Arrived Denmark!!

Hi everyone,

Again some Maxwell news to start the blog today. Read the press conference which was quite sad, but just glad I got to watch such an amazing captain, person and player play during my lifetime. Glad that Mum and I will be there if he does a lap around the G. 

So we got up at 2.05am today (yuuuuck!) but I must have been in a light stage of sleep because I didn't feel too bad upon waking. So we got dressed, packed up and said 'bye to dad who is now on a plane home to Melbourne. We argued a bit while he was here but it was great having you here dad and we hope you have/had a safe flight home! Love you. 

Mum and I walked to the bus station which normally would've been about 20 minutes away, but due to access to it usually being through the Galleria Krakowska shopping mall which doesn't open until 6am and our bus being at 3.08am, we had to detour around an upstairs carpark. Our walk took about 30 minutes and we avoided all the homeless people in the park!

Got there in the end and caught the bus. The journey took about 40 minutes and was a lovely cool temperature. Should have just done circuits on the bus and slept in there haha!! We arrived at Pope John Paul II airport and had to wait about half an hour before check in. Checked in and boarded no worries. 

Now today has been a bit of a crazy day! All up today we have been in four countries, and travelled on 1 public bus, 2 planes, 1 airport bus, 1 taxi, 1 boat and 1 train. I was a little concerned we would miss connecting transportation but we pulled it off perfectly!! But a hectic day nonetheless. 

So our first flight was to Berlin with Air Berlin. We were in a really small plane which was on time and the flight was pretty uneventful and about 1.5 hours total!

We then landed at Berlin Tegel airport. This is the first airport I landed at in Europe on my first adventure in 2010. As we descended, I couldn't help but reflect on how much has changed since then, and how much I've changed for that matter! At the end of 2010 I was a terrified 18 year old flying solo in terrible weather. I was so nervous I had just about made myself sick at Melbourne airport, and my nerves weren't helped by the fact that the journey should've taken 30 hours but took 42 due to storms and ice rain. I nearly lost my luggage and my phone died and I completely freaked out! I'd like to think I'm much better at travelling and handling stressful situations now. As well as that I had just finished year 12, received my results and was unsure/worried about Uni and placement, and now here I am nearly a teacher smashing Uni! But one thing hasn't changed - my passion for travel. It's still as strong as ever and I'm so happy to still have another ten days of this adventure left to tell you all about!!

We boarded our plane in Berlin to Gothenburg (Göteborg), Sweden. It was so nice to - briefly - be able to understand announcements and signs on our short stopover. I love practicing my German and I wish is hadn't dropped it in VCE!!

Our flight was again on time and our luggage met us no probs in Sweden. We were then faced with a dilemma. It was 10.30am and we had to be checked in for our ferry by 11.30am or we wouldn't be allowed on. Our dilemma: pay 500 Swedish krone/$100 for a taxi and ensure we arrive on time, or opt for "cheap" (it's Sweden, nothing is cheap!) public transport and risk missing the ferry. We opted for a hybrid solution. We caught the airport bus that left virtually as we boarded and cost "only" $20 each, then caught a taxi for $30 from the station to the ferry terminal. This way we saved some money but made our check in time by 15 minutes - hooray!!

We queued up for our Stena Line ferry to Frederikshavn, Denmark as the passengers from the reverse trip exited the boat. Boy there are a lot of blonde people here with piercing blue eyes! I feel like the odd one out haha. Mum half fits in with her eyes!

The ferry ride was good with some pretty views. Nabbed ourselves a couch and had a prawn bagel for lunch ($14 each - had not missed these expensive countries. Bring back Polish złoty please! Haha). 

We got to Frederikshavn and then made our way to the station to catch the half hour train to Skagen, our final destination! The weather was stunning, sunny and blue skies.

The train was modern and ran on time, can't believe how easily we made our connections today! We arrived in Skagen and our hotel/apartment was a short 200m walk from the station. We checked in and the man on reception was so lovely and kind. Told us where everything was!

We set off for Grenen which is the tip of Denmark! Two seas meet here and form a narrow sandbar and the waves crash together. We followed the advice of the hotel reception man and walked along the beach. It was so beautiful! The whole town is. It's a quaint little beachside town with cute little coloured houses, constant sounds of seagulls and waves crashing and beautiful pedestrian streets. Before we walked along the beach we went to the pedestrian area and bought a magnet and our first Danish ice cream as we had no idea what time we would be back and thought they may close later. Back to the beach! It was quite pebbly and windy but we had a lovely walk nonetheless. We came across a cute little holiday house and some bunkers from WWII that are now abandoned and quite badly graffitied. Next I noticed some seagulls but they looked different to the ones at home. I saw them nosediving into the water and mum wouldn't believe me! They just dived face first into the water to get fish. So I made her stand there until she saw - strangest thing!! 

Next we came across a lighthouse which we checked out and then continued walking to Grenen. We caught the Sandormen (sandworm tractor) to the tip and splashed around for a little bit. It was FREEZING! Not as cold as the polar plunge but pretty fresh!! So we got the next tractor back (so glad we invested in that, by this stage it was very windy) and then walked all the way back along the main road. Then we had a little walk around a lookout. We thought we could see some seals but they turned out to be birds - bugger!

Tonight we had dinner at an Italian place because it was the only menu we could read! Everything here is in Danish as typically westerners don't come here for holidays, just Danish people! The food was relatively cheap too so it worked out well! But you can't go wrong with 'carbonara'. 

Tmro morning we leave on a train for Aarlborg. In our short time in Skagen I have fallen in love with it and feel so at home. Maybe a part of my subconscious knows that some of my blood (great great grandpa) is from Denmark so wants me to stay!! 

One last thing. My tour leader, Dave has compiled a 7 minute video montage of our Topdeck trip which can be viewed by clicking the following link:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KUESDCKpm9w

Nan and Pa - unsure if you have the right software to play it but just click it and if it doesn't work I'll show you once home. I feature in the middle as I wasn't on the start or end of the 37 day trip. Around 3 minutes you'll see me getting some lunch, then running into the icy waters. A bit later I'm playing thumpers in my grey beanie, and right towards the end I'm posing for what I thought was a photo at a nightclub but turned out to be Dave filming!!! The trip was amazing and Dave has captured it perfectly. Enjoy!

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to sleep in a proper bed for the first time in 2-3 weeks after just 2-3 hours sleep last night - I'm a bit excited for sleep!!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox