Sore legs in Prague...

Prague is much more like what I was expecting from Europe - the whole city is just beautiful :) Cobblestone streets and awesome architecture. Today I had a mammoth touristy day :)

I got up early to catch Charles Bridge pre-most of the tourists, and wandered around for a few hours looking for breakfast and an ATM, eventually finding one, and a calling card, in an attempt to stave off my increasingly ridiculous phone bill. I wandered through the grounds of the castle, with about a thousand other tourists, visited the Church of St Nicholas, which was very pretty, and walked 300m up (straight up) Petrin Hill to see the fake Eiffel Tower and the highly disappointing mirror maze. Yes, I chickened out on the first floor of the tower :( Damn heights.

Tomorrow my plan is to take a trip to Kutna Hora and see the Bone Church. It would be much cheaper to go on my own, but there's a(n expensive) tour for 1300 crowns available that I thought I might go on - it would be nice to talk to people again, plus there's a free lunch :P

I bought a painting today of the bridge and the skyline which should look nice on my wall... if I can get it back to Sydney in one piece.

I was scheduled to leave the day after tomorrow and head to Munich to meet up with Selvans from WoW, but it turns out that he can't make it, so I'm debating whether I should still go to Munich or find somewhere else. I hear that Oktoberfest is over, so there should theoretically be less drunk tourists around. Either way, I have three days to kill between leaving Prague and meeting up with Boon in Vienna. Hrm.

Cash problems in Prague...

Well I've arrived in Prague... interestingly the book I had says 28 Czech crown for every A$1, but according to XE it's 17 now... what happened there? Isn't the Aussie Dollar supposed to be strong?

Either way, I got 1000 out when I arrived, and headed over to my hostel... once I found out that they don't take credit cards so I had to pay in cash I went to an ATM to get out some more money only to get "insufficient funds". Uh oh...

I transferred money from my ING Savings account but I'm not sure where it's gone, hopefully it will arrive soon. I found an internet cafe and took a cash advance off my credit card in the meantime to avoid waking people up a 3am.

Berlin and onwards...

Today I learned all about German politics when I checked out the Reichstag Building (their youngest politician is 22, crazy), but was unimpressed that what I waited an hour for was just an elevator to the dome and not a tour. I saw the Brandenburg Gate, full of tourists and idiots in American and Soviet military uniforms who you could pay to pose with for a photo in front of the gate. I wandered through the Jewish Memorial thingy, which was an interesting forest of different sized blocks, saw a lot of closed shopping centres. I visited the East Side Gallery, which is apparently the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, and was very disappointed that it was full of tourist scribblings - "Bob was ere 2007!!!!" etc.

A little homesick and very tired. I've seen everything I wanted to see in Berlin, so tomorrow I'm heading to Prague.

I made it to Berlin...

Two more trains later, I made it to Berlin at 7pm. I'm pretty exhausted, but at least I got here I guess.

I knew that hostels were a hit and miss thing, but seriously, I am really tired of pubs with a few rooms masquerading as hostels. A hostel should have a guest kitchen, a laundry, and lockers for your things. The hostel I booked into (Citystay Hostel Mitte) has no kitchen (it has its own restaurant), it has no laundry (it has a within-24-hours laundry service), and it has no lockers (just hope your things don't get stolen I guess). They also require you to pay €3 for bed sheets, whether or not you have your own. Before finding all this out, I was thinking I might eat in their restaurant tonight, but after realising I was in another pathetic joke of a hostel, I decided to have dodgy noodles from the fast food asian place around the corner. This hostel is getting as little of my money as possible.

Good news in Copenhagen...

Hooray! After catching a sleeper train and a normal train, I arrived in Copenhagen and was told that I could get a train to Hamburg at 11am. Only 3 hours to wait, and I'll get to Berlin just one day later than I would have. (Plus I got the woman to exchange some of my Swedish money for Danish money when I paid for the reservation, so I can eat too without paying ATM fees!)

