Maybe it's because I've been getting used to being home, or maybe it's because now that I'm back I'm finding it difficult to write anything. But what I do know is that I have at least one more update in me after this one; a 'now that I've been back in NZ for a month, what is it like?' update.
What I thought I'd do today though, is provide a summary of my trip having now finished it with no more trip left in me.
So without further ado (any more ado I could not do), here it is:
Beijing (China) - four days
Great fun, great food, great Wall.
I enjoyed Beijing. It was great getting to catch up with my friends (having somewhere to stay also made a heck of a difference!), and culture shock is a very interesting, and I would say effective, way to start a six month trip around the world. Culturally very different, crazy, and a little oppressive. Japanese tourists love me.
Highlights:
Live scorpions on a stick, arguing with a tuk tuk driver about a $40USD fare, discovering the Beijing branch of the Mediterranean Food Warehouse (from Newtown), the Great Wall of China and being followed by the paparazzi (I just want my privacy), eating a fish eye (even if by accident), not being able to see for the pollution.
Stockholm, Uppsala, Fiskebaksil, and Goteborg (Sweden) - Ten days
Ahhh Sweden - home of ABBA, meatballs, and many types of preserved fish.
The reason for my trip. Going to watch my good friends Rob and Emma tie the knot in a small fishing village in the south of Sweden showed me what it would be like to live in a postcard. If living in a postcard was the kind of thing you would want to do, or in fact could do. Met a few new people, but did not meet a Swedish wife. More's the shame.
Highlights:
Beautiful Stockholm, the palace, the Madonna concert that I didn't see, meeting ABBA (not the band though), the wedding, meeting Stockholmian improvisors, road trip across the country, Swedish natives, expensive everything that required me to eat at McDonald's and BK more than I wanted, taking a riverboat cruise, and $40 for a load of washing.
Copenhagen (Denmark) - Three Days
Even more expensive than Sweden, beautiful people, a mermaid and fairytales.
Killing time before my tour started, Copenhagen seemed like the perfect place to spend a few days before surrounding myself with Australians for two weeks. I met a couple of new people, stayed on a random (awesome) guy's couch, and lived on not much more than bread, cheese, McDonald's and BK. And beer.
Highlights:
Hearing a car crash and missing the last bus, a Little Mermaid, getting lost on arrival and walking three kilometres in the wrong direction with my backpack, beautiful buildings and architecture and stuff, Tipoli gardens and open sandwiches (seriously, that's their national dish... a sandwich without a top?), Carlsberg beer and elephants, the crown jewels and all kinds of sunny weather.
We had a Swedish exchange student stay with us when I was a kid. The idea of a sandwich *between two pieces of bread* was new to him. Oh, the cultural learnings.
ReplyDeleteBut you must have a met a Swedish wife!? Some woman you met must have been married to a Swede!? Ja? Nein?
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