Brontides

Ah, that’s a bit fairer to Copenhagen, I think!

Hello, you lucky people!

Well, it’s been a week and a half and no mistake. Copenhagen is one hell of a city. It is compact but dense – everything that’s worth seeing is within twenty minutes walk, easily. You can cover the entire city in a day, but then realise that the amount of stuff you miss is bewildering. I kept on having to extend my time there; there were roads I’m sure I went down six or seven times, but kept on finding new things on. It was amazingly beautiful, if a little on the chilly side, but had such a variety of things to do and see that, if I’d known the extent of it beforehand, I would probably have been intimidated. The tiny suburb of Christiania was worth a day in its own right – Christiania is an area of Copenhagen which is basically lawless and self-policing, does not pay taxes, is not covered by the police, and is ostenisably an experiment into a kind of hippy-utopian model society. It is as politically controversial as you’d expect from that description – while the city continues to consider it a ‘social experiment’, recent years have seen a number of police raids over drug offenses – but it is still an extremely interesting place to visit, if only because it has developed a distinct culture and atmosphere of its own.

The hostel was a bit utilitarian – no curtains, three-high stacked bunkbeds, no-power showers – but it did have a nice communal area, and, shock horror, free internet! I met a whole bunch of awesome people there, and could probably fill another one of this on that topic alone, but eventually I decided that the time was right to move on to Sweden. As it was, I timed my run a little early – I could probably have stayed an extra day or two – but you live and learn. Of all the places I’ve visited so far, Copenhagen is one of the few that I will definately come back to.

So I made my way to Malmo, which entailed train ride across a massive bridge over an ocean, which seems like a bad idea to me, but then I’m no engineer. Malmo itself is a horrible city; it’s utterly soulless, being dominated by two massive shopping streets and nothing even remotely resembling an atmosphere. I was quite happy to leave it behind me, and so headed to Gothemburg with unseemly haste.

The journey to Gothenburg was fun – a combination of delays, breakdowns and bus replacement services that would impress Railtrack – but I met a couple of American guys along the way so it wasn’t too bad. Gothenburg itself is a charming city; a little on the dull side, as, like Malmo, it lacks any kind of culture, but at the very least there was a little bit of excitement about the place. Sweden is a funny place; the people really seem to struggle to get out of work mode, and concequentially Gothenburg on a drizzling Saturday night was bordering on terminal. The stereotypes are pretty unfounded, in general; yes, it’s pricy, but still nothing on London or even Paris; and yes, the girls are pretty, but I really struggle to appreciate them. It’s hard to forget that, up until the late 1970s, Sweden had an active policy of eugenics – which is to say, everybody looks *exactly the same*. It’s a little scary and I fear for the Swedish gene pool.

So today I arrived in Stockholm, and the little of it I’ve seen so far looks stunning. I’m avoiding taking in too much of the city today, as I’m probably here for the best part of a week; tomorrow I shall be joined by the lovely Katie, who many of you will remember as an ex-girlfriend from a few years back. She’s come out, ostensiably for her birthday, but really to keep me company, for a week or so, following which I’ll be heading on to Oslo in Norway. Wending my way up the Norwegian coast is a prospect that fills me with particular glee, but first I must buy some gloves. Dear God I fear for my extremities! There is snow on the ground in southern Sweden already and it’s not going to get any warmer.

I hope all are well and that London, or indeed any of the other various places where this journal is read, is not too drizzly.

I ended up dating Maria for a short time when I got back to the UK.

Also, woah there on Copenhagen. I really had a good time there! It was a nice city, full of character and charm. Also, I met another girl who I really liked there, called Lise; we never really hooked up, due to going in opposite directions and suchlike. She ended up moving to London to be with another boy, who she is still with. We talk occasionally. Man, these were clearly my wild days (Such as they are…)

Sorry for the extended delay! I was trying to write one of these every five days or so – if only because they help to break up the time – but the last week has been kinda hectic. A lot of fun, but busy busy busy.

Booo, I think we left off in Berlin. From there I headed north to Stralsund, a tiny town on the North German coast, which was extremely pretty. The weather was still good, and the views across the Baltic at night were stunning. From there I went to Rostock for a night, which was a pretty but dull town, but had the distinction of having the most awesome youth hostel ever – instead of being a building, it was a boat, and my €15 bought me my own cabin for the night. It was probably the one and only time I have ever literally lept with glee.

So those two were nice, if a little bland. I was intending to spend another few days on the coast – Lübeck was my next port of call – but I guess I missed city life a little, co I decided to spend my last few days in Germany in Hamburg instead. I’m very glad I did, as well – it’s an awesome city. It’s probably the only German city that’s actually growing, and as such feels very modern and cosmopolitan, but it also has the distinction of having escaped both war and occupation relatively unscathed, and so has a lot of its history intact. I met some great people there, including an English girl called Maria, who was working there as a translator. It was one of the few places I’ve
regretted not having more time to stay in.

From Hamburg I took the train to Copenhagen. That was fun; for a part of the journey the train has board a ferry, so I even got to take in a mini cruise on the way. There was one panicy moment when I realised, as the train was leaving, that my Interrail ticket had actually expired three days previously. Had I been caught, it would have been hefty fine time, but happily I managed to distract the ticket lady with a carefully-timed, but appaling, boat-based pun (“You look pale. Are you OK?” “Yes, I just don’t like boats.” “Seasick, huh?” “No. Afraid of assault and bateau-ry!” Hey, don’t knock it, it worked). I’ve been in Copenhagen for a few days now. It’s a nice city, but somewhat lacking in the youth hostel department; a lot of them close for the winter, and the ones that stay open seem to be on the
utilitarian side. That was one advantage of Germany – it has great youth hostels.

