Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Playing catch-up again
I had all but forgotten about this blog when one of my new and close friends stumbled across it while stalking me. A wave of nostalgia and regret swept over me and I have decided to revisit it the best I can. I fear the enormity of this task may put me off but there is no harm in trying. Stay tuned for the concluding chapters of my European road trip. Next stop? Skåne.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Jeg snakke ikke Norsk
As I made my way towards the boarder I made my way to the last petrol station - Norway is notoriously expensive compared to Sweden and I wanted to make sure POH had a full belly before I ventured into the expensive unknown. Thus far I had been making my way around with the google maps/gps set-up on my phone and it had been working out fantastically- just punch in where you want to go and it takes care of the rest: right down to the best route.
Unfortunately my Swedish pre-paid plan doesn´t include international data so upon crossing the boarder my eyes on the road were cut off. The GPS was still working but the data to fuel the maps was gone. I was a blue arrow trying to follow a blue line in a sea of grey. Things looked grim. I can´t really explain how it happened but by some GPS magic I managed to find my way to Hilda´s place reasonably directly- albeit to my great surprise. Hilda shares a small one room apartment (and bed) with her friend. What a cosy set up we had! They work opposite hours so it wasn´t too bad - not too much overcrowding.
Oslo was pretty low-key, nice and chill, good weather but not much of note. I caught up with Hilda and Juan and was home and asleep by 1. The next day I fired up POH and eventually made my way to the Ski Museum. Pretty impressive place with the ski jump, museum and simulator.
Got myself a book and parked it, dozed off after a while and got some mild sunburn happening. Not exactly what you think and Australian will experience in Norway but hey, I am special.
Unfortunately my Swedish pre-paid plan doesn´t include international data so upon crossing the boarder my eyes on the road were cut off. The GPS was still working but the data to fuel the maps was gone. I was a blue arrow trying to follow a blue line in a sea of grey. Things looked grim. I can´t really explain how it happened but by some GPS magic I managed to find my way to Hilda´s place reasonably directly- albeit to my great surprise. Hilda shares a small one room apartment (and bed) with her friend. What a cosy set up we had! They work opposite hours so it wasn´t too bad - not too much overcrowding.
Oslo was pretty low-key, nice and chill, good weather but not much of note. I caught up with Hilda and Juan and was home and asleep by 1. The next day I fired up POH and eventually made my way to the Ski Museum. Pretty impressive place with the ski jump, museum and simulator.Got myself a book and parked it, dozed off after a while and got some mild sunburn happening. Not exactly what you think and Australian will experience in Norway but hey, I am special.
Headed West
Naturally my time in Stockholm had to come to an end with some crazy partying and that´s exactly what I did. Joel and I hit a two day bender out in the city: we tried our best to get some segways rented for the day but we had no luck - "advanced bookings essential" - that doesn´t really suit my style of travel.. Instead we did a very Swedish thing with the excellent weather in mind and fired up the engångsgrill (disposable bbq) and hit the park in Hörnstull. It was a perfect day really. It didn´t feel like Sweden at all, especially not in May! The weather was up around 22degrees in the sun. 
Unfortunately drinking in the sun all day didn´t exactly give me loads of energy for pulling an all-nighter. But with a little help from my friends - particularly from Val, I actually made it out until after 3am! Without her smooth moves I wouldn´t have gotten in anywhere at 1am out in Stockholm - to be honest they really shouldn´t have let me in at Berns ;) I am very fortunate to have such good friends in Stockholm really. Joel and Catha always take good care of me, go out and have a great time and are generally there for me. Val is always so in touch with what´s going on in my life, often even more than I myself am! All the while looking out for my best interests. Last but not least (except in height of course) is Nataly: so generous in opening up her home to me and making me feel welcome (despite her heavy social calendar commitments). Time to cross my first border...
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Stockholm Scare
The rest of my time in Stockholm is easily skipped over blogg-wise. I went out partying a total of three times in a week, I hit the gym, grilled in the park, got some colour, met up with some friends and did plenty of relaxing, communicating and planning. I have been to that city so many times now I can probably skip over the intricasies.. One moment of note was a little scare with the POH. One day I decided to head out and check out a local gym and get moving a little bit. Hours and hours of driving ahead made me a little concerned about my back etc. I got my stuff together and headed down to the car. I jumped in and buckled up, turned the key and... nothing. Not a peep.
Shit! No problem, no problem. It´s probably just a dead battery. Easily fixed. I could just go upstairs and get some help from Catha- roll start the car down the hill and drive her for a while to get the battery going once again. No Worries.
So we set out about our business - nothing - the end result was far worse. The car was stuck at the bottom of a hill and illegally parked. Awesome. The next two hours were spent trying to make calls and figure out what the Swedish equivalent of the RAC was. This proved much more difficult than expected... But eventually I got Assistancekåren out for much more than I expected but just as predicted- a quick jolt and the battery was fine again- time to invest in jumper cables for the rest of the trip I think?
