syncopation

Leaving Bonn…

Since I decided to take the earlier train back to Lund to avoid any scare of not being able to catch the intermediate connection and stuck in the middle of Europe with an expired train pass, we woke up at 7 this morning to get ready. And because we were almost half an hour early when we reached Bonn Hbf, we went back to Münsterplatz to take a picture of (and with) the statue of Beethoven and even bought a snack for my train ride, again, at Backwerk, after checking-out four bäckerei . After then, we finally stepped onto Gleis 1 and then the IC2310 train nach Hamburgh, leaving Bonn for real.

Although this trip to Bonn was certainly a short one, it does not fail to reinstate Germany’s position as one of my favourite countries in Europe. Compare to other European countries, Germany is definitely one of the cheaper ones (Eastern European countries do not count). Their public transportation and train services are excellent: trains and train stations are clean and services are on time; information is always prompt and clear. Students in Germany even get free public transportation with a pass (at least Grape does, but I guess this is regional.) and they can even bring another passenger for free after evening and during the weekends! Moreover, German streets are always lined with millions of bakeries that emit undeniable smells of scrumptious pastries, cake and bread. And all those myths of how Germans are not willing to speak English are to a very large extent, untrue. I have met numerous friendly Germans when I was in Germany for both times. They gladly helped me out and spoke to me in English when I failed to carry on the conversation further with my limited German. And most importantly, Germany has great sehr schön weather!

Now, I am just longing to be in my own bed with some very unconventional souveniours from Germany – 4 packs of Korean noodles and schokolade!

Liebe Grape, Alles Gute zum Geburtstag :)

Heehee, I am now blogging from Bonn in Grape’s Zimmer! And… well, Grape’s birthday was actually yesterday. But still, I managed to arrive Bonn half an hour before her birthday was passed after missing two train connections because the stupid Ö-tåg to København decided to delay!!!

Just like the last time I was in Deutschland, the weather is also very nice this time – Blue sky, white clouds, spring breeze, blooming flowers, and trees with green leaves! Which by the way, is such a big contrast with the weather few days ago with Lund – Snow, Snow, and Snow. Grape thinks that I am really lucky with the weather as I told her I haven’t experienced any bad weather when I was in Deutschland for 5 days in mid-January and I am the first person who ever says that Deutschland has good weather… But, given that I come from the north of Europe where it is still freaking snowing in late-March, I think this is perfectly reasonable.

We both woke up with a growling stomach and stuffed ourselves with bagels at the Bagel Brothers since Grape was just back from Morocco the day before her birthday. We then had a walk around the city passing by the statue of Beethoven on Münsterplatz. It was such a pleasant day for travelling since because of the good weather, a brass ensemble was performing in front of the statue of Beethoven and I cannot remember the last time I listened to a live brass ensemble (and found delicious Crêpes around the corner) To think about it, it was a blessing hat I could attend BPS where good music is just few steps away in the gym, the hall, or stairwell… every where. We then moved on the the market place right next to the Stadthaus where we found two big carton of juicy Erdbeer for just 1.5 Euro! After grabbing some groceries from Aldi with Grape, we went back to her place to fetch my train pass and then embarked our journey to Köln.

Crêpes mit Apfelmust und Zimtzucker for just 1 Euro!

Delicious Erdbeere

Brass ensemble under the statue of Beethoven

To river Rhein

Since we found we still had some spare time before the train departs to Köln, we decided that we were craving for something savory and went to Backwerk to buy some pastries. Köln is only half an hour away from Bonn and is actually the second time I have been to this city within a month which, is a record, consider that it is a city more than 10-hours train ride away from Lund. Since I have already seen the Cathedral, neither of us bothered with it when we reached there and went straight to the shopping streets – Grape was right, there wasn’t really much to do but to shop in Köln. We did manage to find the AA store Köln but my idea of buying a jacket was immediately put off once I found their marked prices in USD and Euro are exactly the same… We also walked pass Neumarkt and was told this was where they held the Christmas Market. But Köln does not seem to like me as much as the other German cities do – it drizzled while we where there and it took me countless attempts to find Käsekuchen!

After running around in Köln for 3 hours, we finally went back to Grape’s place. Because of the five rounds of food earlier today, we decided to go for a small dinner and only cooked one serve of interestingly-shaped Italian pasta that Grape brought back from Italy while planning our trips to Croatia and England in June. As if our stomachs have turned into two black holes, we even cooked Saigo with coconut milk cream and milk which, turned out to be extremely sweet. So, bear in mind, don’t ever buy coconut cream when you actually want to get coconut milk. They are NOT the same.

Pasta from Italia

Grape and me

Easter Sunday Entertainment

Q: What’s there to do on a Easter Sunday where it is snowing cats and dogs in Bergen?

A: Akvariet i Bergen!

By the way, we walked there with snow way past our ankle!

Rambling at Helsinki Vantaa Airport

I finally arrived Finland! The feeling was so surreal as this is a country which I have fantasised studying in when I was only 18 years old, without really knowing the country except Marimekko, Moonmin, Sibelius, sauna and its incredibly high suicidal rate. (Yeah, that’s really something to fantasised about when you were only 18.)

