..you're only lost if you know where you're going..
Posts tagged safe
Backpacking in Amsterdam
Mar 29th
We leave Amsterdam after a decent 7 day stay. It has been everything we had expected and everything we hadn’t. In the same city, we have been out of our comfort zone, relaxed, exhausted and surprised.
We arrived by coach from Brussels and immediately made our way to the hostel, Hotel My Home. I can’t understand the differences between the name hostels and hotels anywhere in this world, but for the sake of this post it’s a hostel. Our dorm was probably the most average one we had stayed in so far, but everything was clean so it was fine.
To kick off our time in Amsterdam we walked down to Westerpark. Westerpark is a decent sized park on (as the name suggests) the western side of Amsterdam. On the walk we passed numerous coffeeshops, restaurants, bars, supermarkets and most importantly bike shops. As it turns out, I don’t think we could have stayed in a better location. It was central to just about everything.
The first part of our stay was spent fulfilling the almost mandatory objectives that a backpacker has in Amsterdam. On our first night we went to a coffeeshop, bought the things that you buy at a coffeeshop and then retired to our dorm. As you can imagine it was an early night for us and probably the best sleep I have ever had in a hostel. The second night we went on a pub crawl, and long story short the next day was even worse than my Warsaw hangover experience for the both of us. Later on in the week we visited the sex museum for a lot of laughs and a bit of a shock, followed by the red-light district to check out the girls, and a few men dressed up as girls. Hilarity ensued.
That was it – we had ticked everything off of the list aside from Anne Frank’s house. We thought about going, but to be honest it feels as though we are in Holocaust information overload right now.
Doing the usual backpacker thing was fun, but what made our stay better was seeing and doing as the locals. We visited Westerpark a few times, and yesterday we visited Vondelpark too. We would just walk for a bit, then sit down and watch the thousands of people ride past on bicycles, families playing on the grass, dogs playing until they fight eachother and then playing again, and all of the other things that happen when you take the time to sit and watch. It was relaxing, but it was interesting too.
During our time in central Amsterdam we were able to check out a few local bike stores as well. I love the utilitarian bikes they ride over here. Bikes are a sport for some, but they are a mode of transport to almost everyone. We also had the chance to visit a sauna called Sauna De Keiser, on the recommendation of a travel website aimed more at those looking for something different. It was different alright – it certainly took us out of our comfort zone, but it was a great experience and was actually really good for our skin after being outdoors in a winter that our bodies aren’t used to.
On the weekend, we moved to a hotel a bit further out from the city. It was more expensive than the hostel, but unfortunately we couldn’t find any rooms for the weekend at any other reputable hostels. It’s amazing how you are treated sometimes when you rock up at a hotel with a backpack, despite paying the same nightly rate as the guy that arrived in a Mercedes taxi. Our stay was ok – the bonus was that we had some more privacy, but it didn’t feel as homely as the hostel did, and we certainly weren’t as welcome. Who would have thought that we would both end up feeling more comfortable in an old hostel, as opposed to an almost brand new “dutch design hotel”.
It’s one of the many suprises that we had while in Amsterdam.
Jess and I are both fairly liberal people I suppose and maybe we view the city differently to many others. In the lead up to our trip many people talked up Amsterdam as if it was the sort of place you to go get laid, take drugs and go home. In a city where marijuana is decriminalized and prostitution is legal – it can just sound like a party town. While you could party here all year round, there is nothing stopping you from doing the same in at least half of the other cities we have visited.
While many people do head to Amsterdam to have some fun, we found it incredibly safe. The city is clean, the people appear healthy and the country as a whole appears to us as a very intelligent one. Apparently the sale of marijuana brings in $4 billion a year through tourism to Amsterdam, and I’d imagine a fairly reasonable amount from the prostitution too. Aside from the regular whiff of a tourist smoking a joint, this city is as normal as every other city. If anything, the major differences are in my eyes positive ones.
With all that said, it’s been a bit of a long 7 days and we are both happy to be moving on. Amsterdam leaves us with many memories, but it’s not a place we feel the need to return to any time soon. Not without a bike anyway!
