Part of my Scandinavian vacation was touring Norway, seeing the major sights and the beautiful scenery. I did something called "Norway in a Nutshell", which is a package deal of train/bus/ferry tickets that collectively get you from one side of Norway to the other, via the most scenic route.
I took a bus from Margie's in Sweden to Oslo, which was about a 4 hour drive. It's great, because the busses actually have WIFI, so I could mess around online during the trip.
Getting into Norway was a bigger pain than I thought it would be. Our bus stopped at customs, and the border control people came in to check IDs and passports, while their dogs went through everything. No big deal, I thought...I'm legit. Well, then one of the border control ladies came up to me for my passport (I think I was the only person on the bus not from either Sweden or Norway). I gave it to her, and she studied it with a very mistrusting look on her face. "What is your business in Norway?" she asked.
"Tourism," I replied, mistakenly assuming that this one word would resolve everything.
"How long have you been here?"
"Um...I have been out of the US for almost 3 months, and I've never been to Norway."
"Where were you before you came here?"
"Germany."
"What were you doing in Germany?"
"Teaching English."
"Where?"
"At a school..."
"How long are you staying in Norway?"
"4 days."
"Where are you staying?"
"Oslo and Bergen."
"At a hotel or someone's house?"
"Youth hostels."
"Which youth hostels?"
"[Hostel A] and [Hostel B]."
At this point, she looked very closely at my passport for the 12th time, gave me a very serious, no-bull look, and gave it back to me. No thank-you, nothing. Then she just went to the next person.
I felt like a criminal, dealing more with an opposing lawyer than a border-control worker. I expected Norway to be more like Canada, where if you just wave at the border people on your way in, you're good. Guess I was wrong there...
Anyway, after that everything was fine. I made it to Oslo, and after asking 3 different people how to get to my hostel, I finally got there. The hostel was nice, so I was relieved. I went to bed early, because the next day was the big tour.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Copenhagen
So, I have been incredibly behind on my blog lately, and thought I'd better do something to appease the masses. Sorry guys!
I left off my last post with Margie and I at the bus station in Göteborg, getting ready to take the 2:55am night bus to Copenhagen, Denmark. It was freezing outside, so we were definitely ready to get in when the bus finally came. We arrived in Copenhagen around 7:30.
It was awesome to get there so early because then we could watch the city "wake up", so to speak. Our first impressions of the place were kind of sketchy, though. The fog was so thick that we could barely see 20 feet in front of us, and there was garbage EVERYWHERE. Especially crap from McDonalds, for some reason. That was kind of disappointing, and not good for pictures. However, later in the day the fog cleared and the garbage was all cleaned up by the city sanitation crew, so that helped.
We followed Rick Steves' walking tour, and it was wonderful. For those of you who don't know, Rick Steves is a travel guide who has written many guide books. The best part about him is that he includes walking tours with a map. You start at one place, and simply follow the numbers on the map to see some of the coolest stuff. A person can get a little exercise and not have to pay anyone for hauling them around. It's great. He's also a pretty funny writer. Margie and I are crazy about him and his books!
At the beginning of our walking tour, around 7:30, we saw people going home from clubs, still drunk. People party so hard here. We also ran into this middle-aged guy from New Zealand who just randomly started talking to us. We thought it was cool to talk to a Kiwi, until he started dissing Americans (very incoherently, I might add). He kept saying, "Americans, oooohh...tsssst...Americans...". What the hell is that supposed to mean? And this guy was so hypocritical, too. He said we weren't open to new cultures, and then said (about Americans): "They're just so...different...I mean, everything's so...different, like they're just...different. I don't like them..." What a tool.
To sum it up, we saw some cool churches, courtyards, alleyways, old buildings, castles, history museums, ships, statues, parks, the artist haven and anti-establishment commune "Christiana", and a few stores. The buildings were painted really cute, and it was fun to just look around and take pictures. We even got to see the national treasure reserves, which was awesome...There were diamond- and jewel-encrusted guns, and all sorts of other cool things. The guns reminded me of my dad, because I know he would have loved them!!
One of the funniest things I think we saw was a bar, with "PROBABLY THE BEST BEER IN TOWN" written on front of it. Haha, they are so polite about it! I have never seen the word "probably" used in advertising before. lol.
