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It’s been a while since we have really taken advantage of living in this cultural hub but now we are getting into a stream of events again and hopefully I’ll get around to blog about them.
This weekend started off with a visit to a black box. Not just any box however it was Miroslaw Balka’s Box of Darkness at Tate Modern. A huge steel box that as you entered it completely covered you in darkness. It is 30 meters deep and as you walk in you can’t see anything – until you hit the back wall. A quite eerie sensation produced by simple means.
Last night we went to a sold out Pit at the Barbican to see Ursula Martinez. If that name doesn’t ring a bell you might remember the video of her doing a magic striptease trick that made it’s rounds on the interweb around 2006. She never intended for her act to be film but it did and eventually ended up online which caused a torrent of attention and fan mail.
Now she has turned this unsought celebrity status into a new show called My Stories, Your Emails which we saw last night and it was hilarious. First part was her telling embarrassing and funny stories from her life unrelated to the video. Then she showed the infamous clip and second part was her reading emails she received as response to the video. She did this while showing pictures sent along by the emailers and she impersonated the different accents of the people who have written her. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and so did Ann and who knows when I can watch striptease with her again without complaints ;)
We didn’t really know anything about the show before we went but it has been interesting to read up on the reviews and criticism of the ethics – or lack thereof of the show.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2010/02/14/ursula-martinez-stories-and-emails/
The view of Brent Reservoir. At one end of the reservoir the Welsh Harp Conservation Group has established a hide from where there is a great view to varied wildlife.
Related posts:My parents visit London – and us
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2009/10/06/view-from-the-bird-watchers-hide/
Tuesday I arrived in Malta for the first time in nearly a year. It’s great to see Ann again, good to be back and everything looks so familiar yet still different from what I am used to. Wednesday we started out at Paula, a friend of Ann, who gave us both snazzy haircuts
Since I met Ann I’ve been following a couple of Maltese bloggers. Two of them we met last night for dinner and had a great time. Meeting other bloggers is always fun as it feels like you know a person even if you have never met. We had a nice evening at with La Delirante and Red a Salvadorian/Maltese couple. It was great to meet them and time flew as we had dinner.
Related posts:Spring SensationMetablogging - Copenhagen bloggerdinner
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2009/04/09/im-in-malta/
Sunday morning at 5.45am my alarm went off. Obama was in town and I wanted to go see him so that’s what I had to do. I went through the city as the sun was getting up - not something I do a lot. Here is the sun rising over St. Vitus Cathedral in the middle of Prague castle.
I got closer and ended up in this street where I could not see the beginning of the line. But for some reason there was a sign that said Walk Through and Food and I wanted to do both so I did - and avoided the line
In the area I met up with Christoph and Sue and we stood around waited from about 7.30 till Obama went on stage sometime around 10.30. It can be tiring waiting for so long.
I ran into Karen from the Empty Nest Expat blog which I seem to do quite often. It was fun catching up with her and someone at BBC had read her Open Letter to Obama and wanted to interview if it could be organized. I haven’t heard if they managed to interview her, but keep an eye on her blog. She also wrote a very nice piece on the Czech Democracy.
Obama finally showed up and the crowd was roaring. We stood on the grass quite far back and could not see Obama very well but there was a screen in front of us so we saw most of the action on that. Not as fun as seeing the real thing but still very cool.
Obama talked about US leading the world into getting rid of nuclear weapons as well as the historic significance of Prague, the Czech people and the peculiar situation of him, a black American president standing in a city that was under a communist regime just a few decades ago.
Glee with the help of a friend got into the VIP area so she ended up within good sight of Obama and the rest of the shananingans. She kindly let me borrow the shot above so you can see the guy who it was all about.
Pavel and Helge has collected a number of resources and news reports about the event, from before, during and after.
I’m sitting in Germany as I’m writing this as tomorrow morning I’m off for two weeks to Malta with Ann
Related posts:Expat blog of the monthLiving as a Dane in Czech RepublicDanish bloggers in Prague
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2009/04/06/obama-in-prague/
Last weekend started off great with a dinner Friday night at one of my favourite eating places when we lived in Prague 6. Tandoor is a small restaurant at the bottom of a small alley almost hidden if you don’t know of it’s existence. The interior is quite modest but the food is great and reasonably priced. There were seven of us there and some could not get it hot enough.
At the next table over I heard the people speaking Danish and I’m always a bit giddy when I hear Danish in Prague. It’s not that often I get to talk Danish and it’s nice and homey to hear it. This time I got the idea that one of them was a blogger I had read before so I went over and said Hi and it turned out that it actually was Nicolai from auramin.com. He’s been in Prague for almost two years but it’s only been about 4 month’s since I discovered his blog. He always has some great pictures of the food he makes or eats and it was cool to meet him.
