We arrived in Oslo via the magnificent Oslo-Bergen Railway. This is something that everyone should do if they are ever in Norway. The trip winds past snow covered forests, gigantic and steep fjords cut into the landscape like a knife through butter, barren arctic tundra with no trees in site and beautiful mountains. It really is breathtaking and almost impossible to tear yourself away from the window for even a second. Getting to Oslo much too late to do much of anything, we decided to check into our hostel and go out in search of the elusive Christmas meal we never had in Bergen. We managed to find a great TGI Fridays and settled down for a good old fashioned steak. While extremely expensive, we splashed out with the help of a Christmas gift from my parents (thanks mum and dad :p) and got ourselves thoroughly stuffed. I dont think I have ever had a meal that has satisfied me as much as that. It was so good to taste real steak again! We rolled home and got ourselves ready to tackle Oslo in the morning.
Upon waking, we found out that we had the odd situation of having too many days in a city. We had been forced to schedule 4 days here in Oslo but there was simply not enough to keep us busy for that amount of time. Nevertheless, we decided to start out our stay by visiting the Munch Museum. Edvard Munch used to be a favourite of mine back when I was doing art in highschool, so I was really looking forward to finding out more about him. The museum didnt dissapoint us. Much like the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, this one showed us all about the development of Munch as an artist through his very early stages, all his experimentation, and finally culminating in the realisation of a style that was distinctly 'Munch'. Needless to say, this guy was absolutely amazing. Extremely talented, he could paint in almost any style he wanted and his experimentation was exceptional. I think you can probably tell that he has now turned into my favourite. After the museum, we headed towards Akershus Fortress and Castle. It was the old Viking castle when Norway was in the middle of the Viking Era, and was also used as a german command post/bomb shelter during the war. Quite a pretty Castle, it was cool to walk around the fortifications and see how they worked. Afterwards the city was quickly becoming dark, so we decided to explore around a little bit more and see what Oslo by Night had to offer. Noticing that beers cost over 13 dollars for 330 mils, we decided to go back to the hostel soon afterwards :p.
Before I go much further, I want to first tell you about our impressions of the city. Up until this point, we were not very impressed at all. Our hostel wasnt in a great part of town, the city was very dirty, dingy and we were looking over our shoulders continuously. There were large populations of random cultures all around and there were lots of junkies hanging all around the central train station. It really didnt feel like a great city. After the beauty of Bergen and the seeming perfection of the other Norway cities, this was coming as a bit of a surprise and slight dissapointment. We werent expecting it at all!
Despite this, we were enthusiastically ready for our second day. We grabbed some fruit for breakfast and headed towards the National Gallery. Our main objective was to see Munch's 'The Scream' which has been my favourite painting for YEARS. The museum itself had some very interesting Norwegian landscapes which were quite good, especially those from the famous Dahl. The highlight though was clearly the Munch room which contained many of his really famous works from quite late in his career when his style was more uniquely his. Highlights included the Scream, Madonna and Dance of Life. They were all very thought provoking and great to look at. We both were very impressed. Following the museum, we walked around the Royal Palace, but decided not to go inside. Further exploration of the city revealed the Nobel Peace Prize Museum, which had free entry, so we decided to give it a go. We were quite pleasantly surprised! Oslo is the site of the Nobel Peace Prize, and Norway is the prize's judge. The rest of the Nobel prizes are given away in Stockholm. We spent ages touring around the museum, finding out about all the winners and how they had helped work towards peace and for the betterment of humankind. I really enjoyed all the displays on the 1993 Prize winners, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Clerk for obvious reasons. Later that evening, we met up with Kai (our roommate from germany) and decided to take a little trip to a suburb outside f Oslo where you can climb to the top of a ski jump tower and look out over the city. Unfortunately, the tower was closed for renovations but we still had a great view from up the hill. All in all, it was a very successful day!
Our third day had left us with very little still left to do. We decided to make the trek out to the viking museum, which is a very far way to walk. Its quite close via ferry, but we don't have deep pockets and decided to just tough it out and walk the 4 kms or so. This, like so many of our decisions on this trip, turned out to be a regretful choice. It was cold. However, we made it just before our toes and fingers fell off and managed to check out 3 viking ships that were excavated in the Oslofjord area of Norway. 2 of these were extremely well preserved and gave a glimpse of how amazing the Vikings really were. These guys travelled all the way to North America and the Meditterranean in what were extremely simple, but well built, ships. We felt quite humbled at complaining about a mear 4km walk in the cold. We walked back and found that we had pretty much finished what we wanted to do in Norway so decided to go to an internet cafe and take care of some things and just talk to some guys from home.
We slept in a little the next morning and packed our bags. We decided that we would move on early to Stockholm and have an extra half day there. However, the previous night and this morning we seemed to get a different sense of the city. It must have been because people were slowly emerging from their homes from the christmas season. We sw a lot more locals around, and also walked through some much nicer neighbourhoods on our way back from the Viking Museum. Perhaps a little more like how we imagined Oslo to be. I dont know if I will ever come back, but I will give it the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe we just got the wrong first impression.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Christmas in Bergen (and the longest train journey ever...)
Yes, the plan was to spend Christmas in the city of Bergen which is located in western Norway. But the tricky thing was how exactly we were getting there. Getting from one end of Sweden to the other is easy, but Norway however, is a different story all together. The problem is that Norway is covered with fjords, mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, hills... the list goes on and on. So the trains usually have to go in some roundabout zig-zag pattern around the mountainous creeks and canyons. That combined with the fact that Norway uses older trains which are already slow, we knew that the train journey across Norway was going to be epic.
So, we started in Abisko National Park, in northern Sweden. Unfortunately, we had missed our morning train from here since we did dog-sledding in the morning. So we had to take the afternoon train. So we did. We took the 4pm train from Abisko to cross the border into Norway to a city called Narvik. It was a 1.5hour train journey. From Narvik, we had to catch a bus to go to our next city further south. The problem was that we had missed the bus by about 1 hour. There were no train lines to go south. The only way to do it was to go by bus. So we were forced to stay the night in Narvik. This was indeed an unscheduled stop, we did not plan to stay the night here and had no idea where we could find any hostels. We decided to step outside and look around. Now the problem was, the entire city was covered with icy snow. It was impossible to walk on the streets here, each step we took would literally lead to a slip. But we managed to somehow continue on and we saw this petrol station up the hill. Now the roads here were laid with salt so it wasn't slippery on these, but ofcourse it was dangerous to walk on roads. So we were forced to walk on the side and attempt to climb this hill which led up to the petrol station. Imagine walking into an ice rink with no ice-skates. Now imagine you are standing on one end of the ice rink with a 40-degree slope going up towards the other end. Now imagine you are wearing a backpack which weighs around 10kg. Now imagine yourself trying to walk up this slope. You probably can guess what happened next. Chris was ahead of me climbing the hill. I was too busy trying hard not to slip myself to notice what happened to him. Apparently he slipped and landed on his knee about half way up the hill. But he managed to gain balance and use his hands to help himself up and made it up the top. So then it was me. Keeping in mind that I had my backpack on, this was already going to be tough to begin with. Anyways, Chris was looking down at me and I had reached the very same spot he had previously slipped in. I took a step forward and my heart sank. I almost slipped but just managed to regain my balance. Now I was royally screwed. It was so slippery that I was actually sliding back down the hill, but I still had balance. Any movement from me and it would be over. I looked up at Chris hopelessly (who had only moments earlier been in the same position as me). Deciding to soldier on, I tried to continue on. The next thing Chris saw (and probably everyone in the petrol station at the time) was me slipping, not backwards but forwards since I was leaning forward. I tried to land on my hands, but both of my hands slipped and I landed face first into the ground. It was so bad that it would be like something you saw in one of them 'Funniest Home Videos' shows that comes on the TV. I still don't know how I managed to get myself up, but we did eventually manage to find a hostel (with me complaining every 2 minutes how much my cheek hurts) and stayed the night in Narvik. I should add something about Narvik itself. Although it was dark, the city looked amazing. It was surrounding a giant lake, but the houses were all on top of mountains. I really wished we could have seen the city during the day, but we had to depart early morning to a town called Fauske. And so the epic journey begins...
It took us 5.5 hours to get from Narvik to Fauske by bus. From there, we hopped on a train to Trondheim which took 10.5 hours. From Trondheim we took an overnight train to Oslo which took 7 hours. From Oslo, the next train was to our destination, Bergen which took 7.5 hours. Each changeover, we literally got off one train and hopped on the next. All in all, the journey from north to south took about 31 hours continuous. It was the most uncomfortable trip ever and I have no idea how we pulled it off still in one piece.
