Scandinavia-May-2007

Sweden

Jacob Redding — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 17:56:10 +0000

The video camera broke while we were traveling throughout Scandinavia (and Germany) so we decided to create a super cheesy video using only the still pictures, digi-cam based movies and our sweet wonderful voices.

The video includes pictures of Stockholm, Gothenburg, Kiel, Germany, Copenhagen and Malmo. We took over 300 or 400 pictures but only used about 30 pictures. To see the whole set, in full res, click over to the Gallery.

Enjoy!

Malmo on the way back to Stockholm, Sweden

Jacob Redding — Sun, 20 May 2007 17:49:29 +0000

On our way to Stockholm, Sweden from Lubeck, Germany we stopped off in Malmo, Sweden to see the sleepy commuter town. Malmo, although once a big part of Sweden appears little more than a commuter town now.

The old town still contains the standard cobble stoned streets, the obligatory towered church and, of course, a castle. It was great to see those things but the town itself was dead. There were very few shops and the town center was devoid of activity.

We had a hard time wasting the 3 hours we had between trains.

Copenhagen = Bike love

Jacob Redding — Mon, 14 May 2007 07:30:18 +0000

We arrived by train yesterday. The train took 5 hours and it was an absolutely amazing journey. Sandwiches, marzipan (from Lubeck, of course), pastries and a bottle of wine all stretched out over 5 hours with nice scenery outside the window. I think this is the only way to enjoy a train ride.

If I had to sum up Copenhagen in a single word I would say "Bikes". No, wait. I would say...

BIKES!!!

They are everwhere. In front of the train station there must have been a few thousand bikes just chained up awaiting their riders. On the streets there were thousands more as though bikes outnumbered the cars; which is quite possible. The city is designed for bikes too.

Elevated bike paths are situated next to but below the sidewalk by an inch or two and ontop of the roadway by about two inches. In effect every roadway has 3 "areas"; 2-3 lanes for cars, 2 elevated bike lanes and wide sidewalks. It makes bicycling throughout the city an enjoyable, non-stressful experience.

The city also encourages people to utilize bicycles as a form of transport by putting free city bicycles throughout the town. You can simply walk up to one of these stands stick a 20 Kronor coin (about $4usd) in a slot which will release the chain. Then ride the bike around town and return it to ANY of the bike stands around the city (which are somewhat plentiful), put the chain back in the slot and get your coin back. You can also just leave it on the sidewalk and someone will return it for you (heck wouldn't you.. its a free 4 bucks!).

Every day we were in Copenhagen we used the free city bikes to get around. Some of the bikes were beat up and it would usually take us a while to find one that would fit Diana (she's short by Danish standards) but we always found some. It was great. We biked to the Botanical gardens, the castle, the radhus (city hall), the opera house, the theaters and everywhere in between.

One of the day we stopped off in Christiania. I could go on an on about Christiania but I think its better for you to read the wikipedia entry because it pretty much sums it all up. Even though I got a little sick while in Christiania it was definitely worth the visit.

aaaahh. Copenhagen, you'll always hold a special place in my heart. You bike loving, steal-my-heart city you!

(oh ya.. we also saw a really nice noise band there...schweet!)

A fairy tale awaits

Jacob Redding — Mon, 14 May 2007 07:22:57 +0000

Lubeck is the ferry tale city of Germany, honestly. The entire town could be (and in some cases is) the set of a fairy tale. The city begins with a two towered gated entrance that leads directly into a town center which holds an elaborate church set next to a bricked courtyard. Every building and streets maintains a fairy tale theme through the town.

Little alleyways spill into courtyards. A moat surrounds the town and food vendors roam the streets.

To make the fairy tale even more real we happen to arrive in town the same day as a renaissance fair. People in full on renaissance period clothing roamed the streets and the foods, beers and other goods were all created and served in a fairly traditional manner (cleaned up of course).

Lubeck is an amazing town, I would definitely recommend people going although I wouldn't visit again. Once you've seen it (which cann be done in a day or very throughly in less than a week) you've seen it.