Now, I wonder if I can get a shower in this train station...

Unlucky...

I thought leaving for a plane 4 hours early would be enough to stave off any misfortune...

Apparently Skavsta, the airport I was supposed to be flying out of, is 80 mins away on the bus. I knew this, hence the 4 hours early. Unfortunately, I didn't plan on them running buses every 30 minutes throughout the day... until a big gap between 4pm and 6:30pm. (I have no idea why, it seems ridiculous to me.) So when I arrived at the counter at 4:10pm, I was told that the next bus was departing at 6:30pm, arriving at the airport at 7:40pm, meaning that I would be too late to check in for my 8:05pm flight. I tried another bus company that was going somewhere near, and was told it would be too slow and I wouldn't make it.

So, with the flight no longer an option, there were two goals: goal 1, work out where I am sleeping tonight; goal 2, get to Berlin. I saw people turned away from the hostel because they were full tonight, so that was out. The highly useful train timetable book, however, listed a night (and most of the day) train from Stockholm to Berlin, which I tried to get on (two birds with one stone!). I was partially successful - I need to get from Stockholm to Malmö, Malmö to Copenhagen, Copenhagen to Hamburg and then Hamburg to Berlin. I got a bed on the Stockholm to Malmö overnight train (goal 1, check), and there is no reservation necessary from Malmö to Copenhagen. Unfortunately, the train is fully booked from Copenhagen to Hamburg.

This leaves me in Copenhagen tomorrow morning, and fingers crossed I should be able to sort something out there - hopefully a train to Hamburg sometime tomorrow, where I can apparently easily get a train to Berlin. So, now I have another 5 hours to kill until my 11pm train... I hope the power on my DS and my mobile hold out.

Raining in Stockholm...

My flight back from Kiruna was delayed by 2 hours yesterday, for which, Scandinavian Air gave all the passengers 100 kronur ($20) in vouchers to use in the airport cafes or on the plane for food, which was a welcome change from Qantas and Virgin's "your plane is late, deal with it".

Unfortunately, the 2 hour delay meant that instead of arriving at 4pm into Stockholm, I arrived at 6pm, when it was dark and pouring down rain. The hostel I stayed at was what I imagine College would have been like - I haven't seen that many drunk 18 and 19 year olds since the Dome was closed down.

I posted a bunch of stuff back to Australia - clothes I didn't need, souvenirs and my sleeping bag - 5kg all up for less than $100. I was impressed. It's been 4 degrees and raining (occasionally hailing, and there's a pile of melting snow in the main square) all day, so I decided not to visit the Open Air Museum, and, with my bag now being half empty, I had to find something to fill up all the space, so I hit the shops. Stockholm has excellent clothes stores, and for some reason, it's cheap by Australian standards, so I bought a new outfit for work.

4 hours until my flight to Berlin and I'm killing time. I might catch the bus to the airport early and see if there are any good bookstores there - I've been having real trouble here.

Even colder today...

Currently 0 degrees, -6 with windchill. There were still no tours last night, so no northern lights :( Instead, I bought myself some beer and moped in the hostel watching Simpsons (the one constant of international travel is that wherever you go, they have the Simpsons on TV). The alcohol situation here is amusing - you can buy light beer (3.5% max) at the supermarket, but wine, spirits and fullstrength beer must be bought from the government outlets. Light beer is actually quite cheap - it only cost $3 for 500mL of Heineken.

Yesterday I visited all three of the tourist attractions of the town, the Sami (Lapplanders) Museum (2 rooms, no reindeer), the City Hall (which they proudly told me won an award for Most Beautiful Building in Sweden in 1984!!!), and the Church. Photos later maybe. I gave up after that and huddled in the hostel room where it was warm. I don't understand how people can function when it's so cold :(

... I just checked the forecast for Stockholm, to where I am flying in 3 hours. Currently 4 degrees, maximum of 7... you're kidding me. I was planning on posting all of my warm clothing back to Sydney once I got back to Stockholm, but now I'm thinking that might not be such a good idea...