So we arrived in Bergen in the afternoon and were immediately taken in by the beauty of the place. Hands down one of the most picturesque cities either of us has ever seen. A truely amazing place to live. Since we had arrived quite late we decided to take it easy and rest a bit, I mean, we have been travelling for more than 30 hours. We found our hostel and did some grocery shopping, grabbed some dinner and then basically hit the sack. We woke up on Christmas Eve with a lot to do. We had listed out the sights we wanted to check out and had a busy schedule ahead of us. Unfortunately, when we walked outside, there was literally nobody outside. We eventually found out that everything was closed. Not only that, but everything (even restaurents) were closed from the 24th to the 26th of December. Pretty much the 3 days we are there for. After all that travelling, it really was bad luck. The city would be amazing if it was buzzing, but it turns out that the Norwegians prefer not to leave their homes during Christmas and like spending it with family (rightly so!). But the reason why we could not see anyone on the streets was mainly because Bergen is known to be a 'uni-town'. The students that generally fill the streets have quite obviously all retreated home to visit family and spend Christmas in their home towns. I can also assume that this is why most things were closed. Not even supermarkets were open, let alone the sights. So we eventually decided to just wonder around the city and take in the breathtaking landscape that surrounded it. Whilst wondering around, we came across the Rosenkrantz Tower. This massive fortress dates back to medieval times and the view of the sea from the front was stunnning. On our way back we came across a very peculiar shop selling various Norwegian antiquities. Immediately we were fascinated by what looked like some form of a Chess game. The shop was closed so we could not see much else, but we deduced that it was Viking Chess. Intigued by this, we made a note of passing by the shop the following day to see if it was open. Whilst looking at this, a man walking towards us (noticing that we were foreigners), came up to us and told us that there was going to be a free traditional Norwegian lunch at the Mariott Hotel in the afternoon. It was nice of him to tell us and we quickly decided that we would attend this free lunch (we are 'budget-travellers' after all...). But first, we decided to wonder around the city some more. We wanted to take a closer look at the Domkirken Cathedral, but again, like everything else it was closed or there was a service being held. We walked around Bryggen, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Bryggen was established over 900 years ago by the Hanseatic League and became a thriving center of international trade. It is quite a famous waterfront due to its unique building style. After we were finished, we decided to go and have some lunch. We found the hotel and walked in. There was a free buffet on in the banquet hall. To be honest, we felt out of place there. The people however were nice and welcomed us in. The whole idea behind hosting such a lunch is focused towards people who have no family to spend Christmas with or are away from home, even homeless. Anyone and everyone was welcome. It was quite touching that the people that made the effort to cook such a meal and host it, gave up their Christmas Eve so that others would not be alone during Christmas. We started out with some fish and eggs, then we moved onto the main course. The traditional Norwegian main course consisted of reindeer and mashed potato. Neither of us had ever tried reindeer before, but I must say it was quite nice, maybe a bit tough to chew though. When we were done, we thanked everyone for the meal and head back out. We then wondered around Torget, which translates to the Fish Markets before heading back to the hostel.
Christmas Day! We met some americans who told us that there is a path that we could follow that would lead up to the top of the mountains, where there would be a spectacular view of the entire city. So we decided to hike up. We walked outside and again, there was literally nobody walking on the streets outside. It felt like a ghost-town. Niether of us has experienced Christmas like this before, but we decided to continue on and head up to the view point. The mountain we climbed was called Floyen and was steeper than either of us anticipated. We walked through the meandering paths for about 90 minutes until finally we reached the top. The view was amazing indeed. There were a lot of people here. It seems like every tourist in Bergen ended up here, since like us, they had nothing to do on Christmas day. We grabbed some lunch and Chris went to make a Christmas phone-call back home. Whilst he did that, I wondered around the tourist shop. Something in the corner of the room caught my eye. Viking Chess! When Chris was back, I told him about it and we both decided that we should get ourselves a little Christmas present. So we decided to buy it. Once we were done here, we headed back down to the city. It was obviously easier going back down than climbing up. We decided to wonder around Bergen a bit more and ran into the Johannes-Kirken Church (St. John's Church). One of the finest neo-gothic churches in Norway. We wanted to have a nice Christmas dinner at a restuarent somewhere (courtesy of Chris's parents, thanks guys!), but the problem was that every single restaurent was closed. Even the supermarkets were closed. The only thing open was a 7-11 store. We decided to check out what we would find in there and would save our Christmas restaurent meal for the following day. Sadly, we ended up eating frozen pizza on Christmas day. Bergen itself was an amazing city and would be even more spectacular if there were actually people there. Nevertheless, we had a great time and were soon on the road again to Oslo.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.
So, we started in Abisko National Park, in northern Sweden. Unfortunately, we had missed our morning train from here since we did dog-sledding in the morning. So we had to take the afternoon train. So we did. We took the 4pm train from Abisko to cross the border into Norway to a city called Narvik. It was a 1.5hour train journey. From Narvik, we had to catch a bus to go to our next city further south. The problem was that we had missed the bus by about 1 hour. There were no train lines to go south. The only way to do it was to go by bus. So we were forced to stay the night in Narvik. This was indeed an unscheduled stop, we did not plan to stay the night here and had no idea where we could find any hostels. We decided to step outside and look around. Now the problem was, the entire city was covered with icy snow. It was impossible to walk on the streets here, each step we took would literally lead to a slip. But we managed to somehow continue on and we saw this petrol station up the hill. Now the roads here were laid with salt so it wasn't slippery on these, but ofcourse it was dangerous to walk on roads. So we were forced to walk on the side and attempt to climb this hill which led up to the petrol station. Imagine walking into an ice rink with no ice-skates. Now imagine you are standing on one end of the ice rink with a 40-degree slope going up towards the other end. Now imagine you are wearing a backpack which weighs around 10kg. Now imagine yourself trying to walk up this slope. You probably can guess what happened next. Chris was ahead of me climbing the hill. I was too busy trying hard not to slip myself to notice what happened to him. Apparently he slipped and landed on his knee about half way up the hill. But he managed to gain balance and use his hands to help himself up and made it up the top. So then it was me. Keeping in mind that I had my backpack on, this was already going to be tough to begin with. Anyways, Chris was looking down at me and I had reached the very same spot he had previously slipped in. I took a step forward and my heart sank. I almost slipped but just managed to regain my balance. Now I was royally screwed. It was so slippery that I was actually sliding back down the hill, but I still had balance. Any movement from me and it would be over. I looked up at Chris hopelessly (who had only moments earlier been in the same position as me). Deciding to soldier on, I tried to continue on. The next thing Chris saw (and probably everyone in the petrol station at the time) was me slipping, not backwards but forwards since I was leaning forward. I tried to land on my hands, but both of my hands slipped and I landed face first into the ground. It was so bad that it would be like something you saw in one of them 'Funniest Home Videos' shows that comes on the TV. I still don't know how I managed to get myself up, but we did eventually manage to find a hostel (with me complaining every 2 minutes how much my cheek hurts) and stayed the night in Narvik. I should add something about Narvik itself. Although it was dark, the city looked amazing. It was surrounding a giant lake, but the houses were all on top of mountains. I really wished we could have seen the city during the day, but we had to depart early morning to a town called Fauske. And so the epic journey begins...
It took us 5.5 hours to get from Narvik to Fauske by bus. From there, we hopped on a train to Trondheim which took 10.5 hours. From Trondheim we took an overnight train to Oslo which took 7 hours. From Oslo, the next train was to our destination, Bergen which took 7.5 hours. Each changeover, we literally got off one train and hopped on the next. All in all, the journey from north to south took about 31 hours continuous. It was the most uncomfortable trip ever and I have no idea how we pulled it off still in one piece.
So we arrived in Bergen in the afternoon and were immediately taken in by the beauty of the place. Hands down one of the most picturesque cities either of us has ever seen. A truely amazing place to live. Since we had arrived quite late we decided to take it easy and rest a bit, I mean, we have been travelling for more than 30 hours. We found our hostel and did some grocery shopping, grabbed some dinner and then basically hit the sack. We woke up on Christmas Eve with a lot to do. We had listed out the sights we wanted to check out and had a busy schedule ahead of us. Unfortunately, when we walked outside, there was literally nobody outside. We eventually found out that everything was closed. Not only that, but everything (even restaurents) were closed from the 24th to the 26th of December. Pretty much the 3 days we are there for. After all that travelling, it really was bad luck. The city would be amazing if it was buzzing, but it turns out that the Norwegians prefer not to leave their homes during Christmas and like spending it with family (rightly so!). But the reason why we could not see anyone on the streets was mainly because Bergen is known to be a 'uni-town'. The students that generally fill the streets have quite obviously all retreated home to visit family and spend Christmas in their home towns. I can also assume that this is why most things were closed. Not even supermarkets were open, let alone the sights. So we eventually decided to just wonder around the city and take in the breathtaking landscape that surrounded it. Whilst wondering around, we came across the Rosenkrantz Tower. This massive fortress dates back to medieval times and the view of the sea from the front was stunnning. On our way back we came across a very peculiar shop selling various Norwegian antiquities. Immediately we were fascinated by what looked like some form of a Chess game. The shop was closed so we could not see much else, but we deduced that it was Viking Chess. Intigued by this, we made a note of passing by the shop the following day to see if it was open. Whilst looking at this, a man walking towards us (noticing that we were foreigners), came up to us and told us that there was going to be a free traditional Norwegian lunch at the Mariott Hotel in the afternoon. It was nice of him to tell us and we quickly decided that we would attend this free lunch (we are 'budget-travellers' after all...). But first, we decided to wonder around the city some more. We wanted to take a closer look at the Domkirken Cathedral, but again, like everything else it was closed or there was a service being held. We walked around Bryggen, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Bryggen was established over 900 years ago by the Hanseatic League and became a thriving center of international trade. It is quite a famous waterfront due to its unique building style. After we were finished, we decided to go and have some lunch. We found the hotel and walked in. There was a free buffet on in the banquet hall. To be honest, we felt out of place there. The people however were nice and welcomed us in. The whole idea behind hosting such a lunch is focused towards people who have no family to spend Christmas with or are away from home, even homeless. Anyone and everyone was welcome. It was quite touching that the people that made the effort to cook such a meal and host it, gave up their Christmas Eve so that others would not be alone during Christmas. We started out with some fish and eggs, then we moved onto the main course. The traditional Norwegian main course consisted of reindeer and mashed potato. Neither of us had ever tried reindeer before, but I must say it was quite nice, maybe a bit tough to chew though. When we were done, we thanked everyone for the meal and head back out. We then wondered around Torget, which translates to the Fish Markets before heading back to the hostel.