So, I’m here for a few more days, then I’m headed into Sweden – first Mälmo for a day or two, then Stockholm, where I shall be joined for a few days by a friend from home. I’m not planning on spending long in Scandinavia – a few weeks at most – but there’s still a lot to see.

Incidentally, my mobile phone is dead. I shall probably be making do with phone cards from now on. The old number is thus defunct!

Anyhoo – hope you’re all well. Let me know any news!

Much love.

The brevity of this suggests that I was knackered. Also, boy did I ever undersell Eisenach here. One of the nicest places I went to – beautiful surroundings, and the Wartberg Castle was something else.

Hey folks.

Slightly less dramatic entry this time, although you do have the result of the Choose Your Own Joshventure to look forward to at the end – no skipping forward!

So the time since the last email has been spen in Eisenach and Berlin. Eisenach was a pretty town, with a big castle and a lot of history – Martin Luthor retreated there after the Emperor, Charles II, retracted his support, and spent nine months there translating the Old Testament into German. His cell in the castle (complete with a whalebone-vertibra footstool!) has been a draw for pilgrims for centuries. Reading the graffitti is always interesting, but in this place Franciscan monks had been carving their names into the walls since 1750, so there was a real sense of antiquity.

The town was on the edges of the Thungrian forest, so I got some hiking done as well. I did, however, suffer for not having a stick. Conventional logic would suggest that they’re everywhere, and that finding one of suitable walking length would be childishly simple, but it appears almost not to be the case. Perhaps they’ve all been stolen by unscrupulous walking-stick salesmen! A conspiracy looms.

Based on the looming termination of my interrail ticket, I cut short my meander through the rubbish little towns in Germany and headed straight for Berlin. Man, have I missed city living! I wouldn’t want to be stuck here for more than four or five days, but it’s been great just to be able to find someone to talk to every night. I’ve met a whole host of interesting people. The first couple of nights I spent with a pair of Americans called Joe and Elena, a brother-and-sister pair who were travelling for the laters birthday. After they left for Poland, I hooked up with a pair of English guys called Trevor and Owen, then last night I went out to a club with two Israeli girls (Keren and Rotem), two other English guys (Ian and Andy), and a girl who’s just from everywhere (half Brazilian, half Italian, living in France, fluent in Greek and Russian, called Maria). So my evenings have been occupied once again. Over-occupied, in fact; I got back to the hostel from last night about three hours ago. I’m mainly writing this as an excuse not to have to do anything meaningful.

The days have been pretty well spent as well. Berlin is pretty much a building site; it has developed uniquely of all Europe’s major cities, for all the obvious reasons. It does contain a stupid amount of history and culture, though, and there is a certain enrgy about it that was entirely missing from Paris. Standing in Berlin gives one hope for the future of Germany. Of all the cities I’ve been to, there are very few with as charged an atmosphere.

Anyway. Tomorrow I’m going to the North German coast for a few days, then, in accordance with the majority vote, heading towards Denmark and the North. As things stand, I’m redrawing the route to avoid anything west of Prague; I’m planing to see Estonia and Lithuania, then Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia etc, then Croatia, Greece and Turkey, before hopefully heading into Israel and the Middle East. I don’t yet know if I’ll head into Russia, simply because visa proceedings are going to be tricky to arrange, although I would love to go to St Petersberg and Moscow – Moscow has always been a dream to me. I may miss it this time, however, simply because I want to give Russia the attention it deserves at some point; get the Trans-Siberian railway and taking the whole sweep. We shall see.

Anyway – I think I may shamble back to bed. Hope you’re all well.

Option 2 ended up winning, although I never made it to Russia.

Also, I was way harsh on Munster here. Munster is a fine place! But, yes, slightly dull. (The exciting Martin Luther stuff is an Eisenach.)

Right, this time I’m going to do something slightly different. I’m not going to talk much about what I’ve done over thew last few days, because frankly they’ve been boring. Synopsis: two days forced in Dortmund (dull), two days in Münster (pretty but dull), two days in Eisenach (nice but ongoing). There you go – up to speed.

I bet you wish these posts were all like that, huh?

No, this time I’m going to introduce a note of democracy into the proceedings. Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books? It’s like those. (Those books were awesome for getting kids to learn how to read. I expect they’re single-handedly the reason why literacy rates are so high in the English-speaking world. Let’s face it, everybody who now reads regularly – e.g. everybody reading this – read them at some point. Actually, that’s probably really depressing if it’s true… although, having said that, no more so than Harry Potter for this generation. Digression ends!) Yes, I want input on what to do next.

The plan was always thus: Month 1 – Paris, Belgium, Luxembourg, half of Germany. So far so good. Month 2 – other half of Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czek Republic if we’re speedy. However, a new plan has arisen, and I need to decide now.

So, option A is the original Month 2.

Option 2:, I’ve been pretty good with money over the first month, and have thus decided I want to go to some contries I previously thought too expensive – Norway, Sweden and Finland, then approach Poland via Estonia etc, maybe take a swing at Moscow or St Petersberg if I can afford the visa. This is all well and good, but it does mean missing out on a lot of Germany, potentially including Hamburg, and may also leave me short at the end of the trip – the Turkey, Croatia, Greece and of the holiday, which I’m quite looking forward to. Also, I may have someone temorarily joining me at the end of October, and I don’t want to be somewhere completely antisocial.

OK, so it’s not a terribly interesting dilemma, but a tricky one nonetheless. In the morning I leave for Berlin, where I must decide whether to head North or East; anyone with a strong feeling either way, let me know!

Peace out.