International Gasque

This week I have been busy finishing up my first course.  Nothing real special other than that but tonight is the international gasque.  From what I understand a gasque is like a formal and traditional dinner that swedes do.  There is an after party after the 3 hour dinner so that should be a good time.  My geography class is going well other than freezing to death on the city tour on the first class.  I will try and update this tomorrow and let you all know how the gasque was!

The cold is here

Tonight we are going to a little pizza party.  Gulia from Italy is making pizza for our group of friends.  We are all going to make meals that are from our country during the semester.  Jesse and I will have an American Barbeque for our friends when the weather warms up a little hopefully Memorial Day.  My bus pass has expired so Jesse and I will be making the half hour walk in the freezing cold.  The past few days have been much colder than the first few weeks here.  The temperature only got up to about 10F today and it is currently 5F.  The next couple weeks looks like it won't get above 25F at any point. I don't really mind it though I just hope I leave the country with all my fingers and toes!

Just finished my paper for my first class!  It is the only grade for the class so I put a lot of time into it.  My next class also started yesterday.  The course is Geography of Sweden which should be interesting.  I am the only geography major in the class and 1 of few native english speakers so that should be pretty straight foreword.

Here is another picture from Brussels taken by Jesse and here is his blog for additional pictures/ info.
http://jessefife.blogspot.com/

Grand Place 

Trip Recap

Thursday- Got to Berlin early and took a train downtown.  All of the cheap airlines most likely are in an airport that is pretty far away and Berlin was no different.  One of the first things i saw in Berlin was a Dunkin' Donuts so I was pretty excited about that.  We then walked around the city and also learned how big the city actually is.  The walk on the map looked much shorter on the map to say the least.  We were all pretty tired so we just hung out at the bar at the hostel.  Our hostel was in West Berlin named the Amstel House.  It was really nice and only 9 euro a night.   

Brandenburg Gate

Berlin Dome

Friday-  We started the day with a 3 hour walking tour.  We walked and saw a lot of really neat stuff.  The history in Berlin is so recent that you can actually relate to it.  The holocaust memorial was right in the center of the city and was pretty remarkable.  They certainly don't try and hide their history in Germany and that is probably best.  We then went to where Hitler's old bunker was.  We continued onto the former Checkpoint Charlie location.  Later that night we went to the Berlinale which is the Berlin film festival.  We went to a random movie and it ended up being a Swedish film with english subtitles by Ingar Bergman named Hour of the Wolf.  One of the weirder films I have scene.

Saturday-  We started early once again to do a tour of a former Nazi concentration camp named Sachensenhausen.  It was in a small town north of Berlin named Oranienburg.  The whole town kind of has an erie feel to it.  The tour was free we had our own tour guide.  She shared pretty horrific stories as we were walking to the camp which really started to paint a picture of what happened at the camp.  Most of the old buildings had burned or were blown up by the soviets.  They used the camp after the Nazi's as a concentration camp and then a place to test bombs resulting in only a few buildings in tact.  The camp wasn't an execution camp but thousands upon thousands still died there (between 50,000 and 100,000).  It was one of the first camp's made and is known as the blueprint for future concentration camps. 

Holocaust memorial with US embassy in background

"Work to be free" entrance of camp

execution trench

old building in the camp

Later that night we needed to lighten the mood a little so we went out to a bar/ club in Berlin.   We went to Cafe Zapata which had 5 floors.  There were squatters who were mostly artists living in rooms throughout the building.  There was an art gallery set up selling their artwork on the 5th floor.  Different floors had different bars.  One floor had a live band playing, one had 60's music and another was American music.  It was a really cool set up.  Berliners stay up quite a bit later than the Swedes do.  We left the club at 5:30...am.  All in all it was one of the more fun nights I have had in a long time.

stairway in cafe zapata

Sunday-  Got a late start obviously.  We check out the famous flea markets in the afternoon.  We went to Mauer Park.  Flea markets aren't really my thing so I played some basketball against a german at the park who was unfortunately a Laker fan.    

