Every year in Sweden on the 30th of April, the Swedes break out of their quiet shells and celebrate the end of winter and welcome in the spring. This day is known as Valborg day and if your a student in Malmö or Lund, then the place to be is Stadsparken in Lund. So that's where we were yesterday.
A group of us met at central station at 9.30am and boarded the train bound for Lund, pumped and ready for a day of partying in the sun. We reaches Lund station at about 9.50am and, along with the masses of other students, made the short walk to the park. When we got there, about 10am, there was already thousands of people and not a lot of space left to throw down a rug and sit in the sun. We did managed to find a place off to the side of the main section, however we weren't there for long. Vera managed to get in touch with a friend of ours, Dani who we'd met on the Russian trip, and who was a student in Lund. She managed to set up camp in the middle of the sea of people and in the sun, so we relocated.
The rest of the morning was spent taking in the sights (and yes there were many attractive looking Swedish boys everywhere you looked) and going for a wander around the mass of people. If you walked up to the stage, at the front of the crowd, you could look back down and see all the people crowded in the small section of the park. In the centre of the people was also a large pile of wood which was to be lit later that night at about 9.30pm in the traditional ceremony of scaring away all the bad spirits of the winter and welcoming in the spring. Vera also received the news from home that there had been an attack on the Dutch Queen. (For those who are unaware, the 30th of April in Holland is the Queen's birthday and there are huge celebrations all over the country and one town is chosen by the Queen to visit as her birthday gift). Some guy had tried to drive his car into the bus, on which the royal family was traveling. None of the family had been injured however five people who had come to see the Queen had been killed and another 13 or so injured. So that made for some interesting discussion for a while. Never a dull moment!!
The rest of the day was also spent either sitting and relaxing in the shade (as our sun had vanished behind a tree by lat morning) or breaking it down on the dance floor. So nothing of much excitement or importance really happened for the whole day.
At about 6pm we decided it was time to call it quits in Lund and head back to Malmö to take a shower, get some food and then head to the park near sommarstaden to watch the lighting of the bonfire and the fireworks.
After spending the day in the park, where the wind kept blowing dust and leaves on us, it was great to take a shower and clean myself before heading out again. The changing of clothes was also in order as it wasn't so warm at night. Kim spent most of the time on my computer reading and watching all the news on the happenings in Holland. Then at 9.15pm we headed across to the park.
It was a really cool place where they held the bonfire. The trees surrounded a circular field and were really high. I'll have to go back and take a photo in the daylight to show you all what I mean. At the front there was a stage which had a choir singing. Then they had a fire show, and the flames were timed to shoot up in time with the dramatic music they had playing to get everyone pumped up for the lighting of the fire. Finally they had a countdown (which started at 19!!) and then the bonfire was lit. It was quite fun to watch and being there with thousands of people, the atmosphere was really too hard to describe!
Kim and I stayed to watch the fire burn until it was just about out, before meeting up with the rest of the group. While we were waiting we got chatting to a Swedish guy who was telling us about how there had been a fire ban in Sweden and so that was why there were firemen there spraying water on the fire to make sure it didn't get too high and catch alight on the trees surrounding us. I thought it was ratehr amusing that they had a fire ban as in Australia, it has to be very hot for that to happen, but here it was only about 24 degrees, and at night it got down to about 10 degrees! When we met up with the group, Kim decided to head home because she was tried but I decided to keep going so headed on with the group to a pub on Möllevångstorget, about 15 minutes walk from sommarstaden. I found it extremely difficult to stay awake, after being up since 8am that morning, so at 12.30am had to call it quits and crawl into bed.
I can hopefully get my hands on a video that one of the girls took of the celebration in the park so that you can all see what the fireworks and bonfire was like. But otherwise, that's all from me for now.
Coming up next...VIENNA and BERLIN!!!
Puss och kram,
Alice
xo
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Valborg Pics!!!
Anna and I
The exchange students!!
Breaking it up on the D-floor!!
Gerda and I
Suvi and Gerda looking very relaxed
Kath (i) and Kim!!!!
