The City of the Bear -Berlin

So this weekend a friend and I decided to get the heck out of Copenhagen in search of cheap food, drinks, and an all around vacation from Denmark. We set out to Berlin on the morning train from Copenhagen main station. About 2 hours in we hit the ferry from Rødby to Puttgarden. It was a very pleasant crossing on the top deck of the ferry enjoying the stiff breeze blowing as we cut through the water.

After another 4.5 hours we were in Berlin and took the S-Bahn to the Zoo Garden station and descended to try and find our hotel. Fortunately one of the program participants, Roman, is from Berlin and provided us with a very nice map to get us to our destination. The room was very spacious in European hotel terms and was very close to the S-Bahn and center Berlin. We took off for the Orienburger Strauss where there are loads upon loads of nice restaurants -at half of Copenhagen prices! We walked to gain our bearings and settled on a nice cafe near the tv tower where I snapped some pictures of course.

We headed back to the hotel for a change of clothes and to ask the bartender for a solid recommendation where to get some good beer and spirits. He pointed us in the direction of Irish Bar which was amazingly not filled with a lot of English speakers. We met a bartender from Australia who gave us some tips for the following night. However that night we got pretty well lit and had an interesting experience with a German girl who wanted some company for the night. It was definitely an interesting experience and a funny story but I am not going to waste my time with the details here. In the end I had to take her number and told her I would call the next day in order for her to let us leave without her following us to the hotel -never a dull moment I guess.

Saturday we woke up a little late and had some breakfest about noon and then hit the trail to see The Brandenburger Gate, Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, East Side Gallery (where we got some film and photos of a peaceful demonstration against some commercial development taking place near the gallery that is a haven for the alternative and artistic of Berlin), also checked out a Holocaust Memorial, etc... After all that we headed to Orienburger Strauss a second time to actually have a little dinner at one of the many other restaurants. It was delicious and cheap and we were lamenting our misfortune in the uber-expensive Copenhagen all the while. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to change for the evening's events. We got a message from Roman who decided to meet us and take us somewhere nice. We went to Hackescher Mkt in one of the patio bars/clubs named Dante to meet him. We arrived before midnight but because Roman was travelling from his parent's house it took him until 1:00 to arrive. So he recommended that we go to a place in East Berlin. We agreed. So we started walking because Roman said it was only 2 stops, bad idea. I got to see a cool part of Berlin but we walked almost an hour to find that it had closed after we had passed two other places that were hopping! So we walked another half hour to the student section and found a lot of cool bars and cafes where we had some beers and discussed a number of topics about Berlin.

We headed home and took the S-Bahn which was another 30 minute walk from the bar. At around 4:30 we got to the hotel, the sun was already getting ready to come up as the sky was very light by now. The next day we took Roman's advice, with trepidation, about an area that has good, cheap brunch buffets. This time Roman came through and we ate well one last time before the rationing begins again in Copenhagen, haha. Took the train home enjoying some cheap shopping aboard the ferry getting some Martini Bianco and a few cases of beer to split up. Arrived home at 11:30 Sunday evening and decided to have a couple of beers at Brandon's place with a great courtyard. Was joined by a lovely Norwegian and we talked and drank beers until I finally headed back to bed so that I could get get up Monday and start my Copenhagen life again. It was a great weekend and makes me anticipate the rest of my trip. I hate to say it but I think that Copenhagen is nice but not for me. I'm ready to see more places like Berlin.

Copenhagen is hospitable as are it's people, however I don't find it very friendly or warm.

One belt notch down...

As I may have already said this is a very expensive city. However, I guess that it has it's advantages because since arriving in Europe I have already lost one belt notch and I imagine that the second isn't far away. It stems from two different reasons, the first is that I am forced to eat less every day because the food is just too expensive to really overdo it. Second, I am walking at least an hour every day and I have been doing some Pilates. I am looking into the gym here on campus because I can get a membership during my time for about $50 so since I would like to keep up my good habits I think it's a worthy investment. Maybe if I am lucky I can get a discount since I have waited a week to join, keeping my fingers crossed but not holding my breath because I think that the CBS is a succesful business as well, haha!

