Welcome to the published part of my life!

As you can easily tell, my camera didn’t survive the world trip undamaged. But since I haven’t gotten a new one jet, I decided that the purple line is an artistic feature

So we start with a picture of the wonderful old campus of the Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH) in Stockholm

and me participating in my first “real” conference HSCC.

Part of the conference was a posh dinner in the hall of the Nobel Price Banquet in the “Stadshuset” in Stockholm. I think it will be hard to beat that again with another conference!

After the conference was over, I went out for dinner with Eva, Rebekah and Florian. By that time we didn’t know, that we will also spent the weekend together since we will all be stuck in Stockholm.

So I had time to try another crown picture… I think its better than the last one

I spent my weekend in this wonderful hostel called Castanea in Gamla Stan – to be recommended!

On Saturday, I also had time to take a long walk along the water

and back over the bridge..

After taking the night bus to Copenhagen, I waited for the train to Hamburg with all this people… I was surprised how they all fit into the train…

And after a 17hour journey I finally reached Berlin on late Sunday afternoon.

As you might know, some stupid volcano decided to erupt in Iceland last week causing a chaos in the transportation network of Europe. And as you might also know, I’m in Stockholm right now so I got stuck. After contacting my airline I was told that I can be rescheduled to Tuesday… OK, well…

So the best thing I could think of, was going to the train station. And obviously many people had the same idea! It was so packed! I’ve never seen a train station so crowded…  So I got a number 271 – while they where serving number 30. OK, fair enough, I was prepared to wait. But after they served only 6 persons during one hour I got quite annoyed… So I decided to give up and try to book something over the Internet.

I was quite lucky and found a night bus for tonight, to bring me to Copenhagen. And from there the trains are going to the rest of Germany. All Swedish trains are booked out until Tuesday by now, and also going to Oslo to visit a friend was impossible, because there wasn’t any train seat available. And today I heard that even all rental cars are booked as well, not speaking about ferries…

So for now, I’m happy to have a ticket and socialized with other people from the conference who got stuck as well… Somehow a slightly different form of networking

On my way to the HSCC Conference in Stockholm which I am attending this week, I stopped by Lund over the weekend to visit some friends there. The question I heard quite often was “And, what are you missing most from your time here in Lund?”. Well there are quite some things I actually miss: Nation Parties, Gerdahallen, my Swedish friends, Lindy Hop, Swedish language, … But the thing I definitely miss most is FIKA!

Everybody should fika! Everywhere in the world! Not just in Sweden!

The last weekend trip I did in Sweden before I was drawn into the stress of finishing everything for my thesis before leaving, was a trip on a cruise boat from Copenhagen to Oslo.

(Danish flag on the ship – Eine dänische Flagge auf unserem Kreuzfahrtschiff von Kopenhagen nach Oslo)

I actually didn’t know, that we are about to go on a boat cruise… I thought its just a overnight ferry, because they have very cheep cabins in the lowest category. So I was expecting the comfort level of a night train but on water… Well, I was very wrong. Whirlpool, Sauna, Bars, Cafés,… Both the ship and the majority of the people on board looked very posh to me, making us feel way underdressed, but I didn’t care

(My colleague Meike and me – Meine Büronachbarin Meike und ich)

(The top of the boat – auf Deck)

We spent most of our time on the top of the ship with all the wind in our hair and the sound of the waves around us.  It was a wonderful atmosphere especially when the sun started to set over Denmark.

(Sunset over Denmark – Sonnenuntergang über Dänemark)

We woke up really early the next day to enjoy the Oslo Fjord before reaching Oslo at 10am. But unfortunately it was pouring rain and it was not really comfortable to stay outside. But is was still nice, very special in a way and I guess very Norwegian When we reached Oslo it was still raining and we started to explore the city with the guidebook I bought before.

(The Opera – Die Oper)

(The Jewish Museum – Das Jüdische Museum)

(The Harbour – Der Hafen)

(Summer in Norway – So sieht Sommer in Norwegen aus)

(The City Hall – Das Rathaus)

(The new Harbour Area – Das neue Hafenviertel)

(Vigelandsparken – Vigeland-Skulpturenpark)

(The Castle – Das Schloss)

Our time in Oslo was over very soon and we went back to the boat. Oslo seemed to me to be very small for being the capital but still with a nice atmosphere especially in the parts outside down town.

(View to the Oslo habour from the boat – Blick zurück in den Hafen von Oslo)

Going back to Copenhagen, the weather wasn’t as nice as the evening before. So we decided to eat inside. But since there were no tables ore even chairs for people who didn’t want to eat in a restaurant, we found a place behind a showcase on the floor in front of a window, where we made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed the view outside.

When I was still in Sweden my mum came to visit me for a couple of days. It was a wonderful time and I finally happened to do some touristy stuff in the region I was living in for already nearly 6 month. My mum went to all the little museums with me, read out loud from the tourist guide book, invited me for a “Fika” and talked, and talked, and talked

I really enjoyed these four days which where way too short, but unfortunately I had to work. Because there was still so much left to do and so little time…