The only major problem we had in Copenhagen was the exchange rate, which we failed to check before going there. Unfortunately, we thought it was more in our favor than it actually was, and...yeah. You get the idea. We spent way more money than we thought we did, even though we didn't buy much.
Then we took the late bus back to Sweden and made it back to Margie's around 3am. We were both pretty tired, but that's ok. Good times were had by all!
I left off my last post with Margie and I at the bus station in Göteborg, getting ready to take the 2:55am night bus to Copenhagen, Denmark. It was freezing outside, so we were definitely ready to get in when the bus finally came. We arrived in Copenhagen around 7:30.
It was awesome to get there so early because then we could watch the city "wake up", so to speak. Our first impressions of the place were kind of sketchy, though. The fog was so thick that we could barely see 20 feet in front of us, and there was garbage EVERYWHERE. Especially crap from McDonalds, for some reason. That was kind of disappointing, and not good for pictures. However, later in the day the fog cleared and the garbage was all cleaned up by the city sanitation crew, so that helped.
We followed Rick Steves' walking tour, and it was wonderful. For those of you who don't know, Rick Steves is a travel guide who has written many guide books. The best part about him is that he includes walking tours with a map. You start at one place, and simply follow the numbers on the map to see some of the coolest stuff. A person can get a little exercise and not have to pay anyone for hauling them around. It's great. He's also a pretty funny writer. Margie and I are crazy about him and his books!
At the beginning of our walking tour, around 7:30, we saw people going home from clubs, still drunk. People party so hard here. We also ran into this middle-aged guy from New Zealand who just randomly started talking to us. We thought it was cool to talk to a Kiwi, until he started dissing Americans (very incoherently, I might add). He kept saying, "Americans, oooohh...tsssst...Americans...". What the hell is that supposed to mean? And this guy was so hypocritical, too. He said we weren't open to new cultures, and then said (about Americans): "They're just so...different...I mean, everything's so...different, like they're just...different. I don't like them..." What a tool.
To sum it up, we saw some cool churches, courtyards, alleyways, old buildings, castles, history museums, ships, statues, parks, the artist haven and anti-establishment commune "Christiana", and a few stores. The buildings were painted really cute, and it was fun to just look around and take pictures. We even got to see the national treasure reserves, which was awesome...There were diamond- and jewel-encrusted guns, and all sorts of other cool things. The guns reminded me of my dad, because I know he would have loved them!!
One of the funniest things I think we saw was a bar, with "PROBABLY THE BEST BEER IN TOWN" written on front of it. Haha, they are so polite about it! I have never seen the word "probably" used in advertising before. lol.
The only major problem we had in Copenhagen was the exchange rate, which we failed to check before going there. Unfortunately, we thought it was more in our favor than it actually was, and...yeah. You get the idea. We spent way more money than we thought we did, even though we didn't buy much.
Then we took the late bus back to Sweden and made it back to Margie's around 3am. We were both pretty tired, but that's ok. Good times were had by all!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Sweden!
On Saturday I got up at 5 am so I could make my flight to Sweden and visit Margie in Gothenburg (Göteborg). It was crazy...I was in the city so early getting to the airport that I actually saw a pigeon wake up. He was in his nest when he slowly opened his eyes, slowly moved his head from side to side, stretched out his wings, and then tiredly flew below to look for breakfast crumbs. lol.
The flight to Gothenburg from Berlin was only an hour and 15 minutes. Everything went fine. I was so excited to get a soft pretzel for a snack on the plane (gotta love German airlines ;), until I realized it was really only a little bit of bread around a solid brick of butter in the shape of a pretzel. I guess disappointing airline food really is international...
Sweden is so clean, and the people are really friendly here! It is also very beautiful right now with all the fall colors. Margie and I met, and she showed me her apartment. It's pretty cute. I'm staying in a sleeping bag on the floor, living the dream. :P
In the afternoon, we took a ferry to the islands around Gothenburg. They are soo beautiful. We walked around one of the islands (which is actually residential), and got totally lost. It was a great adventure, except for the part when we found a dead jackrabbit. That was pretty nasty....lol.
Later that evening we met Margie's roommate Lotte and some other friends of theirs from the lab to sing karaoke at a friend's apartment. It was actually a PS2 game called "Singstar", where you are judged on pitch, rhythm, lyrics, etc. and receive points for accuracy. We played in teams, and our team totally sucked (Margie and I were major failures, haha). We lost all 14 rounds!! Hahahah....so sad.
