Stockholm
2002-7-21
Arrived
in Stockholm and after a few wrong turns (my mistake) we found the Hostel. It was in one of the more European
parts of the city, since the approach could fool you into thinking it was
Portland. The hostel was in fact a
High School with bunk beds in the classroom. It wasnÕt great, but there were certainly a whole bunch of
backpackers, which was a change from the campsites. The hostel/school also lacked a kitchen for us to use, so we
cooked in the courtyard with the camping stove.
After
a night with the loudest snoring this side of Novosibirsk, Volkmar and I hit
the town, heading out with two Germans that we met the night before. They wanted to go to the Museum that
looks like a ship and has a ship in it.
We were happy to save our few precious Krone and wander around the
city. Volkmar and I discovered an
ÔAmerican ShopÕ in the old part of town and entered with dreams of Tortillas
and Peanut Butter. There were two
Canadian girls in there, and Volkmar suggested I say hello. I decided to be shy and said that they
should notice me, since I was all MECÕd out for the rain.
ÒAre you
from Canada?Ó and that was
that. Wandered about the city with
a Nurse and Paramedic from Calgary.
As soon as they mentioned that they craved sushi, we offered to make
them some for dinner. They
accepted (warily IÕm sure), and that pretty much toasted the rest of Volkmar
and my Day in Stockholm, since we had to head back to the hostel to prepare the
rice, shower, shave, buy what few ingredients we hadnÕt managed to bring with
usÉ
The
evening was good. What hostelling
is all about. The next day the sky
as blue and the weather warm. A
proper tour round the old city plus the architecture museum (naturally) and
then it was on the road again towards Denmark!
Helsingoer
2002-7-25
If
anything is to be rotten in the state of Denmark, it must be the cheese. Well not rotten but rancid, and not so
much rotten as delicious. Off the
boat, and after a quick bite in town, I had to hit the cheese shop for some
delicious blue cheese and havarti.
And the Havarti was nothing like what IÕm used to in Canada.
Helsingoer
has Elsinore castle of Hamlet fame, but it also has a lot of liquor stores to
serve the Swedish cross-border shopper.
A very picturesque town.
And Danish girls, wowÉ!
Back
to the Europe that Volkmar and I knew.
Old buidlings, narrow winding streets, ÔquaintÕ stores. It is shocking to find Scandinavia to
be a big car, big road, big crap selling convenience store culture. We did find the quiet woods and
beautiful lakes and everything that is associated with Northern Europe, but
away from the coast, the part of the world bears a remarkable resemblance to
Ontario. Is Europe really an Ocean
away from North America? I could
imagine that driving ÔnorthÕ from Karlstad, I would wind up heading south into
Thunder Bay, without ever passing the arctic and Tundra that I have never seen,
but fills the Canadian map.
CopenhagenÕs
hostel/campsite was quite nice, but windy and not really on a nice stretch of
beach. A dutch camper was keen to
join (and out perform) our little habit of guitar playing after dinner and into
the darkness.
Neustadt
2002-7-25
Camped
for the first time at a German campsite after coming off the Ferry from
Denmark. The caravans were placed
right up against one another, with little fences and garden ornaments that
indicate that theyÕll be here for the whole summer. The neat thing was that we ran into the Lichtensteiner
couple that we met on VolkmarÕs birthday in Norway. It was a complete
coincidence, and very welcome.
They helped us finish off the last of our beer and joined us for
breakfast the next day. Because
they were flying, we were asked to transport the Moose sign (see photos) that
they had stolen from the highway.