Shit! No problem, no problem. It´s probably just a dead battery. Easily fixed. I could just go upstairs and get some help from Catha- roll start the car down the hill and drive her for a while to get the battery going once again. No Worries.
So we set out about our business - nothing - the end result was far worse. The car was stuck at the bottom of a hill and illegally parked. Awesome. The next two hours were spent trying to make calls and figure out what the Swedish equivalent of the RAC was. This proved much more difficult than expected... But eventually I got Assistancekåren out for much more than I expected but just as predicted- a quick jolt and the battery was fine again- time to invest in jumper cables for the rest of the trip I think?
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Setting Out
Knowing that it would be a time-consuming process and that there would be plenty of partying going on in the final days of the season - I set about packing and cleaning early for once. A good five days before departure as opposed to my usual 5 hours. For the first time in as long as I can remember everything went smoothly. This is clearly a result of pure conincidence and I allow no connection to advance preparation.
Nalle Poh has been treating me well since I got him. A few misfires here and there and some strange behaviour at low-speeds, but nothing serious. My first real scare came the other week when I lent the little guy to a friend to drive to Östersund to go shopping. I got a phonecall just 30mins into the drive about the oil alarm going off. Shit shit shit, that´s it. All that money down the drain, the car, insurance, expensive petrol... all of it for nothing... After some time the light stopped blinking and checking that there was oil all seemed well. There was no way I could get the car in for a service as they were massively overbooked so I would just have to hope for the best and drive on. Besides, what´s the worst that can happen with a very old car driving 3,500km through various foreign countries while its oil light is beeping and flashing randomly. Well at least the battery is doing ok.
Emil was driving down at the same time and despite the fact that he left about a half hour after me he called from a few miles down the road as I was passing Gävle. We decided to meet up at a place called Dragon Gate an hour or so north of Stockholm. Emil stopped there for the Chinese buffé but the place it self was amazing. It´s like this giant Chinese temple in the middle of nowhere. A huge restaurant, a ginormous courtyard and a spectaular museum - complete with a complete replica of the terracotta army in China. A very surreal and bizarre place.
As I pulled in to Täby to meet up with Joel and Catha they had already fired up the barbeque for the Swedish day of Valborg (1st of May in Sweden, big outdoor party day here). It was good catching up and meeting some of their friends and just shooting the breeze. Eventually we headed inside to eat and have a few more beers and before we knew it the night had divulged into beerpong and music: always a good recipe for some laughs and a good time. For those of you who know me? (I swear this was Joel´s idea all the way.) After a couple of quiet rounds of beerpong we were getting on our way and starting to get in the mood for a Saturday night out. Suddenly we realised that we were low on beer and hadn´t nearly gotten the beerpong out of our system. And so Deathpong was born. A combination of all kinds of spirits, mixers, beer, wine: (essentially anything we could find in the cupboard) - complete with a penalty shot on the side - it was a dangerous combination that led to a very hazy night. Precisely why I can´t really tell very many details here. Yes, I was back in Stockholm and had finally set out on my roadtrip...
Nalle Poh has been treating me well since I got him. A few misfires here and there and some strange behaviour at low-speeds, but nothing serious. My first real scare came the other week when I lent the little guy to a friend to drive to Östersund to go shopping. I got a phonecall just 30mins into the drive about the oil alarm going off. Shit shit shit, that´s it. All that money down the drain, the car, insurance, expensive petrol... all of it for nothing... After some time the light stopped blinking and checking that there was oil all seemed well. There was no way I could get the car in for a service as they were massively overbooked so I would just have to hope for the best and drive on. Besides, what´s the worst that can happen with a very old car driving 3,500km through various foreign countries while its oil light is beeping and flashing randomly. Well at least the battery is doing ok.Emil was driving down at the same time and despite the fact that he left about a half hour after me he called from a few miles down the road as I was passing Gävle. We decided to meet up at a place called Dragon Gate an hour or so north of Stockholm. Emil stopped there for the Chinese buffé but the place it self was amazing. It´s like this giant Chinese temple in the middle of nowhere. A huge restaurant, a ginormous courtyard and a spectaular museum - complete with a complete replica of the terracotta army in China. A very surreal and bizarre place.
As I pulled in to Täby to meet up with Joel and Catha they had already fired up the barbeque for the Swedish day of Valborg (1st of May in Sweden, big outdoor party day here). It was good catching up and meeting some of their friends and just shooting the breeze. Eventually we headed inside to eat and have a few more beers and before we knew it the night had divulged into beerpong and music: always a good recipe for some laughs and a good time. For those of you who know me? (I swear this was Joel´s idea all the way.) After a couple of quiet rounds of beerpong we were getting on our way and starting to get in the mood for a Saturday night out. Suddenly we realised that we were low on beer and hadn´t nearly gotten the beerpong out of our system. And so Deathpong was born. A combination of all kinds of spirits, mixers, beer, wine: (essentially anything we could find in the cupboard) - complete with a penalty shot on the side - it was a dangerous combination that led to a very hazy night. Precisely why I can´t really tell very many details here. Yes, I was back in Stockholm and had finally set out on my roadtrip...
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