After the meal Kathleen, Carljan and I decided to take a night walk across town through some of the prettiest parts of town in the cover of darkness with many of the streets abandoned of people. I forgot to take any pictures tho.
Saturday I spent with Hermann geeking around trying to rescue the lost blog posts. More about that in a later post but things look bright.
Sunday I was up early and then I went with a bunch of friends to the hills in Herlikovice . I haven’t really taken full advantage of having mountains 120 km from Prague but at least I got my second time in snow this weekend. Many of the others were on snowboard so I decided to give it a try and I really liked it.
I got some hard falls and sometimes the board was running way faster than I wanted it to, but controlling it wasn’t that different from skiing so I made some good progress. I never figured out how to make a a turn with the board facing downhill tho.
On the way home we stopped in a small village with a quaint square for a well deserved dinner
Related posts:Ski trip to Spindleruv MlynDanish bloggers in PragueA weekend in London
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2009/03/19/my-first-time-on-snowboard/
While central Europe is still struggling to shed the winter I went to Cambridge to meet Ann. Cambridge is a 50 minutes busride from Stansted airport so we had decided on Cambridge for our weekend together instead of London. It was really great to spend time with Ann again, last time we saw each other was in Denmark for the Christmas holiday. It is the first time we are vacationing together in a place which none of us knew beforehand so we had a good time exploring together.
The atmosphere of Cambridge reminded me a lot about that of Ann Arbor, Michigan where I lived back in 2005/2006. They are about the same size and the university has a very prominent role in the cities. Both places are very green, there is many university students and interesting cafes, restaurants and museums. Both have a size big enough for life but small enough that a bike ride will take you anywhere in less than 20 minutes or less.
Cambridge University includes a number of old and distinguished colleges which in the Oxford and Cambridge meaning of the word is independent institutions within the university where students live, eat and socialize. Below is the Chapel of King&photo_secret=9bfbf5911e&photo_id=3312330368&flickr_show_info_box=true" height="375" width="500">
Later on the parade made it down to the town hall and the party got an extra lift from the free beers and food that plenty of teenagers and hobos also seemed to enjoy. Here is a cheeky Czech guy who offers Femi a drink of vodka and then later asks him for money:
Because of the cold weather (sigh!) we only stayed for one beer and by then we had seen a lot of the gimmicks. A funny thing was the odd mix of people with old women, students, young school children, expats and tourists - everyone with a big smile on their face.
Wednesday offered more entertainment in our neighborhood as Helge, a Danish friend, had invited us out to Akropolis. An Nigerian artist calledTony Allen was playing afrobeat with his band.
It turned out to be a fantastic concert and Akropolis has great atmosphere much in the same way as Vega in Copenhagen. After the concert we all went to a bar to celebrate Helges birthday, more people joined and the good times continued. We were about 8 or 10 Danish speaking people so it almost felt like being home.
In 10 hours Im on the plane to Stansted. Ann and I are spending a weekend together in Cambridge
Related posts:Sunday Walk In Prague IILiving as a Dane in Czech RepublicHow to spend 4 days in Prague
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2009/03/04/spring-in-cambridge/
Last weekend I decided to shoot some video while helping my friends Michael and Sarah move to Freiberg in Germany. This is that weekend condensed into 6 minutes;
BTW where is spring? Exactly a year ago this is what Prague looked like.
Related posts:Christmas Markets in DresdenRødgrød med fløde - part IIChristmas video from Prague
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2009/02/24/helping-friends-move/
Today I crossed the imaginary line into my 30s. Dont feel much different than yesterday but I guess it is still a line in the sand that marks the end of something and the beginning of something else.
When I was a kid I always thought that when I was 30 I would be grown up and have everything sorted. But since then I’ve realized that you are only as settle and sorted as you want to be - or maybe you never will be and that’s what life is like.
I have friends here in Prague that are in their 30s, 40s and 50s and still open to explore and learn new things about themselves and the world they live in. I hope I will be able to stay young heart and enjoy life for many years to come.
Happy birthday to me and congratulations to USA on their new president! What a cool day today is
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/517752958/
It’s long overdue with an update from me again.
At the end of December Kathleen invited a bunch of friends over for a Christmas party with food, gifts and ugly hats. That kicked off my Christmas spirit and we had a great evening with lots of laughter and good times. Here is Antone, Sascha and Julie with big smiles:
The day after there was a flash mob event on Old Town Square in the center of Prague. The was that everybody should show up with a pillow hidden. At exactly 18.55 someone would whistle and a pillow fight should start.
I was at the square a few minutes before it started standing next to some tourists that didn’t know what was about to happen. And then the pillow fight started. Several hundred people brought out their pillow and started whacking each other. Soon the air was full of white feathers and it looked as if it had started to snow with the fluffiest snow. Below is a video I shot 30 seconds after the started.
