A Short Trip to Tonga

25 July 2011

Arrived on Tonga’s main island, Tongatapu, late at night dressed in what we hoped would pass as modest enough to avoid excessively offending the locals of this highly religious nation. We were collected at the airport and stopped off at a shop - a small building with barred windows through which one could purchase canned food, chips and biscuits - on the way to our guest house. Opted for a nutritious dinner of Doritos (it was either that or tinned corned beef) and were on our way. Fell asleep late due to the 3-hour time difference and awoke in the early hours of the morning to what sounded like a quarrel between a group of roosters and a pack of dogs.

26 July 2011

Took an island tour led by the eccentric Northern English guest house owner. Became well acquainted with the dogs, pigs and roosters that roamed the island as well as seeing a number of sights including innumerable Mormon churches, a coastline of blow holes and a monument commemorating the landing of the first missionaries not to be eaten. The prison market looked particularly inviting - an airy open market stall boasting a range of fresh vegetables grown by prisoners - and provided an ironic contrast to the multitude of prison-like shops dotted around the island. We were dearly wishing to try some of the succulent-looking papaya and coconuts that were found on almost every street, however our guide informed us that these were not eaten by Tongans but rather were fed to the pigs (and perhaps the odd tourist). Dinner was had at a popular cafe in town; the meal was delicious but there was very little to see in Nuku'alofa, most of the buildings having been burnt down in the 2006 riots. We were woken again that night by the blasted dogs and roosters.

27 July 2011

Awoke early and breakfasted - Rose on 2-minute noodles and me on noodle broth in which floated slices of a cucumber we had been fortunate enough to procure at the markets the prior evening. After breakfast, we left for the airport, from where we were to catch a flight to the Ha'apai islands. We were only slightly offended when the airport staff requested that we mount the scales along with our baggage. After a short flight, we arrived in Lifuka, where we were to stay in a fale (bungalow) at a resort located less than 50 metres from the beach. Needless to say, our afternoon was passed in an extremely leisurely manner.

28 July 2011

More lazing on the beach, snorkelling and eating delicious food. Sea snakes spotted: one. Hasty retreats made to the beach: one.

29 July 2011

An amazing day cruising around the sea spotting humpback whales. We were able to get very close (a mere 10 metres or so) to a mother whale and her tiny calf, which we had a clear view of under the water through our masks. Snorkelled around some reefs before stopping for lunch on a breathtakingly beautiful, almost deserted island. Sitting on white sand gazing at clear blue water and palm trees whilst sipping fresh coconuts, we were in heaven. Our day was completed with a mouth-watering gourmet BBQ, which we feasted upon until almost ill.

Whale footage shot by one of the resort owners:

http://www.vimeo.com/13621280

http://www.vimeo.com/16336696

30 July 2011

Flew back to Tongatapu in an antique plane (DC-3) of the sort that one would expect to see in a museum. One of the guests at the resort had remarked that their grandmother had been an air hostess on a craft of the same model. We were picked up at the airport by a staff member from the resort we were to stay at and and drove back via the markets as groceries were needed for the guests' meals. Rose and I were more than happy to go to town but the others seemed less than impressed. After wandering around the markets (where we were finally able to purchase a papaya!) and a satisfying lunch at the only obvious cafe in Nuku'alofa, we were taken to our lodge. The slightly anxious manner of the German owner, the old decor and cheesy Islander music of similar vintage, the occasional yelling from the kitchen and the debacle of the airport transfer combined to give the lodge a vaguely Fawlty Towersesque air. Nevertheless, our fale was comfortable and the overall atmosphere pleasant.

31 July 2011

By virtue of a torrential rain storm, I managed to evade Rose's proposed church outing. Instead, we remained in our lodgings and were visited by a Chinese masseuse.

1 August 2011

TRopical fruit breakfast then back to Sydney!

A mere decade later, Minton has finally got agreed to unleash the Captain's Log upon the world, in the form of a Twitter feed. In the interest of good record keeping, I am posting a copy here.

Qantas to Melbourne. Drank rum in the airport to take the edge off, then on to Singapore!

Bussed down to the Malaysian Railway Station but no trains until the 2nd.

