Amsterdam!

This sums it up - a clog boat on a canal in Amsterdam!

Sorry for delay in posting - recovering this week from our big weekend in Amsterdam!

We (12 of us - Canadians, English, Australians and a token European, an Austrian) enjoyed a 15 hour train ride to get there, which included 3 different trains, one involving a large number of drunk Danish men in leiderhosen on their way to Oktoberfest! We also stopped in Duisberg in Germany for 2 hours, so I got to experience my first taste of Germany - a nice bakery open at 6am!

Anthony, Ben, Mel and Peter - Aussies en route to Amsterdam!

Once we arrived in Amsterdam, tired but excited, we realised how warm it was (much warmer than Denmark had been - my coat was so not necessary!), and also just how lovely a city it is!




It's a beautiful city, the canals are pretty! We spent the majority of our time there wandering the streets, enjoying the feel and look of this gorgeous city.

Charles and Christoph




We saw the Van Gogh museum, which included some of the famed sunflower pictures, and was set in a lovely park. It still amazes me how all the art we study at school is actually hanging in these European cities, in the originals, just able to be seen!



On the Friday night, we found a restaurant serving steak, chips and salad for 9 Euro - bargain! We then wandered around the red light district, which is certainly something to behold! Basically, all the prostitutes are in windows of little rooms with beds and bathrooms, which they rent and control, and men come along and negotiate with them! It's one of the best and safest ways for women, as they are not at the mercy of people on the street, but it's quite amusing to watch, as these women just sit there in their underwear, sometimes eating! You can't take any photos, cos they get pretty angry, but just imagine a really big street, with a canal in the middle, with strip clubs and porn stores and hundreds of lighted windows on both sides - it's quite cool! And, we went and saw a sex show - hey, in Amsterdam, do as they do! It was amusingly mechanical in a lot of ways, but quite an eye-opening experience!

We also saw Anne Frank's house over the weekend, which is quite moving, as it is actually where she and her family were hiding, so you really see what effect war has on people.




Otherwise, we spent quite a bit of time in the nice little cafes and coffee houses scattered around the canal, just soaking up the atmosphere - it was less of a crazy touristy weekend, and more of a relaxing experience of a city, which was very nice! And my friend Emily is on exchange there, so I got to catch up with her, which was also nice!





After another 15 hour train ride back, we are now home in Aarhus for at least the next 2 weeks, until we go to Spain for the October break! It's actually really nice to be home for a while, so I can do boring things like cook and clean and wash my clothes, oh, yeah, and some of my readings for classes too!

It's pronounced Copen-hay-gen ...

It appears that we Aussies say it all wrong! I spent the weekend in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, which is 3 hours away from Aarhus by bus - like Sydney to Canberra! However, the bus to Copenhagen goes on a ferry for half the trip, which is much more exciting!

This was an activity organised by the Aarhus Studenterhus, which is the organisation run by students, for Danish and international students. They organise things quite a lot, however the word 'organise' should be used loosely, as frequently the 'guides' know less than we do, and always seem confused and disorganised - such as when we meet on the bus, it is always hard to know who is actually organising us, and what will happen!

That was the case with Copenhagen, where our poor leader Tomas had been thrown in at the last minute, and actually knew very little about Copenhagen - he had to ask locals for directions from the train station to our accomodation, from there to the restaurant, to the bus ... He also knew very little about our accomodation, such as breakfast times, what to do with luggage etc - what was advertised as a 'hotel' was actually a hostel, with three-storey bunk beds! With no ladders, so the boys had to vault up!

But it's all part of the fun of travelling, really, as was our spending both nights wandering the streets of Copenhagen, trying to find a nightclub without exhorbitant entry fees! We spent much time walking in the wrong direction, a small amount of time being converted in the Scientology building, some time with kebabs - a usual night out, really! On the Saturday night we went and saw a Scottish band, Mogwai, perform - very cool, wall of sound type music!



During the day, we saw the Rosenberg palace, Nyhavn (a former fishing village, on a canal - lovely!), the Parliament building (Folketing), the main shopping street (Stroget) and Christiania, which is a little hippie community out of the city centre, self-contained on a lovely bit of riverfront. We also did a little shopping and general wandering around, near the National Theatre and the Town Hall - so all in all, a lot achieved in 2 days, as we arrived Friday night and left Sunday afternoon!



Rosenberg Palace



Nyhavn



Christiania


Last night some of my lovely German friends cooked a traditional German meal, which name I can't spell - meatballs with potatoes, peas and a nice sauce - very yummy!

