Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

Copenhagen was a welcome change. I spent the weekend with Delia and John who have been recently cycled through many parts of the world. There isn't alot to do in Copenhagen but its a great place to hang out with friends. I took many tacky tourist shots of the Little Mermaid sculpture, we climbed the ROundtower for a fabulous view of the city and we visited the hippy village of Christiania, a place set up in the 60's when there was a housing shortage. I loved riding a bicycle around the city, there are fantastic bike tracks and most people ride bikes. Its a nice change from other cities, including Sydney.

We visited Helsingnor, the place where Hamlet is set and whilst we were being spooked by the ghost of Hamlet's father, we were enjoying the gothic castle and the view across the water to Sweden. We caught the ferry across the water and stepped foot onto my 3rd country in 2 days, Sweden. What a lovely contrast that was, more medieval castles and pastries. Lucky for us there was a medieval festival going on around the base of a medieval tower. So there was dancing and music and juggling and archery and you could even buy patterns to make your very own medieval outfit. It was really nice and very fitting.

The towns are lovely, with cobblestone streets and painted houses. I nearly continued my chance meeting of leaders of the world as I read the next day the the EU Foreign ministers met at Helsingnor over the weekend. We didn't run into any, although I doubt that I would have recognised them.

As soon as I get back to London I will try and post some photos on the blog. So please be patient.

I am now in Munich and am enjoying the beer halls and gardens. Today I visited the world's first Easter Bunny museum (had to be done) where I was surprised to see even a National Socialist Easter Bunny. Bunnies for all! There was even a chamber pot museaum which had some very funny painted porcelain toilet seats.

Tomorrow its off to Marco and Monika's. I'm lacking inspiration at the moment so apologies for these blogs being a rant.

Reflections on Russia

I am now in Munich after a very long train journey from St Petersberg to Moscow and a weekend in wonderful wonderful Copenhagen. Russia is a country full of surprises, its hard to get used to it but when you finally do its time to go. St Petersberg was under construction when we where there which meant everything, including buildings and roads where either being dug up or under scaffolding. In 2003 its the city's 300th birthday so the Mayor (an engineer) has decided to fix up the city. HOwever he has decided to do it all at once, and I can tell you health and safety is not an issue. Scary.

After storming the Winter Palace I was amazed at the extreme amount of wealth of the royal family and spent atleast an hour with my mouth open looking at the ceiling. The Romanov's had it coming to them really. The Russians seem to be embracing their past and have reconstructed the throne room and have many of the treasures of the former royal family on display. Strangely this is the most visited part of the museum so when you go up to the third floor to see the Matisse and Picasso's is virtually empty, which suited me.

We had a few adventures along the way. We visited the port of Kronstandt, which played a pivitol role in the revoluution only to find that there really isn't anything there. We thought we would catch the ferry back to St Petersberg and got on the first one we saw, assuming it would take us there. We were wrong, we ended up somewhere I don't know where, and if it weren't for a very kind woman who walked us too the train station and helped us by tickets, I don't really know where we might have ended up. The train journey in itself was really intersting, comuters from a long days work.

We also visited Vyborg,on the border with Finland and got to go on a boat ride to the border, we got to point at Finland which was very exciting. In Vyborg we experinced yet another health and safety problem. You can climb to the top of the roundtower which gives you fabolous views of Russia and Finland, but if you manage to survive the climb up the rickity staircase you will find the actual lookout is seperated by about 30 cm to a very loose barricade. My legs went the moment I stepped out and I practically ran down the stairs. Russian people like to push you see and health and safety don't seem to be an issue to them strangely. SO whilst you are up there you are also being pushed and shoved for the best view. NOt my idea of fun. Only in Russia.

I coined two phrases to explain the state of Russia 'Because they can' and 'Only in RUssia'.