I have had some cool stuff happen during the last week as well. One is to see my old exchange student Louise from about 17 years ago, geez I'm getting older... She is doing well and works in an architecture firm. Her background is in Anthropology so she works in design/urban planning and she helps to create spaces that are funcitional and provide the human element that the architects don't think about. On top of that is the sensational news that perhaps before I leave I will get to meet the newest edition to the Kielgast dynasty. Louise is pregnant and has about 7 weeks to term, so if the little girl decides to make a curtain call a little early I may get to meet her! Pretty cool.

Next, I worked my way into the Porcelænshaven 24/7 reading room to do some emailing. As I am sitting there a girl walked by and I thought that she was very familiar. She looked like a Danish girl that lived in the Cour des Muses building during my time in Lyon. My friend Richard had a big crush on her in fact. So I stopped her to say hello and inquire whether she had ever lived in Lyon. As the words came out the recognition came across her face. It was Maria, What a small world after all!!!

We took about 30 minutes to catch up on the current events and trade numbers to try and get some of the crew together from Lyon as most of them are still here in Copenhagen. She is currently writing her Master's thesis which apparently takes quite a long time her in Denmark. It was just serendipidous to see her by chance. I am very happy because I haven't had any luck finding anyone on Facebook because its just now becoming a phenomenon here in Denmark. So again my lovely Lyonnais séjour is coming back to me.

Yesterday one of my new friends from UNCC, Vaughan, and I went to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek since the museum is free on Sundays. They have a very cool collection of sculpture that ranges from Danish to Egyptian to some really nice Rodins. I snapped many pictures, especially of the Rodins of course.

The weather has been very nice as Maria and Louise have told me that usually it's not this nice every day during the summer. But except for last night it has been sunny and warm every day since I have arrived. Maybe I am bringing that lovely French weather along with me :)

Next week the CBS program is going to Berlin and since it's about $250 to go along with the trip and it's mostly a tour guide event with a lot of free time so I decided to go as well using my rail pass. Instead of $250 I spent ten dollars making the reservations and I am travelling by train in lieu of the buses the others are taking. My friend Brandon may be going along with me and if so we are talking about staying in a hotel room. Do you know what I am looking forward to most? I want to veg out one night and just watch some television! What an American thing to look forward to isn't it? I have nothing in my room so I am hoping to do some reading and just got my library card so I can check out books now. I have no idea where I am going to start but I think it's going to be something that my high school English teacher would be proud of me for choosing. Even thought it may serve to give me something to fall asleep to at night.

This is me during a game and a rule was made that if you said drink you must put your forehead on the table. To my credit I was one of the last to do so. But it's still a very clever rule and you should use it the next time you party with 20 year olds!

Good Times...

Settling in to Copenhagen

Here I am in this beautiful city by the sea. The temperature reminds me of early Spring with warm days and cool nights. It´s amazing that it´s July and I have to carry a jacket in my bag or I may get too cold. However the most eery thing is the light when you are this high in latitude. The sun barely goes down for about 4 hours so at 11:30 you can still see light and at 3:30am the sun begins to come back over the horizon, it´s really bizarre but it makes you get more done because you get up earlier and stay up later.

The train from Paris wasn´t bad at all as I had a sleeper in 1st class and got a few hours rest. However the conducter stopped to give me my ticket because my stop was coming up soon so I got up and collected my things. I got the train at Hamburg HBF just as it said on my ticket. The station was a little smaller than I had imagined but no worries... WRONG!