Finally organised a bus to the Cameron Highlands. Now we have hours to spare #whattodoinSingapore

Sitting in #Raffles playing cards and annoying staff with our smelliness and backpacker attire. Have a feeling we're about to be kicked out.

Boo to Raffles. To save our meagre resources, sitting in an undeveloped "park" watching cars. Thumbs down to Singapore, can't wait to leave!

Cameron Highlands! Yum brekky at Bunga Suria & lucky w/ accomm at the #Cameronian Inn. Strawberry Farm next (they're just in season).

Walked to Brinchang to Shal's Indian Restaurant for roti & 'apple strudel' (v. good). The dough maestro does his work well. #doughmaestro

Taxi back to Tanah Rata and off to Robinson's falls for an afternoon stroll through the jungle #inappropriatefootwear

Dins at No. 14. Cameron Highlands loves Indian cuisine, as long as they keep the roti coming that's OK. Yay for Bollywood TV in restaurants.

'Trek' with Mr George on a gov'ment trail. Saw pitcher plants and it was all good...Have to hurry back to catch our bus to Tapah.

Tea at Shal's w/ a Canadian girl, a Singaporean guy + his wife & a Welsh lady. Talked so long we missed our bus at 13:00 :(

The 3pm bus broke down. In the rain. A nice guy from our hostel stopped a random coach in the middle of the road for us. Wery coo' #freeride

Down to Tapah past Orang Asli shacks & extreme poverty. Waiting next to a KFC for a bus to Ipoh ('Eye-poh: a place of no consequence')

Bus ride was v. dodgy, basically a local bus. Took forever. Cars & bikes everywhere. Sitting in a Japanese restaurant. 5 hours til next bus.

Thumbs down to Ipoh #getusoutofhere

Arrived in Hat Yai after bus ride from hell. Man in front reclined into my lap the entire (6 hour) way ... #getoutamypersonalspace

Booked a bus to #Krabi from a tour place, now to find food

@ a Chinese restaurant - the owner said it was cheaper to get a bus from the terminal. Smeg! #localknowledge

@elenahandlos got a haircut. No English spoken and her attempts to describe via magazines what she wanted caused great hilarity #badhairday

Out of Hat Yai. Driver is a complete lunatic, never dipping below 160km/h. Flashing past flooded areas #ohmygodweregoingtodie

Hah! Fat man floating under his stilt-house on a bed mattress. Reclined in the manner of Cleopatra uncaring of rising floodwaters. Love it!

Made it to Krabi in record time. Near death count #43. Driver loves a blind corner overtake

Driver tried to stitch us up with overpriced hotels. We've declined in favour of more...basic accommodation. 2 beds, 4 walls. Not much else.

@elenahandlos couldn't figure out the shower taps and thought she should use the #bumgun toilet hose instead ahahaha #arseshower

@ the night markets in Krabi. Hard to find vegetarian. Drinking beers to usher in the new year #thistweetisoutofdate #สวัสดีปีใหม่

@elenahandlos's watch is 1hr slow! Back to the room for cards & beer. Colin is comatose after 3. Must be the #dutyfreevodka #lightweight

Decided to go to Ao Nang, Krabi isn't fab. Caught a songthaew there, found a place for 400 baht/night. Way touristy, way prettier #yaybeach

Guesthouse is called the "Sea Beer" - a good omen. Songthaewing back to Krabi to get our stuff.

Too late for climbing, just beached it instead. Overpriced cocktails at a tacky bar and bad fish curry and it's time for sleeeeeep

Fiendishly early wake up & boat to Ton Sai, then W. Railay. Walked through a resort to E. Railay. Climb Time on the beach! #lifeisgood

Started w/ #MuaiThai (only Colin managed it) then #ShadowShow and #SameBoy on the 123 face. Back to Krabi for $$$ #runningshortoffunds

Dins @ 30 Years After and now to the Last Cafe for drinks. It's the owner Aa's b'day. He's massively drunk and pouring shots yay #freedrinks

Colin fell asleep from the complimentary whiskey. Aa is taking us on his motorbike for food #drunkenmotodeath

Called it quits at 3AM, found out the drinks weren't actually complimentary :( #suckered ฿1500. Aa rode us back to our room though, so win.