This is what the square looked like afterwards.
December flew by and I went home to my parents in Toftlund. Ann flew to Denmark and spent almost two weeks with me over Christmas and New Years. Needles to say I enjoyed it imensely to share our Danish traditions with her.
Christmas in Denmark is celebrated on Christmas Eve with a nice dinner, rice pudding game for desert, dancing around the Christmas tree and opening gifts. This year we were my parents, my sister Majbrit, her boyfriend Mogens, my nephew Magnus, Ann and me.
On Christmas Day we didnt have any plans but to work some of all the good food off we took a trip to The Dear Park by Haderslev. Afterwards we went to meet my grand parents in Styding and some of the family that lived close by. Here is Ann and I in front of the view over the lake.
A few days later we had a dinner with my high school mates. Every year we try to gather the and this year we were 8 (with Ann).
For New Years we made a little trip where we first went a day to Aalborg where I used to study. We stayed over night with Peter my old neighbor and his family and had a great time with them. It was a year since I visited them last so I hadn’t met the cute Oscar before.
The next day we went for brunch with Tomas, a buddy from university and then met some of the girls I worked with in ESN for a coffee.
Then we headed back south and ended in Skjoldelev where we celebrated New Years with my good friend Christian and his wife Louise. The live by the village square so we could see all the fireworks just outside. A really cozy night.
My parents gave me an early birthday gift and threw a party for me inviting the extended family. So January the 3rd we had the house full of people many of them I hadn’t seen in a long time so it was really nice to see them before I took off again.
On the last day we had coffee with the neighbors and then it started to snow. We took a walk in the first snow of this trip and went to feed the ducks in a nearby pond. It was hilarious to see ducks try to walk on the ice
The next day Ann went back to London and I went back to Prague.
This was probably the best Christmas I’ve had as an adult thanks to all the friends and family and, of course, Ann.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/509017928/
Saturday morning early we started out in Prague. 5 people in a car and 4 on the train. The destination was the city of Dresden in Germany.
With Christmas fast approaching a trip was organized (Thanks to Sarah and Michael etc.) to check out the city and it’s legendary Christmas Market. The Christmas market in Dresden has existed since 1434so it’s one of the oldest around. On every corner throughout the city booths offers Christmas decorations and other knick knack but more importantly glühwein and all sorts of delicious foods.
After the Christmas market we continued on through the city. First through the Altstadt which is dominated by the newly restored Frauenkirche. The church was bombed during World War II and wasn’t resurrected until 2005.Very beautiful both inside and out.
Later in the day we went to Neustadt on the other side of the River Elbe where a whole different revitalization is taking place. What used to be a run down area is now a busteling neighbourhood with loads of kneipen (pubs), cafes and cozy shops. A really cool place with a nice atmosphere, interesting people and buildings and businesses. Here is a picture from the Kunsthof Passage which is 5 backyards connected filled with shops and creative architecture. Have a look at these pictures to see what I’m talking about. Here we are at a glühwein booth at one of the backyards under the stars and red laterns:
Neustadt was also where our hostel was so we checked out the shopping, dinning and a drinking here before calling it a day. We had a really nice dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Here is the whole table (sans me).
The next day we walked some more in the town, did some Christmas shopping, saw the church from inside and headed back to Prague.
Thanks guys for a nice weekend!
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/485020830/
I just came across this 20 year old INXS music video from Prague. It’s shot in and around the streets of Staro Mesto and on Charles Bridge. It was shot the year before the Velvet Revolution and shows Prague on a gloomy, yet romantic, winter day before the masses arrived in Prague. I don’t think I have seen this few people on the bridge apart from if you cross it at 4am.
Two other videos of INXS was shot in Prague during the same visit. New Sensation filmed at the art nouveau Municipal House and Guns in The Sky filmed in a hallway - somewhere in Prague? All three music videos are directed by Richard Lowenstein.
Last year i made a Prague Christmas video where I also make my way across Charles Bridge and into Old Town Square.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/479474465/
There is a Danish (or rather Scandinavian) tradition of making a TV show that runs every day of December until the 24th and the night of Christmas. For the past couple of years some of the Danish bloggers have made a similar thing with videos.
This year Emme has made her own show called Sweet Christmas with a story of a cookie called Mr. Nom Nom and his troubles. Here is episode 1:
For more check Emme’s blog or youtube channel. Happy December!
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/470799975/
Saturday we were a group of about 20 people from MeetInPrague who went to Sapa a Vietnamese village/market on the outskirts of Prague. The week before a huge fire had ravished one of the buildings in Sapa but still there was a lot of other places to see out there. The highlight was the lunch at a local restaurant.