After a couple of busy days at home here, with uni and socialising and the usual, we are off to Amsterdam this weekend - 11 of us, Canadians, Australians, English and Austrians - it should be lots of fun!

Concerts and Parties - it's a hard life!

Well, although the title of this post indicates that again, I am spending most of my time partying, you will all be pleased to know that I have actually finally started classes!

I have 9 hours of class a week, conveniently spaced over Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so I still get 4 day weekends, which is most important for all my European travel!

I have International Trade and Finance Law on Tuesday afternoons, which seems midly interesting, the UN Human Rights System on Wednesday morning, which I very much enjoy, and International Copyright at the ungodly hour of 8:15am on Thursday (particularly so as I have to catch the 7:25am bus, and it's still dark!). So far, so good - they all seem manageable, interesting and useful - and they all have oral exams at the end of the year, so a nice change from long written ones! As one of the only native English speakers in all my classes, I am also at an advantage, usually over the lecturer also, which is good, however my lack of knowledge about European law will probably even up the balance!

Last week was the Aarhus Festival, which was themed as "Womania", so lots of events around this topic - unfortunately, due to a combination of classes and a rather nasty cold I have picked up, I didn't actually attend many of the events, but the decorations were interesting - hot pink bras strung everywhere!

I did, however, go to a Danish rock/pop concert last Tuesday (where I think I picked up my cold coming home after midnight!), which was lots of fun - they had decorated with sand and palmtrees, and the bands were actually really good!



On Saturday night I had a belated birthday party, which was a nice relaxed bbq in the afternoon, degenerating into drinking and chatting through the evening. Around 35 people turned up, which is a good number - I've made some really good friends here, as evidenced by the trouble they went to, making me a cake, decorating and even presents! I got a rubber vase, which sounds strange, but is actually a normal vase made of flexible rubbery material - very practical for the travelling girl! And also some photo frames and a thermos, which will also be practical in this cold weather! And three of my Danish flatmates gave me a tape of a Hans Christian Anderson tale in Danish, to practice my language skills!


German Phillip, Canadian Jonathan, Aussie Ben


Aussie Peter, Canadian Jade, German Sonja


My lovely rubber vase!


My Danish flatmates (L-R): Tobias, Mikkel and Peter

All in all, it has been another busy and enjoyable week - I'm hoping to kick this cold soon, particularly as we are heading to Copenhagen this weekend, to see the city, and also see the band Mogwai.

I ate Rudolph!

We spent Thursday in Bergen, wandering around the old part of the city, Bryggen, and making our way laboriously to this old wooden church outside the main city centre. We had to walk to the bus station, then catch a 20 minute bus, then walk about 20 minutes up a hill, following various helpful Norweigan signs, then a helpful old Norweigan man, before finally reaching this old wooden church, which is around 1000 years old. However, the inside looked rather new, which we discovered was the result of a heavy metal fan burning it down in 1992, seeing it as an insult to the pagan gods! Still a nice church - even the nails are made out of wood!







After more wandering and sightseeing, we took the overnight train back to Oslo - sleeping compartments being waaay too expensive, we opted for the sleeping in your seat option - they give you a free pack with blanket, blow-up pillow, eye mask and ear plugs, so it was actually quite good! And not too bad for sleeping, until some loud people got on at 4am and talked behind us in a foreign language for the next 3 hours - how rude!

We arrived in Oslo, again sleepy, at 6:30am, dumped our bags at the hostel (again, can't check in til 3!), then had a huge buffet breakfast, meeting up with our Swiss friend Matthias, who had spent the previous 2 days in Oslo. We wanted to go to the National Gallery, to see the painted Scream, but it didn't open til 10, and it was around 8:30 at this stage, so instead we went to the graveyard (as you do!), to see Henrik Ibsen (playwright) and Edvard Munch's graves - it was actually quite nice, sunny and pretty!



The painted Scream was quite good, although rather over-hyped for a small painting! The rest of the gallery was quite a mix of modern and old, foreign and Norweigan - some Picasso and Rodin even! We also went to a cool contemporary art museum next door.

Then we started the odyssey that explains the title of this post - in Bergen, we had seen a restaurant serving reindeer, but didn't get around to eating there. Jade decided it was her mission to eat reindeer before we left Norway, so we found a place that did serve it, (after about an hour of asking at various places and being constantly redirected!) and booked it for the evening. We then visited the old Norweigan fort, and watched a huge cruise ship sail away, before collapsing back in our hostel for a much needed nap!



