Berlin: History, Nightlife, Flea Markets, and Australians

Hey y'all. On Friday night I left Stockholm on the Berlin Night Express train, and now I'm in Berlin. I've now not only traveled by train and boat, but also by train ON a boat. The middle of the train ride was a ferry trip, and it was quite the experience sleeping in a train but feeling it rock back and forth like a boat.

Anyways, I got to Berlin central station bright and early at 6 AM, and couldn't check into my hostel until 2 PM, so I had a lot of time to kill on Saturday. I ended up wandering around until about 11, when I met two other English speakers who were from Canada and England. We went on a walking tour together around all of central Berlin ("Mitte"), and saw a lot of historical sights. Among them: 

The Reichstag. It is also called the Bundestag. This is the building that Hitler bombed before WW2 and blamed it on the Jews and others. We now know that Hitler himself likely bombed the building to unify Germany against the "evil outsiders" and take control. Today this is the German parliament building and it symbolizes democracy here.

 The Brandenburg Gate. One of the only parts of the city that survived both WW2 bombings and the Soviet takeover. 

 The hotel where Michael Jackson held his baby out over the balcony. Very historical.

 The Holocaust Memorial, artwork based off a graveyard of Jewish victims in Prague. Unfortunately the anti-graffiti paint used on the memorial was created by the same company that supplied the gas for gas chambers in concentration camps. When this was found out, the company wisely decided to donate the paint rather than charge for it. 

 The old Communist headquarters in Berlin. Look how happy all the communists are in the mural!

And lastly, of course, the Berlin Wall.

That night I went on a pub crawl which was alright. It ended with a lot of crazy dancing in a nightclub, and I even managed some swing dancing of course :)

The next day I woke up and went the the flea markets in Mauerpark. It was probably my favorite part so far, crazy bartering. I bought a belt with a secret compartment in it. There was also the biggest crowd for karaoke I had ever seen in my life there. It was funny to hear people with German accents sing American songs.

Today I am hanging out with some Australians. Did I mention that I have met more Australians here than Germans? There are a lot of them. And a lot of beautiful churches too. And on another unrelated note, I sat on Karl Marx's lap:

One last highlight of the trip was seeing a Bugatti Veyron, the fastest road-legal production car in the world!

Stockholm!

The Swedish capital city. Swedish people are very nice once you get to know them. The last few days I have been staying with a Swedish guy named Adrian who I met at my hostel in Lulea. His roommate is gone so I have had a whole giant room to myself. Anyways, when I got to Stockholm, Adrian bought some sill (a type of fish) at the supermarket and showed me how to make a traditional Swedish dish with sill, salmon, dill, and potatoes.It was pretty good, although I liked the salmon more than the sill. They also have something called "hardbread" here which is *gasp* bread that is hard like a cracker!

The days I have been here I have walked around the city, sometimes by myself and other times with Adrian. On Wednesday I came across a museum with a giant 17th century ship inside that had been pulled up from the seafloor. It was well preserved because it was in bracken water (not salt but not fresh) where the worm that decomposes wood does not live. It was really cool, and I met some Americans in the museum and museum'ed with them. Here are some photos of the ship:

I also explored Gamla Stan, the oldest part of Stockholm with narrow winding streets:

All of the statues of horsemen were purposely pointed towards Moscow, which I thought was funny.

In the evenings I hung out with Adrian and his friends, one of whom had been to Afghanistan, and we had some good discussions. One thing we talked about was how Swedes do not like to live in excess and luxury, even if they are rich, which I think is pretty cool. Today Adrian is going to England to get his Tattoo finished by the Japanese artist who started it and enter a tattoo competition for the guy. I am headed to Berlin on a night train, and am pretty excited. I will be staying in a youth hostel there for backpackers.