Some photos of Kim and I
Look at all the people!
Kim and I catching some suns rays!
Kim arguing with a policeman...he looks really serious!
Kim and her German boys!!!
Vera, Kim and I with all the people!!!
Vera and I
Gerda, Suvi, Maria and I chilling out!
Spanish sandwich - Me, Jose and his friend (who's name I don't know!)
The exchange students!!
Breaking it up on the D-floor!!
Gerda and I
Suvi and Gerda looking very relaxed
Kath (i) and Kim!!!!
Some photos of Kim and I
Look at all the people!
Kim and I catching some suns rays!
Kim arguing with a policeman...he looks really serious!
Kim and her German boys!!!
Vera, Kim and I with all the people!!!
Vera and I
Gerda, Suvi, Maria and I chilling out!
Spanish sandwich - Me, Jose and his friend (who's name I don't know!)
Me and my bottle of wine!
So many people...EVERYWHERE!!
Amsterdam!!!
My trip to Amsterdam with my friend Suvi from Finland was a completely different trip to Russia and Finland. Firstly, Amsterdam is very different to Russia and secondly, we were much more relaxed during the trip, spending lots of time lying around enjoying the sunshine. We flew out of Copenhagen at 7.40pm which meant I had had the whole day to sleep in and get myself organised which was nice. The flight to Amsterdam only took one hour and so was quite quick. Once we reached the airport we caught the train into the city then a tram which took us basically to the front door of our hostel. We got to the hostel at about 10.30pm so dumped our bags and went for a walk around the area near the hostel. We were hoping to find a supermarket so we could buy something to eat but were out of luck, so instead we turned back and went to bed.
The next morning was overcast and slightly chilly however that did not stop off from setting off to walk around the city centre and check out the shops. We ended up spending about three and a half hours wandering the city. I bought myself from jeans and we both spent lots of time in and out of the shops, partly trying to keep dry and out of the rain. For lunch, we were lucky enough to come across a little restaurant, which had the best Caesar salad I have ever had and was reasonably priced, which is hard to find in Amsterdam. Suvi and I then decided to head back to the hostel to dump our purchases before working out what to do next. On our way back, the sun began to start shining and the clouds cleared. We decided that the next item on our agenda for the afternoon was to go and have a look at the Van Gogh museum because it was just around the corner from the hostel. The exhibition currently showing was Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” which is a really great painting. There were also many other paintings by Van Gogh and other painters which had a focus on the night sky and farming.
When we left the museum the sun was shining so we stopped in the park for a little while to catch some rays. We also managed to find a supermarket just near our hotel so we went and bought some food for dinner and some wine which we were going to go and have in Vondel Park. The park was really nice and a great place to sit and have a picnic dinner. We spent a couple of hours there just eating, talking and enjoying the park. We took a detour going back to our hostel and explored the neighbourhood which was very quiet but there were a lot of nice buildings. That evening we spent in the hostel watching movies on my computer, singing along to my songs and drinking the rest of our wine.
Saturday we decided to go and do the three hour walking tour around the city which started at 11am from Dam Square. Our first stop on the tour was the Red Light District and it wasn’t till we were almost through the street that I realised where we were. We had been warned previously not to take photos of the girls because they’ll open their door and throw a cup of pee over you! So no photos were taken while we were there.This took us to the Old Church which is now used as an art gallery every day except for Sundays and certain occasions. We also passed the Jewish Quarter (which was rebuilt in after the second world war and looks quite hideous) and the Royal Palace, which is just a large house in the middle of town. Our tour guide took us past the Hash, Hemp and Marijuana museum as well as the famous cofffee shop Dampkring , which was used in the movei Ocean's Twelve. We were also shown the hidden church, the hightest bridge in Amsterdam as well as the widest bridge and the narrowest house, the Bejinghof Convent, which is where people who have served God are able to stay for free and the old prison that is now a large shopping centre. The final stop was then at Anne Frnak's house and Wester church just near it and which Anne writes about in her diary. The tour was great and allowed us to see all the main sites of Amsterdam in just under four hours.