Warsaw, Sochaczew and elsewhere in Poland
Feb 28th
We originally planned on visiting Poland to see our two friends, and nothing more. Anton, our friend from school was visiting his girlfriend Ola, who lives in Warsaw. Since he was there for a few months it was perfect for us to catch up with them on the other side of the world. Ola has visited us in Australia, so it was nice to see her in her home country too. We had no real plans of what we wanted to do and what we wanted to see, just that we wanted to see them.
Our visit to Poland was however, unintentionally relevant. The day before our train from Berlin to Warsaw we had visited the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, as Jess has mentioned in her post on Berlin. It had set us up to see just exactly what this meant for those affected by the war.
As our train slowly brought us into Poland and eventually Warsaw we realised that Poland wasn’t going to be a rich country. We arrived in Warszawa Centralna, the central train station, to the familiar face of our friend from Adelaide. We had a quick greeting then began walking to Ola’s apartment, a quick 10 minute walk down the road. As we began walking Anton explained to us how Warsaw was a combination of old and new. It is predominantly filled with old “Commie Blocks”, aka apartments built for the masses in the communist days, with some newer buildings dotted around the place, usually by the larger corporations and some newer apartments.
We arrived at Ola’s apartment, welcomed by Ola, a welcome banner on her door, and lunch. We had a bite to eat over a catch up, and then changed for the night ahead. I won’t bother telling too much in detail here – Anton and Ola had friends around to farewell Anton from Poland (he is leaving soon), and to meet us. We went through more than enough vodka at their place, and then left for the local pub for more booze. Long story short the next day was one of the worst and best days of my life.
We woke around 8am, in a rush for the train. What train? Honestly I had no idea. I had an agonising headache, but had no time to think about it. We put our clothes on from the night before (and smoking is legal in pubs here, so that didn’t help the hangover situation) and began our power walk to Centralna. We were heading to Sochaczew, the town in which Ola’s parents live, for a feast. Excellent – I needed food.
Jess and I bought our tickets, and as Ola was buying tickets for herself and Anton, the train arrived. We ran for the train, and Ola followed. Anton was hanging out of the door to keep the train stationary, however it just left. Ola was left at the platform! Some cursing in Polish and a few phone calls from Anton to Ola and her father, and we found out what was happening. Ola was on the next train and had a refund for the tickets, and the Police were waiting for our train at Sochaczew. Long story short, Ola’s father has a bit of power with the authorities and he isn’t afraid to use it. The hilarity of the situation perked me up a fair bit too which was great.
We went back to Ola’s parents’ place, and met her mother and auntie; before long Ola had arrived too. Ola’s father offered to take us to a town nearby that had a thermal pool where the water is heated naturally. We spent around an hour or so there, just relaxing in the water, and occasionally running out to roll around in the snow. Yep, true story, we were in bathers, on the snow. It sounds bad but realistically it was maybe a few minutes of freezing cold and then you’re back in the perfectly warm pool again.
We returned to Sochaczew to find the biggest feast we have ever had waiting for us. It was around 3 or 4pm by this stage and we were given soup (served in bread), ribs, chicken cutlets, potatoes, salads and more. And cakes of course. Thinking this was it we settled down on the sofa to watch some Winter Olympics. About two hours later we found us eating dinner. More vodka, more beer, more soup, pierogi, and so much other food. We were all so full, and extremely satisfied.
It was so nice to be able to stay in a home again. We only spent a few days at Ola’s parents place, however that time was some of the best in the trip. You stay in a hotel, a hostel, and even Ola’s apartment, and you get the impression that while people may live there, they don’t consider it home. It’s a place to stay while they achieve something. We thank Ola’s family very much for making us feel so welcome. They both really went above and beyond for two complete strangers – it was so generous.
Throughout the rest of our time in Poland we stayed predominantly in Warsaw. Anton toured us around a fair bit during the day (including taking us to the Warsaw Uprising Museum which was excellent), and then any other time she could spare we would spend with Ola. One night we walked through a much more “classy” looking part of Warsaw and had some chocolate at E.Wedel’s, and another night we grabbed some Chinese and feasted upon it back at the apartment.