Dominic who organized the event had with the help of his Vietnamese friend Mickey found this delicious drink. It is snakes and some other unidentifiable animals soaked in vodka - yummy! Some of the others tried it out. I was a chicken but tried a sip of one of the others when they didnt colapse after trying it.
One of the new faces at the trip was Karen the blogger from Empty Nest Expat. It was really cool to meet her as I have been following her blog over the last six months. She had never been to Prague until 10 days ago but since she saw pictures from the Velvet Revolution 19 years ago she knew she wanted to go here. So she waited until her daughters went to college, sold her house and all her stuff and moved here to become a language teacher. Way to go!
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/457168893/
The US ambasador to Denmark James P. Cain just published a book called Amerikaneren (The American) about his perspective of Denmark. His ambassadorship is coming to an end with the change at the White House but during the three years he was in Denmark he went out an met a lot of regular people. Among other things he got on a bike and biking 2500 km meeting people all over Denmark - he even made a stop in Toftlund my tiny home town.
One of the Danish TV shows made an interview with him (the interview is in English) where they talked about how he percieved Denmark. Some of the things he said was:
“It is a little hard for a stranger to feel welcome and accepted in Denmark - its a little tough to get comfortable in this society. [...] I did come to understand that this society feel a bit insulated and under threat. It wants to keep the outside away. That creates some challenges for the society but also some challenges for newcomers to feel at home.”
This reminded me of a blog post and subsequent discussion recently at Bluefish’s blog about what it’s like to live as a foreigner in Denmark.
Denmark is a very homogeneous country and having experienced life elsewhere I would agree with Mr. Cain that the Danes are not always good at embrasing other cultures.
http://politiken.dk/indland/article598282.ece
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/453512950/
Last post was about Halloween, this post is about Thanksgiving and I should have made a post a week ago about the people of USA electing Barack Obama - what a historical moment! A lot of America going on I guess
Kathleen’s parents from Long Island, New York were travelling Europe and stopped in Prague for a weeks time. Kathleen and her parents decided to throw us an early Thanksgiving Dinner (although it should have been the last thursday of November). We were very thankful anyways and had a great evening with amazing food. So as the tradition goes the dinner is a true palette of flavours. There were turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, beans, sweet potatoes, cauliflower with cheese and apple something. (Click the image below to see what is what)
After eating too much of the very well prepared meal the Renehan’s dished out with pumpkin pie and apple crust pie - more yummy stuff.
I think I counted 18 people in the small flat with people sitting on cusions all over the flat. The limited space just made it that much cozier and I think everyone had a great night.
Many thanks to Kathleen, Dan and Ann for their friendliness, delicious cooking and sharing this great American tradition with us.
See the rest of the photos from Renehan’s Thanksgiving in Prague.
Lat time I had Thanksgiving was three years ago when Femi, Chris and I went on the road from Michigan to North Carolina. Back then I was blogging in Danish but google does a decent job at translating it to English:
Thanksgiving Road Trip part I: read in Danish or English
Thanksgiving Road Trip part II: read in Danish or English
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/451126002/
It’s eerily quiet on this blog these days. It’s been a month since I’ve updated it so about time. Well, it’s not a lack of events that’s kept me from posting, so let me give a brief update.
After I went home from London, we moved into a new apartment in Zizkov. Nice new apartment, closer to town and an interesting neighbourhood. I will have to make a full post later about Zizkov the neigbourhood. Zizkov is a lot of things but one thing you can’t get away from is the ugly, yet fascinating TV tower from doom that is visible from everywhere in Prague.
Soon after I moved in Mulle, a friend from bording school who I “ran into” on Facebook earlier this year, came to Prague. Him and a friend had decided to drive down here for a weekend to party. I decided to go back to Denmark with them. It had been quite a while and my grandfarther is not doing so well.
Back in Denmark I covered a good amount of ground. Went to see my grand parents who are in good spirit but old bodies.
With my dad I went to the German border where hundreds of thousands of starlings gather for a couple of weeks to feast before their long migration to North Africa. At dusk they all gather and make wonderful patterns before they settle in for the night. See more of my dads pictures.
The phenomenon is called “Black Sun” and there is a couple of nice videos on youtube.
After that I went up to visit Majbrit, Magnus and Mogens - sis and family in Odder, visited my mother who was on vacation, and hung out in Århus with Christian, Rasmus and my cousin Rikke.
From Århus I took the train to Berlin. I had never been there before so decided to make a day stop over to see the place. Cool city I must say - will return some day…
Soon after Ann came to Prague It’s nice having her closer this year - although it is hard to London as close. She stayed for four days where we went to IAESTE Day 2008 at the universities where we did a presentation on what we have gained from IAESTE. We also went out with my uncle Geert and Elin and her daughters Elisabeth and Majbrit and their husbands who was on vacation in Prague.