When the tour had finished, Suvi and I went to grab some lunch at a near by pub. Then once our stomachs were full we decided that while we were in the area, we'd go and have a look at the Anne Frank museum. Despite the fact that it was recently redone and so the foyer and entrance to the museum look quite modern as well as installments of televisions in some of the rooms, the house itself is still in very good condition. There is no furniture in any of the rooms as Otto Frank asked it to remain empty, so they have little models which show what the annex was like. I am still a little confused about the lay out of the factory and shop which was the downstairs part of the building. However, seeing the annex and walking through the different rooms really brought home just how small a place the eight people were living in. And what's more was how dark and stuffy it must have been, as the museum had blacked out all the windows except the one in the attic. The museum was quite moving and really worth seeing, particularly if you have read Anne's diary as it makes everything more real.
After the museum we slowly made our way back to the hostel and then decided to once again go and grab some food and wine from the supermarket and head to Vondel Park for another picnic dinner. That night we ventured into Leidseplein to hit the pubs. There had been a soccer match broadcast on the televsions in many of the pubs so there were lots of people out and about.We had quite a good night however there wasn't much room for dancing in the pubs we went into so at about 1am we headed home to bed.
Sunday was even more relaxed. We didn’t wake up till about 10.30am and did not leave the hostel till about midday. As it was such a beautiful and warm day we sat in the park near the Van Gogh museum for a few hours. I wrote my postcards as I felt it was probably time I sent something back to people at home to let them know I’m still alive while Suvi worked on her tan. We then decided that we couldn’t spend the whole day sitting around so we went for another walk through the city. We didn’t make it very far as we came across an Irish Pub which we decided was a good place to stop and grab some lunch. After another couple of hours spent eating and soaking up the sun we continued our walk into the city. We didn’t really do a lot for the rest of the afternoon, just going with the flow and stopping for coffee or food when we felt like it. We once again had dinner in Vondel Park before heading back to the hostel to chill out while waiting for Kim and some others to arrive. They had the same flight as us to Amsterdam so didn’t get to the city till about 10.30pm. Before they were to meet up with us they were going to Kim’s aunt’s place to leave their stuff. Unfortunately they took forever to get themselves to Kim’s aunt’s place and the trams along the street we were staying on decided they were not going to run frequently and when our tram did come past, it didn’t even stop to let us on. So that pretty much decided our night for us…once again it was spent in our hostel room with a bottle of wine and my computer.
Monday we had to be out of the hostel by 10am. So that meant we had to be up early so we could get ourselves organised. Instead of lugging our luggage around all day we made our way to the train station and left our stuff in a locker there. We then headed to Dam Square and sat at a coffee shop for a couple of hours. There was an event being held in the square that day (something to do with sport) so we sat and watched them setting up everything. We went for one last walk around the city before meeting up with Kim and the others at about 1.30pm for lunch. Suvi and I had previously been back to the cafe we'd been to on our first day there to get a take away caesar salad for lunch so when we met up with the others we sat in Dam Square and ate our lunch whilst watching what was going on in the square. We then joined the others when they headed to Dampkring for some 'coffee' before finally walking with them through the Red Light District once more and this time I was aware of where we were when we entered! Then it was time for Suvi and I to say goodbye and make our way back to the train station and out to the airport for our flight home, which was not all that exciting really.
We returned to Copenhagen at about 10pm and caught the train back to Malmö. When I got home I left the unpacking for the following day as it was about midnight by the time I finally got home and I didn’t have anything on the following day except doing my laundry. Amsterdam was great and I have come to the conclusion that it is one of my favourite places in Europe, but it was nice to get home and settle back into life in Malmö knowing that I had the next two weeks there to get back into my Swedish life and catch up with my friends.
Next stop…Vienna!
