I Am Lilac

Hotel in Frederikshavn, 9.18 am

Time whips by too quickly and suddenly you haven't heard about Prague or Copenhagen or how old everyone on my Scandinavian tour is! Fun times! Keep reading!

Back in the day, I was in Prague. Actually it's a week ago now, but of course it feels like a month. The afternoon I arrived I went to the main post office to offload another 3kgs back to the parentals. That was fun. First I needed a box, then I had to tie it up with string (apparently the Czech Rep. aren't quite into the 21st century and our love of sticky tape), then I had to fill in a declaration form that was in Czech and French. So with my three words of French I filled in as much as I could, followed by the post dude asking me things in Czech and me just replying yes. I may well have told him it contained a homemade bomb and some child porn, but he seemed okay about that anyway and took my money. I guess now I just have to wait and see if and when it turns up! The excitement! Mystery! Suspense!

Prague is beautiful, as beautiful as you think it will be. What I wasn't prepared for, was sharing such a beautiful city with everyone from Italy, Spain, France and Germany. Easter holidays had brought all the Europeans out and they were soaking up the sun all over Prague. I had to queue for half an hour to get into St Vitus' Cathedral in the middle of a pack of 15 year old Italian students. Fun times. 15 year olds are appalling in every language.

Prague Castle was great and the area down the hill around St Miklaus' was also pretty cool. The Charles Bridge is very pretty, but it was lined with art/jewellery stalls and jammed with tourists. The Old Town Square was incredibly pretty too, but the middle part was full of ye olden Prague market stalls selling Stuff and food and beer. On the plus side - yay beer and sausages! And trdlo! Which is the dough cooked on a stick and dipped in cinnamon and sugar that I missed out on trying in Budapest. Not bad at all! Sadly on the two days I was there the Jewish Museum and main synagogue were closed for Jewish holidays, which was a shame because I'd heard such great things about the museum and how moving it was. Instead I went to the Mucha Museum - wonderful! Such beautiful and illustrative work. Went a bit crazy in the gift shop. Stupid notepads!

I had been hoping to see, somewhere anywhere, some lilacs on this trip too. They're my favourite flower and I can only buy them (expensively) for one month a year in Australia. Seeing that I'm on The Continent in spring, I thought I should get a chance to see them for an extra month this year. Sadly, nowhere. Until I was waiting to take the tram to the train station to leave Prague, the tram stop that I'd been at twice a day for three days in a row, when I focussed on what was across the road. Lilacs! Bushes and bushes of them! In flower! Right there! On the side of the road like a weed! And from there until half way out to the airport I saw them EVERYWHERE. Clearly they're not a big deal and quite common in Prague, not as rare as in Australia. I guess I just couldn't see the lilacs for the lilacs!

It was raining when I left Prague, which suited me fine, cooler for suitcase schleppage, plus I was pretty excited about heading up to Scandinavia finally. It was one of the areas I was most excited about visiting, even when I arrived in Portugal I just wanted to skip forward to this part of my trip! So I left rainy Prague and arrived under an endless blue sky in Copenhagen. Stunning.

Made my way into the city and was walking through their central city area towards my hostel thinking 'Oh yeah, this is fantastic! I am going to LOVE this!'. And I did! The city is small and very walkable, the people are ALL attractive, they have little hot dog vans everywhere which are the bomb, there are more bicycles than people so it's all enviro-friendly, Nyhavn is the most picturesque thing I've ever seen and their ice cream is just divine. On the downside they are crazy drunks, but their English is so good they can carry on normal conversations or abuse while alcoholically impaired.

I met up with the two girls I met in Budapest, Arden and Linda, and we went out for a few drinks and shots of Fisk (aka mouthwash), then on Saturday Linda and I had Mexican for lunch (yay eating what I want instead of feeling like I should eat local specialties!), followed by ice creams and sunshine on the wharf at Nyhavn.

Then I headed back to my hotel to meet the other people on my tour. Out of 24 of us, 7 of us are under 35 and the rest are all over 50. Bit different to Contiki. For instance nobody has yet mentioned the best clubs to go to and we never get offered the cheaper places to eat, just the super pricey and super touristy ones. Never mind, Scandinavia is gorgeous and for two weeks I get driven around to everywhere I wanted to go anyway. Plus they literally take your bags from your room to the bus and then bring them to your room at the next hotel - hello lazy! Of course in two weeks I won't be able to lift my suitcase, but eh! Not to worry!

So today we leave Frederikshavn on a ferry, we drive through Gothenburg, then straight over to Oslo for the night. Saturday is Fjord Day, so please think of me enviously around 8pm Saturday night (Australian time) when I'll be out on the water, being amazed. Which reminds me, I HAVE to get my photos burnt off my memory card!