Denmark

It seems that every time I sit down at the computer to write a blog the same thing happens - I think back on what I did and the places I went, and I find myself at a complete loss as to how I can best condense everything I'd like to write into a short, readable blog entry. If I had the desire I could sit here and roll out a long, detailed, rambling narrative about what I did each day, and the things that I liked, and the things that I didn't quite understand, but I honestly think that would be as boring as batshit. I have about as much interest in delivering such a narrative as any person who may be logged onto this page would likely have in reading it, so instead I'm just going to write a few brief recollections of my time in Denmark and leave it at that.

Denmark was nice; Joel and myself were generously hosted by our friend Nis in Aarhus and by Joel's friend Ditte in Copenhagen. I was again lucky to have friendly locals looking after me and showing me around, because it meant that instead of spending my nights in backpacker places full of drunken tourists I was able to meet some local people and experience how warm Danes can be (despite - or perhaps in spite of - their freezing cold summer weather).

From Copenhagen Joel flew off to London en route to South East Asia, and I got a plane east to Finland, where I've been for just over a week... I'm currently in Turku, where my friend Shayne (the one whose wedding was the excuse for this trip) lives; I'm quite enjoying the place, so I think I'll stay here until Friday when I have to fly back to Sydney via Hong Kong...

Belgium

I've been sitting here for the last 20 minutes trying to write an entry about Belgium, but I can't seem to get past a few sentences... It was only a little over a week that I was there, but it seems like it was months ago, and even though Belgium's only a couple of hours flight from Finland, where I now am, it feels like it could just as easily be on the other side of the world. The rapid cultural shift between places in Europe that are geographically very close is something that I'm not used to. In the past when I've travelled I've been able to spend extended periods of time in countries and get to know the people and the culture a little bit, but the nature of the trip that I'm on at the moment means that every few days I'm heading somewhere else, so it's very hard to establish much of an insight into people and culture. I really liked Belgium; a lot of the reason for me liking it so much was probably the result of the warm hospitality of Julie, the most generous host you could ever wish for, but there was also something inexplicably charming about the place. Belgium isn't a place that springs to mind when you think of European travel itineraries: it seems to get overlooked alongside its larger, more well known, more powerful neighbours, and it would be quite easy just to pass straight through on the way north from France or on the way south from the Netherlands. We were able to visit towns in the French speaking south and the Flemish speaking north, and it was interesting to see how two quite different cultures share one country. I really don't feel like writing out a full account of all the places I went and the things I did, because those sorts of accounts always end up sounding similar, and can get quite boring, so instead I'll just say that there is plenty to do and see in Belgium, and I could happily go back there and travel around more - its size makes it easy to navigate, and there's friendly people, great food, and the world's best beer.

Paris

I'm not really sure what to write about Paris that will be interesting or different from what millions of other people would write about it... Like Prague, Paris in the middle of summer is full of tourists, and the more touristy parts of the city (particularly the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral and Versailles) were swarming with large, pushy tour groups that were determined to make sure that you spent more time looking at the backs of people's heads than at anything of historical significance.

Despite the tourist crowds, I actually quite enjoyed Paris, it has manged to retain a sense of intimacy that is often sadly lacking in large cities. I was met at the station by Laura, a friend of mine who lives there, and she showed me around some of of the Paris neighbourhoods that tend to get left off the tourist trail, which was nice. She lives in an old Parisienne house in a nice part of town, and although she says that she hates it because of all the old furniture, the place felt full of history, and had a nice 19th century charm to it...

I also met up with Joel and Jonesy, two friends from the Coast, and it was good to see them again. We were able to get to the last day of the Tour de France, which was really exciting, and something that I've wanted to do for quite a while. The anticipation of the crowd on the Champs-Elysee as the peleton gradually approached Paris was almost better than the thrill of watching the yellow jersey fly past. I'm glad I was able to be there, and hopefully one year I'll be able to go and see some of the mountain stages and be in some of the smaller towns as the tour comes through.

After a few days of looking around Paris I met up with another friend of mine: Lea, a French girl I worked with in Sydney. It was great to see her again, and we spent the last night in Paris sitting on the hill in front of the Sacre Coeur at Montmarte, looking out over Paris and drinking wine...

On the Thursday night I said goodbye to Laura (thanks for showing us around), and then to Lea (thank you for everything, too). I get sick of saying goodbye to people, it's the part of travelling that I like the least. I know that saying goodbye is inevitable, but I always feel a bit crappy when I have to be farewelled by good friends, because you never know exactly when you'll see people again - hopefully sooner rather than later.

Bratislava-Vienna-Zurich

I can't remember the last blog I wrote, but I think it was just after I got to Bratislava... The next morning Sam took me on a bit of a tour of Bratislava, which I actually found far more pleasant than Prague: Prague is a beautiful city, but its nice old parts are just way too full of tourists - Bratislava, on the other hand, is a bit smaller than Prague, and had less tourists and more charm.

Vienna's only an hour west of Bratislava, so after lunch we headed over there on the train and spent the afternoon looking around town. Sam's spent quite a lot of time in Vienna, so he was able to show me the sights which was good. Vienna came across as a very clean and well preserved city; it was the heart of the Hapsburg Empire, and the excesses of the ruling elites of the time are everywhere to be seen in the city's enormous palaces and intricately detailed building facades. Sam took me a typical Viennese beer garden where we had a beer and a schnitzel, then Zuzka met us so we could get the overnight train to Zurich.

The train got to Zurich early on Saturday morning, and since I had few hours to wait until my next train I had a bit of time to check out the city. The whole place seemed very organised and clean (although according to Zuzka the Swiss aren't really any cleaner than other people, they're just better at cleaning up after themselves), and because it was very early on a Saturday morning there was no one else on the streets, so it was like walking around a ghost town. Nevertheless, Zurich struck me as a nice city; the early morning sun on the big lake was a nice sight, but I couldn't see myself living in a place like that, it just looked a little bit too nice and well looked after to be real.

It was great catching up with Sam: it was nice to be able to talk to someone about my time in Colombia who had actually been a part of the experience. Even though it's now over a year since I was working with Alcance, it felt like it could have been yesterday, and when we went and had a few drinks in Bratislava's one Latin-themed bar I could almost imagine that I was back in Bogota...