We went home for a quick few-hour nap before having to leave at 1:30am to go catch our 2:55 bus to Copenhagen. More on that in the next post. :)
The flight to Gothenburg from Berlin was only an hour and 15 minutes. Everything went fine. I was so excited to get a soft pretzel for a snack on the plane (gotta love German airlines ;), until I realized it was really only a little bit of bread around a solid brick of butter in the shape of a pretzel. I guess disappointing airline food really is international...
Sweden is so clean, and the people are really friendly here! It is also very beautiful right now with all the fall colors. Margie and I met, and she showed me her apartment. It's pretty cute. I'm staying in a sleeping bag on the floor, living the dream. :P
In the afternoon, we took a ferry to the islands around Gothenburg. They are soo beautiful. We walked around one of the islands (which is actually residential), and got totally lost. It was a great adventure, except for the part when we found a dead jackrabbit. That was pretty nasty....lol.
Later that evening we met Margie's roommate Lotte and some other friends of theirs from the lab to sing karaoke at a friend's apartment. It was actually a PS2 game called "Singstar", where you are judged on pitch, rhythm, lyrics, etc. and receive points for accuracy. We played in teams, and our team totally sucked (Margie and I were major failures, haha). We lost all 14 rounds!! Hahahah....so sad.
We went home for a quick few-hour nap before having to leave at 1:30am to go catch our 2:55 bus to Copenhagen. More on that in the next post. :)
Friday, October 8, 2010
Margie in Berlin
So on Saturday, Margie flew into Berlin to visit me from Sweden. It was so great seeing here again and catching up! I love this girl. :D
I picked her up at the airport Saturday evening, and we went into the city to hang out for a while. She chose the perfect weekend to visit, because Sunday was "Tag der deutschen Einheit" (Day of German Unity), a celebration of exactly 21 years since the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of communism in Germany. There were a lot of celebrations going on around the city, including a major one underneath the Brandenburg Gate.
We also hung out with our mutual friend Calder, who showed us around some cool random places. Margie got to try Döner for the first time (a Berlin classic--although it is actually a Turkish item...basically it's a meat and vegetable filled pita thing...sort of hard to describe). We also went to a trendy little bar in Kreuzberg and I tried a drink called "Weird Boobs". It tasted like nothingness, and I don't exactly know where the weird boobs come into play...so much for that 4 Euro...
At one point we also checked out a bookstore of all books in English (great for Margie), and then went to a high-quality absinthe bar and had absinthe for the first time. It was the most amazing drink I've even had, and I could see myself becoming wildly addicted to it if I wasn't careful. Good thing it's so expensive and therefore can only be for very special occasions! That takes care of that problem.
We got all of the fun stuff done we wanted to do, including going to the Brandenburg Gate, Alexanderplatz, the German History Museum, Kunsthaus Tacheles, the Jewish Museum, Checkpoint Charlie, the remains of the Berlin Wall, the Berlin Cathedral, White Trash Fast Food, etc. I also took Margie to a few grocery stores when we went on food runs (exotic! Haha).
Margie bought an authentic Soviet military hat for her brother Kaj, and just for fun we messed around taking pictures at the Wall wearing it and making stupid faces and gestures. Of course at this time, a carload (and later a BUSLOAD) of people drove by, laughing and taking pictures of us. Hahaha. That was only slightly embarassing...
Tomorrow, we get to switch roles when I visit her in Sweden! We are going to do stuff in Gothenburg, then spend a day in Copenhagen, Denmark before she has to return to work and I go tour Norway. Finally, I'll have a day in Stockholm before flying "home". I love my life!
I picked her up at the airport Saturday evening, and we went into the city to hang out for a while. She chose the perfect weekend to visit, because Sunday was "Tag der deutschen Einheit" (Day of German Unity), a celebration of exactly 21 years since the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of communism in Germany. There were a lot of celebrations going on around the city, including a major one underneath the Brandenburg Gate.
We also hung out with our mutual friend Calder, who showed us around some cool random places. Margie got to try Döner for the first time (a Berlin classic--although it is actually a Turkish item...basically it's a meat and vegetable filled pita thing...sort of hard to describe). We also went to a trendy little bar in Kreuzberg and I tried a drink called "Weird Boobs". It tasted like nothingness, and I don't exactly know where the weird boobs come into play...so much for that 4 Euro...