Ok that was it for now. I hope it wont be another month before the next post…
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/430003454/
After a week in Prague Ann and I went to London to get her set up. Ann was going to live at a student residence called Maria Assumpta in Kensington a really nice area of town close to Hyde Park and Kensington Palace.
My cousin Martin had moved to London four weeks earlier so I visited him and we did some sightseeing together. Here we are in front of Buckingham Palace where the queen lives.
London greeted us with nice weather and we had a couple of nice days getting familiar with the city. I stayed in London for three days. It’s my third visit to London but the first time I’ve really like and enjoyed London. I’m looking forward to exploring more of it with Ann
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/399738403/
Ann stayed with me in Prague for a week and it was great having her back here in Prague where it all started exactly a year ago.
One of the first days here we went on a hiking trip with a bunch of people from MeetInPrague (an online event group for people in Prague). We took the train to a station in the middle of nowhere and walked to the ruins of Okor - a medieval castle and later on to the Rotunda in Budec where the Czech national figure Wenceslaus is suppose to have grown up.
We went to Prague Zoo with Michael and Sarah – some German friends of mine. We spend about two hours there but only covered about half of the huge park. We will just have to come back another time.
Afterwards we went out and met up with Christoph and Sue who recently went to Malta.
For Ann’s birthday we went out to meet Jakub and Martina, some of her colleagues from her work in Prague.
For the cooking of the day I had consulted Mikkel The Happy Cook and made pancakes for breakfast and pork tenderloin for dinner.
Dead early the next day we took the flight to London. Ann is going to do a PhD within the Centre for Sustainable Heritage at UCL.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/397141876/
(I just got home from a trip to London, but I have a couple of blog posts I want to get written before to catch up so come back soon.)
I had booked my tickets for the wedding in Scotland so I would have a couple of days before going back. I didn’t plan much but asked Jamie - a Scottish friend in Prague - for of where to go and what to see.
First leg of my trip was from the place of the wedding in Dunfermline. I was thinking of hitchhiking but it was raining so instead I got a lift with the newlywed couple on their way to their honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands. As we were driving north the landscape changed from flat scenery similar to Denmark to higher hills, less civilization and more sheep. They set me off in Aviemore a cosy little town at the beginning of the highlands. They have Scotland’s highest funicular by Avimore but I didn’t have time to make my way out to it. Instead I saw the town and jumped on a bus.
Early in the evening I arrived in Inverness where I found a bed for the night at a hostel. In the evening I went out to Hootananny where they have live music every night. I saw a cool Scottish band (didn’t get their name tho). Here is one of their songs (turn it on and continue reading):
The next day I had a beautiful walk out of town along River Ness.
At the end of the city I arrived at a spot I thought would be good but saw that there was another hitcher. So I sat down with my book behind some trees. A few minutes later the other guy had apparently been lucky and I stepped up to the spot. The third vehicle that passed me was a truck with a very long trailer. He slammed his breaks and I jumped in and I was rolling. The easiest ride I have ever had I think Here we are driving by the castle at Loch Ness as the driver talks of the difficulties driving on the roads by Glen Coe.
I got a ride with the trucker for the length of Loch Ness, the biggest of Scotlands lochs or lakes. The weather was great and I had a couple of great hours talking about Loch Ness monsters (he gave it a 50/50 chance of being real), Scottish culture and politics and life on the road. My driver was toothless (or missed at least a bunch of teeth) and was very talkative but after we had been quite for a few minutes he would start making fart-whistling noises with his gums – funny guy. The roads in these parts of the country are very narrow and not built for big trucks (and busses as you will later see). There were a couple of times where we were very close to the oncoming traffic but I made it to Fort William in one piece and said goodbye to the driver. I had a lunch break in Fort William and a pint of hand pumped beer at a pub with an outdoor patio with a nice view. Here is a picture from the church in Fort William.
Then I continued on in a bus to Glen Coe. I made it to Glencoe Village late in the afternoon and walked a couple of miles out of the village to find the hostel and a bed for the night. Before the sun set I went for a walk in the beautiful scenery.
Next day I tried to hitchhike southwards but there was hardly any traffic so I ended up taking a bus instead. This was the view from my hitchhiking spot by Glen Coe – not the worst place to spend an hour.
Riding in trucks and buses is actually really great in this part of Scotland because you really get to enjoy the vastness of the nature in big panorama windows. However for the drivers it’s another story. As our big bus was speeding through the bends along Loch Lomond there was a truck coming from the other side. The drivers avoided collision but our bus ended up scrapping the stone wall along the whole side of the bus.
The result was that all the luggage compartment locks broke and the bus driver was not allowed to continue before that was fixed. So we ended up being stuck for a good hour until a replacement bus arrived.