Puss och kram,
Alice
xo
The next morning was overcast and slightly chilly however that did not stop off from setting off to walk around the city centre and check out the shops. We ended up spending about three and a half hours wandering the city. I bought myself from jeans and we both spent lots of time in and out of the shops, partly trying to keep dry and out of the rain. For lunch, we were lucky enough to come across a little restaurant, which had the best Caesar salad I have ever had and was reasonably priced, which is hard to find in Amsterdam. Suvi and I then decided to head back to the hostel to dump our purchases before working out what to do next. On our way back, the sun began to start shining and the clouds cleared. We decided that the next item on our agenda for the afternoon was to go and have a look at the Van Gogh museum because it was just around the corner from the hostel. The exhibition currently showing was Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” which is a really great painting. There were also many other paintings by Van Gogh and other painters which had a focus on the night sky and farming.
When we left the museum the sun was shining so we stopped in the park for a little while to catch some rays. We also managed to find a supermarket just near our hotel so we went and bought some food for dinner and some wine which we were going to go and have in Vondel Park. The park was really nice and a great place to sit and have a picnic dinner. We spent a couple of hours there just eating, talking and enjoying the park. We took a detour going back to our hostel and explored the neighbourhood which was very quiet but there were a lot of nice buildings. That evening we spent in the hostel watching movies on my computer, singing along to my songs and drinking the rest of our wine.
Saturday we decided to go and do the three hour walking tour around the city which started at 11am from Dam Square. Our first stop on the tour was the Red Light District and it wasn’t till we were almost through the street that I realised where we were. We had been warned previously not to take photos of the girls because they’ll open their door and throw a cup of pee over you! So no photos were taken while we were there.This took us to the Old Church which is now used as an art gallery every day except for Sundays and certain occasions. We also passed the Jewish Quarter (which was rebuilt in after the second world war and looks quite hideous) and the Royal Palace, which is just a large house in the middle of town. Our tour guide took us past the Hash, Hemp and Marijuana museum as well as the famous cofffee shop Dampkring , which was used in the movei Ocean's Twelve. We were also shown the hidden church, the hightest bridge in Amsterdam as well as the widest bridge and the narrowest house, the Bejinghof Convent, which is where people who have served God are able to stay for free and the old prison that is now a large shopping centre. The final stop was then at Anne Frnak's house and Wester church just near it and which Anne writes about in her diary. The tour was great and allowed us to see all the main sites of Amsterdam in just under four hours.
When the tour had finished, Suvi and I went to grab some lunch at a near by pub. Then once our stomachs were full we decided that while we were in the area, we'd go and have a look at the Anne Frank museum. Despite the fact that it was recently redone and so the foyer and entrance to the museum look quite modern as well as installments of televisions in some of the rooms, the house itself is still in very good condition. There is no furniture in any of the rooms as Otto Frank asked it to remain empty, so they have little models which show what the annex was like. I am still a little confused about the lay out of the factory and shop which was the downstairs part of the building. However, seeing the annex and walking through the different rooms really brought home just how small a place the eight people were living in. And what's more was how dark and stuffy it must have been, as the museum had blacked out all the windows except the one in the attic. The museum was quite moving and really worth seeing, particularly if you have read Anne's diary as it makes everything more real.
After the museum we slowly made our way back to the hostel and then decided to once again go and grab some food and wine from the supermarket and head to Vondel Park for another picnic dinner. That night we ventured into Leidseplein to hit the pubs. There had been a soccer match broadcast on the televsions in many of the pubs so there were lots of people out and about.We had quite a good night however there wasn't much room for dancing in the pubs we went into so at about 1am we headed home to bed.
Sunday was even more relaxed. We didn’t wake up till about 10.30am and did not leave the hostel till about midday. As it was such a beautiful and warm day we sat in the park near the Van Gogh museum for a few hours. I wrote my postcards as I felt it was probably time I sent something back to people at home to let them know I’m still alive while Suvi worked on her tan. We then decided that we couldn’t spend the whole day sitting around so we went for another walk through the city. We didn’t make it very far as we came across an Irish Pub which we decided was a good place to stop and grab some lunch. After another couple of hours spent eating and soaking up the sun we continued our walk into the city. We didn’t really do a lot for the rest of the afternoon, just going with the flow and stopping for coffee or food when we felt like it. We once again had dinner in Vondel Park before heading back to the hostel to chill out while waiting for Kim and some others to arrive. They had the same flight as us to Amsterdam so didn’t get to the city till about 10.30pm. Before they were to meet up with us they were going to Kim’s aunt’s place to leave their stuff. Unfortunately they took forever to get themselves to Kim’s aunt’s place and the trams along the street we were staying on decided they were not going to run frequently and when our tram did come past, it didn’t even stop to let us on. So that pretty much decided our night for us…once again it was spent in our hostel room with a bottle of wine and my computer.