Now, how to kill 3 hours before my flight...

It is absolutely freezing in Kiruna...

Yesterday I took a flight to Kiruna, 200km north of the Arctic Circle. Be in no doubt, it is COLD. I had thought it was going to be cold, but now I don't think I knew what "cold" was before. Outside currently it is 2 degrees (at 11:15am), with windchill bringing it down to -3. My body is warm in a thermal shirt, a t-shirt, a thin jacket and a ski jacket, but my face freezes - going outside is like having a constant ice cream headache, sans ice cream.

I discovered yesterday after arriving that it's a pretty bad time to have come - it's not tourist time, and it's between seasons: winter activities haven't kicked off yet because there's no snow and it's too cold for summer activities. The only tour running currently is the northern lights tour... but they won't run it for one person. I'm hoping that some other tourists arrive today and book a tour that I can tag along on. Last night I went for a wander at around 11pm (it was cold), but there are city lights, trees and buildings in the way so I didn't see anything, even though it was a clear night - I'm guessing you have to go outside the city.

Apparently there are a few things open - there is a Sami museum (hopefully with reindeer!), and the Sami-style church... and I could always go for a wander somewhere outside of the city.

Interesting factoid of the day: Kiruna used to be the largest city by area in the world, until Mount Isa in Northwest Queensland took it over.

Now in Stockholm...

What is it with old people and hostels? I understand that age isn't always representative of a person, but I would seriously expect that by the time you're 60 or 70, you'd rather stay in a hotel than in a youth hostel with a bunch of 20 and 30-somethings. Especially if you need a stick to get around like my current roommate. Surely that's what pensions, super funds and grandkids are for...

This morning while still in Göteberg I visited Liseberg, which is the biggest theme park in Scandinavia. There was a (cheap) entry fee and then extra cost to go on the rides, which I found interesting, as you'd generally think paying an entry fee would absolve you of any further costs in enjoying the place, but I digress... I was in the market for a few rollercoasters, and I went on all three that were there: Balder, which is a wooden roller coaster with an interesting track (no loops but a lot of steep drops), Lisebergbanan, which is a fairly boring rollercoaster (no loops and many wide circles), and Kanonen, which was a launched coaster - at the start, instead of being dragged up a hill, you are shot forward at a huge speed. I have to admit, I chickened out and closed my eyes on this one :) It had an interesting (though very very short track), including an extended slow corkscrew that was pretty scary.

Rollercoasters over, I took the much slower train to Stockholm and checked into my practically empty hostel, where they charge you for fridge space. I was originally planning to stay here again for one night after my trip to Kiruna, but have cancelled that booking and booked into City Backpackers instead, which was highly recommended by two separate people while I was in Copenhagen. I mustn't be a very good liar, because when I told the guy at the desk that my plans had changed and I was no longer staying overnight in Stockholm on my way south, he said that he hoped it was a travel change and not a problem with the hostel.

In two days time I leave for Kiruna, north of the Arctic Circle. It's a Sydney winter-esque 12 degrees max 6 degrees min here in Stockholm, but the weather report for Kiruna on Tuesday gives a maximum temperature of 3 degrees and a minimum of -4, which I find highly concerning. Unfortunately too, the forecast for the aurora is almost as low as it can go for the two nights I'm there - although the prediction does say that it should be "visible low on the horizon as far south as Rovaniemi Finland and Mo i Rana Norway", which are a long way south of Kiruna. The weather forecast is "partly cloudy". Maybe I'll be lucky (but I'll try not to get my hopes up).

Have been feeling quite ill for the past couple of days when eating, not quite sure why. I guess the trip, as well as being stressful, is a big diet change due to the limited kitchen facilities, so I'll put it down to that and hope for the best.

Happy Birthday to Stephen for his birthday that has already begun in Australia :)