Christmas Day! We met some americans who told us that there is a path that we could follow that would lead up to the top of the mountains, where there would be a spectacular view of the entire city. So we decided to hike up. We walked outside and again, there was literally nobody walking on the streets outside. It felt like a ghost-town. Niether of us has experienced Christmas like this before, but we decided to continue on and head up to the view point. The mountain we climbed was called Floyen and was steeper than either of us anticipated. We walked through the meandering paths for about 90 minutes until finally we reached the top. The view was amazing indeed. There were a lot of people here. It seems like every tourist in Bergen ended up here, since like us, they had nothing to do on Christmas day. We grabbed some lunch and Chris went to make a Christmas phone-call back home. Whilst he did that, I wondered around the tourist shop. Something in the corner of the room caught my eye. Viking Chess! When Chris was back, I told him about it and we both decided that we should get ourselves a little Christmas present. So we decided to buy it. Once we were done here, we headed back down to the city. It was obviously easier going back down than climbing up. We decided to wonder around Bergen a bit more and ran into the Johannes-Kirken Church (St. John's Church). One of the finest neo-gothic churches in Norway. We wanted to have a nice Christmas dinner at a restuarent somewhere (courtesy of Chris's parents, thanks guys!), but the problem was that every single restaurent was closed. Even the supermarkets were closed. The only thing open was a 7-11 store. We decided to check out what we would find in there and would save our Christmas restaurent meal for the following day. Sadly, we ended up eating frozen pizza on Christmas day. Bergen itself was an amazing city and would be even more spectacular if there were actually people there. Nevertheless, we had a great time and were soon on the road again to Oslo.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Abisko and Northern Sweden
The trek up north didnt turn out to be much of a Trek at all. One over night train that took 16 hours was all it took to arrive at a place called Abisko Ostra, inside one of Swdens biggest National Parks, Abisko. We were originally going to head to the town of Kiruna, but found that getting accomodation was impossible. Abisko was our next choice, and turned out to be the better one the more we thought about it. Our main goal for coming up this far north was to see the Aurora Borealis or 'the Northern Lights'. Abisko was far away from any major settlement, and so was free from major light pollution. It was also shielded by a large mountain range which helped to catch clouds and meant that the skies were more likely to be clear. All in all, good conditions for seeing the Aurora.
We had been told that it would be Polar Night while we would be up there, which means that it would be night for 24 hours of the day. We found out pretty much as soon as we got off the train that this was not entirely true. While you do not see the SUN for the entire 24 hour period, it is still quite light. Think of sun rise just before the sun crests the horizon. It gave us about 3 hours of light in which to explore the place and another 2 hours where it is still possible to discern the mountains in the distance. We managed to find the place we were staying in (the owner was kind enough to give us directions to the 'red house' over the train tracks but unfortunately neglected to tell us that practically every house in Abisko was red) and settled into life far up north. The hostel owner, Orjan, made sure we all knew how to 'dish' (wash dishes), take 'Swddish Shower' (Just to save hot water really) and ensured that when we go to the sauna (he loved his sauna a little too much) that we must 'Sauna in the Naked!' needless to say, we werent overly enthusiastic about this and prompty dubbed Orjan 'Mr. Sauna himself'. The hostel provided cross country skiis and snow shoes in order to explore the area, so we decided to bite the bullet and try our hand at cross-country skiing. This ended abruptly with both rishi and I declaring the attempt a complete failure. Instead we decided to hike to the nearby lake. this is a very large lake that covers a large portion of the park. It was frozen completely solid and was like nothing I had ever seen. The ice was multiple feet thick in places and quite safe to walk on. Some of the locals were ice skating as well. It was a very interesting experience walking on the lake. you expect everything to be very quiet without the lapping of the water, but the lake was alive with very loud and angry sounds. Unfortunately we werent able to linger too long because we had arrived quite 'late' in the day and it was pitch dark. It was 2pm. Much later that night we decided to head to the hills behind the hostel and take up vigilance in searching for any sign of an Aurora. While the stars were spectacular and shooting stars were abundent, we didnt see anything of note. We noticed a slight lighting of the sky at one point but decided it was jsut our minds playing tricks on us and left soon after. We had been standing in the cold from about 9:30pm and it was now midnight, so a nice cup of tea was too hard to resist. Unfortunately, some of our friends from the hostel said they saw the aurora at 12:30, but it was behind clouds. Unfortunate for us!
Day 2 in Abisko proved to be exhausting for many different reasons, both good and bad. We decided to go hiking in the mountains on some of the well marked trails Orjan had told us about. Unfortunately, the weather turned on us for the worst and we were caught in quite heavy snow and high winds. we must have taken a wrong turning at some point because we were soon trapesing through knee deep snow (sometimes deeper) and were starting to see wildlife. We came upon 2 Moose (mooses, meece, meice???) who looked at us curiously for a while and then seemed to decide that we were doomed and of no concern, going back to whatever it was that Mooses do (maybe moosing?). We decided to follow a track towards the railway line to give us at least some direction. We later on found out that we were on a snow mobile track. I was walking a little further ahead of rishi through some deep snow when I heard Rishi cry from behind me 'Chris! Theres Water!' I looked back and saw Rishi thigh deep in snow, but then realised he wasnt in snow at all and had actually fallen through a frozen pond hidden by snow. I ran back as quick as i could to pull him out and managed to safely do so. His first words were 'its so cold!' and I realised we had to get back as fast as we could and decided to retrace our steps as quickly as we could. Rishi's whole legs were numb but he could still walk and we managed to find our way back to Abisko Ostra soon after where a good cup of tea and a change of clothes. It was a really scary experience but thankfully we made it out alright. After recovering at the hostel, we decided to make our way to the next town over to find out about the Aurora Station but everything was closed and the whole enterprise failed. We came back to the hostel and decided to repeat last nights vigil. We made our way out much earlier than before because a Chinese guy came running into the hostel at 8:30 shouting that they had seen it. We rushed outside but there was nothing to be seen and it was much more cloudy than the previous night. However, our patience was rewarded when at about 10pm we made out sometihing to our left. I wasnt sure what it was to begin with and kept watching until I nudged Rishi and asked him if he saw what I saw. No sooner had I said it than there was no doubt in our minds as the Aurora became brighter and brighter. it started out realyl faint and small but quickly grew, and joined up with one from our right. There were fantastic fireworks at about 10:30 where the Aurora began moving violently and became extremely bright. It was like a massive curtain shimmering in the sky. It was the most impressive thing I have ever seen in my life, and the crazy chinese next to us could not stop swearing in english at the top of their lungs. it was almost comical, but I was so excited and happy that we had actually seen the Aurora that I could understand. The whole thing covered most of the sky and it was impossible to watch it all at once. Unfortunately our cameras werent good enough to get pictures, but the Chinese had some good equipment and said they would send them to us. Needless to say after this we went back to the hostel. WHAT A DAY!!!!
We slept in the next day after the excitement and woke up quite late. We decided to take a hike down to a canyon we had heard about and made the 2.5km walk in a little over a half hour. there was a small path down to the floor of the canyon and enabled me to get extremely close to frozen waterfalls and beautiful ponds. The whole place was quite ethereal. A good reward for the effort! later that day we met a couple of other Auzzies at the hostel and tried to see the Aurora again but unfortunately the sky was completely cloudy this time.
The last Day in Abisko was the same day we were departing for Norway. We had managed to squeeze our way onto a dogsledding tour. Basically this was something we thought would be a really fun and random experience. It involved 2 hours of dog sledding in the Abisko National park where we were put in charge of our own 4 dog team and drove our own sled. We had to wake up fairly early by Abisko standards, and wrap up completely into a full body boiler suit. It made us both feel like walking snowmen, and we didnt look too far from it either. We walked up to the dogs and were shown the basics and pretty much were told that we had to be Indiana Jones for the day, doing 50 billion things at once while bouncing along at breakneck speed in control of 4 hounds from hell. Sounded like fun. We met some of the dogs who were incredibly patient and quiet while we harnessed them up and hooked them up to the sleds. Some were very eagre while others were a little hesitant but it soon became clear that all of them were ridiculously strong, pulling us off our feat at points. We drove in an 8 sled convey through fantastic terrain which ranged from thick forrests, arctic tundra and frozen lakes (much to our displeasure). The mountains were incredibly beautiful and the fact that it was permanently sunrise/sunset just made it feel surreal. Something directly out of a Salvadore Dali painting. Unfortunately, the task of driving my sled was made a little harder by the fact that apparently some of the female dogs were in heat and the other males of my team were hardly interested in keeping up with the rest of the group. Funny but frustrating, especially when Rishi was ahead of me in the convoy and had super fast dogs who were always dissappearing over the horizon while my dogs were just meandering along sedately. It was truly one of the most awesome things I have done, and I know Rishi loved it too.
We had this huge plan ready and in place to catch the train which was arriving literally 5 minutes after the dog sledding was meant to end, but unfortunately we went over time and had to watch our train speed off down the line while we were driving into camp. This meant that we had a few hours to wait before the next train, and decided to join the other Auzzie girls in searching for some Reindeer we saw from a distance a short time ago. We managed to find them but they were quite skittish and ran off really quickly. We tried to follow but we had no chance. We headed back to the hostel soon afterwards and enjoyed a nice cup of tea and reminiced about what a rollercoaster time we had had up in the far North. Definitly a highlight of the backpacking trip so far!