Monday we had to be out of the hostel by 10am. So that meant we had to be up early so we could get ourselves organised. Instead of lugging our luggage around all day we made our way to the train station and left our stuff in a locker there. We then headed to Dam Square and sat at a coffee shop for a couple of hours. There was an event being held in the square that day (something to do with sport) so we sat and watched them setting up everything. We went for one last walk around the city before meeting up with Kim and the others at about 1.30pm for lunch. Suvi and I had previously been back to the cafe we'd been to on our first day there to get a take away caesar salad for lunch so when we met up with the others we sat in Dam Square and ate our lunch whilst watching what was going on in the square. We then joined the others when they headed to Dampkring for some 'coffee' before finally walking with them through the Red Light District once more and this time I was aware of where we were when we entered! Then it was time for Suvi and I to say goodbye and make our way back to the train station and out to the airport for our flight home, which was not all that exciting really.
We returned to Copenhagen at about 10pm and caught the train back to Malmö. When I got home I left the unpacking for the following day as it was about midnight by the time I finally got home and I didn’t have anything on the following day except doing my laundry. Amsterdam was great and I have come to the conclusion that it is one of my favourite places in Europe, but it was nice to get home and settle back into life in Malmö knowing that I had the next two weeks there to get back into my Swedish life and catch up with my friends.
Next stop…Vienna!
Puss och kram,
Alice
xo
Amsterdam Pics!!!
Suvi and I on a tram
Our crazy, weed smoking but very entertaining tour guide
Vondelpark...one of the best places for a picnic!
The coolest glasses ever!!!
Photos of Suvi and I in different places around Amsterdam
The flea market was right next to this cool looking building
A big statue of some guy who had birds on his robe
Me on one of the infamous drawbridges of Amsterdam
My favourite photo of the whole trip!
The best restaurant ever!
The Royal Palace
At the Van Gogh museum
Suvi looking thoughtful - very rare!
Japan?
The concert building
In the park outside the Van Gogh museum and just across the road from our hostel!
Yes this is a real photo!! Good aren't I!
Our friend who cam and joined us for a picnic in the park!
The three essentials for any picnic: a good bottle of wine, chocolate and strawberries!
You can just see the sign for our hostel - the Anne Marie
In our hostel room killing time!
The 3 level "bike" park
Us in Dam Square
Our shadows!
A monument dedicated to the Red Light District
The toilets for the men...and yes they are still used!
Oude Church
Typical Amsterdam houses that lean forward slightly!
The hooks on the tops of buildings were used to lift furniture up to the upper floors!
The tallest bridge in Amsterdam!
Believe it or not, but the middle building is a hidden Catholic Church!
The old Jewish Town
This building used to be the entrance to Amsterdam for ships
And you thought I was tall...
Hash pops...sold in many souvenir shops
The hash, marijuana and hemp museum
The mint
The old prison...now a shopping centre!
Amsterdam's China Town
The old orphanage
The Dam Square monument
Our tour guide again!
In Finnish this is slang for "I've just ejaculated!"
The smallest house in Amsterdam: approx. 1.8m in width!
The smallest house up close
A very cool invention - drinking and riding!
Just near the Anne Frank house
The Anne Frank House Museum
Suvi trying to be artistic!
The famous slogan for Amsterdam - "I AMsterdam"
Enjoying the sunshine
Us in the famous coffee shop, the Damkring, which you may recognise from the movie Ocean's Twelve
The clog!
The Red Light District!
At the train station waiting for our train to the airport
At the airport!
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