Got to Railay by 12(ish). Walked up to the muddy lagoon view. Down w/ climbing gear to other side of Phra Nang to climb at Escher's Wall

Super greasy rock. Kinda scary & I chickened out after 1 climb #yellowbelliedlilylivered

Getting worried about Colin's liver. He was practically unconscious after 2 beers last night...

Back to E. Railay @ Duncan's Boot. Col climbed Karaoke, now back to Muai Thai wall for Massage the Rock :)

Col messed up the clipping order and in the effort to untangle has gashed his hand. Blood everywhere! Off to Phra Nang #bloodontherocks

Tried the stalagtite boulder problem, lost a lot of skin but it was ace. Swimming with tender flesh, not so ace #ilovethailand

Colin bought a slingshot last night & the hostel ladies loaded me up w/ rambutan. Spent the night firing the seeds across the street

Went to Inner Princess Cave & had to wait for the lights. Meanwhile @elenahandlos hit C w/ a bag of fruit peel which exploded #fruitplosion

Interrupted a soft porn shoot at Phra Nang. Awkward w/ families on the beach #publicporn. A soft day for us too. Hardcore tomoz #pornpun

Started early on 123 wall with Giggerig then Cashflow, Short & Savage and Long Live the Herm. King Cobra last. Now @elenahandlos is tired

Here's the list :) http://t.co/m2fE5Ic. Now for some food!

Koh Phi Phi! So many tourists. Ton Sai Bay is more boat mooring area than coral reef. Our rooms here suck balls so we're off snorkeling

Saw a black tip shark & amazing coral out between Koh Phi Phi and Bamboo Island #tropicalparadise

Storm hit just as we got back in the boat. Crazy ride thru high seas but still spotted a group of sea eagles hunting. Absolutely saturated

@elenahandlos had 1st dibs on shower but h2O is piped direct from sewer. For a 2nd time she has used the #bumgun (it's becoming a habit)

Dins @ Mama Resto, pizza & curry. @elenahandlos ordered their "expresso" but really wanted a long black. Much confusion ensued. E not amused

We'll miss the last bus to Bangkok - boat is due at 3:30. Decided to leave things in the hands of the gods & climb @ Ton Sai Tower #climbing

Did Latitude 8 which was chossy & dodgy. View from the top was amazing though. Calling it a day & down for some beach R&R #climbfail

A Macaque family hit the beach & the alpha male stole a topless German lady's bananas. She screamed and clung to her bikini #monkeybusiness

@elenahandlos, up to her old tricks, tried to take photos of the cute little monkeys. They proceeded to scream and attack her #hastyretreat

Rebooked our boat to #Krabi & bus to #Bangkok. Lost a bunch of $$ on the return ticket to #AoNang. Of course, more shenanigans w/ transport

Bus to Bangkok turned into a bus to #Surat Thani (where?), and was not the VIP coach we paid for #suckeredagain Thai transport - 11, us - 0

Bangkok at 5AM from Moh Chit bus terminal a v. nice Thai lady showed us to the #Ayuthaya stop. Straight on the 123 to Ayuthaya.

Total Bangkok time spent: 0.5 hours #speedydeparture

Hired some bikes after tuk-tuking to the Ayuthaya Guest House, cycled along the crazy main roads. Stopping at Wat Ratburana #oldskoolthai

More cycling to Wat Thanmikarat & Wat Phra Ram (pretty similar). Elephants on the road giving rides to tourists near King Phaen's residence.

Ferry to Wat Panam Choeng. Incredible 19m gold Buddha statue & 1000s of mini-Buddhas in the walls. Monks were covering it in orange silk

6hr bus trip to Sukhothai through rice paddy plains. Staying at the Somprasong Guest House. Owner is English teacher who dislikes tourists!

P.S. (the owner) also owns a place in Ayuthaya. Seems really nice :) She and American Rob are going to the old city. We might tag along...