We had been told that it would be Polar Night while we would be up there, which means that it would be night for 24 hours of the day. We found out pretty much as soon as we got off the train that this was not entirely true. While you do not see the SUN for the entire 24 hour period, it is still quite light. Think of sun rise just before the sun crests the horizon. It gave us about 3 hours of light in which to explore the place and another 2 hours where it is still possible to discern the mountains in the distance. We managed to find the place we were staying in (the owner was kind enough to give us directions to the 'red house' over the train tracks but unfortunately neglected to tell us that practically every house in Abisko was red) and settled into life far up north. The hostel owner, Orjan, made sure we all knew how to 'dish' (wash dishes), take 'Swddish Shower' (Just to save hot water really) and ensured that when we go to the sauna (he loved his sauna a little too much) that we must 'Sauna in the Naked!' needless to say, we werent overly enthusiastic about this and prompty dubbed Orjan 'Mr. Sauna himself'. The hostel provided cross country skiis and snow shoes in order to explore the area, so we decided to bite the bullet and try our hand at cross-country skiing. This ended abruptly with both rishi and I declaring the attempt a complete failure. Instead we decided to hike to the nearby lake. this is a very large lake that covers a large portion of the park. It was frozen completely solid and was like nothing I had ever seen. The ice was multiple feet thick in places and quite safe to walk on. Some of the locals were ice skating as well. It was a very interesting experience walking on the lake. you expect everything to be very quiet without the lapping of the water, but the lake was alive with very loud and angry sounds. Unfortunately we werent able to linger too long because we had arrived quite 'late' in the day and it was pitch dark. It was 2pm. Much later that night we decided to head to the hills behind the hostel and take up vigilance in searching for any sign of an Aurora. While the stars were spectacular and shooting stars were abundent, we didnt see anything of note. We noticed a slight lighting of the sky at one point but decided it was jsut our minds playing tricks on us and left soon after. We had been standing in the cold from about 9:30pm and it was now midnight, so a nice cup of tea was too hard to resist. Unfortunately, some of our friends from the hostel said they saw the aurora at 12:30, but it was behind clouds. Unfortunate for us!
Day 2 in Abisko proved to be exhausting for many different reasons, both good and bad. We decided to go hiking in the mountains on some of the well marked trails Orjan had told us about. Unfortunately, the weather turned on us for the worst and we were caught in quite heavy snow and high winds. we must have taken a wrong turning at some point because we were soon trapesing through knee deep snow (sometimes deeper) and were starting to see wildlife. We came upon 2 Moose (mooses, meece, meice???) who looked at us curiously for a while and then seemed to decide that we were doomed and of no concern, going back to whatever it was that Mooses do (maybe moosing?). We decided to follow a track towards the railway line to give us at least some direction. We later on found out that we were on a snow mobile track. I was walking a little further ahead of rishi through some deep snow when I heard Rishi cry from behind me 'Chris! Theres Water!' I looked back and saw Rishi thigh deep in snow, but then realised he wasnt in snow at all and had actually fallen through a frozen pond hidden by snow. I ran back as quick as i could to pull him out and managed to safely do so. His first words were 'its so cold!' and I realised we had to get back as fast as we could and decided to retrace our steps as quickly as we could. Rishi's whole legs were numb but he could still walk and we managed to find our way back to Abisko Ostra soon after where a good cup of tea and a change of clothes. It was a really scary experience but thankfully we made it out alright. After recovering at the hostel, we decided to make our way to the next town over to find out about the Aurora Station but everything was closed and the whole enterprise failed. We came back to the hostel and decided to repeat last nights vigil. We made our way out much earlier than before because a Chinese guy came running into the hostel at 8:30 shouting that they had seen it. We rushed outside but there was nothing to be seen and it was much more cloudy than the previous night. However, our patience was rewarded when at about 10pm we made out sometihing to our left. I wasnt sure what it was to begin with and kept watching until I nudged Rishi and asked him if he saw what I saw. No sooner had I said it than there was no doubt in our minds as the Aurora became brighter and brighter. it started out realyl faint and small but quickly grew, and joined up with one from our right. There were fantastic fireworks at about 10:30 where the Aurora began moving violently and became extremely bright. It was like a massive curtain shimmering in the sky. It was the most impressive thing I have ever seen in my life, and the crazy chinese next to us could not stop swearing in english at the top of their lungs. it was almost comical, but I was so excited and happy that we had actually seen the Aurora that I could understand. The whole thing covered most of the sky and it was impossible to watch it all at once. Unfortunately our cameras werent good enough to get pictures, but the Chinese had some good equipment and said they would send them to us. Needless to say after this we went back to the hostel. WHAT A DAY!!!!
We slept in the next day after the excitement and woke up quite late. We decided to take a hike down to a canyon we had heard about and made the 2.5km walk in a little over a half hour. there was a small path down to the floor of the canyon and enabled me to get extremely close to frozen waterfalls and beautiful ponds. The whole place was quite ethereal. A good reward for the effort! later that day we met a couple of other Auzzies at the hostel and tried to see the Aurora again but unfortunately the sky was completely cloudy this time.
The last Day in Abisko was the same day we were departing for Norway. We had managed to squeeze our way onto a dogsledding tour. Basically this was something we thought would be a really fun and random experience. It involved 2 hours of dog sledding in the Abisko National park where we were put in charge of our own 4 dog team and drove our own sled. We had to wake up fairly early by Abisko standards, and wrap up completely into a full body boiler suit. It made us both feel like walking snowmen, and we didnt look too far from it either. We walked up to the dogs and were shown the basics and pretty much were told that we had to be Indiana Jones for the day, doing 50 billion things at once while bouncing along at breakneck speed in control of 4 hounds from hell. Sounded like fun. We met some of the dogs who were incredibly patient and quiet while we harnessed them up and hooked them up to the sleds. Some were very eagre while others were a little hesitant but it soon became clear that all of them were ridiculously strong, pulling us off our feat at points. We drove in an 8 sled convey through fantastic terrain which ranged from thick forrests, arctic tundra and frozen lakes (much to our displeasure). The mountains were incredibly beautiful and the fact that it was permanently sunrise/sunset just made it feel surreal. Something directly out of a Salvadore Dali painting. Unfortunately, the task of driving my sled was made a little harder by the fact that apparently some of the female dogs were in heat and the other males of my team were hardly interested in keeping up with the rest of the group. Funny but frustrating, especially when Rishi was ahead of me in the convoy and had super fast dogs who were always dissappearing over the horizon while my dogs were just meandering along sedately. It was truly one of the most awesome things I have done, and I know Rishi loved it too.
We had this huge plan ready and in place to catch the train which was arriving literally 5 minutes after the dog sledding was meant to end, but unfortunately we went over time and had to watch our train speed off down the line while we were driving into camp. This meant that we had a few hours to wait before the next train, and decided to join the other Auzzie girls in searching for some Reindeer we saw from a distance a short time ago. We managed to find them but they were quite skittish and ran off really quickly. We tried to follow but we had no chance. We headed back to the hostel soon afterwards and enjoyed a nice cup of tea and reminiced about what a rollercoaster time we had had up in the far North. Definitly a highlight of the backpacking trip so far!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Stockholm: Capital Of The North
We took the train from Copenhagen to Stockholm and arrived at the station at about 6pm. Luckily for us, the hostel was not very far from the station so we decided to check in, dump our bags and wonder around the city a bit. I must take this time to first comment on the hostel itself. It is by far the best hostel we have stayed in. The location is pretty much smack bang in the middle of the city center, near most sights. The staff are friendly, the price isn't too bad and the people there are cool. As I was saying, we dumped our bags and ventured out to get a feel for the city. The city itself is very unique. Was very interesting to see how the Swedes go about their everyday business. We were hungry so we decided to grab some pizza before heading back to the hostel. Another great thing about the hostel was that it had free internet and a lot of computers. So we decided to take this opportunity to book our trip up north. Unfortunately, we hit a massive brick in the wall and our trip "into the wild" was looking like it was not going to happen at all. If you recall, our initial plan was to head up to northern Norway, to a city called Trommso. Well, bad news. Apparently, the entire city shuts down for the winter and finding accomodation is pretty much impossible. So our next step was to find some form of accomodation in Kiruna, which is a town in northern Sweden. Unfortunutely, everything was fully booked. Literally everything. Things were not looking too good for us, but there was one last resort. Abisko National Park. All we knew was that it was about 1 hour north of Kiruna. It was a national park in Sweden, and apparently one of the best places in the World to see the Northern Lights. So, with a last ditch effort, we managed to find some accomodation there, right in the middle of the national park. Satisfied that our trip up north to see the aurora was still a go, we decided to hit the sack for a well deserved sleep.
We woke up the next morning and decided to do some of the sights. Museums are closed on Mondays so we planned to do all the other things. The first stop was Stadshuset (City Hall). It has been the seat of local government since the early 20th century and it is also where the winners of the Nobel Prizes hold a banquet dinner. There were two amazing rooms inside this hall. The Blue Room (where the Nobel Prize winners would dance) and the Gold Room, which had 18 million shimmering gold tiles. This was a sight worth seeing. After finishing off the City Hall, we decided to wonder through Gamla Stan, which is also known as 'Old Town'. Stockholm was once confined into this one area, Gamla Stan, but now it is the center of the city. We ventured through the main pedestrian street and marvelled at the maze of small side streets and the area's historic feel. In Gamla Stan was the Slottskyrkan (The Royal Chapel). This was the last sight for today and we decided to head back to the hostel. On the way, we did some grocery shopping as the hostel provided free pasta. We went into the supermarket to get some pasta sauce, and decided to cook a nice meal once we were back at the hostel. Not knowing exactly how much pasta we needed to cook, we put some pasta in the pot and at the time, I must say it looked a bit too little. So we added more pasta. It still looked like there was not enough pasta in the pot to feed both of us. So we kept adding more, and more... then we took some out, but then it looked too little, so we added more. All in all, neither of us knew how much pasta to put in the pot. In the end, we just decided that whatever was in there would be sufficient. So we turned the stove on and decided to play some cards whilst the pasta cooked. So we waited, checking if the pasta was cooking. There was no heat on the stove. Thinking it might take some time for the stove to heat up, we decided to continue playing cards. So we waited, and waited, and waited some more. Still, the water was not heating up. After about 45 minutes of waiting for water to boil, often looking cluelessly at the stove, we decided to ask someone why our water won't boil! Low and behold, apparently there is a button you have press to turn on the electricity for the stove. There we were, two idiots attempting to cook pasta, without any heat. After finally turning the stove on, the water began to boil. So we went back to our cards. About 5 minutes in, I tried to recall how my sister cooked pasta. Then it hit me. Why didn't we just use a kettle to boil the water! Ofcourse, by that time it was already too late and our water that was in the pot had already boiled. So we put the pasta in and couldn't wait until it was cooked. Once it was cooked, let's just say we had cooked enough pasta to feed about 10 people. Our measurements were way off. Ah well, atleast we knew how much pasta to cook the following day!
We had breakfast in the hostel the following morning. We wanted to take things a bit slower and since museums would be open today, we decided to do them. The first museum was The National Museum. Unfortunately, it opened at 11am, so decided to wait around a bit. As soon as it opened, we walked in and decided that it was too expensive. It was almost 9 euros to enter the museum and considering the Louvre itself was 13 euros, we felt that there was no real point paying so much and decided to skip it. We made our way down to the Moderna Museet (Modern Museum) instead. Was cheaper entry and had better exhibits including Dali, Edvard Munch, Jackson Pollock and my personal favourite, Warhol. After spending around 3-4 hours in the Mordern Museum, we made our way to Skansen, an area within Stockholm which apparently provides the best views of the city. On the way we found the Vasa Museet (Vasa Museum). This museum is home to a massive warship that sank in Stockholm's harbour in it's maiden voyage (20 minutes in) in the 17th century. It was salvaged and is surprisingly well preserved considering it was made of wood. Apparently, the less salty waters surrounding Scandinavia is what preserves such things better than the xmore salty waters that ships generally sink in. I must say, this museum was well worth the visit. The ship itself looked like something out of the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies. Was fantastic indeed. By the time we were finished with the museum, it was already getting dark, so we decided to head back to the hostel and get some groceries from the supermarket on the way. Yes, pasta again. But this time, we decided to add something to our recipe. Thinking that we were eating too much "unhealthy" food, we decided to add some vegetables to the pasta. We have this plan, that each time we make pasta, we're going to add something else to the recipe so that by the end of the trip, our recipe will indeed be perfected and even make the likes of Gordon Ramsey proud. After dinner, we did some laundry and I took some time to check my results for the university semester. If you recall, I had to endure the pain of taking 4 exams within the space of 4 days. Well, it was a relief to see that my results for the semester went very well indeed! Not sure how I pulled that one off...
The next morning, we decided to change our hostel for New Years. We were originally going to stay in another hostel in Stockholm, but we were so pleased with the current one we were staying at, that we decided to change it. We had a lot to get through today. Our train to Abisko was at 6pm and our primary aim for the day was to do the Swedish Royal Apartments. However, when we got there, we were told that the apartments were not open since the Nobel Prize Winners were residing there at the time. Instead, we decided to go check out the Royal Treasury and the Armory which provided an extensive insight into Swedish history. We have seen a few treasuries already but I must say, the . It was starting to approach evening and as the train to Abisko was a 14 hour trip, we decided to go to the supermarket and grab some snacks for the train. For dinner, we found a Subway and decided to get some foot-longs to eat in the train. We said good bye to the hostel and the friendly people we met and were on the road again.
Until next time...
Rishi
We woke up the next morning and decided to do some of the sights. Museums are closed on Mondays so we planned to do all the other things. The first stop was Stadshuset (City Hall). It has been the seat of local government since the early 20th century and it is also where the winners of the Nobel Prizes hold a banquet dinner. There were two amazing rooms inside this hall. The Blue Room (where the Nobel Prize winners would dance) and the Gold Room, which had 18 million shimmering gold tiles. This was a sight worth seeing. After finishing off the City Hall, we decided to wonder through Gamla Stan, which is also known as 'Old Town'. Stockholm was once confined into this one area, Gamla Stan, but now it is the center of the city. We ventured through the main pedestrian street and marvelled at the maze of small side streets and the area's historic feel. In Gamla Stan was the Slottskyrkan (The Royal Chapel). This was the last sight for today and we decided to head back to the hostel. On the way, we did some grocery shopping as the hostel provided free pasta. We went into the supermarket to get some pasta sauce, and decided to cook a nice meal once we were back at the hostel. Not knowing exactly how much pasta we needed to cook, we put some pasta in the pot and at the time, I must say it looked a bit too little. So we added more pasta. It still looked like there was not enough pasta in the pot to feed both of us. So we kept adding more, and more... then we took some out, but then it looked too little, so we added more. All in all, neither of us knew how much pasta to put in the pot. In the end, we just decided that whatever was in there would be sufficient. So we turned the stove on and decided to play some cards whilst the pasta cooked. So we waited, checking if the pasta was cooking. There was no heat on the stove. Thinking it might take some time for the stove to heat up, we decided to continue playing cards. So we waited, and waited, and waited some more. Still, the water was not heating up. After about 45 minutes of waiting for water to boil, often looking cluelessly at the stove, we decided to ask someone why our water won't boil! Low and behold, apparently there is a button you have press to turn on the electricity for the stove. There we were, two idiots attempting to cook pasta, without any heat. After finally turning the stove on, the water began to boil. So we went back to our cards. About 5 minutes in, I tried to recall how my sister cooked pasta. Then it hit me. Why didn't we just use a kettle to boil the water! Ofcourse, by that time it was already too late and our water that was in the pot had already boiled. So we put the pasta in and couldn't wait until it was cooked. Once it was cooked, let's just say we had cooked enough pasta to feed about 10 people. Our measurements were way off. Ah well, atleast we knew how much pasta to cook the following day!
We had breakfast in the hostel the following morning. We wanted to take things a bit slower and since museums would be open today, we decided to do them. The first museum was The National Museum. Unfortunately, it opened at 11am, so decided to wait around a bit. As soon as it opened, we walked in and decided that it was too expensive. It was almost 9 euros to enter the museum and considering the Louvre itself was 13 euros, we felt that there was no real point paying so much and decided to skip it. We made our way down to the Moderna Museet (Modern Museum) instead. Was cheaper entry and had better exhibits including Dali, Edvard Munch, Jackson Pollock and my personal favourite, Warhol. After spending around 3-4 hours in the Mordern Museum, we made our way to Skansen, an area within Stockholm which apparently provides the best views of the city. On the way we found the Vasa Museet (Vasa Museum). This museum is home to a massive warship that sank in Stockholm's harbour in it's maiden voyage (20 minutes in) in the 17th century. It was salvaged and is surprisingly well preserved considering it was made of wood. Apparently, the less salty waters surrounding Scandinavia is what preserves such things better than the xmore salty waters that ships generally sink in. I must say, this museum was well worth the visit. The ship itself looked like something out of the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies. Was fantastic indeed. By the time we were finished with the museum, it was already getting dark, so we decided to head back to the hostel and get some groceries from the supermarket on the way. Yes, pasta again. But this time, we decided to add something to our recipe. Thinking that we were eating too much "unhealthy" food, we decided to add some vegetables to the pasta. We have this plan, that each time we make pasta, we're going to add something else to the recipe so that by the end of the trip, our recipe will indeed be perfected and even make the likes of Gordon Ramsey proud. After dinner, we did some laundry and I took some time to check my results for the university semester. If you recall, I had to endure the pain of taking 4 exams within the space of 4 days. Well, it was a relief to see that my results for the semester went very well indeed! Not sure how I pulled that one off...
The next morning, we decided to change our hostel for New Years. We were originally going to stay in another hostel in Stockholm, but we were so pleased with the current one we were staying at, that we decided to change it. We had a lot to get through today. Our train to Abisko was at 6pm and our primary aim for the day was to do the Swedish Royal Apartments. However, when we got there, we were told that the apartments were not open since the Nobel Prize Winners were residing there at the time. Instead, we decided to go check out the Royal Treasury and the Armory which provided an extensive insight into Swedish history. We have seen a few treasuries already but I must say, the . It was starting to approach evening and as the train to Abisko was a 14 hour trip, we decided to go to the supermarket and grab some snacks for the train. For dinner, we found a Subway and decided to get some foot-longs to eat in the train. We said good bye to the hostel and the friendly people we met and were on the road again.
Until next time...
Rishi
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Copenhagen: City of Danish Hotdogs and Glazed Almonds
From Amsterdam, our next stop was Denmark. In particular, the lively city of Copenhagen. This city is apparently the center of Europe's oldest monarchy and embodies a real laid-back spirit that would put even Aussies to shame. We decided to take the night train from Amsterdam since the train trip over was almost 14 hours. The night train constituted of not seats, but couchettes which are basically like extremely cramped sleeping beds. Good thing though is that we managed to sleep for (most of) the journey and even managed to meet a few crazy New Zealanders in the same carriage as us. Once we managed to get to Copenhagen, we walked out of the train psyching ourselves up since we knew that it would be colder than Amsterdam. Strangely enough though, it wasn't as cold outside and satisfied that we were wearing clothes sufficient enough for the climate there, we made our way out of the train station to the hostel. Funnily enough, the crazy New Zealanders we met in the carriage (trust me, these guys were crazy, they had some insane trip planned. by insane, they were doing like 7 cities in the space of 2 days) were staying in the same hostel. So after combining both mine and Chris's navigational skills with that of the New Zealand guys, we managed to find it.