Later I finally arrived in Glasgow. Jamie had said I could stay at his parents’ house in Glasgow which I was really grateful for. I found their house and talked a bit Scottish history with his mum. All I knew of Scottish history before I went was Braveheart and the story of William Wallace. The rest of Scotland’s history is just as interesting and sad with events like the The Highland Clearance.
In the evening I went to explore Glasgow on foot. I was expecting something out of Trainspotting but found a very warm and friendly city.
Scotland in three days is definitely nothing more than an appetizer and I feel I was rushing when I could easily spend a full day or three in all the places I stopped. It is a country I would love to go back to. I think it would be great to go to an area like Glen Coe for a couple of days pull the plug out and just enjoy the wonders of nature.
Thanks to Jamie for his suggestions and help. Jamie Smith is a folk musician and has just moved back to London. I will definitely go see him play next time I’m in London. So should you
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It’s been quite quiet on this blog lately - I will try and see if I can catch up with the things I’ve been up to.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/389475418/
I think this was my 5th or 6th year at Roskilde Festival and this year was definitely one of the better ones. We had awesome weather, there was some great bands and some new discoveries and some well known artists that delivered more than expected.
My favourite concerts this year was probably Veto a fairly new Danish band (or new to me I should say).
The old rock’n'roller Neil Young was amazing playing both his slow songs like Heart of Gold as well as the more energetic rock songs where the old man was jumping around on the stage. Rapper LOC on the picture above had a great show and loads of great songs.
Tina Dico and Teitur my two favourite singer/songwriters were both playing on Orange Stage, the biggest stage, which was not really a good choice in my opinion. However I enjoyed both concerts and they are both very skilled performers so they pulled it off in my opinion. Oh, and a reccomendation; Tina Dico has a cool Vlog/Tour Diary on YouTube - honest, funny and down to earth look into the life of an artist, start here.
Radiohead and Gnarls Barkley also had some enjoyable concerts.
I was at the festival for 9 days and lived in a tent which is always an interesting experience since the rest of the year I sleep with a roof over my head. Living outside you notice the clouds, winds, stars and birds a lot more. For the first time this year I stayed in the volunteers camping instead of amongst the ‘commoners’. It’s a world of a difference. In the regular camping areas people live close, they put a lot of effort into their camps with flags, banners and even portable sound systems. However it also gets very dirty and a lot of places the party goes on all the night and I must admit that I’ve gotten a bit older since I visited the festival the first time in ‘96. The coolest camp I came across this year was the cow camp.
Thanks to cousin Rikke for getting me the job, thanks to the rest of the people in our camp for good times we had and thanks to the people organizing for a great festival in general
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I recently returned from a week in Malta - my third visit to this pretty place, to see a pretty girl. On my two previous visits we covered a lot of places, sights and museums so this time round we took it easy on the touristy stuff. That meant that we spent more time at home, at the beach and in the neighbouring village where one of the two annual feasts were taking place.
Feast and fireworks
The Catholic religion plays a big part in many matters on Malta and one of the occasions where it really shines through is when it is time to celebrate the saint of the village. Every village on Malta will have at least one (sometimes two or three) patron saints that will be celebrated once a year with a week of festivities.
Above is the village of Mqabba seen from Zurrieq where Ann lives. Mqabba was celebrating the patron saint Lady of Lilies and raising with blue in her honour.
From I arrived on Wednesday until around Monday there was fireworks going off at the village, day and night. The Maltese seem obsessed with their fireworks in different shapes and sizes and I really got to experience it when we went to Mqabba for the big show on Saturday. First off was the single rounds where various shapes, sizes and colours. My fireworks pictures didn’t turn out well so watch this video for a better impression.
Inbetween the single rounds was two acts of a so-called pyromusical - fireworks synchronized with music. This was very well choreographed and very impressive to watch. Here is a video of the second act of the pyromusical:
After the aerial fireworks we moved into the streets of Mqabba where the ground fireworks where to be displayed. Maltese ground fireworks is made with loads of gears, chains, levers and and abundance of fireworks to make it all go around and light it up. Here is one of the installments before it is fired off and another one while on fire.
There were probably about 20 of these ground fireworks and each of them was more intricate and impressive than the previous. Again photos and videos doesn’t do these devices justice but below is a picture and see a video of it as well (The one in the picture above is cool in action and is on the video at 8:08).
I can’t remember how long the different segments lasted but the whole fireworks ordeal lasted about 4 hours - and this was just in a village with 3000 inhabitants. It was really impressive and I can’t help to think of the amount of money and hours goes into creating these immense performances.
The connection between fireworks and a religious celebration is a bit lost on me but the next day we went back to the Mqabba for the procession of a statue of the patron saint. The streets and church were decorated, two bands were playing and then the procession passed in front of us with the statue of Lady of Lilies on a huge block carried by 10 men.