It suddenly dawned on me that I actually quite enjoy going to café alone when I was waiting for Kary and her sister’s arrival with the company of a cup of filtered coffee at the Picnic cafe of Helsinki airport. I do like isolating myself when I am going to a cafe purposefully for food and not chit chatting with friends. For example, I enjoyed catching up with the news by reading the newspaper by myself when we were having lunch at Lazy Lohan in Edinburgh while the others were busy socialising. I especially like going to cafes with a bar that faces the street:-

1. It eliminates the awkwardness of having to occupying one whole table for two when I am clearly just by myself.
2. Two, I like looking out to the street.
3. Three, I like the sun (only applicable when I am in Australia though.)

Anyway, here are some first impressions of Finland and Finns while I am still in the airport and haven’t really stepped a foot on the real Finnish turf:-

From where I was sitting in the café

The second half of the 25-hour train ride

After ‘a good night of sleep’, we finally arrived Köln at 06.25 as scheduled. We originally planned to stay in Köln for just an hour and Bruxelles for 2 hours since it’s quite early when we reached Köln but because the early train requires reservation, we thus took the later one to Bruxelles which, turned out to be a wise decision because 1) things are actually opened in Köln already – in the station, at least; 2) Bruxelles was unbelievably run-down for a European city – for a split second I thought we were not in Europe but somewhere in the middle east – it’s the most dirty city I have ever seen in Europe. No wonder Kaho got conered when he spent the night at the station! We made full use of the time that we were in Köln and even paid the Cathedral a visit – it’s incredibly big – I had to step back quite a bit to capture the entire building even my camera is equipped with wide-angle lens!

The Cathedral

Ludwig Museum

River Rhein

When we reached Bruxelles, we had to rush to the Eurostar terminal to pick up our tickets but we still managed to buy some Belgian waffles before we had to run to our coach which happened to be, again on the other end of the 400m platform…

After a little bit more than 2 hours, we finally arrived London St. Pancras International. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention we had to pass through custom and passport control of both Belgium and the UK while we were clearly still in the turf of Belgium, which was just plain bizarre. We had lunch at Chop’d which is quite like a salad place of Pret a Manger. I had Terriyaki chicken with sushi rice with a soya latte. The portion is not bit but the food was quite tasty and fresh. Then, in order to catch the 2pm train from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh we ran from St. Pancras to KGX within 5 minutes, not to mention that Tess and Jennie were dragging their luggage among the crowds in London!

London St. Pancras

London King’s Cross

After 4.5 hours, we finally made it to Edinburgh Waverley Station! The train ride is actually very rewarding although the part of hunting for seats were very frustrating since we didn’t make reservation but only hop on with train passes. We saw a lot of natural landscape and townscapes for instance, Peterborough, Newcastle, Doncaster and York. More importantly, we also saw a lot of pontuses! And so as the North Sea.

Even though we traveled for 25 hours i actuality, it did not eel that long at all. Probably because we got to walk around and did stuff. And of course getting to pracitice German and taste Belgian waffle were also very satisfying. I swear this is so much better than getting stuck in the airport for no better reason.

The first half of the 25-hour train ride and… prelude

Secret’s out – the consequence was important but… is not anymore – at least not according to my logic. It is just something that I have to get over and it shouldn’t be hard as it isn’t like I haven’t experienced that before. But the funny thing is everything is so familiar – it was over the phone and this is over the phone; it was in Starbucks and this is in Lundagård Konditori. Someone how I can’t help but contemplate if I were subconsciously anticipating the same outcome. Anyway, it’s not important anymore, the ball is no longer in my court.

After having my last Semla before Easter, I then headed off to Lund C to meet up with the train-ers to catch the Ö-tåg to København however, the 16.56 train was not running for no reason! We then took the 17.17 one to Malmö instead of the 17.22 one straight to Kastrup so we had quite a scare of missing the connection to Kastrup when we at Malmö. But we finally made it to the train as the train to Kastrup had some technical problems and was therefore delayed.

Just when we thought our journey have enough hiccups, we coudln’t find the night train going Köln at Kastrup. But then we just promptly decided to ride all the way to København H as I was skeptical that a night train would depart from the airport. And of course, we finally got on to the night train! (Or else why would I be so perkily documenting all these.) But that train was so freaking long that we had to walk all the way to the front in order to jump onto the coach that actually goes to Köln.

The five of us including an arabic lady from Iraq shared a cabin of 6 couchettes. We shared cheese and bread and made the cabin very smelly… LOL (Well, actually Yat and Tess offered them since I was stupid enough not to bring any food.) We also got the lady into the discussion – she’s actually from Iraq but she’s been living in Eßen for the last five years because of the war. She seemed really sad about leaving Denmark probably because she was there to visit her friends and relatives. She also said something that Yat and I both quite couldn’t agree with for example, how Germans think that they are better than the others and frequently use the term ‘ausländer’ in an unfriendly way and how Dans are all smileys. (Especially after Ming told me about the recent riots started with the Islamic community in Denmark.) But I guess given her circumstances, it’s not surprising that she’s resentful towards Germany since she did not leave for it willingly and that she was in Denmark for vacation.

Lastly, the train personnel finally came after we have gott the couchettes ready for the night by ourselves a little after ten.

The cabin that we slept in