I stopped by the information desk and the girl told me that I needed to go to the "main" station! Another girl and myself were both headed to Copenhagen and made the same mistake, and she has family there so she must usually go a different route. The girl told me to take the metro so we both hopped on and then got out and we weren´t even close. There was noone on the streets at 8:30 Sunday morning and we were both very surprised. We had about 30 minutes to get to the station and make our train so when I spotted a cab I took the opportunity. A 30€ cab ride and we made it with about 10 minutes to spare. The only thing that I had eated in about 16 hours was my last meal at Fred´s. Since I didn´t have time or money to get anything at the station I survived on a free Snickers bar and coffee from the first class car. Sometimes being older and not getting the reduced tickets has it´s privileges :) Next I was amazed by how the train crossed the sea between Germany and Denmark by ferry. I had no idea that we would do that so I was astonished when the conductor said that once we pulled into the ferry we would have to deboard for the ferry ride. It was pretty cool because the train just pulls into the ferry on tracks, then pulls out on the other side. I have some cool pictures of the train that I will post soon when I remember my adaptor.

So after arriving to Copenhagen the lovely Karina met me at the station to give me my key. I was very thankful because she took an hour or more to find me on a Sunday, Skøl to her! I decided to get some practice in for my trip so I walked to my apartment with the pack and all through walking boulevard, very cool. When I arrived I knew what was waiting because as always I was on the top floor of the building. I was surprised to learn that I had a roommate because I asked for a single room before I was thinking about couchsurfing it, and since they made me take a place I wanted a single room because sometimes you just want the comfort of your own place. I stopped by the office to see about my room and they said they would email me... I stopped by two days later and they hadn´t even looked but the lady was nice and took a some time to help me find a cheap, single room with a shared shower. No worries because I was sharing a shower with 8! But it is unfortunate because we had a nice kitchen and a French press for my coffee but I can manage something at my new place, there´s no oven but it has a fridge and two burners so that´s enough for 5 1/2 more weeks.

Classes are a little bit of a joke so far. An Italian woman whose English is very broken and one 15 page paper to grade, remind you of anywhere lovelies? The other is corporate finance but I don´t think that the exam will be difficult based on today´s class. All the better for your narrator since I am looking to enjoy myself.

On to the question of money. As everyone knows the dollar is no longer the currency of power and so it´s an exponential effect being in the fourth most expensive city on earth. A six-pack of beer in a little corner grocery is $12, granted the beer is excellent. The average dinner at a restaurant based on signs, not having eaten, is about $30-40 without beverages!!! I am only eating a breakfast of meusli and yogurt with a coffee press, a small snack and a piece of fruit for lunch and then a dinner. When you count in that I am walking so much I must have already lost a kilo since Sunday, lol. But I have to be very careful because it´s so expensive. One last example is a metro ride is $3.50 for one hour of travel, incredible! Sean is learning how to be frugal and humble at the same time.

The upside is that I am in a beautiful city and meeting heaps of great people at the same time. Last night there was a little backyard BBQ and I got sloshed with people in my flat and the the neighbors across the street, it was a heck of a good time and cheap too! Life is good, maybe tastes a little better when you have to make the ends meet. I appreciate everything a great deal right now...

Finally have my Eurail Pass and I'm off to Copenhagen.

Well it's definitely been a stressful 10 days in France already. The money that I thought I would receive almost a week ago has just arrived... And just in time so I am rather thankful since that takes less energy than getting mad.

So I went to the train station and purchased my Eurail and I finally decided on the ticket that gives me 15 days of travel in two months. One day is going to be used for travel to Copenhagen tomorrow in FIRST CLASS!!! I don't think I've ever travelled in those conditions but it should be fun anyway. I probably spent a little too much money since I wasn't able to purchase it ahead of my arrival here in Europe. However, just as my brother told me there is a silver lining in being older because I will most likely be travelling in first class the whole time for about the same reservations prices... I guess that makes it worth it.

The other day we made a fabulous salad so I decided to take a couple of pictures, if you like colorful salads then I'm sure that you will be impressed;)

On Tuesday night a friend of Fred's invited us for a little soirée chez elle because she had just purchased an amazing little apartment and it was like a pre-houswarming party with her closest friends. Since I am a friend of Fred's I am also a friend of her's. So at Isabelle's new aparment I saw some really cool things for a small urban apartment such as a BedUp. This cool contraption is a bed which you pull from the ceiling so it gives a little studio the feeling of two rooms. I asked if it worked for "all" sleeping arrangements... Because that is very important, no? The architect would redid the place said that he had given it a go with his girlfriend before selling the place and it amazingly durable! Good to know no doubt. Take a look at the following pictures and you will see the bed attached to the ceiling, incroyable!!!