Monday-  Went to the East Side gallery which has hundreds of paintings on the Berlin wall.  I'm not a big art fan but the East side was pretty cool.  The wall stretched probably a half mile of painting after painting on the former wall.  We then checked out the German history museum and recapped everything we have scene in person which was good.

Standard Amsterdam street

I left a crucial part out of every single day of our Berlin experience and that was the food.  Unbelievable might be an understatement.  There was so much food and it was all so good.  It was also insanely cheap.  No meal would cost more than 6 euros and you really couldn't finish any meal they gave you.  Just about twice as cheap as Sweden.  Berlin was awesome though, I wasn't expecting much but it was one of the coolest places I've been and I definitely plan on returning.

Midnight- caught train to Amsterdam.  Cabin had a family of 5 in it until about 3am then I had it all to myself and slept until we got there.  

Tuesday- Got to Amsterdam at about 10am and found the hostel pretty easily.  It was a pretty cool city but it wasn't really my "style".  I could see how some people love it but not me.  The city was really pretty though we did a tour and then walked past the Anne Frank house.  We watched a soccer match at night and then walked around the town after.  Our hostel was right on the border of the Red Light District so there was an interesting crowd around.  

Brussels

Wednesday- Took bus to Brussels bright and early.  Got there at noon and managed to get to the hostel without getting lost.  The city was nice in the old area.  It seemed like a pretty simple city from the one day/ night that we were there.  Everything closes in the city very early which is much different than Berlin and Amsterdam.  We got some good tasting waffles though and hit the hay after a long week.  

Jesse and I at the East Side gallery

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Amsterdam Canal (over 4,000 bridges)

I kind of rushed this so sorry for spelling mistakes.  I now have a paper to do that gets a grade so this was a nice warm up!

Berlin- Amsterdam- Brussels

Tonight we are headed to Stockholm to stay in a hostel because our flight is at 630 am tomorrow morning out of a random airport named Skvasta south of Stockholm. We get to Berlin around 9am so we will have the whole day to be a tourist.  It is going to be 45 degrees the first couple days there so that will be a nice change.  I am going with Jesse, Penelope from Australia and a girl from New Zealand.  We will be in Berlin for 5 days and from what I've heard there is a lot to see so that is perfect.  Franzi who is from Berlin made a huge list of things to see so that will be helpful.  After we spend 5 days in Berlin, Jesse and I will head to Amsterdam on a 10 hour overnight train.  We will be in Amsterdam just that day and night so hopefully we can get some sleep on the train.  I would like to go longer but it was much more expensive to stay there.  I guess I will just have to come back someday!  We will then take a train down to Brussels and visit Kylie who went to CU for the day and night.  Brussels is the capital of the EU so it is a pretty important city.  Our flight from Brussels to Stockholm is only about 10 dollars so that makes all the travel to Brussels worth it or at least I hope!

I will try and get to an internet cafe and update this during our journey!

Estonia

Little piece of home

Friday-  We took the train down to Stockholm in the snow/ rain in the afternoon.  We were going to go earlier but didn't want to tour the city in those conditions.  I also got a little sick right after I posted that previous post so that put a delay in my trip to Stockholm.  I was pretty determined to go so I wasn't going to let a stomach bug stop me.

Once we got to the city the train station was pretty impressive.  There was an O'Learys sports bar which is a Boston sports pub.  I had never heard of O'Learys but apparently they're all over Europe

Entering Tallinn

The metro was very simple figuring out once we found it.  Jesse got our tickets and we basically walked through security so being 20 wasn't an issue at all.  The ship was much nicer than I expected.  We paid $20 for the cabin so I was expecting to be roughing it but it was very nice.  The ship had multiple stages, dance club, restaurants, supermarket and a spa.  We watched a cheesy cover-band play and then some of my friends played black jack and ended up losing some money unfortunately.  The ship was rocking pretty intensely throughout the night.

