Like heaven on earth

This travel blog just wouldn't be complete without a post dedicated to Nutella - a lovely chocolate-hazelnut spread that Europeans eat like peanut butter. So, I'm digging back into my Europe photo archives for a visual. Between Katie, Mark and myself, I believe we polished off six jars of Nutella in our six weeks of traveling together. It was a bit of an addiction - especially for Katie, although I have little room to talk. Our favorite way to eat it was dipping stick pretzels straight into the jar. Katie even tried Nutella on broccoli and potato chips. My Nutella consumption has tapered off drastically since those first six weeks, but I do enjoy some on my morning toast when the opportunity arises. If you hadn't had the pleasure of eating Nutella yet, I highly recommend it - it's easy to find in U.S. grocery stores.

Other favorite European foods and beverages (some not so easy to find in the U.S.): gelatto, yogurt-filled Milka chocolate bars, durum kebabs (a Turkish fast-food sandwich wrap sold in stands all over Europe), Radler (half lemon-lime soda, half beer. A godsend in Bavaria - it's much less daunting than the liters of straight beer that the locals guzzle), apfelschorle (apple juice and mineral water), Mezzo Mix (cola w/orange) and Fanta (their Fanta is different - it actually tastes like fruit).

Back in Berlin

Audrey and I arrived in Berlin yesterday afternoon and parted ways for the first time in weeks – she is staying with her relatives in east Berlin and I am back with the Kasten family. On our way to Berlin, we had planned to spend a night in Hamburg but discovered that all of the hostels were booked solid. We spent a couple hours in the Hamburg train station trying to figure out where we could find a bed, thinking we might have to ride trains all night or sleep in the station. Instead, we caught a train to Lubeck and found a hostel with space, to our delight.

I’m staying with Dirk, Anna and Dirk’s two children – Sophie and Maxi. They took me to see the castles in Potsdam today. The weather is extremely hot, so we’ve spent the afternoon in the garden soaking in the sunshine and swimming in Werner and Hannelore Kastens’ (Dirk’s parents) pool next door.

Dirk and Anna both speak English (and better than they give themselves credit, I must add!), but the kids have been putting my German comprehension to the test (I’m afraid I’m doing quite poorly, but they’re patient). It’s been fun picking up words from them – and I’m a tad braver trying out my German with kids. Three-year-olds don’t notice if your grammar is horrid! And it really doesn’t take a lot of speaking skills to toss a ball, spin a top or give a high-five. I think kids have a talent for finding commonalities and breaking down cultural barriers.

She's big in Sweden . . .

Audrey has been missing her guitar during our travels, so she was happy to find that our last hostel in Sweden had one available for use in the lounge. The night we returned from the opera, she sat down and started strumming and singing. A few people drifted in and began dishing compliments, begging for more (including one of the opera singers). Soon, an audience of about 10 had gathered to hear her impromptu concert (and all from memory, I might add - she didn't bring her music). Some wanted their picture with her and some of the opera singers asked if she wrote the songs herself. When she answered no, they insisted on co-writing a song. We thought they might actually know a thing or two about songwriting since they were professional opera singers, but no such luck. After about an hour of "composing" they had come up with one verse to a song titled "Yesterday." The lyrics were pretty pathetic, but to their credit, English isn't their first language. Audrey managed to put it to music and the South Africans insist it will be a hit, but I won't be holding my breath. Still, how many Americans can say they composed a song with South African opera singers in Sweden?

A photo sampling from Sweden

I wasn't able to post photos when I had Internet access in Sweden, so here are some from the past few days. We took the bus back over the bridge into Copenhagen today and will catch a train to Germany in the morning. It's hard to believe, but I'm now entering the last week of my travels. It's gone by quickly, but at the same time it feels like forever ago that I flew out of PDX. I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends, sleeping in the same bed for more than a few nights, having a closet and clean clothes and re-introducing vegetables into my diet, to name a few. Of course, there are plenty of things I'll miss about Europe, though. But more on that later . . . here's the photo captions:

1) Picnicking in one of Malmo, Sweden's many, many parks. Audrey is shown here taking a bite out of her hefty portion of Gouda. We tried to order 50 grams of cheese from the lady at the grocery store deli, hoping that she would slice it for sandwiches. Instead, she grumpily cut us off a 150 gram block. That's a lot of cheese for two people's lunches, but we managed! The Swedes were all very friendly and helpful - with the cheese lady being the one exception.

2) The Swedish flag - isn't the blue and yellow combo striking? Yesterday was the Swede's National Day, so we saw a lot of flags around town.

3) This is actually a photo from Copenhagen last week. After the soccer game, someone dumped soap into one of the city fountains, filling it with suds. (Can you see the bubbles in the background?)

4) A family of geese swim in a castle moat in Malmo. Malmo's parks are inundated with geese.

5) Malmo's beach. The tall building you see is called the "Twisted Torso" and is Sweden's tallest building, if I remember correctly.

A night at the opera

We just got back from an incredible performance of Gershwin's American folk opera "Porgy and Bess." ("Summertime, and the livin´is ea----sy...") We happened to notice that it was playing at the opera house here in Malmo when we were walking around yesterday and inquired about tickets. We held off on buying them until we could secure a hostel for tonight and almost missed our chance. We did find a hostel with room (and just a block from the opera house!), but there was a crowd of people at the ticket booth when we got there this afternoon and we were sure it would be sold out. I´m so glad that it wasn´t, because the show was amazing. It was performed by the Cape Town Opera from South Africa and it just so happens that the cast is staying at our hostel, so we´ve been hearing little outbursts of opera singing ringing in the halls.

Soccer and Sweden

"Skandale!" was the headline emblazoned across Sunday's Danish newspapers, after the hotly controversial Danes vs. Swedes soccer game from the night before. We're not big on soccer, but after seeing all the excited fans congregating in Copenhagen, we decided we´d better go ahead and at least watch the second half on TV at our hostel. The Swedes led 3-1 going into the second half, but the Danes made a comeback and the game was tied 3-3. With only a few minutes left, the ref gave a Danish player a red card, infuriating a Danish fan who dashed onto the field and tried to punch the ref. Several of the Danish players came to the ref's rescue and the fan was escorted away. After much deliberation, the officials decided to end the game right there and give it to Sweden, 3-0. I think it will be a long time before that fan will dare show his face in public! Of course, they replayed it on TV over and over again, so we all got a good look at the culprit.

Audrey and I checked out of our hostel in Copenhagen Sunday and caught a bus to Malmo, Sweden. We hadn´t planned on coming here, but there´s a huge bridge that connects the two cities and it only takes about an hour by bus. Ahhh, the advantages of a flexible itinerary! I'm so glad we came! It's been like a vacation from our vacation, if that makes any sense. Our hostel is in a nicely-kept old house within walking distance of both the beach and downtown. It's a beautiful city full of parks and great pedestrian and bike paths. Sometimes it's nice to get out of the major cities for a few days and just relax - although we're not exactly kicking back. I think we've done even more walking here than in Copenhagen. You sure don't see many fat people here. Yesterday we even saw a giant Jazzercise-style aearobics class in the middle of a park. We're hoping to stay here one more night, but will have to find a different hostel as our current place is booked solid.

A taste of Copenhagen

Despite the prevalence of Swedish flags in my photos, I'm still in Denmark. Copenhagen's streets have been crowded with red & white-clad Danes and blue & yellow-clad Swedes all day. There's a big soccer game between Sweden and Denmark tonight. The fans drape their country's flag across their backs like capes and break into their team's fight songs and chants any chance they get. As you can see in the photos, the Swedes have taken up residence in one of Copenhagen's city squares, claiming it as their own. It's a festive atmosphere, to say the least.

Audrey and I had to check out of our hostel at 9 this morning, ditching our backpacks at a train station locker since we were homeless (beds are hard to come by due to the soccer game). Thankfully, a different hostel still had space available and allowed us to check in this afternoon, so we do have a place to lay our heads tonight. We'll be glad for a bed after all the walking we've done today.

We spent a couple hours in the Museum of Danish Resistance, an excellent exhibit about the Nazi's occupation of Denmark and the efforts of some brave Danes to thwart them. After lunch at a Turkish buffet, we walked to Christiania - a city within the city. Years ago, some homeless people moved into some abandoned naval barracks and created their own community. Christiania governs itself, independent of the city of Copenhagen (although not officially, if I understand correctly). No cars are allowed in the city and the inhabitants decide together who will be allowed to move in when others vacate. It's basically a little community of hippies (and lots of dogs running loose) complete with a few restaurants, shops, an overgrown park - and not-so-legal drugs. It's an interesting area to walk through, but not a place I'd care to stay.