For those of you at UW, I took this photo of a cafe in the central train station because it reminded me of home :)

Unexpected Adventure

My last few days in Lapland (northern Sweden) have been awesome! I decided to rent a car to drive north from Kiruna into the Arctic wilderness. It was three times less expensive to rent a manual transmission, so I went with that. I have only driven a stick shift briefly before, and it was three years ago (thanks Naomi Glesener!), so I had to teach myself how to drive manual. After practicing for 3 hours and stalling the poor rental car too many times for its own good, I was on the road. The car itself was some European make I have never heard of (Citroen Berlingo). Here it is:

Anyways, I decided to visit the girl I met on the train (Karin) in her village, Kuttainen. Her family was extremely nice to me and let me stay with them for 2 days. It was a great experience! They even had a sauna in their house with a shower inside it, which is pretty common around here! That night I went hunting and shot a moose! Here's a photo:

Haha, just kidding. Karin's dad shot the moose. But I did partake in eating the moose. 

The Pounus, Karin's family, live right next to the church in the village. It is a very beautiful building with an electric organ. In the evening we went and played some music and the Pounu girls sang songs in Swedish. Then they took me to a cottage in the middle of the woods where I met all of the young people in the village. The cottage had no running water or electricity but we made a fire and drank some coffee. Coffee is very popular here, I think they drink more than Seattle (even though Karin didn't know what Starbucks was). We ended up hanging out until around 1 AM. It turns out some of them have been to Washington state and could speak better English. I was surprised. Photos of the Pounu family, the church, and the cottage:

In the morning I went to church with them and their cousin Hans even translated the service for me. I am now very good at singing Swedish Hymns.

It was sad to leave the next day because I know I will miss the Pounu's, but I'm excited for the next part of my trip, Stockholm. I will be staying with a guy I met in Lulea named Adrian. 

As a closing note, this car rental company in Sweden wins the award for worst name:

Romping around Scandanavia

I believe that the only appropriate word for my travels in Scandanavia so far would be "romping." I have been traveling very far distances and going in no particular direction. The scenery is spectacular.

From Tallinn, I was planning to take a hydrofoil back to Helsinki, but the winds were too strong so the voyage was cancelled. They rebooked me on another line, and I ended up traveling on a huge cruise ship. I met a girl on board who was from Lithuania and we hung out on the two hour voyage. Here's a photo of the ship (much too big for such a short voyage):

From Helsinki, I took the night train to a city in northern Sweden called Kemi. I sat by a girl on the train named Elen who was from Estonia and studying in Oulu, Finland. We ended up playing some good card games (the one I learned from Adam and then Spades after that) and attempted to fall asleep. I learned that night that it is VERY hard to sleep in seats on trains. Next time I will reserve a couchette (bed in a dorm room). I think I got like 2 hours of sleep and was very stiff in the morning. 

From Kemi, I took a bus to a town called Haparanda in Sweden. The first sight I saw when I crossed the border into Sweden was an Ikea (how fitting). It was literally on the border:

From Haparanda I took a double decker bus into Lulea, Sweden. I got a hostel there and spent the night. I was so tired I took a nap at 1700 and didn't wake up until 2230 even though I had set 3 alarms. Unfortunately, I was very hungry when I woke up but there were no restaurants that were still open, so I ate a bunch of my snacks. There is absolutely nothing open late or early in small cities in Sweden. All restaurants open at 900 and close at midnight or earlier. Lame. Anyways, I met a guy in the hostel named Adrian said I could stay at his place when I go to Stockholm. I'm looking forward to being back in the city.

In the morning, I boarded the train to Narvik. I sat next to a girl from a very small village in the far north of Sweden called Kuttainen. She was studying to become a teacher. She and everyone else on the train deboarded at Kiruna and I was all alone for the last 2.5 hours to Narvik, which I thought was strange. The train had to stop like 10 times because it is a single track and there were iron ore trains passing which hauled iron mined in Kiruna to Narvik to be shipped out. Anyways, the scenery was amazing, but it was cloudy in Narvik. Here are some photos from the ride:

 First glimpse of a fjord:

Norway was super expensive (over thirty bucks for a burger) and there was crappy weather. I stayed one night in a hostel and then took the train back to Kiruna, where it is nice and clear (I really want to see the Northern Lights). I'm thinking about renting a car tomorrow for the day and exploring the area/hiking. Kiruna is quite cold, being a ways above the Arctic Circle (further north than Fairbanks, AK). There aren't too many trees around because it gets so cold here in the winter.

As a side note, guess what I saw as a sign on a door? A Washington license plate! Needless to say, I was very surprised.