Travelled to Wat Saphan Hin overlooking the city and Wat Sri Chum. Col had a whole coconut, milk 'n all, instantly regretted it #sorebelly

Wat Pra Phai Luang & elephant shrine where we climbed a tamarind tree for tasty treats. I climbed straight into a big angry ant's nest #antzpantz

Visited Wat Mahathat & Wat Si Sawai. P.S. keeps trying to buy food for us to try. Only Col was willing to try a pumpkin/egg/coconut mix #yum

It was still in its pumpkin skin. Blergh #thaisnacksareweird

Why am I teaching at an institute which advises you to "Ask students to make an exclamation of amazement.... ask them to put more emotion into what they're saying. Try to elicit "He's so fit!"? Furthermore, why is "butthole" a word on the students' vocab list???

Still searching for an apartment... I have extended my stay in my current studio to the end of February so if you're planning to visit me, before March would be ideal as who knows what living conditions will be like after that! I just found and ad for a relatively cheap share apartment in the same area. The only problem is that you are only allowed to use the kitchen 2 or 3 times/week and may only take 3 showers/week! I knew there must be a catch...

And so, here I am in Paris. I have found myself a lovely apartment in a nice central area right near the Pantheon but unfortunately it is a) expensive and b) short-term. However, considering some of the options out there, I think I've done fairly well. Some of the ads I have seen offer "cheap rent, rate according to the nature of the arrangement (young, attractive girls only)" and even more suspicious sounding, "free - studio share with middle-aged man" [shudder]. Tomorrow I'm going to look at a room which is free in exchange for housework. From the sounds of it, I should only have to take about 15 trains and half a dozen buses to get out to the suburb...
On the work side of things, generally all is well. The pay is terrible but at least my colleagues are nice. The lessons which have been pre-planned for us often involve incredibly stupid excercises e.g. "Ask the students which is their favourite character from the multimedia session - indicate that you would like them to respond 'John Berry'". At least, however, we are provided with some entertainment as we plan our lessons and figure out ways to make the classes less idiotic. And occasionally I have students who manage to make me laugh, providing much needed comic relief after another mind-numbing effort explaining the difference between the present perfect and the present perfect continuous.
Romi has been less fortunate workwise. She currently has 2 jobs: one looking after a young child who constantly throws tantrums and another at a hostel where she works for 22 hours every weekend for an extremely ill-mannered boss. Her friend was thoughtful enough to give her the phone number of an American diner which is looking for a cashier, but after looking on the website Romi discovered that it seems to be not so much a diner but rather a sleazy bar with pole dancers and topless waitresses.

The "manifestation" (demonstration) continues... After almost a month of student strikes over a new law which threatens the autonomy of universities by allowing businesses to give them financial support, the university is open again... at least, so I was told. This morning I turned up at the front of the building to find that the entrance was blocked with bike racks, trolleys and a jumble of other odd items and was being guarded by a few diehard left-wing students. I was ready to turn back but was then informed by a scruffy young idealist that I was welcome to climb through the window and have a look at their "work". Inside I saw that the usual bored looking students and notice boards had been replaced with camping gear and tables covered with communist flyers. A friendly girl advised me that normal lessons were still not on but had been replaced by "classes" organised by the students: discussion groups, watching inspiring movies etc. After nodding politely and feigning interest for a good few minutes, I climbed back out the window, still quite undecided on my opinion of the whole thing. Generally a supporter of left-wing causes, I'm having trouble taking sides this time: while I would usually oppose such a law; the French university system seems to be in such desperate need of reform and who's to say that the support of businesses wouldn't improve the quality of French unis? I can't see them getting much worse... then again, maybe my experience in Grenoble is not a true representation of university standards over here.

Everyone is on the strike: the train drivers, the gas and electricity workers, the students. Since 14 November, I have come to know the joys of that wonderful French tradition of "la grève". The uni has been blockaded by students who refuse entry to all and are now camped out there day and night. This morning I received a rather dramatic e-mail from one of my teachers updating us on the situation and enquiring as to whether anyone happens to know anyone with a spare room in which we could hold the class as unfortunately his house is too small. He then went on to say something about his liberty and freedom of speech being suppressed through threat of violence and that we should all maintain our solidarity. So, I may not be learning French in the intended, institutionalised way but I'm definitely getting a taste of the French lifestyle!

