Monday, May 24, 2004

"Somewhere beyond the sea"

Topic of today: Travels
As in going to a foreign country, not taking the bus to the neighbouring town (and Denmark doesn't count, because it's practically next door). I've tried to keep it fairly short, to spare the people who read this, hehe. (Believe me, I could've gone on for much longer than I have *swoons*)


Iceland – April 1997 (Hehe, I've raved about this before, so forgive any repetition.)

It was with my class of 9 years and the reason we went to Iceland was because our homeroom teacher suggested it (he taught in Biology and Chemistry, go figure) and since we said it was a cool idea, he immediately decided that that's where we would go. *blinks* We protested at first, because it seemed that it'd be a trip that consisted of Bio/Chem lessons, that only he would enjoy. (We were more interested in having a good time and end our school years on a positive note.) After a short and pointless debate, it was agreed that going to Iceland didn't sound too bad.

Our teacher also took it upon himself to contact a class that we'd pen-pal with and then visit once we got there, which was kind of cool. My pen-pal was a guy by the name Jóhan… I actually wrote to two or three people, because there were so many in their class and so few in ours, but Jóhan responded quickest and was generally more interesting than the others :p

Meeting up with everyone the first time was incredibly embarrassing. You see, the teacher had printed up t-shirts that we had to exchange with our pen-pals, so we got into this classroom and everyone sat in a huge circle. When our names were called we had to walk up into the middle of the circle, shake hands with them and hand over the t-shirt, while everyone else stared.
Some of the girls noted that one guy looked yummy, so when his name was called and my fellow classmate walked up, I couldn't resist muttering "Lucky" loud enough for most of the crowd to hear. That spawned quite a few giggles and gasps *grins* Hey, it took some of the edge off :D

Unfortunately they were in the middle of their exams and we didn't get to hang out that much with them. My pen-pal often took the way past our hostel though, getting lots of banging on the windows and cheerful waves from my room. Hehehe ^___^
On the last night he, and two other guys from his class, came over and stayed until we had to get ready for our flight. There was lots of hugging going on and pictures taken before they left, heh.

To cut this short, the nature was mind blowing and I had a fairly good time with my class. I'd love to go back someday ^_^


London – May 1997, February 2001

My first visit to London was with the local youth centre. (They arranged trips each year and you did odd jobs to earn your travelling ticket.) Instead of flying, we went by bus through a couple of the European countries, spending a day and night in Holland (checking out the flowers, walking on a pier and getting wet in a 'water park'. I skipped the latter.)

The hotel we stayed at in London was budget level (and that's being nice about it).
I think it was called 'Europa Hotel', or something to that effect. The elevator was malfunctioning and our rooms were on the 5th floor.... Boy did I get lots of exercise *_*
Oh, and our rooms were freeeezing cold at night, the shower/toilet room stank of… odour… and breakfast was … not fulfilling. But other than that is was an ok place to spend the nights, haha.

Most of the things we did were touristy, like going to London Dungeon (eeee, creepy place *shudders*), Harrods and swinging by all the photographical buildings (ie Buck Palace, Big Ben, etc).
The times I spent alone (three of my friends went along, but they kept occasionally ditching and paying little attention to me) were the best parts of the trip. It was really nice to stroll around the city and observe people, explore shops and just being there.


Going back a few years later, with my oldest sister, was a lot more fun. Actually getting there and back again was really tiring, because we went about it somewhat backwards. I won't go into that, since it gives me a headache just thinking about it ^_^;;;
It rained heavily upon the arrival and we didn't quite know where the hotel was, so a lot of our packing got kind of soaked. After asking for directions we made it to the hotel and agreed that it was pretty comfortable. Not to mention close to the tube – Victoria Station a mere 5 minute walk away.

A main reason for our visit (other than having fun) was that my sister planned to study translation at a school outside of London. So we thought it'd be a good idea to go there and meet up with the teachers she'd have, as well as checking the grounds out. The buildings themselves were dull and uninspiring, but they were surrounded by lots of greenery, which made it feel a bit more welcoming.
Back in the city, we ran into an old friend of my other sister and she played guide for us on the last 2 days.

It'll be good to go there again with my older sister and I'm sure we'll enjoy ourselves ^_^


Vienna – June 2002

I had made some friends on a message board and went over a weekend to hang out with them. That probably sounds really crazy, but we had known each other for a good couple of months (close to a year), everyone's parents were notified and cool with it. One of the girls let me bunk on the sofa in her apartment, which was really nice (and it cut down on the hotel cost *cough*).

They took me around parts of the city and it was a mix of old and new. Really cool. We stopped by this church that still had cannonballs stuck in the walls, from the war. Can't remember the name of it though…

The last day was spent in an amusement park of sorts, it was called something that I can't remember (of course). We went on a couple of rides and then headed to a girls house and relaxed, watching tv.

I also bought some proper chocolate to my mom, from a store that delivered to the Royal Family ~_^

Another thing I did was going to a forest that overlooked the city. The view was spectacular and it was really windy that day, making the trees rustle, sending shivers all over my body. It was so beautiful up there *sighs*

All in all, it was a great (albeit short) experience and I had plenty of fun ^__^


Those are my travelling memoirs so far, but I expect to expand on them.
Mimmi – coming to a town near you :p

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