Denmark.. no wait Germany

Jacob Redding — Mon, 14 May 2007 07:19:33 +0000

We had originally planned to travel from Gothenburg, Sweden to Copenhagen, Denmark and then over to Hesinki, Finland. When we went to purchase our tickets to Copenhagen though we decided instead to go to Kiel, Germany. At the time of purchase neither of us knew what was in Kiel. In fact neither of us had even thought of going to German until about 5 minutes before we purchased our tickets.

We decided to go to Germany for a few reasons

Neither of us had been to Germany before
The temperature in Helsinki was going to drop for our visit
The ferry looked nice and was inexpensive

That's about all the criteria we needed.

After purchasing the tickets we kicked around Gothenburg for a bit before heading back up to Damien and Lisa's place. When we told them about our ticket purchase they said, and I quote..."OH, you're going on the Booze Cruise!".

The what.. huh?

So here's the deal. A lot of Swedes take the cruise to Germany to (a) Drink like crazy on board and (b) purchase alcohol on board and in Germany. Once the boat hits international waters, about 10 minutes into the 12 hour journey, alcohol prices drop significantly as the state taxes, V.A.T and other misc. markups don't have to be paid.

When we got on board, the next day, we found out that Damien and Lisa's were 100% correct. Almost the second the boat hit International waters and the on-board liquor store opened for business people were grabbing, purchasing and opening beer bottles and other liquor everywhere.

It was a mad house scene of liquor frenzy

Anyhow so that's how we ended up in Kiel, Germany instead of Copenhagen, Denmark via a booze cruise ferry that was purchased on a whim. We still had no idea what was in Kiel but while still in Gothenburg we ducked into a book store that happened to have an english version of Lonely Planet Germany. There was an entire 3 pages on Kiel, 4 if you count the map. The book essentially said. The great thing about Kiel is that it is close to Lubeck.

During WWII Kiel, Germany was a major manufacturer and port for German U-boats and Britian took it out with a vengenance. Only 20% of the town remained after Britian bombed it and once the war had ended the people decided to not restore the former town but build anew. As a result the city is lacking anything. The town's layout is odd, the buildings are new (although built with traditional style), and emphasis is placed on commerce rather than on recreation or the beauty of a town.

Unfortunately the Lonely planet book was right. Unless we wanted to shop or drink there really wasn't anything to do in Lubeck with the exception of seeing a few German U-boats but those were outside of the town center and would take about an hour by bus to see. After walking around the town for an hour, getting something to eat we decided to catch the first train to Lubeck.

We arrive in Kiel at 9am and left for Lubeck on the first train we could which was at 11:44am.

28 schweet years

Jacob Redding — Fri, 11 May 2007 07:25:33 +0000

It is currently midnight in California and 9am in Sweden (my current location) which makes me offficially 28 years old right now! Wow... 28.

I'm getting old.

aaahh. I have so much more to do with my life and I'm so far behind the curve. I'm not married yet, I don't own a house and I don't have any kids. My life is ruined what am I going to do! Oh wait... that's right I don't care so much for cultural standards!

Ha! I'm not old, I'm just getting started. F* the house, F* the kids and marriage t.... oh wait, I'm engaged. Ok the marriage thing can stay (now we'll just have to decide on a wedding date.. oh some day, some day).

30 is, however, right around the corner and I still can't fluently or conversationaly speak a second language. A while back I blogged about learning spanish with the goal of fluency and/or conversational by the age of 30. Unfortunately I fell into a very typical routine and focused more on work than on my personal development (i.e. learning a language).

No more!

I will be conversational in a second language by the time I'm 30 and if I have to move to a foreign country to do it, so be it! I'm putting Spanish on hold and Diana and I are moving to China. If I can't learn Chinese in China then I'm hopeless. I'll move back to the states, buy a trailer home, park it in an old drive-in movie theater and sell beer can wind chimes until I finally drop dead at the ripe old age of 50.

Ok so now that I'm professed my desire to learn a second language lets move on.

Today for my birthday Diana and I are going to wander the streets of Gothenburg, Sweden where we have been for the past two days. In the evening we're meeting up with Lisa and Damien, whom we've been staying with, for Dinner and then we're off to Kiel, Germany!

We have absolutely zero idea of what is in Kiel, Germany and apparently, according to Wikipedia, after WWII there isn't much left to Kiel (80+% what destroyed in bombings and never rebuilt). The only thing we are doing is tracking down Döner, Kebabs and possibly getting train tickets to Hamburg ;). I think we can find something to do for a day (or two) before we head up to Copenhagen, Denmark.

Every day you travel without having a clue with what to do is a good day.

I'll write again when we're in Germany or Denmark! Pictures in the gallery!

Gothenburg

Jacob Redding — Wed, 09 May 2007 08:31:01 +0000

We arrived in Gothenburg by train yesterday. A 5 hour train ride from Stockholm that cuts right through the middle southern half of the country. It was a beautiful train ride filled with everything green. Green trees, rolling green hills, Green grass, blue water.. green, greeny things. Everything and I mean everything is green.

The landscape looks quite similar to Vancouver B.C or the northwest tip of the United States (north of Seattle). the climate is similar too. The outside air temperature is moderate with crisp breezes; well at least I like the call them crisp, I think Diana would say "cold" or even possibly "freakin' cold". Trees are abundant and that is pretty much all you can see when you're outside of the town circle; which is where we're staying.

Around 6pm yesterday the train stopped at Central Station, Gothenburg, the last stop of the line, and we were met by Damien. We met Damien, and his wife Lisa, through Couchsurfing.com. Damien and Lisa were not only kind enough to host us (i.e. give us a place to stay) but Damien also met us at the train station and guided us back to their apartment. This turned out to be quite nice as their apartment isn't exactly in the town circle. In fact its out of town, up a few hills and hidden behind lots of trees which pretty much obscure any view of the town. The view from their apartment, however, is beautiful.

After arriving at the apartment Damien reheated some Lasagne for us as Diana and I stared out the window like two deer caught in the headlights. The view is absolutely amazing (hhm.. maybe i should take a picture). After a quick dinner Diana took a walk around the apartment complex, played on the nearby oh-so-Swedish playground (I'm definitely taking pictures of it) and then came back just after 10pm. Damien, Lisa, Diana and I then stayed up until around 1:30am just talking about random things.

Now its Wednesday morning otherwise known as 2 days before my Birthday!

We should probably get out and see the town.

Train to Gothenburg

Jacob Redding — Wed, 09 May 2007 08:00:01 +0000

We took the train from Stockholm to Gothenburg yesterday. It was a 5 hour journey with several stop offs as it crossed through the middle of the country. The train ride was absolutely amazing. The seats were plush, comfortable and all had amazing views. The "bistro" car looked as though it were straight out of the early 1900s perfectly preserved. You could tell at a glance that the trains were well used by the amenities on board (one of which included a half-car length children's play area), the upkeep of each train station and location of the train station (all of which were in the middle of town).

This is short video that doesn't show much. Its mainly just me saying hi.

Arrival, City Lodge Hostel

Jacob Redding — Mon, 07 May 2007 07:20:42 +0000

We landed in Arlanda yesterday around 11:30am Sweden time; which is about oh-too-early NYC time. Flying time was only 7.5 hours but I spent time watching "Epic Movie" on the plane and eating my vegetarian dinner; which oddly enough had a chicken salad on the side. The movie was just over an hour and dinner was served about an hour or so after take off so I didn't even attempt to sleep until at least two hours into the flight; which left about five hours to sleep. I think about 3 of these were decent REM sleep and the others were T&T sleep (Toss and Turn).

The flight was comfortable though. Although we were in coach the seats had good leg room and tilted back quite a bit. They weren't lay flat seat but they were decent. The flight attendants were well dressed (suits for the men and dresses for the women and extremely nice). I really liked the flight.

Upon arrival in Sweden we breezed through immigration quite quickly, exchanged some money at the airport (exchange rate wasn't horrible and we had quite a big chunk of American cash (i.e. paper in Sweden), then hopped on the bus for the 40 minute ride into the city. Both of us were extremely tired but we checked into the Hostel and hit the town; forcing ourselves to stay awake until the late evening so that we'd be better adjusted to the time.

The first day out of the town was wonderful. The sun was shining, temperature moderate and everyone here is extremely friendly.