We were lucky enough to be toured through Old Town by one of Ola’s friends and gain some solid local knowledge on the area and how it has been rebuilt. While many countries may take these “historic” areas for granted, Warsaw clearly does not. The majority of these buildings were destroyed by the Germans during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. As a result, in order to have this area live on, they have all been rebuilt, often funded by local families and small businesses.
There is so much I could talk about, but for fear of dragging on I will leave it at this. Poland itself is a very interesting place. The history is not too far in the past, and you can see it all around you as you catch a train, drive along a highway, or walk along a street.
To Anton and Ola, thanks for taking care of us and guiding us around. Thanks for the food, thanks for the local knowledge, thanks for the accommodation, and thanks for the comfort. It was nice to be able to let our guards down for a few days and know that we were safe in your hands.
Lost in Stockholm
Feb 10th
We landed in Sweden last night at 10:50pm after an hour and a half bus ride and around two hours on a plane. After we landed there was to be another bus ride to Stockholm. (Read: Ryanair may be cheap but there are hassles involved).
As we were landing there was a lot of cloud to fly through, so I pretty much gave up on looking through the window and just waited to land. You know how you can hear the engines changing speed and the wind resistance on the plane before it lands? I was sure we must be landing soon, but with every quick glance I made through the window I saw the same thing – clouds.
Then I realised. The last glance wasn’t clouds! We were close to the ground, and that was snow! Snow like I’ve never seen it before! Houses were covered (literally) with snow – on the roof and banked up against the walls.
We landed at a little airport in a town called Nyköping, around 100km South-West of Stockholm. It was an interesting landing.. Safe I’m sure, but certainly more “urgent” than usual. While the ensuing bus ride seemed like a major inconvenience, it gave us time to see the suburbs and outer Stockholm. Well, I saw the lot, in typical Jess style she saw some in between naps. I wish I could sleep like her!
Although it was dark at the time, the forests looked amazing – pure white snow on the ground and on the branches. It is the sort of thing you see on a postcard or (for us computer addicts) a “nature” screensaver.
We arrived at the Stockholm Cityterminalen bus station at 12:50am. Our hostel was only around 1km away, so we had made the decision earlier to walk. I’d studied the map multiple times so I was sure where to go. Of course I didn’t count on the names on the signs being different.
We shuffled around in the snow up and back down the same road. Jess was freezing despite wearing her snowboarding jacket, beanie and gloves. Did I mention it was minus 8 degrees?
Standing at an intersection I saw the toughest family sedan around – an Audi RS6. It sounded so awesome even just taking off slowly. While I was bouncing off the walls on the inside, on the outside I was trying not to look interested at all so Jess knew I was using 100% of my attention to get us to the hostel. Seriously though, this is what I was hoping to see in Stockholm (rare European cars), and since then I’ve spotted an RS6 Avant too (the wagon version).
Another blank stare at the map and a “stuff it let’s just walk this way” and I got my bearings. We were on the right track and Jess was able to enjoy herself again.
I have to say – being lost at 1am in a freezing cold city with a backpack on looking like a completely vulnerable tourist you’d think you would be scared, but I really felt very safe for the both of us.
We walked across the bridge that was meant to be crossing a river but there was no river. For a few seconds we thought we were lost again, only to realise that it was a river, just a little more frozen than those back home in Australia.
We buzzed in, dumped out backpacks, quietly sorted our beds and had a drink. After a slow few days in Paris, I think the adventure has began for the both of us again, certainly for me anyway.
Today we took it easy, and actually did a bit of shopping. I bought a jacket that is perfect for “casual wear/fricken cold”, and Jess found a pair of jeans that will hopefully alleviate the “I’m sick of wearing the same damn clothes” feeling that she is having.
We have met a nice fellow from Finland, who has just found work in Stockholm. He’s staying at the hostel until he sorts out permanent accommodation. As it turns out, his mate is living in Whistler as a mountain bike tour guide. I thought it was just Adelaide that is this small?
Anyway, that will do for now. Adjö´ så lä´nge!
