Scott's Adventures

Hello again!

Not so long between entries this time, trying to keep on top of things more now than over the past few months! So, let's get you up to date then

Since you last heard from me, I headed over to Paris for a weekend. Had a bit of free time so made the most of it, escaped to the French capital to indulge in some delicious food and wine for a couple of days, as well as getting the chance to catch up with some local friends which is always nice. Kept off the tourist track, though had a visit to the tempting Rue Mouffetard with some great food available there, lots of cheese shops attracting me! So yeah, was just nice to relax, enjoy some great wine, champagne, bread, pate, cheese... you get the idea! And what better city to do that in??

From there, it was back to Linkoping for a few days to finish up my second course for this semester, Leadership and Culture. After struggling through that, I managed to make a visit to the next closest city, Norrkoping, where my friend Jon introduced me to Frisbee Golf. Yep, pretty much like normal golf (depending which way you look at it...) but in any case, played 18 holes, or baskets, where the goal is to throw the frisbee into the basket (about 100 metres away) in as few throws as possible. Not too exhausting but a nice way to spend some time in the fresh air in the last hours of sunshine for the day. Made a little tour of Norrkoping, quite a nice place to spend a couple of hours, though appears to be really quiet after dark, strange for a city of 100,000 people. Had another little excursion during this week, to the local newspaper factory to see how the printing process works, quite interesting actually!

Had my first Australian visitor the other week! Steph, also from Adelaide, made the 6-hour bus journey from Copenhagen to check out 'Linny' as we have affectionely renamed the city. So spent a nice 24 hours or so exploring the city, enjoying the sunshine, and looking at the city from its nicest angles, some of which you will be able to see in the photo section. This weekend was topped off by a spontaneous visit to Stockholm, but have been there a couple of times lately so will save that for a separate entry!

Anyway, back to the topic of this blog - Germany! Took off on April 2 for 8 days, first stop was Frankfurt airport, but headed straight to Marburg to catch up with my friends there, Neele and Simone. Though the 90-minute journey there wasn't as straightforward as I usually have it... first of all, I was waiting at the wrong area for the train at the airport, so it wasn't until the train I was waiting for had left that I realised it was the one I wanted. This resulted in some mad running through the airport, and subsequently through Frankfurt main station to get the connecting train, which I made with just a minute to spare! When I eventually found my place on the train, I relaxed and took a Swedish chocolate bar out to enjoy. This was seen by another passenger, who asked me if I had bought it there in Germany, but I explained that I had come from Sweden that day. Not long after, she started talking to me in Swedish, and we began to have a conversation. I thought she was Swedish and she thought I was, though she soon told me she was from Germany but had spent some time in Sweden which resulted in such a good accent. However, I somehow neglected to tell her I wasn't Swedish, so we continued talking with her thinking that I was a local. This caused some small problems when she didn't know a particular word, which she would say in German or English, but I didn't know the word in Swedish, so I got a couple of confused looks from her, but managed to pull it off

So yes, I made it for a nice few relaxing days with my friends in Marburg, a university city in the state of Hessen. The first day we spent looking around Frankfurt, a nice city to spend a few hours in, wandering around the streets and watching over the city from the observation tower. The second day we spent around Marburg, walking around a lot looking at the nice castle overlooking the town, and just enjoying looking at the scenery and the buildings. The weather has really improved here over the past few weeks, so this allowed us to head onto the Lahn River for some paddle-boating which was fun and relaxing. Apart from that, just enjoyed some nice food and wine with my friends, catching up since our time in Sweden last year - (Danke Mädels!!)

Next stop was Kassel. Well, if you want to get technical, Ahnatal. I came here to catch up with my friend Mareike, who I met in Adelaide a couple of years ago when we both worked at The Smith Family. Here the trend continued, catching up, lots of relaxing, nice food and wine, and enjoying the long-awaited sunshine. There is a really nice park near Kassel which I enjoyed looking around, Bergpark, which I will include in the photos. Mareike's 2-year-old niece Amelie and her parents visited over the Easter weekend, so most of the time around her was spent trying to prove that I wasn't such a scary strange man as I think she imagined I was. Upon trying to get her to say my name, Mareike was greeted with the response, "No. Tomorrow." Am I that scary?? No, I had a really nice time with everyone there, was quite a test for my German but I kept up as much as possible! But after a couple of nice days there, it was on to my third and final stop for this journey......

......Berlin! Headed here for a few nights and a couple of days, catching up with Steph and her boyfriend Alex, who had made the shift from Copenhagen to Berlin during that week. Had two full days for sightseeing, during which time I managed to see a fair bit of the city, but of course with a city that size I think I just scratched the surface. In any case, I managed to see the main sights, like Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, Ku'Damm, Checkpoint Charlie, plus lots of historic monuments and buildings - photos online soon! Apart from this, also managed to explore the not-so-touristy side of things, heading more into areas like East Berlin and Kreuzberg to see the more alternative, multicultural side of the city. Was great to be able to eat out more often than in Sweden, great food for not-so-expensive prices. Also caught up with Zahid, a Berliner I met in Adelaide a few years ago, so I got to learn more about Berlin through him as well, though we also had a look through the Checkpoint Charlie museum, with some fascinating stories about what went on in Berlin during the years the wall was up. I really enjoyed Berlin, such an interesting and fascinating modern history, mixed with a lot of modern and vibrant places. I can definitely recommend a visit!!

So yeah, that was my visit to Germany. Think I have covered most of it! For those of you who I caught up with there and who looked after me so well.... Danke Schoen!!!!!!!