On our walk (all in all probably a good 6-10 mile loop) we passed down the main tourist-shopping street (think of a cleaned up Canal street), through the cultural center, watched a few local alternative (possibly punk) bands, hit up the old city (cobble stone roads and guards at attention), found the local skatepark, and went to the best part of a foreign country; the grocery store.

I love, emphasis on love, going into grocery stores in foreign countries. To my American eyes everything is exotic, and strange. Fish roe in tubes, interesting sausages, boxes of goods with words that I can't read and my two favorite sections filled with shelves of interesting items that I must try; Beer and Candy. aaahh the two vices I must have when visiting a foreign country.

The candy aisle has the normal European varieties and DAIM is everywhere. However there are many more fish-themed candies than usual and a few new ones that I haven't tried yet. I will be sure to report back on these.

Beer in Sweden is quite different. In grocery stores you can only purchase alcohol beverages with less than 2.5% alcohol by volume forcing you to go to state run liquor store to get the harder stuff (anything over 3%). The Swedes don't put much emphasis on the beer here mainly because historically it was an expensive endeavor. It is not anymore and a typical beer at a Grocery story (2.5% or less) is about 10-12Kr (about 1.5-2 bucks). Also in the lower alcohol volumes the beer typically tend to be ciders and not the traditional barley/malt combinations.

I picked out a nice Apple cider for my first beer; which I happily drank as we walked down the streets of Galma Stan (Old Town). aaahhh, Scandinavia. So nice.

Tomorrow we head for Goteburg (Gothenburg) so I have to get off the computer and go enjoy the day in Stockholm while I still have it.

Sweden, HSBC and Condoms

Jacob Redding — Sat, 05 May 2007 20:51:03 +0000

The plane leaves at 10pm tonight. Newark non-stop to Stockholm, Sweden. Right now I'm sitting in front of my laptop waiting for Diana to get out of the shower so that I can pop in, shower, shave and put my brand-spanking new contacts in. It has been well over a year since I last wore contacts and I'm excited to have them again.

This morning I did Laundry, finalized our sublet agreement with Nicole (nice girl) and coded. Yup I coded. The geek tracker is back! Although I still have more coding to do it is a start. Now you can track our progress as we make our way across Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia and who knows where else (we really don't know where we're going). We found really excellent people on couchsurfer to stay with and show us around town. I'm really excited for that.

Go check out the Geek Tracker!

Yesterday both Diana and I were extremely busy. She ran around town getting errands done and I spent hours at HSBC setting up our Chinese bank account. Seriously. I went into HSBC to setup a US based account (held in US Dollars) and to finish up the paperwork, photocopy passports, etc. that is being sent to China to setup our China based HSBC account (held in RMB). Mainly we're doing this to get our money OUT of the US and into Chinese RMB because the exchange rate is falling as the dollar becomes weaker.

It is a tricky game that you have to play. Once money is transferred to RMB and held in a Chinese bank account it is next to impossible (as we've been told) to get it back out agan. On the other hand the dollar is getting weaker so we want to buy RMB now, ASAP. So... what do you do? Transfer it all and buy more RMB and hope you are able to spend it all in the country OR leave it in US and transfer as needed (which means you'll spend more in the long run on the exchange rate). OOooohh foreign currencies why do you taunt me so?

I have to say though that HSBC is awesome and I don't know why I didn't switch over early. I guess now is the time. Bye, Bye BoFA hello HSBC (hhm.. 4 letters.. coincidence?).

Everything is pretty much set now. While we're away the Chinese bank account will be processed, I have new contacts, geektracker is back up and running and we're all packed. The last remaining item was gifts.. hhm.. What do you get people in a foreign country when you're from the US? Because of our crazy capitalist culture every product from the US is quickly exported to anywhere/anyone that will pay for it. Its hard bringing gifts to another country when the foreigners can buy everything you can buy at home.

A dilemma indeed..... so what did we get?

NYC Condoms!!!!

and

Halvah...

I can't think of two other items that are distinctly New York! (I wanted to bring beer but the stupid TSA would've had fits, since we're carry on only for this trip).

The next time I write I'll be in Sweden. Check the Twitter yo!