At one point we also checked out a bookstore of all books in English (great for Margie), and then went to a high-quality absinthe bar and had absinthe for the first time. It was the most amazing drink I've even had, and I could see myself becoming wildly addicted to it if I wasn't careful. Good thing it's so expensive and therefore can only be for very special occasions! That takes care of that problem.
We got all of the fun stuff done we wanted to do, including going to the Brandenburg Gate, Alexanderplatz, the German History Museum, Kunsthaus Tacheles, the Jewish Museum, Checkpoint Charlie, the remains of the Berlin Wall, the Berlin Cathedral, White Trash Fast Food, etc. I also took Margie to a few grocery stores when we went on food runs (exotic! Haha).
Margie bought an authentic Soviet military hat for her brother Kaj, and just for fun we messed around taking pictures at the Wall wearing it and making stupid faces and gestures. Of course at this time, a carload (and later a BUSLOAD) of people drove by, laughing and taking pictures of us. Hahaha. That was only slightly embarassing...
Tomorrow, we get to switch roles when I visit her in Sweden! We are going to do stuff in Gothenburg, then spend a day in Copenhagen, Denmark before she has to return to work and I go tour Norway. Finally, I'll have a day in Stockholm before flying "home". I love my life!
Russian
During the Soviet occupation of East Germany and East Berlin after WWII (or "World War Squared", as I like to call it), learning the Russian language became mandatory in East German schools. English, on the other hand, was optional and not as encouraged, as the English-speaking world was almost entirely capitalistic. Therefore, it's not surprising that many of the adults ages 35 and up in former East Germany can still speak and understand more Russian than English (if they know any English at all).
This is good for me, because it forces me to speak German to these people.
It's funny, because the very basic Russian that I knew before coming here has widely impressed some of my new friends. Who knew an American could be familiar with one foreign language, let alone 2, 3, or even 4? :P
So one of my co-teachers has been giving Russian lessons once a week after school, just for fun, and I've joined the little group of high school students. So now I'm learning more Russian, via the German language. It's intense, but in a good way. Even though it's really hard, at least at first, I am happy it gives me something to do, and something new to study.
Not to mention, now German seems like a piece of cake!! :P
This is good for me, because it forces me to speak German to these people.
It's funny, because the very basic Russian that I knew before coming here has widely impressed some of my new friends. Who knew an American could be familiar with one foreign language, let alone 2, 3, or even 4? :P
So one of my co-teachers has been giving Russian lessons once a week after school, just for fun, and I've joined the little group of high school students. So now I'm learning more Russian, via the German language. It's intense, but in a good way. Even though it's really hard, at least at first, I am happy it gives me something to do, and something new to study.
Not to mention, now German seems like a piece of cake!! :P
So much time on my hands...
Only having 12 hours per week to work is great, because I am free to do pretty much whatever I want in the remaining hours. I can go into the city whenever I want, I can sleep in late every day, I can waste hours on the internet....The only work I have to do for school can be done in a matter of 20-30 minutes.
However, this has some major drawbacks. Constantly living in vacation-mode has made me extremely lazy. I sleep way more than is neccessary, I procrastinate on everything official, and I've become totally unorganized and ADD. This is the opposite of what I expected from living in such an orderly, efficient society. Too bad everyone at school is extremely laid back about my presence...I guess that's what happens when I am shared by 4 teachers. They are just happy when I can be there at all.
Things I should be doing include: practicing my violin, organizing the hundreds of photos I have taken and post them online, prepping my research, studying German vocab, responding to emails and facebook messages, exploring German media, returning phonecalls, updating this blog, reading, etc. It's not like I don't have the time!!! UGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
However, this has some major drawbacks. Constantly living in vacation-mode has made me extremely lazy. I sleep way more than is neccessary, I procrastinate on everything official, and I've become totally unorganized and ADD. This is the opposite of what I expected from living in such an orderly, efficient society. Too bad everyone at school is extremely laid back about my presence...I guess that's what happens when I am shared by 4 teachers. They are just happy when I can be there at all.
Things I should be doing include: practicing my violin, organizing the hundreds of photos I have taken and post them online, prepping my research, studying German vocab, responding to emails and facebook messages, exploring German media, returning phonecalls, updating this blog, reading, etc. It's not like I don't have the time!!! UGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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