Basque Country Adventure

Day 1
Awoke at an ungodly hour at Romi's apartment in Paris to catch the funky IDTGV train, in which there were uncomfortable but very modern looking blue and purple chairs and a DJ playing loud music. Perhaps they though that the loud music would put us in good moods and encourage us to purchase the overpriced caffeinated beverages on offer... they were right. Gema met us at the Hendaye train station in France and drove us over the mountains to Spain. For lunch we stopped in San Sebastian where we ate "pinxos" (a Basque specialty, similar to tapas) and drank cider, which apparently has to be poured from a great height in order to create lots of bubbles, which is somehow meant to enhance the flavour (I'm not fully versed in the science supporting this theory...) After driving around for some time getting completely lost whilst trying to find the house we would be renting, we temporarily admitted defeat and went to Gema's mother's apartment for tea and cake. Here I was presented with my first opportunity to test out the phrase which I was to repeat often for the next 5 days: "no hablo espagnol". Later in the evening we finally managed to find our house in a lovely small town called Sorauren.


with Gema, San Sebastian, Spain


Romi, Elena & Gema, San Sebastian, Spain

Day 2
An extremely culture-filled day. Excited to be in a country where clothes are cheaper than in France, Romi and I ran off to a shopping mall. Due to lack of time I then ate McDonalds for dinner, I'm ashamed to admit. Gema then drove us back over the mountains to pick up Marie from Hendaye. Task accomplished, we returned and spent the evening watching a rockabilly band in a local pub.


with Marie (apparently sleepy after 8-hr train trip from Nantes)

Day 3
Went for a morning stroll up a hill in the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately we decided to do this walk pre-coffee, so we didn't get very far before deciding to head down to the small village for caffeine and oily Spanish food. In the afternoon we went to Pamplona to visit the old town and see Gema's bar (which is on the street where the running of the bulls takes place).


with Marie on a hill in Sorauren


Sorauren


in Sorauren


Argh, locked out of our house!


Marie in "Bar la Granja" where Gema works, Pamplona


Gema demonstrating the Basque way to pour cider

Day 4
Gema took us on an overnight trip to the Pyranese where we stayed in a gorgeous house owned by her friend's father - the view was incredible! Romi stayed up half the night playing guitar but Marie and I were exhausted and crawled off to bed after several glasses of wine.


Town in the mountains

Day 5
A scenic drive back to Pamplona!


Gorge

Day 6
We left Spain and headed back north into French Basque Country, where we met up with Camille who is originally from Basque Country and was on holiday visiting her parents there.


Camille, Romi & Marie, Guethary, France


in Guethary


beach in Guethary

Day 7
Sadly, Marie had to leave us but Romi and I still had a few days to relax in Camille's parents' beautiful old restored farmhouse.



Camille's parents' house, Bidart


Camille's parents' house, Bidart


Camille's parents' house, Bidart


Seaweed harvesting in local fishing town




Camille & Romi in front of window display featuring mango espadrilles! Any Kath & Kim fans will know what I'm talking about...


in Bayonne


Bayonne


"No cheese and salad on the same sandwich allowed" cafe, Biarritz

After Denmark I went to London to visit Em and Beren. I was joined by Pierre for the first half of the week then Rose for the second half. I didn't keep a diary but you're probably all sick of my blog anyway :) A few key words which summarise the week are Soho, beer, Indian curry with beer, Westminster Abbey, squirrels, camping in a weird caravan park with a giant RSL club in the centre in which a scary paedophile-like man performed and asked the small children to dance like they were stubbing out cigarettes and then drying their backs with towels, ferry. Here are some photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58745&l=fd0c3&id=902465056

Rose then came back to Grenoble with me:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58748&l=1f926&id=902465056

Random album including Grenoble, Denmark & England:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56244&l=b3349&id=902465056