We had a lovely (and rather expensive - as is everything in Norway - it costs around $8 for a Coke!) dinner, and the reindeer was really nice - quite gamey, but the same consistency as steak - well worth the effort!


Our dinner party - L-R: Me, Charlotte, Jade, Matthias


The reindeer itself - yummy!

Saturday morning we started our long journey back to Aarhus - arriving back in Stansted at 3:30pm, but unable to fly out until 7:30am on Sunday, we caught the bus to a nearby town, Bishop's Stortford, and had a nice big Indian meal and a few drinks at the pub, before putting our newly acquired train blankets to good use for our second night sleeping in the airport! This may sound strange to those accustomed to Sydney Airport, however there are always so many people coming in and out, as it is a major transfer hub, that it is quite normal to see clumps of people sleeping all around the airport!

We finally made it home at 12pm on Sunday - it was a great trip, but nice to be home, and also nice that Aarhus actually feels like home!

Planes, Trains and Boats

Ok, so now I'm home, I can give you the full story from my trip, as I'm not paying exhorbitant prices for internet!

We left Aarhus on Sunday night at 10:30pm, arriving at London Stansted at 11:30pm. Our flight to Oslo wasn't until 6:30am on Monday, so sleeping in the airport occurred - as planned! And for those who think it's strange to fly out of Scandanavia to fly back in, it is, however it's about a third of the price, so worth the extra effort!


We had blankets and jumpers, so we were ok, however we were in a slight draft, so not the best sleep ever - we arrived in Oslo quite groggy! Once we found our hostel, we couldn't check in til 3pm, annoying as it was 12pm, so we changed and went to see the sights!

We went to the Munch Museet, which is the museum created when Edvard Munch, the Norweigan artist, died and left all his stuff to Oslo. His most famous work is 'The Scream' (see us imitating it below!), which he did about 3 paintings of, luckily, as the one at the museum has been stolen, so there's only a sketch there! We discovered later in the week that an actual painting of it is at the National Gallery, but more on that later!





We then wandered around, checked in, then wandered the streets of Oslo, up to the Palace, the Parliament and the University, all lovely old buildings. Oslo itself, however, didn't appear that nice, as there were lots of homeless ppl, and it was quite dirty. Also, the guy checking us in at the hostel was most unhelpful, which can certainly affect your experience of a place!



My most exciting thing, however, was buying my knee high, purple, lace up gumboots - I have been tracking them all through Denmark, but they didn't have my size, however they did have them in Oslo, so the city immediately seemed brighter! These boots will certainly be exceedingly practical in the rainy mass that is Aarhus!

After an early dinner and an early night's sleep, we caught the train to Bergen on Tuesday. This train ride, although lasting 7 hours, was just lovely, as it wound up very steep slopes, past glaciers, waterfalls and lots of amazing rugged scenery - a very enjoyable way to get across the country!





Bergen is a lovely city, old buildings, and a really nice feel to it - the hostel guy was nice, people seemed very friendly, and the city itself, and where we were staying, very close to the harbour, is just gorgeous.

Another early night, cos we had to be on the boat at 8am on Wed! Which we managed quite well, and had an awesome day for my 25th birthday. We started on an express boat, which took us through the widest fjord, which is about 200 km across, and just has great scenery. Then we switched boats mid-fjord (literally, another boat stopped alongside us, and we crossed a gangplank!), to go through the Noerefjord, which is World Heritage listed, and is the narrowest fjord. It was just amazing, like being in 'Lord of the Rings', sailing slowly through these massive mountains, with glaciers and waterfalls on either side - absolutely gorgeous! The pictures certainly don't do it justice, but it was just wonderful!






After that, we stopped at a place called Gudvangen, then took a coach up a very steep road, with 13 bends, so steep that the bus was almost vertical at some points! More amazing scenery, then a stop at the top to look at the beautiful mountains in the distance - words don't really do it justice!






Then back down the other side, then a train back to Bergen - lots of different types of transport! We then went out for dinner for my birthday, to an American steakhouse (which seems a strange choice, but I haven't had proper red meat since I left Sydney, it feels, so it was great to get a huge steak!) The place was really nice, actually, and the waitresses even surprised me with a huge icecream dessert for my birthday - so nice!



We were all too tired to go out, so we went to bed! This post is quite long, so I will do the rest in another post :-)