Quite an experience to see a Maltese feast. All through the summer the villages across the islands will have similar celebrations.
Farm
Ann’s grandfather’s farm is a bit outside of the village where the family lives. One of Ann’s uncles and a couple of the aunts take care of the land and the animals - most of what is produced in the farm is distributed to the family. It’s not a big farm like what I know from Denmark but instead it’s a small stone building and some patches of land around it.
They have all sorts of animals on the farm. They have chickens, ducks, goat, rabbit and sheep and I counted at least five different breeds of dogs from rottweilers to the small thing below.
Forts
The Knights of St. John build a lot of defences and fortifications around the Maltese island during their reign. This time we visited the two forts that played a crucial role in The Great Siege were 30,000 Ottoman troops attacked Malta defended by 500 knights and 3000 Maltese.
The Siege of Malta in 1565 was a clash of unimaginable
brutality, one of the bloodiest - yet most overlooked - battles
ever fought. It was also an event that determined the course of
history, for at stake was the very survival of Christianity.
If vitally strategic Malta fell, the Muslim Ottoman Empire would
soon dominate the Mediterranean. Even Rome would be in peril.
- History’s bloodiest siege used human heads as cannonballs
Fort St. Elmo was small, cut-off and defended by only a small group of soldiers. It was the first to be attacked and see the full force of the Ottoman. The Ottoman general Mustapha Pasha had expected the fort to fall within
three but it held out for 30 days.
After St. Elmo had fallen Fort St. Angelo and Birgu the adjoining peninsula was next to be attacked but eventually the knights and the Maltese prevailed and the Ottoman gave up their attempt to take the island. The image above is from Fort St. Angelo, three guys dressed in what I think must be a 16th or 17th century armour.
Normally the two forts are closed off for the public but the week I was there we got into both of them. Here is the view from Fort St. Angelo over Valletta, a city built after the great siege to improve the defence of the knights and Malta.
About a month ago I read Ironfire by David Ball describing the a couple of key persons in the Mediterranean leading up to and during the Great Siege. A great summer read for a week on the beach.
We went to Fort St. Elmo which now houses the Maltese police academy. Here we saw a reenactment of Napoleon’s arrival in Malta in 1798 where he kicked out the Knights of St. John. The French only stayed for two years untill they were kicked out themselves by the Maltese and the British.
Another good week with Ann went by too quick and I am back in Prague now. Next is off to Roskilde Festival.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/318710255/
A week ago (before the Euro08) Femi, Mehmet and me took an extended weekend in Lisbon. We didn’t really know much about the city before we arrived but we were very pleasantly surprised.
The atmosphere was really nice and everybody seemed like they took it very laid back. We followed suit and took it easy the days we were there. The picture at the top is from Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square) where they had put up a maybe a hundred plastic trees decorated by school On the picture Mehmet is taking a nap in the “forest”. Behind him you can see the Arch linking the Commerce Square and Augusta Street. After the nap Mehmet was up again.
All over the city they had these violet trees which we thought were lavender (but please correct us if you can). Here its in Alfama the area with winding roads leading up to the city’s castle.
Many of the houses had tiles on the facades and it was impressive to see all the different colors and patterns they have come up with. A lot of the tiles even seemed quite old and hand made.
We stayed at a hostel in the part of the city called Bairro Alto which a quite, sleepy neighbourhood during the day and turn into a block party at night with hordes of people at night.
It was a quick trip but Lisbon is definitely worth the recommendation. After I got back I found this pretty cool pieces:
“Lisbon has no how cool it is. The city lives in the shadow of Europe’s superstar capitals, unaware of its own modern charms.”
- New York Times
A bunch more Lisbon pictures at Flickr
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/308364298/
I just realized that 1st of June it has been a year since I arrived in Prague. Time flies and I must say I have been positively surprised by many things about this city and the people I have met here. One thing that is very appalling is my Czech though. When I came I thought I would take language courses and learn some of the local lingo, but I must admit I gave up on that pretty quickly and have resorted to my English, German, a few Czech words and the international language of hand gestures and body language.
Last week I met with a fellow blogger, Al from the family blog Tischlers in Prague. After having lived in Prague for almost two years the Tischlers are moving back to Minnesota. I have been following the blog and their trips in and around Prague (and around Europe) since before I arrived in Prague so it was great to meet the man behind the words. Al has been working for Radio Free Europe in Prague while they have been building their new headquarters. He had great stories of his time in Saudi Arabia their life in Prague and filled me in on the New Wave music in general after we went to a museum on the history of the rock music in Czechoslovakia in the 80ies.