Jylland Trip, Denmark

After four and a half years, I decided that it was high time I returned to Denmark to visit friends and relatives, and to experience that great weather the country is so famous for :/
After having been battling with French for five weeks, I was quite happy to be going to a country in which the grammar of the native tounge is relatively simple. For once, I made it to Charles de Gaulle airport without incident, only to discover that my flight had been delayed due to a freak mass of fog which had descended on Paris. To keep me entertained, Romi texted me helful suggestions for passing the time, including buying things I didn't need and couldn't afford and repeatedly going to the information counter and asking the same question. While the second suggestion did sound rather fun, I decided not to risk further damage to French-Anglo relations and so rather sat down next to all the other discontented travellers and tried in vain to decipher the occasional garbled messages coming from the loudspeaker. Eventually I made it onto the plane and breathed a sigh of relief as I thought "Thank god, from here on it's all Danish and English!" Just seconds later I found the pilot standing in front of me saying something that should have been Danish but for some reason I could hardly understand a word of it. My immediate reaction was panic - I had already forgotten even basic Danish! No, wait a minute, that wasn't Danish, he was speaking Swedish; trying to confuse me I'm sure, the bastard! When I settled into my seat and pulled out the in-flight menu, I was surprised to see that the entire thing was in English, even though I was flying with a Danish carrier. Amusingly, they seemded to have taken English slang to the extreme, so that it more closely resembled "Engrish" than anything else. In an attempt to be hip and down with the times, the word "stuff" had been tacked on to the end of every heading, so that one could purchase "snack stuff", "drinks stuff" and "jewellery stuff", to name a few categories.
No long after, I arrived at Copenhagen airport and was greeted with that wonderful Danish efficiency. A sign above the conveyor belt in the baggage reclaim section told me exactly how many minutes I could expect to wait before the bags from my flight would arrive. And just in case I felt unable to wait that length of time, a hotdog and beer stand had been conveniently placed just ten metres away. Carsten, an ever reliable Dane, was waiting for me when I walked out with my bag and we returned to his apartment for some open sandwiches and a cold beer.

Roadtrip
Day 1 - 28/08/07
We left Carsten's apartment and caught the train to Nykøbing on the island of Falster, where we were to spend the night at Carsten's parents' house before stealing their car the next morning. That evening, we walked across the road to borrow some camping gear from a neighbour. It was here that for the second time this trip I felt doubtful about my ability to speak Danish. When Carsten's neighbour found out that I was Australian he looked happy and said "Ah, har du nogle fugle med?" Surely, I thought, I have misunderstood... he cannot possible be asking me whether I have any birds with me. As it turned out, that's exactly what he was asking me - apparently he is some sort of bird enthusiast and wondered if perchance I had brought an exotic parrot along with me.

Day 2 - 29/08/07
Carsten got up bright and early while I lazed around in bed until late morning (honestly, what's the point of a holiday if it's not relaxing?) An obscene number of coffees later, we were on the road. We crossed the sea on a ferry and drove through picturesque towns on various islands before stopping in Kolding, a town on the peninsula, "Jylland", where my grandparents grew up. We set up camp for the night in Ribe, a former viking trading port and allegedly Denmark's oldest town.

Day 3 - 30/08/07
Little did we know it at the time but this was to be the first of many days of rain. We woke up in our cramped tent which the rain had managed to penetrate quite effectively. Unfortunately we were using the tent I had purchased years ago from the discount supermarket for less than AUD10.00 and had never been intended to survive more than one or two Roskilde Festivals. For some reason, I had decided to leave this tent with Carsten when I left Denmark rather than incinerating it as I should have done. (To my horror, Carsten still even had in his cupboards some of the (by then weevil-ridden) food I had left with him, but that's another story...) We packed up the tent for good and spent the morning in Ribe, where we saw a viking museum , wandered around the quaint cobbled streets and ate lunch in a typically Danish part-timbered house. In order to fight the cold (and satisfy my caffeine addiction), it was imperative that I buy a coffee before leaving town. It was in the coffee shop that any confidence I had in my Danish-speaking ability was to receive its next assault. I ordered a coffee in Danish (quite competently, I thought) and received a response which for all I could tell was in ancient Greek. The lady repeated the question and I honestly thought I had completely lost the capacity to understand Danish until Carsten rushed to my side and, addressing the shop assistant said "No, she speaks English, not German!" Evidently Ribe, being close to the German boarder, receives a large number of German visitors and seeing as my accent was not Danish, I had been assumed to be one of them.
That evening we drove through Esbjerg, Denmark's fishing capital, in order to buy a nice fresh fish for dinner. Tragically all the fish markets were closed, so we had to settle for frozen fish from the supermarket - an extremely poor substitute. We spent the night in Grinsted - not in the still sopping wet tent, but in a cosy little hut in the camping ground.


View of Ribe from church tower


Sunny Ribe


Part-timbered house, Ribe


Part-timbered house where we ate lunch, Ribe


Cold!!!!


Cathedral, Ribe

Day 4 - 31/08/07

It started out looking like it was going to be a pretty miserable day and I had fairly little desire to leave the comfort of the car when we pulled up outside Legoland in the pouring rain. However, we had come to Billund specifically for the purpose of seeing Legoland and we were on a tight schedule, so we got out and braved the rain. Fortunately, the rain cleared after a couple of hours and we were able to enjoy a sunny afternoon looking at the minature towns Legoland is famous for. We also went on some rides, the most interesting being the "Power Builder", which you program yourself. It was probably unwise of me to choose the second highest level of nauseating fun, but at least my neck didn't snap despite my head being thrown about in an alarming manner for the duration of the ride. After a day of amusement rides and junk food we found a hut in a camping ground in Resenbro.

Castle of which I have forgotten the name, Legoland


Paparazzi-style photo of Princess Mary & Crown Prince Frederik, Legoland



Nyhavn (Copenhagen, Denmark), Legoland


Extremely overpriced novelty lego-shaped chocolate, Legoland


The "Power Builder", Legoland

Lego Flamingoes, Legoland


Fredensborg Slot, Legoland


Statue of Liberty, Legoland

Day 5 - 01/09/07

Visited Silkeborg museum, where by far the most interesting exhibit is "Tollund Man", the naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived in circa 400BC. He had been hanged and thrown into a peat bog, where his body was remarkably well preserved due the lack of oxygen and the acidity of the peat. The detail of the face is amazing; even the wrinkles on the man's face are clearly visible.

Tollund Man, Silkeborg

The next stop was Himmelbjerget ("Sky Mountain"), which at 148m has the honour of being one of the highest points in Denmark. The strenuous climb to the summit took 5 minutes (including the walk from the carpark to the bottom of the hill).

Himmelbjerget

We then continued on to Aalborg where we met up with Kristian (an old friend from the dormitory days) and his girlfriend, Rikke. After an enormous dinner, we ventured out to Jomfru Ane Gade, a street famed for its ridiculous number of bars and discos interspersed with kebab shops. The party was still in full swing when Carsten and I left Kristian and Rikke amongst the vomiting, urinating drunk people at about 3am and headed back to the camping ground to spend the night in the most basic hut we had encountered thus far.

Kristina, Elena, Rikke & Carsten, Aalborg

Day 6 - 02/09/07

After a greasy breakfast eaten in theory as a hangover cure (for me), we went to see Lindholm Høje, an old viking burial ground, before continuing on to Lisbjerg, a town close to Århus. As the day's final cultural even, we went to see the Simpsons movie, as I really didn't fancy seeing the dubbed version back in France. The idea of a cartoon that epitomises American culture with French voiceovers is a contradiction I just find way too hard to get my head around.

With hangover in front of hut, Aalborg


Budolfi Cathedral, Aalborg


Lindholm Høje


Viking grave, Lindholm Høje

Day 7 - 03/09/07

The last day of our road trip. We stopped briefly in Århus where there was a festival going on, part of which involved a ferris wheel-like construction on which small children sat on toilet seats and wore amusingly large train driver style hats which fell over their faces. We then took a detour to Jelling, the site of the two famous rune stones which were engraved over a thousand years ago under the instruction of Harald Blåtand (Harald Blue Tooth), a Danish king who ruled in ca. 960 AD and who converted the Danes from worshippers of the old Norse gods to Christians. That evening, we arrived back at Carsten's parents' house in Nykøbing, where I was fed stuffed pigs hearts at Carsten's special request (apparently he thought I needed to experience some authentic Danish cuisine apart from the usual duck, pork and meatballs that I'm used to).

Burial mound, Jelling


Jelling Stone (Jellingstenen)

With Carsten on ferry to Falster