Onward to Tallinn

Just wanna keep you all updated! On Friday I spent the day exploring Helsinki with a German guy from the hostel. We went around and took lots of photos. It was my first full day in Europe. The highlight of the day was probably taking a ferry to go see a huge fortress on an island called Suomenlinna. For anyone who has been to the forts on Whidbey Island and in Port Townsend, this was like those but up a notch of awesomeness. There were quite a few dark tunnels to explore, and luckily my German friend had a "mini-torch" (apparently what they call small flashlights in the UK). Here are some photos:

Around the rest of Helsinki, there were quite a few Nokia stores and awesome cathedrals. I met a Finnish student who was studying medicine in one of the cafes in town, and he told me a lot about the city and country. He spoke very good English and sounded like a native speaker, which surprised me.

That night I met an English guy named Adam at the hostel who was travelling to Tallinn the next day. He hadn't booked his boat ticket yet so he booked the same one as I had. Crossing the Gulf of Finland only took 1.5 hours on a hydrofoil and we played cards pretty much the whole way. Once we made it to Tallinn we met up with Chris Raastad, one of my friends from UW studying here, and went to a choir concert in a yellow church. The concert was very good, consisting of both Estonians and Germans. That night all three of us went out to some bars in the medieval "Old Town" of Tallinn and had a few drinks. Old town here in Tallinn is awesome. It has cobblestone streets and awesome bars and cafes to hang out in and meet locals.

It just so happens that the largest athletic event in Estonia, a marathon, happened Sunday, so we decided to check it out. Chris registered for the 10k race that came after the marathon. In his race alone there were upwards of 13,000 runners. It took 10 minutes just for everyone to cross the starting line. Here are some photos:

Runners at the starting line:

Start of the race:

Tallinn skyline:

Last night I Couchsurfed with some awesome Estonians. They are very nice and fun to hang out with. They made me an Estonian drink which consisted of a bit of blackberry jelly mixed into a cup of hot water. They don't have hot water or a shower at their place so they bathe by heating water in a large pot and using a washcloth. I am eager to try.

Until next time,

Josh

First night in Finland

Hey all, its 9 AM here in Finland. I just woke up from spending my first night in a hostel. It was actually a pretty good experience, and everyone in my room is awesome (one German, one Russian, three Belgians, a Canadian, and a French guy).

Yesterday all my flights ran on time! For one of the flights I sat next to a professional volleyball player. She was going to Finland to play for one of the teams over here. At one point over the Atlantic Ocean we had some really bad turbulence, worse than anything I had ever experienced. It would have been impossible to walk on the plane, and it was somewhat like a roller coaster except you didn't know what direction the plane was going to lurch.

Here's my first view of Europe as we landed in Copenhagen: 

My hostel is located in the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki:

And last night guess what I ate for dinner? Reindeer, a Finnish specialty!

That's it for now, folks. I think I'm going to spend the day exploring Helsinki.

Beginnings

After a crazy week of moving out of my place, putting stuff in storage, packing, and saying goodbyes I'm finally leaving!

First things first, I'll give you some background on the blog:

I picked the name "Beyond Seattle" because this is the first time I can remember being away from Seattle for more than a few weeks. I'm venturing out into the unknown, beyond my small comfort zone of Washington state. I have been away from Seattle for longer periods of time, but it was when I was young and don't really remember. I've never been outside of North America.

The background is a railroad bridge because I will be taking trains almost everywhere I go. I have a Eurail Global Pass, which allows me to ride on almost any railroad in Europe for free (or a very small reservation supplement) for 3 months. It also lets me ride on some ships and buses for free too, and get discounts on other stuff. Pretty sweet deal.

Now to the more interesting travel plans. Right now I'm on my netbook in the SeaTac Airport waiting for my flight to board. For those of you who don't know, I'm flying into Helsinki, Finland. I have layovers in Chicago and Copenhagen. Once I get to Helsinki, I'll be staying in a hostel that is inside of the Olympic Stadium there. It will be my first hostel experience, and I'm pretty excited. After two days, I'll be taking a boat over to Tallinn, Estonia and visiting my friend Chris Raastad. From there, everything is up in the air right now.

Anyways, I'll post some pictures when I have them.

-Josh