Welcome to the published part of my life!

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.

A couple of weeks ago I finally managed to visit the capital of the country I’m now already living in for nearly six month. I was very fortunate to be accompanied by Lorenz, who made this trip as much fun, as it was!

We left Lund on a Friday afternoon and went to Stockholm by train. I really have to admit that everything in the north of Skåne looks totally different. There is forest everywhere… Just everywhere.

When we arrived in Stockholm at around 10:30 pm, we where welcomed by an incredible sunset. So we stopped where we where, got our cameras out and tried to capture it as good as we can. I guess it kinda worked

(Sunset in Stockhom – Sonnenuntergan in Stockholm)

Our temporary home was situated on a ship close to downtown. So we walked through to wonderful downtown at night and got to the ship we where looking for. When we got our keys we found out, that this cupboard was supposed to be our room :

(Our Cupboard – Unsere Zimmertür im Schiffs-Hostel)

and it actually had two bunk beds in there,s o it was bigger than expected. And we also had a great view over to “Gamla Stan” through our tiny window.

(View from the window – Blick aus unserer Schiffs-Luke)

But since we only planned to come back to the hostel late at night and to leave early in the morning, this was fine. And I can really recommend the hostel. It was cheap and in walking distance to kind of everything!

The next day we where pleased with wonderful sunny weather! The sun was shining and it was really warm  (at least on the Swedish scale). Perfect conditions for a great sight seeing tour through wonderful Stockholm.

(Gamla Stan – Altstadt)

We first walked around Gamla Stan, where we went to the palace and to the cathedral. Afterwards we walked over the museums island and found a huge assembly of sculptures made by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely. They where really awesome and I was, as always, happily surprised to find them

(A sculpture of Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely in front of the Museum for Modern Art )

The great thing about Stockholm is, that it is build on 14 islands. Therefore there is water just everywhere, what makes the city really scenic. So we spent most of the day just walking along the shore and getting great views to different parts of the city from different spots.

(View to Strandvägen from Skeppsholmen – Blick auf Strandvägen)

(I stole the idea for this picture from Flo, but I choose the other side of the bridge to add a personal note )

Afterwards we walked a bit through the newer part of Stockholm, which I didn’t like too much, therefore no photos here But I couldn’t leave out the next ones, though

(Lorenz and me in front of the library – Lorenz und ich vor der Biliothek.)

After walking around town for almost 12 hours without having “real” food, we went to ICA (supermarket) to buy everything we could find… We realized too late, that it was way too much to eat it all 0:). With all our groceries packed we where looking for a nice place to have dinner. Fortunately we happened to remember that we saw a picnic table at Riddarholmen earlier that day. It was just a great spot to have dinner!

(Dinner in Stockholm – Abendbrot)

Unfortunately it started raining that night, but with our rain coats on we still went to the south part of the city, where we had a great view over the city.

(Stockholm at night – Stockholm bei Nacht)

The next morning it stopped raining, even though it was still cloudy. But we had decided to take the “Good Morning Stockholm” sight seeing boat cruse at 8pm, and we didn’t care about the weather. It was a great decision to do that, instead of taking a normal tour during the day where you just get an audio guide and totally overloaded boats. We where just about 10 people on the boat and there was a guide telling us everything that we wanted to know – to be recommended!

(Dream team )

(The “skyline” of Stockholm )

The final destination of this tour was the first island of the Stockholm Archipelago called Fjäderholmen. We got a very interesting tour there as well, which provided many details about the history of Stockholm. Afterwards we had breakfast there, with all the stuff we didn’t eat the other night… It was really scenic – and it didn’t rain jet!

(Bread with cheese and dark chocolate… Could have been my creation, but it wasn’t )

After this wonderful morning we took the ferry back to Stockholm and went to the Stadshuset. Since it was raining by that time, we took a guided tour, what was a really good idea. It’s really worth the money! Before we finally had to leave this wonderful place again, we climbed on the tower of the Stadshuset to get a view over the city. And just when we reached the top, the sun came out again

(View over Stockholm – Blick über Stockholm)

I really have to say that Stockholm is a wonderful city. Its definitely one of my “top-ten-must-see-cities”!

If you want, you can download more fotos here.

Nearly everybody somehow knows the word “Smörrebröd” and I realized that many people think its Swedish (including me, before I came here). But it is actually the Danish word for “Butterbrot” (=bread with butter), what is called “Smörgås” in Swedish. This also explanes why the Swedish dish I was talking aboug earlier,  is called “Smörgåstarta”.

The picture to the left I actually took in Copenhagen last weekend. It’s an advertisement in front of a restaurant.  It reminded me so much on the confusion connected to this word that I decided to take a picture and write a blog about it.

Some time ago I decided that working 6 days and having one real weekend-day per week is a better alternative than trying to work every day but being unproductive after some time due to mental exhaustion…

So I convinced my friend Lorenz that it is a good idea to go to the Jazz Festival in Copenhagen on Saturday. This festival goes on for 10 days ore so, and there are bands playing every where in Copenhagen. During day time most of the events are free to visit. Only at night they have some incredible high administration fees, but we didn’t stay that long so it was fine.

(Lorenz and me at the Nvhavn)

We had a surprisingly nice and sunny day in Copenhagen (the weather forecast called for rain…) and we did nothing but walking around, listening to some great jazz music and enjoying the city.

At one stage some people actually started to dance Lindy Hop and Bugg in front of the stage. Lovely!

But most of the time people where just sitting or lying on the streets or squares in front of the stages and enjoyed the music. It was a really nice atmosphere and I’m glad I took the time and spent the money to go there

The last trip we did when Christian was visiting me, was going to the little Island Ven, between Denmark and Sweden.

The first thing we hit on the Island after leaving the ferry was a huge place that rented yellow bicycles. Since we where told that this is what you should do to explore the city, be rented four bicycles and one tandem. And of we went.

I have to admit that I imagined the island to be way bigger but it was still worth renting the bikes even though we really had to take many long breaks not to cycle the island 10 time during the day. But since it was a weekend day, which was meant to be relaxing, it was all good.

Ven is a really nice island that feels really Swedish in a way. I really enjoyed the time we had there.

One day of doing nothing while doing something…. Great.
I wish I would have more days like that

Enjoy the impressions in the pictures below.

(The bike rental place – Der Fahrradverleih)

(Lets bike! – Fahrradfahren!)

(Denmark on the horizon – Dänemark am Horizont)

(Cycling along the islands edge – Eine Radtour rund um die Insel)

(Fika )

(One of the two harbours – Einer der beiden Häfen)

Our team: Christian – Me – Lorenz – Jenny(Sweden!)- Matthias – Anders (Sweden!)

(Matthias and Lorenz on the Tandem – Matthias und Lorenz auf dem Tandem)

(Nice View towards Sweden – Ein Blick Richtung Schweden)

(Without words )

(Bye bye Ven! – Auf Wiedersehen, Ven!)