Paris, sans d'argent

So I find myself in Paris waiting for my money to be transferred. I thought that I had done everything right this time but as always there is a bump in the road. It often helps because it gives me time to think about things and what's really important. Yesterday I arrived back in Paris with about 2€50 in my pocket. Just enough to take the metro from Gare de Lyon to Gare St. Lazare to Fred's apartment. It made me a little depressed because what would I have done if I were in Copenhagen right now? Would I be on the streets for a couple of days? Probably not because as the French say "Je me debrouille"...I'll manage. However it gives insight into my adventure this summer. I will have to manage with what I have and that's not going to be much with the exchange rates the way they are and the dollar falling a little each day waiting for the Fed to make a move with the exchange rates. It's believed that the rates are going to rise this summer which will be good for me but not much of an aggregate effect. So I have to think about being as vigilant as I can with the money I have which means even a coffee is going to be a luxury this summer. But I think it's good for me, gives me a scoop of humble pie and will force me to look to perhaps spend a little more time in the park reading, talking and meeting people, or walking around the city.

It's going to be a beautiful day in Paris so I think I am going to try and do some walking through the city and perhaps take some pictures for the blog. I love the cityscape here and in Lyon and I imagine that Copenhagen will not dissappoint later this week. Even with the beauty of the city I am thinking about someone back home and how great it would be if she were here. It's not in the cards for this trip but maybe Southeast Asia could be in the future?

I am thinking about a blog that discusses the foods that I eat and cook this summer. Something that documents the food and how to cook on the road while couchsurfing. Getting outside of my comfort zone could really lead me to develop some new dishes and flavors just from necessity. I definitely have the free time so I think I am going to give it a try. I'll post the link when it's up and running.

Back in Lyon

After a little trouble I have found my way back to Lyon for the past weekend. Upon arriving I went to meet Arno at a little street terrace near Montplaisir. It's a place not too far from my old apartment. There was an old friend from school named Laurence there. She's pretty cool and also another girl named Maud. After having a drink we went to a little restaurant and ate some dinner. I hadn't eaten in about 8 hours so I was starved! I had some mussels with a Roquefort sauce that was awesome and I lapped up the sauce with some bread because I was so hungry. We had a cocktail and the three bottles of wine in "pichets" because it's cheaper. It was a lot of fun and we jumped from English to French all night.

One of the best ideas the city ever had was to install bikes all around the city that don't cost a lot of money and you can use them whenever and just have to find a place to drop them off. So we took a bike ride around Lyon for about an hour and a half after eating. Great way to get the digestive system working I think.

Today was the first night that I really slept well. I didn't wake up until almost noon! That was late but I think it was the lack of good sleep and the jetlag working itself out. I got up and had a little tea and some biscuits and the headed to meet Vanessa. I met Vanessa at UNCC when she was studying there and she's from Lyon. We had some coffee and talked about Copenhagen where she's lived for about a year and a half with her ex-boyfriend. She was headed to the countryside with her parents so I headed back to Arno's place. I took a nap because I was tired... I think it was because I hadn't eaten much all week. So Arno went and got some groceries and we (I) made some Mexican because it's his favorite and he loves my cooking.

It is the weekend of the music festival so we went out to the see the city. It's alive and well and there were little bands set up everywhere along the streets. Some big and organized, others were inpromptu and real. It was quite a site because there were more people out in Lyon than I have ever seen before. The streets were packed and people were drinking and dancing. It was very remarkable. I took some pictures of the spectacles and also of the beautiful cityscape that I miss so much. I leave for Paris tomorrow but I don't think it's going to hurt as much as last time I left. Actually I think it hurts being here without my lovelies. Love you ladies and I hope you're well.

Paris at night...

