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| December 2000 When most people enjoy their life at home near the heater, having hot chocolate and looking at their Christmas tree lights, I am packing my backpack and thinking about what to leave and what to take. My 70 liters backpack is stocked up with warm clothes and emergency food. I had to reschedule my whole trip thanks to a possible train strike in Holland so I have to travel around 300 km extra. I am one of those desperados who take the train to get where he wants to go. My destination is Finland, high in the north and I decided to travel the old fashioned way through Denmark and Sweden. Indeed, a terribly long trip. Each time I look back I am always wondering how I manage it. Holland and Germany travel fast. The only negative point was the peak hour in Duisburg (Germany), where, my backpack and I were not really welcome in a full local train but I can speak German in bad language as well... During my train ride to Hamburg I met a German woman coming back from a business trip in a romantic area of the Elzas (near Strasbourg). She and her business partner were stuck in thePanorama Hotel upon a hill , where the kitchen closed at 20.00 and the only thing they could get was cold pizza. I am not sure why I remember her that well, but she was very talkative which is not usual in German trains in the evening. In Hamburg I only stayed one night and then took off with the morning train to Copenhagen. I am not an early- bird except during holidays as some of you might know. My train left at 07.25 in the morning and again I was there at the peak hour and found myself in the midst of all the scents of perfume varieties you can imagine. With all respect I don't like Denmark, it is just like Holland only flatter, slightly larger but a smaller population. Snow lay along the railway and at the station in Copenhagen it looked like a million people were crammed together on one square kilometer. Apart from that, I had to rush to catch my Swedish High-Speed train to Stockholm. Finally I was on a train where tall people have enough legroom. My seat is big and spacious and they have this little radio-connection in the chairs, which allows me to practice my Swedish skills. (tack, tack). A heavy blizzard near Lund turned the world outside into a white fairy landscape where red and brown houses make nice color dots between white hills. When I arrive in Stockholm there is no snow, only bad weather and rain (indeed just like Holland). My second evening abroad I rest my head in a comfortable bed on my Silja Line ship to Turku (SF). What do you do on a night cruise line? Took a sauna of course which was way to hot but the Finnish people seem to like that, I almost fainted. One benefit is the good night sleep you get especially when you have to wake up at 06.45 with only 15 minutes to depart the ship. Turku was not that cold (-8) and most people were walking around with big hangovers so they hardly noticed the weather. Click on NEXT for the second part of my FINLAND Trip! |
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| Rob Mystery Diaries Part III |
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