to regain the value of the card with the small savings it offers. You get free public transport, which would be great if it seemed like anyone cared if you had a ticket to use the subway, trams, or buses. There are varying degrees of savings from 10% to 25% on entrances to museums, which would be greater savings if it wasn’t so cheap to go to the museums in the first place. There are discounts of 10% to 20% on many restaurants, which is where you can make the most savings if you want to call ahead and reserve a seat at an expensive restaurant. Of course you can only go to so many restaurants in three days.
The Stockholm card is €55 for 72 hours and it is exact, so if you start it at 2pm on Monday it will last until 2pm on Thursday. It gives you free public transit and the Swedes do care about whether or not you have a ticket, not to mention their public transit is very clean and smooth and more or less punctual. There are discounts on a few city tours, but one canal cruise is free and worth it and all the museum entrances are free. The Swedes have this neat trick of clustering a few or several museums close together that makes visiting them in quick succession incredibly easy. We were able to recoup the cost of the cards within the second day and with all the museum visits and transit rides we doubled the price of the card. So after spending 72 hours rushing around most of central Stockholm we have spent the past couple days hanging around our area and just relaxing a bit. Stockholm is a pretty great place. Of course it might not be the greatest place to live based on the cold (it’s still a little cold at this point in the year), the large difference of daylight (sun goes down at 11pm and comes up at 3am, guess what that means during the winter), and ABBA. Other than those three things…well, daylight for 20 hours is pretty cool, the reverse is the negative part…I could live here (ok, it’s mainly ABBA that wards me off).
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There are is a large percentage of the Swedish male population (that we’ve seen) that opts for the bald look. This is bald by choice, not genetics…well, maybe genetics started some of them and they finished it. Many of them even opt for the upside-down face look of bald with facial hair (it looks best with a full beard). It seems an odd choice for a country that spends so much time in the cold.