Saturday-  Woke up to the captain advertising cheap alcohol 2 hours from port.  No taxes on the open water so they really try and advertise that since the taxes on alcohol in Sweden are ridiculous(35-40% more in Sweden).  The walk from the ship to the downtown area was pretty far, icy and cold. I also felt miserable so that added to the fun.  We walked through the industrial and modern part of the city then reached the very old town center.  A lot of the buildings were very ugly probably from the communist era on the outskirts.  There were a lot of empty brick buildings just like in Maine's old mill towns.  In the old part of town a lot of the buildings looked like they were ready to fall down.  The city was pretty dead, nothing like Stockholm.  Owners of the restaurants tried recruiting you to eat at their place kind of like in Mexico or any resort place.  You have to feel bad for them as they are trying but you just can't go everywhere.  The unemployment rate in Estonia is about 19% so their economy must be hurting.

Jesse and I (in the background) in the center of Tallinn

After we ate at an Italian restaurant we walked the city.  I talk about sidewalk conditions too much but they were AWFUL.  We saw an old lady go down unfortunately.  Makes you appreciate the city workers that clear the streets and sidewalks back in the states.

Russian architecture

There were dozens of old lady's selling hand knit scarfs, mittens and hats.  There was also a flea market in the freezing cold with a bunch of hand made items.  They were some pretty tough people in Tallinn.  The others went to the spa but I headed back to the ship since I wasn't feeling great.

Estonia was exactly what I thought it would be.  It was cold and it had a cold feel to it.  I enjoyed the city and learned a little about their way of life.  I have never been to a place like Estonia as it just had a different feel to it.  It certainly wasn't your typical stop along the Caribbean that's for sure.

*Here is a commercial Jesse and I saw on the boat.  For us it is absolutely hilarious because we can directly relate to the black sheep failing to pronounce any swedish word correctly.  Tele2 is a swedish company too so that is kind of funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-njkD4WUbs&feature=channel

Pictures:

Baltic Sea

Communist style architecture

Our ship

Off to Tallinn, Estonia (hopefully)

Last night we went to Stockholm's nation club night.  I heard of it being extra fancy and pinky up kind of style and it definitely was.  It was like a fancy wine party at a country club.  The stockholm slick was in full effect, which is the style in which the guys slick their hair back.

We were going to walk around Stockholm today but woke up to a snowstorm.  Not sure what is going to happen now but we are going on the cruise to Estonia tonight.  If you are under 21 you aren't supposed to be allowed to go but a few of us are under 21. I've heard from people have already been that they don't check at all.  So lets hope I am back in a few days and not tonight!

New planned trip!

Monday-  Walked around town today.  My plan was to buy some more shirts and jeans but all the stores were packed with people.  I don't know if it is always this busy but It's like black friday every day.  I hate shopping so if there is any line or crowd in a store then I'm gone.  I take after my dad clearly.  Everyone also walks or drives like "massholes".  They don't mess around.  I learned this when we landed in Stockholm and I was trying to get off the plane and everyone was cutting me off and not letting me get out of my aisle.  I'm no longer Mr. Nice-guy.

I am amazed by the number of people that walk the town.  The town is always very busy with pedestrians.  The downtown area is more busy than I've ever seen the Old Port and it's below freezing.  I think this is why everyone is so healthy as they walk or bike everywhere.  The sidewalks for American standards are in awful shape but everyone still bikes and walks it.  I still haven't fallen for the record.  Most of the bike tires have studded tires so they don't wipe out.

Tuesday-  Just planned a Trip with Pen and Jesse.  We are headed to Berlin on the 10th then going to Amsterdam on the 13th or so then Brussels, Belgium on the 16th.  I am pretty excited for this 3 country tour!  We are staying in hostels in each of the cities and either taking a train or bus to each destination.  Our return flight from Brussels to Stockholm is only 8 euro.  The travel in Europe is much more affordable and efficient than in the United States as all of the travel and accommodations should be under $200 for a week!  That would get me TO Colorado and that's about it.  We will also visit Kylie in Brussels who went to CU- Boulder.

Tonight is club night at Snerikes.  Since I joined that nation I can get in free.  We are going early so we don't have to wait in the line which took an hour and a half last week.  They have 3 different bars and 3 dance floors in the Nation.  

Jesse and Luke at Snerikes last tuesday