Last night after watching the Portuguese lose to the Germans in a great quarterfinal match I just didn't feel like going to bed. Fred's apartment is in the 17eme so I decided to walk to the L'Arc de Triomphe. The Boulevard de Courcelles has lots of little restaurants and an English pub so it was fun to see the nightlife as well. I took a couple of photos and videos for you to enjoy. Still getting to know my camera so some of the photos aren't as good as they could be but it's good enough for now.

Officially out of the dark with money since I have finally gotten my credit card fiasco worked out. I forgot to call and let them know I am in Europe for the summer... What a pain in the butt! So I am headed to Lyon to visit "mon ancien colloc" He's living in a small flat next to Lyon Part Dieu so it should be the perfect place to get around Lyon and do some visiting. I'd love to stop by my old schools but I don't think it's in the cards this time. But if I get in before 2:00 I am going to try.

Better get to it instead of hanging out too long posting to my blog. C'est tout pour le moment!

Problems already... But resilience and a sense of humour will help me persevere!

So I have been in Paris for two days and it's exactly like I remember with the exception being that everything is more expensive and my dollars won't go nearly as far. It's likely that I am going to lose more weight because I honestly cannot afford to eat very well. A little bread and cheese is good for the wayward traveller!

Yesterday I went to Montmarte and walked for a couple of hours through the streets and I passed Starbucks because coffee is definitely going to be a luxury that I cannot afford myself very often. No worries because it makes each taste even better than the last. Living on a shoestring is like chicken soup for the soul. It gives me a much better idea of what it would be like if I wasn't so fortunate or if my luck sours like old milk ;)

Here are a few more pictures so far in Paris @ Montmarte et Le Sacré Ceour. Haven't figured out how to do the e/o together yet... Which is the only key not on a French keyboard I think!

Here is a photo after walking all of those steps. Wow what a workout and a great view as a little treat at the end!

And one of yours truly this afternoon.

So as the title says I have already had some problems and wouldn't you know it's because of money. I should know better but I only called my banks to let them know I was travelling abroad. As a result my credit card was blocked after a couple of small purchases yesterday. This definitely through me for a loop because I wasn't able to get my tickets to and from Lyon and I have to wait until tomorrow now :(

You are probably asking why I didn't use my Visa checkcard... Well I am still waiting on the University to get my financial aid into my student account and then transferred to my bank account. Oh the bureaucrats strike again... Although for those of you who were in France it's not nearly as bad as "Le Fuck"!

So I have to spend another night in Paris, domage. I mean is that really a penalty? It's like winning a million dollars as a consolation prize, it's still amazing! So I get to see the Eiffel Tower another night and Fred's friend is going to take me to a birthday party tonight so I'll probably be sipping champagne! How can I be upset? So I am just going to go with the flow instead of resisting.

I heard today that one my Lyonaissers is going to be in Paris the 26th of June. The day I am supposed to leave for Copenhagen! So I may have to make an excuse for the Copenhagen Business School on why I had to wait until Monday to arrive. I think it'll work out... I mean really, are they going to send me home? If so I just get an extra 6 weeks in Europe and I've already completed 75% or perhaps all of my CPA so I don't think I would even care that much. To the shagrin of my accounting firm I guess, but friends are too dear to place an arrival meeting in lieu of them. I'm sure most of you agree. It'll work out, I've been through this before so I have a thicker skin and a better idea of how things work. Although that was France and this is Denmark we're talking so I might be off base. A good attitude will carry me through, not to mention a great excuse about getting on the wrong train maybe?

OK, I gotta run and get warmed up to drink champagne and speak French. Oh how difficult life can be...

Leaving on a jet plane...

Well today is the big day. It's 12:51am and I fly in less than 14 hours. I'm very excited about this new adventure. It's bringing back a lot of memories to be leaving for three months. There is excitement, happiness, and a lurking loneliness that happens when you say goodbye to friends. It rings home that you may not ever see someone again... even if you act as you will. I am not in the state to write too much more but I am going to post some pictures of friends and family to get this little sojourn started. Enjoy