We got to the hostel at about 11 in the morning. It worked out nicely since both of us slept half-decently on the train and we werent that tired. With that in mind, we decided that it was pointless just lounging around in the hostel and went off exploring the bustling city of Copenhagen. But first... food! Both of us were hungry, since the only thing we had eaten in the past 16 hours or so was some pringles, chocolate and a banana. Copenhagen is famous for its Danish Hotdogs. There's side stalls in like every main street selling these hotdogs. Apparently you havent truely experienced Copenhagen if you havent tried one of these hotdogs with everything on it. When the Danes say everything, they really do mean everything. This hot dog had about 6 different types of sauces on it, 4 of which were different types of mustard alone... it also had some fried onions (which were surprisingly crunchy) and to top it off, they slap some pickles on top of the hotdog too. Balancing this thing is an absolute mission, let alone attempting to eat it. Let's just say it was messy, but damn good. Now that we had eaten something, we were raring to go check out some of the sights. The first stop was The Rundetaarn, in english this basically translates to the round tower. It's a tall tower with no steps and has an observatory at the top, providing a 360 degree sweeping view of Copenhagen. It was a breathtaking sight and you could also see Sweden across the Baltic Sea which was quite something. Once we were finished with that, the next stop was something called The Rosenborg Slot. This was built by King Christian IV in the 17th century and basically acted as summer housing for the Danish Royals. Now though, it houses the Danish crown jewels and the treasury. Some of the weapons on display there were stunning. At this point, it was about 2pm and we still had time to do a lot more . We were progressing at a decent pace so we decided to knock over a museum. The Statens Museum for Kunst (State Museum for Fine Arts) displayed a wide collection of Danish and International art. There was no entrance fee for the museum and overall had some very unique artwork on display. It's a relief not having to pay to get into museums, a lot of our money is spent on museum entrance fees which can range from anywhere between 4-10 Euros. To get a more general picture, that's 20% of our daily budget! After finishing the museum, we still had time to check out Copenhagen's most famous attraction. Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid) statue. There is a statue to honour the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen at the mouth of the harbour. Whilst making our way towards the stature (which was a bit of a trek), we managed to check out The Kastellet (a 17th century Danish fortress). Unfortunately, it was too dark to look at it in any great detail, so we decided to move on. The final sight for what was becoming a very successful day was to take a look at the Amaliensborg Palace. This comprises four huge mansions which serve as winter residences for the Danish Royal Family. We thought we could go in, but apparently it was too late, so we decided to head off back to the hostel and grab some dinner before hitting the sack.
Hoping that the second day in Copenhagen would be as successful as the first, we had some breakfast and then head back out into the city. The first thing on the list was to check out the Danish Royal Cathedral. We've seen already seen such a diverse array of Cathedrals and this was no exception. The next sight we wanted to go take a look at was the Marmorkirken (Marble Church). Now this Church was amazing. It was built in the 19th century, but what was truely amazing was its marble dome, which apparently is the 3rd largest marble down in Europe. A very interesting church indeed. The next stop was to go back to the Ameliensborg Palace and see if we could take a look inside. Luckily, our timing was great. So great in-fact that the Danish Royal Guards were doing a parade through the square. After watching the amusing display by the Royal Guard, we head into one of the four huge mansions to take a look inside. It housed some of the original furniture and rooms of older Danish Kings and royalties. The final stop for the day was the National Museum which had a vast collection of ancient Viking art along with other Danish historical artifacts. After another tiring but successful day, we decided to make our way back to the hostel.
The third day constituted of basically doing nothing. We had manage to finish most of Copenhagen in 2 days which was great. We took the third day to relax a bit and take it easy. We had been doing things rather quickly so we both needed some time to zone out. At about 1pm, we decided to head out and grab some lunch. We have this thing that we both must do in every city we visit. That is to try the local delicacy that the city has to offer. In the case of Copenhagen, it was both hot dogs and toasted, glazed almonds. Every time that we passed one of these side stalls that sold these almonds, we'd get that distinct mouth-watering smell. We couldn't leave Copenhagen before grabbing another hot dog (with everything) and two bags of glazed almonds. These almonds, once you eat one, you can't stop eating them. We knew that they were not the healthiest thing we could eat, but they were so good.
After ticking Copenhagen off the list, Sweden was calling us... in particular, Stockholm!
Stay tuned...
Cheers
Rishi
We got to the hostel at about 11 in the morning. It worked out nicely since both of us slept half-decently on the train and we werent that tired. With that in mind, we decided that it was pointless just lounging around in the hostel and went off exploring the bustling city of Copenhagen. But first... food! Both of us were hungry, since the only thing we had eaten in the past 16 hours or so was some pringles, chocolate and a banana. Copenhagen is famous for its Danish Hotdogs. There's side stalls in like every main street selling these hotdogs. Apparently you havent truely experienced Copenhagen if you havent tried one of these hotdogs with everything on it. When the Danes say everything, they really do mean everything. This hot dog had about 6 different types of sauces on it, 4 of which were different types of mustard alone... it also had some fried onions (which were surprisingly crunchy) and to top it off, they slap some pickles on top of the hotdog too. Balancing this thing is an absolute mission, let alone attempting to eat it. Let's just say it was messy, but damn good. Now that we had eaten something, we were raring to go check out some of the sights. The first stop was The Rundetaarn, in english this basically translates to the round tower. It's a tall tower with no steps and has an observatory at the top, providing a 360 degree sweeping view of Copenhagen. It was a breathtaking sight and you could also see Sweden across the Baltic Sea which was quite something. Once we were finished with that, the next stop was something called The Rosenborg Slot. This was built by King Christian IV in the 17th century and basically acted as summer housing for the Danish Royals. Now though, it houses the Danish crown jewels and the treasury. Some of the weapons on display there were stunning. At this point, it was about 2pm and we still had time to do a lot more . We were progressing at a decent pace so we decided to knock over a museum. The Statens Museum for Kunst (State Museum for Fine Arts) displayed a wide collection of Danish and International art. There was no entrance fee for the museum and overall had some very unique artwork on display. It's a relief not having to pay to get into museums, a lot of our money is spent on museum entrance fees which can range from anywhere between 4-10 Euros. To get a more general picture, that's 20% of our daily budget! After finishing the museum, we still had time to check out Copenhagen's most famous attraction. Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid) statue. There is a statue to honour the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen at the mouth of the harbour. Whilst making our way towards the stature (which was a bit of a trek), we managed to check out The Kastellet (a 17th century Danish fortress). Unfortunately, it was too dark to look at it in any great detail, so we decided to move on. The final sight for what was becoming a very successful day was to take a look at the Amaliensborg Palace. This comprises four huge mansions which serve as winter residences for the Danish Royal Family. We thought we could go in, but apparently it was too late, so we decided to head off back to the hostel and grab some dinner before hitting the sack.
Hoping that the second day in Copenhagen would be as successful as the first, we had some breakfast and then head back out into the city. The first thing on the list was to check out the Danish Royal Cathedral. We've seen already seen such a diverse array of Cathedrals and this was no exception. The next sight we wanted to go take a look at was the Marmorkirken (Marble Church). Now this Church was amazing. It was built in the 19th century, but what was truely amazing was its marble dome, which apparently is the 3rd largest marble down in Europe. A very interesting church indeed. The next stop was to go back to the Ameliensborg Palace and see if we could take a look inside. Luckily, our timing was great. So great in-fact that the Danish Royal Guards were doing a parade through the square. After watching the amusing display by the Royal Guard, we head into one of the four huge mansions to take a look inside. It housed some of the original furniture and rooms of older Danish Kings and royalties. The final stop for the day was the National Museum which had a vast collection of ancient Viking art along with other Danish historical artifacts. After another tiring but successful day, we decided to make our way back to the hostel.
The third day constituted of basically doing nothing. We had manage to finish most of Copenhagen in 2 days which was great. We took the third day to relax a bit and take it easy. We had been doing things rather quickly so we both needed some time to zone out. At about 1pm, we decided to head out and grab some lunch. We have this thing that we both must do in every city we visit. That is to try the local delicacy that the city has to offer. In the case of Copenhagen, it was both hot dogs and toasted, glazed almonds. Every time that we passed one of these side stalls that sold these almonds, we'd get that distinct mouth-watering smell. We couldn't leave Copenhagen before grabbing another hot dog (with everything) and two bags of glazed almonds. These almonds, once you eat one, you can't stop eating them. We knew that they were not the healthiest thing we could eat, but they were so good.
After ticking Copenhagen off the list, Sweden was calling us... in particular, Stockholm!
Stay tuned...
Cheers
Rishi
Amsterdam: City of Sinners
Ok now we all know about Amsterdams reputation as quite a hedonistic and sinful city. There are two ways I could approach this post, and I am going to go with the blunt option. Yes, parents, we did go to the red light district. Yes, we had a look around. No, we didnt decide to try ( I mean come on! WE ARE ON A STRICT BUDGET HERE PEOPLE!). Now that that is out of the way and there is no room left for dust swept under the carpet, I can begin the post proper.
Me and Rishi arrived in Amsterdam as sick as dogs. There is nothing else too it. We were absolutely shattered from Paris and Belgium and the pace at which we were powering through cities. I think we were also suffering from the inevitable effects of walking around in very cold conditions all day and had developed a couple of bad colds. For these reasons, we decided to take it much slower in Amsterdam and booked to stay an extra day or two in order to rest and partially recover. Our first day in the Nedtherlands was, therefore, a bludge day. Mundane things like laundry, blogging, emailing, catching up on sports news, planning the next leg of our trip and booking accomodation took up most of the day. We ventured out to get food and such but otherwise stayed indoors in a hostel that had some very good facilities.
In the morning, feeling slightly better, we decided to go on a walking tour of the city with the same company that organised our extremely successful pub crawl in Paris. This was very well done and the guide was extremely friendly, funny and knowledgeable. It served as a fantastic introduction to the city and the culture. The layout and history of the city were quickly grasped and lots of great stories were told, including one about some an indestructable medieval ball of bread. On a more serious note, I was quite stoked to visit the once headquarters of the Dutch East-India Company, about which I heard so much in History class back in S.A. Fun times. At the conclusion of the tour, we decided to tackle the nearby Anne Frank House which had been turned into a museum. If you dont know the story of Anne Frank, I suggest you do some research and read up about it a bit. It is quite an inspiring story which I found overwhelmingly sad at its conclusion. Nelson Mandela once said that 'The Diary of Anne Frank' gave him and many of the prisoners on Robbin Island strength. The museum was very well set up and provided quite an experience. After exiting the museum misty eyed, we had a bit of an exploration walk through the central city basically trying to get a grips with the city which can be quite confusing with its canal system and narrow streets. We managed to get to Central Station and reserve our seats on the overnight-train to Copenhagen later in the week and then realised we were in time for another tour by the same company, their Red Light District Tour. Now despite what you are thinking, the tour was done in a very professional and informative way. We were given the history behind the district and how it came to be what it is today. They took us through the district as a group and navigated us through some of the tourist traps, explaining how the whole industry operated. Urban myths were destroyed and amusing stories were told. All in all, a great way to see this often misunderstood and frowned upon neighbourhood. By this time, my cough in particular had mutated into some sort of monster that was trying to eat me from the inside, so we went back to the hostel in search of a good nights rest.
In the morning, at the behest of my parents, we decided to go get our coughs checked out at the nearest hospital. After quite a lengthy process we were seen by a very nice doctor, who pretty much just laughed at us and said 'Welcome to Europe!'. All we had was bad European colds which can take weeks to go away. Feeling slightly wounded at our comical concern, we decided to hit up some high culture for a change and headed straight to the Van Gogh Museum. This was another museum that was extremely well put together. Extremely informative, the museum provided detailed information on Van Goghs ideas, philosophies, techniques and evolution as an artist. There were some very famous Van Gogh's on display, but unfortunately, as with lots of these art museums, photographs werent allowed in most of the rooms. This pretty much concluded our day, but we managed to get our hands on some Dutch 'Bolletjies' (basically a Dutch Donut without the whole in the middle) which Rishi completely fell in love with. Quite touching. Rishi as an eligible bachelor is no more young ladies! His heart is now in Amsterdam with the Bolletjies. Unfortunately, his fidelity was tested almost immediately as for dinner we decided to risk a place called 'Febo'. Please reserve judgement. Basically its vending machine burgers. However, let me explain. The customer is confronted with a wall of vending machines, presenting different kinds of small burgers, and other cheap fast food. There is an actual CHEF behind the wall of vending machines cooking up the burgers and putting them in their slots. As a result, the food is extremely fresh and VERY good. In fact, probably some of the best burgers I have ever had. Cheap, fast, convenient. Genius. Rishi cheated on the Bolletjies without a second thought and is now permanently reminiscing about Febo, but unfortunately it seems to be an exclusively Dutch thing. Such a tragic story. Shakespeare would be proud, or rolling over in his grave.
The next day we were leaving for Denmark, but still had most of the day ahead of us. Once check out was completed, we roamed the city in search of some descent pictures. We went inside the 'Rijks' Museum, both an Art and a History museum, which had a very good section on the Dutch Golden Age and the VOC (Dutch East-India Company). it also had some fantastic art from Dutch Masters, including the extremely well executed and famous 'Nightwatch' by Rembrandt. I think he is definitly up there as one of my favourite artists. His ability to portray different textures and his almost genius like approach to utilising light is fantastic. Hats off to you sir. After we had finished there we collected our bags and headed to the station where our 14 hour treck to Denmark and Copenhagen was about to begin.
Me and Rishi arrived in Amsterdam as sick as dogs. There is nothing else too it. We were absolutely shattered from Paris and Belgium and the pace at which we were powering through cities. I think we were also suffering from the inevitable effects of walking around in very cold conditions all day and had developed a couple of bad colds. For these reasons, we decided to take it much slower in Amsterdam and booked to stay an extra day or two in order to rest and partially recover. Our first day in the Nedtherlands was, therefore, a bludge day. Mundane things like laundry, blogging, emailing, catching up on sports news, planning the next leg of our trip and booking accomodation took up most of the day. We ventured out to get food and such but otherwise stayed indoors in a hostel that had some very good facilities.
In the morning, feeling slightly better, we decided to go on a walking tour of the city with the same company that organised our extremely successful pub crawl in Paris. This was very well done and the guide was extremely friendly, funny and knowledgeable. It served as a fantastic introduction to the city and the culture. The layout and history of the city were quickly grasped and lots of great stories were told, including one about some an indestructable medieval ball of bread. On a more serious note, I was quite stoked to visit the once headquarters of the Dutch East-India Company, about which I heard so much in History class back in S.A. Fun times. At the conclusion of the tour, we decided to tackle the nearby Anne Frank House which had been turned into a museum. If you dont know the story of Anne Frank, I suggest you do some research and read up about it a bit. It is quite an inspiring story which I found overwhelmingly sad at its conclusion. Nelson Mandela once said that 'The Diary of Anne Frank' gave him and many of the prisoners on Robbin Island strength. The museum was very well set up and provided quite an experience. After exiting the museum misty eyed, we had a bit of an exploration walk through the central city basically trying to get a grips with the city which can be quite confusing with its canal system and narrow streets. We managed to get to Central Station and reserve our seats on the overnight-train to Copenhagen later in the week and then realised we were in time for another tour by the same company, their Red Light District Tour. Now despite what you are thinking, the tour was done in a very professional and informative way. We were given the history behind the district and how it came to be what it is today. They took us through the district as a group and navigated us through some of the tourist traps, explaining how the whole industry operated. Urban myths were destroyed and amusing stories were told. All in all, a great way to see this often misunderstood and frowned upon neighbourhood. By this time, my cough in particular had mutated into some sort of monster that was trying to eat me from the inside, so we went back to the hostel in search of a good nights rest.
In the morning, at the behest of my parents, we decided to go get our coughs checked out at the nearest hospital. After quite a lengthy process we were seen by a very nice doctor, who pretty much just laughed at us and said 'Welcome to Europe!'. All we had was bad European colds which can take weeks to go away. Feeling slightly wounded at our comical concern, we decided to hit up some high culture for a change and headed straight to the Van Gogh Museum. This was another museum that was extremely well put together. Extremely informative, the museum provided detailed information on Van Goghs ideas, philosophies, techniques and evolution as an artist. There were some very famous Van Gogh's on display, but unfortunately, as with lots of these art museums, photographs werent allowed in most of the rooms. This pretty much concluded our day, but we managed to get our hands on some Dutch 'Bolletjies' (basically a Dutch Donut without the whole in the middle) which Rishi completely fell in love with. Quite touching. Rishi as an eligible bachelor is no more young ladies! His heart is now in Amsterdam with the Bolletjies. Unfortunately, his fidelity was tested almost immediately as for dinner we decided to risk a place called 'Febo'. Please reserve judgement. Basically its vending machine burgers. However, let me explain. The customer is confronted with a wall of vending machines, presenting different kinds of small burgers, and other cheap fast food. There is an actual CHEF behind the wall of vending machines cooking up the burgers and putting them in their slots. As a result, the food is extremely fresh and VERY good. In fact, probably some of the best burgers I have ever had. Cheap, fast, convenient. Genius. Rishi cheated on the Bolletjies without a second thought and is now permanently reminiscing about Febo, but unfortunately it seems to be an exclusively Dutch thing. Such a tragic story. Shakespeare would be proud, or rolling over in his grave.
The next day we were leaving for Denmark, but still had most of the day ahead of us. Once check out was completed, we roamed the city in search of some descent pictures. We went inside the 'Rijks' Museum, both an Art and a History museum, which had a very good section on the Dutch Golden Age and the VOC (Dutch East-India Company). it also had some fantastic art from Dutch Masters, including the extremely well executed and famous 'Nightwatch' by Rembrandt. I think he is definitly up there as one of my favourite artists. His ability to portray different textures and his almost genius like approach to utilising light is fantastic. Hats off to you sir. After we had finished there we collected our bags and headed to the station where our 14 hour treck to Denmark and Copenhagen was about to begin.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Belgium: Hot Chocolate, Fries and Waffels. Oh and Beer. mmmmmmmmm
Our final day in Paris consisted of a day trip to the suburb of Versailles a few kilometers south west of Paris proper. Before leaving however, we had to sort out our hostels for Brussels, Brugge and Amsterdam. This was more difficult than it should have been because we had unwittingly let the weekend sneek up on us, and many of the places we wanted to stay in were full. nevertheless, we managed to figure it out and finally left for our trip. The reason for our visit was to check out the illustrious Chateau de Versailles, Frances grandest and most famous Chateau. It was the political centre of France from 1682 to 1789 when the French Revolution resulted in the dissolution of the monarchy. It is really big, 580m long with hundreds of wings, rooms and halls. We visited the incredibly ostentatious King's and Queen's apartments which just blew away everything i have seen so far with the sheer size of the wealth flaunted. A highlight was definitly the 'Hall of Mirrors'. Perhaps even more impressive than the palace itself is its acres upon acres of landscaped gardens. These stretch faaar into the distance, and you can go on multiple walks that take up many hours. We didnt have the luxury of having that much time, as we wanted to head back to Paris in order to try get into the catacombes again and to visit the famous Musee D' Orsay that evening.
Unfortunately we were too late for the Catacombes once again, so we just headed straight to the museum. The Musee D'Orsay contains Frances national collection of painting and sculptures produced between 1840 and 1914 from the Impressionists, post-impressionists and Art Nouveau movements. We saw works from many artists including Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Manet, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Seurat and Matisse. Rishis favourites included most works from Monet whereas I enjoyed Van Gogh a little more but also liked Monet. The entire Academic Painting school really impressed me as well. Afterwards we decided to call it a day and head to the hostel to pack. In the morning we would bid farewell to Paris and head to Belgium and Brussels.
We arrived late in the afternoon, and most of the sites in Brussels were shut. However, we decided to head out anyway and have a bit of a walk around. We figured we had at least enough time to check out the Belgian Brewery museum or the Belgian Chocolate Museum. We made our way to Brussels' central square called the 'Grand Place' and had a real 'turn the corner moment' (the ones where you are just stopped dead in your tracks). The Grand Place is utterly astounding, and has been made a World Heritage Site. The buildings are amazingly grand and surround the square on all four sides. The spires tower over you and the gold gilted facades and the graceful gothic pillars on the buildings really give you a sense of being transported back in time. It really did take our breath away. Once we had recovered from our bemused states, we decided to knuckle down and get down to the REAL reason we were in Belgium. The Beer. The Brewers MUseum was quite interesting, but a little small. It gave us a good introduction on just how deep in we were, as Belgium has thousands off different beers brewed all over the country. Afterwards we walked around the city a little longer and managed to stumble upon the famous 'Mannekin Pis' fountain. Apparently its a national symbol, but Im not sure. I mean it IS just a little boy taking a leak into a fountain. Apparently his costume changes fairly regularly, and there was one time where he didnt 'go' for the entire day and everyone was told to be extra careful of prostate cancer. Weird Belgians. We randomly found some statue that everyone was touching, so we figured that it would probably be a good idea to do the same just in case. So I nudged Rishi forward to take a photo. Some random guy was sniggering, and we eventually figured that the whole thing was for good luck in getting pregnant. WATCH OUT LADHA FAMILY! YOU MIGHT HAVE A LITTLE ONE ON THE WAY!
After that little experience, we decided we needed to stop messing around and get to some Belgium Beer. We made our way towards this place called ' Le Bier Circus'. The only thing we knew about it was it was a 'place for serious beer buffs'. SOLD! I cant remember exactly what Rishi had, but I got myself into something called a 'Kwak', which came in this awesome glass that was tapered towards the bottom and which had a massilve bulb on the end. The Beer itself was quite strange, but I didnt mind it. Very complicated flavours. My second glass was something that was called 'Bush'. I couldnt resist it. My English friends will be interested to know that this beer is the strongest Belgian Beer available, standing at 12%. TWELVE PERCENT!!! Thats like drinking two and a half beers back in Auz. Crazy stuff. Needless to say, that was the end of the night!
Our next day involved us achieving some very important goals. For breakfast, we managed to find a really nice waffle place that served traditional Belgian Waffles. These things are amazing. You can have almost anything on them, and we opted for whipped cream and bananas. Very filling and they tasted amazing. A good start. Next, we went hunting for some good Belgian Hot Chocolate. We found this place where they use real chocolate that is attached to the stirrer. You place the stirrer in a cup of hot milk and let the chocolate melt into the cup while you stir. Hot chocolate the way it was meant to be! TICK IT OFF! We then made our way to the Beligan Chocolate Museum, where we were educated as to the process of creating all the amazing Belgian Pralines and other chocolates. Our going there had nothing to do with the free sample we got at all. Honest! Our final stop in Brussels was the large Cathedral to Saint Michael we had passed by the night before. Confusingly, it wasnt in any of our guide books but me and Rishi are becoming accustomed to going off the beaten track and having a look anyway. This church was definitly one of my personal favourites so far. Its predominent colour was white, which made the whole space feel very open, light and airy. It wasnt an oppressive cathedral at all and was quite graceful. It was a nice way to finish off a bit of a whirlwind tour through Brussels.We arrived late in the afternoon, and most of the sites in Brussels were shut. However, we decided to head out anyway and have a bit of a walk around. We figured we had at least enough time to check out the Belgian Brewery museum or the Belgian Chocolate Museum. We made our way to Brussels' central square called the 'Grand Place' and had a real 'turn the corner moment' (the ones where you are just stopped dead in your tracks). The Grand Place is utterly astounding, and has been made a World Heritage Site. The buildings are amazingly grand and surround the square on all four sides. The spires tower over you and the gold gilted facades and the graceful gothic pillars on the buildings really give you a sense of being transported back in time. It really did take our breath away. Once we had recovered from our bemused states, we decided to knuckle down and get down to the REAL reason we were in Belgium. The Beer. The Brewers MUseum was quite interesting, but a little small. It gave us a good introduction on just how deep in we were, as Belgium has thousands off different beers brewed all over the country. Afterwards we walked around the city a little longer and managed to stumble upon the famous 'Mannekin Pis' fountain. Apparently its a national symbol, but Im not sure. I mean it IS just a little boy taking a leak into a fountain. Apparently his costume changes fairly regularly, and there was one time where he didnt 'go' for the entire day and everyone was told to be extra careful of prostate cancer. Weird Belgians. We randomly found some statue that everyone was touching, so we figured that it would probably be a good idea to do the same just in case. So I nudged Rishi forward to take a photo. Some random guy was sniggering, and we eventually figured that the whole thing was for good luck in getting pregnant. WATCH OUT LADHA FAMILY! YOU MIGHT HAVE A LITTLE ONE ON THE WAY!
After that little experience, we decided we needed to stop messing around and get to some Belgium Beer. We made our way towards this place called ' Le Bier Circus'. The only thing we knew about it was it was a 'place for serious beer buffs'. SOLD! I cant remember exactly what Rishi had, but I got myself into something called a 'Kwak', which came in this awesome glass that was tapered towards the bottom and which had a massilve bulb on the end. The Beer itself was quite strange, but I didnt mind it. Very complicated flavours. My second glass was something that was called 'Bush'. I couldnt resist it. My English friends will be interested to know that this beer is the strongest Belgian Beer available, standing at 12%. TWELVE PERCENT!!! Thats like drinking two and a half beers back in Auz. Crazy stuff. Needless to say, that was the end of the night!
That afternoon we left early for the quaint but touristy town of Bruges (Brugge). It is a medieval town that is one of the most popular destinations in Belgium. The town was mostly abandoned in the 14th century, leaving it suspended in time. The whole thing is a World Heritage Site, even if its reputation as a 'preserved city' is partially fabricated as the place was slightly rebuilt in the 20th century to reflect medieval times. Once again we arrived a little late to do much of anything, so we decided to just have a bit of a walk around to explore the town. We made our way towards the centre of the city and the famous 'Markt'. Just like the grand place, this central square was spectacular all lit up with some impressive buildings and medieval houses surrounding the centre, which had been turned into an ice skating rink. Horse Carriages randomly wandered up and down the streets, and it was quite a challenge having to dodge them at every turn. Rishi almost got run over by a particularly eagre horse and Eurotrip was almost at its conclusion right there, but luckily he was quick enough to dodge out the way. Good times. We didnt have much else to keep us busy, so we had some dinner and turned in a little early to recharge the batteries.
We were woken up to the sound of lots of church bells, as it was a Sunday. Obviously this had dire consequences as the Cathedrals and Churches had arrogantly closed their doors for the morning to the innocent and curious tourists. How inconsiderate. Nevertheless we made our way once again for the 'Markt' and some of Brugge's more secular buildings. We climbed to the top of the famous Belfry, pretty much a clock tower that overlooks the city. We squeezed up the 366 steps which were incredibly narrow, especially near the top. The view was worth it though as the whole of Brugge was set before us. Afterwards, we went to the small Groeningemuseum which had some interesting artworks by the Flemish Primitive school. We also went to Belgiums oldest 'stadhuis' (city hall), which featured a guilded Gothic Hall, which was very well done. Unfortunately pictures werent allowed. By this time, the churches were reopening their doors to tourists, so we went to the very small 'Heilig-Bloedbasiliek' (Basilica of the Holy Blood) where we managed to see, as you may have guessed, a small guilded vial that true Catholics believe contains the blood of Christ. Apparently it was brought to the church by a local knight who recovered it on a crusade. There was a small service which I attended, and I was able to go up to the relic, touch it, and say a quick prayer. It was quite a moving experience. The question of whether the relic is real or not is irrelevent to me. For the Catholics, it is an act of faith and a form of worship. Meeting back up with Rishi, we made our way towards our final stop for the day, the 'Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk' (The Church of Our Lady). This church contains one amazing treasure: Michelangelo's 'Madonna and Child'. This small statue was the only work of art by Michelangelo to leave Italy during his lifetime. The detail is fantastic. The expressions and natural poses of the figures are incredible. You don't feel like you are staring at stiff pieces of marble at all, but almost living characters. They look so soft and natural. It really is a beautiful piece of sculpture by the master. The rest of the church was very dark and hazy and there wasnt much else of note. As you can probably tell, I didnt enjoy the rest of the church very much, but it definitly was a great way of finishing off our time in Belgium. That evening we were heading on a 3 hour trip to Amsterdam and a new country with new culture and a new language (although interestingly enough, Dutch was everywhere in Belgium as you can probably tell in some of the names of places). A new experience was just around the corner.
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