We met in a small beer garden very close to our apartment for a couple of beers. Al got photo documentation and posted it here. It’s always a pleasure to meet other bloggers and I’m glad I caught Al before they went back home. I wish the best for the three of them.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/304882674/
Friday morning we are four guys heading on a tour of Scandinavia to see friends and have a good time. First stop will be Copenhagen for the weekend then the boat to Oslo for a day and then bus across to Stockholm. Not everything is planned out yet but I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun on the way.
The picture above is Martin the Swede at a Swedish book store in Baltimore’s more shady area where Adult Entertainment and Swedish Books apparently go hand in hand
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/281086623/
I left Prague in snow and flew the next morning from Bremen on a freezing, misty morning.
And arrived at Malta a few hours later. Here’s the tiny Maltese island of Comino as it looked on the approach. Wikipedia claims there are only four permanent residents but there is also a 100 room hotel and the Blue Lagoon so in summer time it’s a bit more crowded.
The weather was cloudy and we had some scattered rain - but I didn’t care, Ann was there to greet me
Last time I was in Malta I only had 4 days there and everything was new and different. This time around I knew what to expect and I was there for a week which gave me a better chance to take it all in.
In the meantime I also had a chance to learn more on Malta, the history and follow a few of the local bloggers to get a grasp of what Malta is all about. A couple of my favorites are the politician and economist who tracks everything Malta online, the Salvadorian who married a Maltese, the Peruvian, the newlywed, the German in Gozo and the pregnant Danish couple.
Here is a map of some of the places we covered this time round. (click on the blue pins)
View Larger Map
Off to Gozo
Malta is really seven islands were only the three biggest, Malta Island, Gozo and Comino are inhabited. Comino is the small island I flew over in the beginning. Malta Island is the big, main island and Gozo is the little brother to the northwest - this was where we were heading.
Before we crossed over we made a stop in Mellieha where one set of Ann’s grandparents is from. Next to the parish church on the picture was a small sanctuary with lots of letters, photos, crutches, casts and other items sent from people who thanked Our Lady for all sorts of miracles.I later realized that Mellieha also is the place of ‘The Danish Village’ a resort own by the Danish Folkeferie.dk. As we were crossing over the strait to get to Gozo the weather had turned for the worse so the sea was a bit rough. Here we are approaching Mġarr the only habour on Gozo. One of Ann’s aunts have an apartment on the island and was kind enough to lend it to us.
The next day the weather was great and we went out to explore the beautiful island of Gozo. The first picture below is the view from Gozo’s Citadella in the middle of the island.
Gozo is greener, more rural and calmer than the main island of Malta,
it’s the place where people from Malta go for a weekend breaks and I
can understand why;
“Imagine yourself on the most tranquil, isolated, sunshine-filled island. You have no worries. You feel at peace with your
surroundings and time seems to slow down. Well, this isn’t an imaginary
place, this island is Gozo, also known as the island of Calypso. A calm, clear, deep blue water surrounds the island. This relatively unknown island may be small but it is rich in culture, history and beauty.” - Island in the sun from Cabinet.com
Ann’s twin sister and boyfriend joined us later and we toured some of sights of the island. We covered a lot of beautiful and interesting places like The Inland Sea, Dwejra Point, Ta’Kola Windmill, Calypso’s Cave and Ggantija Temple.Living in Prague I don’t really see a lot of the sea so it was great to be on an island where the water was always in sight. It was too early for the locals to try the Mediterranean tub but I had to give it a go - first at the red sand of Ramla Bay and later at another beach.
The legend is that Gozo is the island of Ogygia, described in Homer’s The Odysseus, where the nymph Calypso holds Odysseus as a ‘prisoner of love’ for seven years. Well Ann didn’t keep me prisoner on Gozo so the last couple of days we spent back on Malta.
The week past too quickly but it was really great to see Ann, meet her family again and see more of these nice islands. Oh - and I of course got a really red face to show for my week in the Mediterranean.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/275737873/
The good guys of the Prague search site Nelso has made an invaluable resource for people on the hunt cheap beer in Prague. The beer price heatmap shows the prices on beer at more than 250 bars in Prague. As I understand the underlying technology they have used a meteorological predictions based on the points to create the map - very cool. I guess that is also why all of Letna Park is expensive because of the 90czk beer at Hanavsky pavilion.
By the way - the sweaty beer on the picture is a 0,5L Staropramen at 59czk from Cafe Savoy which puts it in the red.
There is also a Danish edition for Øl i Prag.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2008/03/21/prague-beer-prices/
Yesterday I grabbed my camera and started walking. I ended up walking from our apartment to the city center. A trip of about 7 km that took me all afternoon.
Hover the mouse on the pictures to get explanations of the pictures - or click on them.
It’s days like these I feel very fortunate to live in a city like Prague.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2008/03/11/sunday-walk-in-prague/
Yesterday I grabbed my camera and started walking. I ended up walking from our apartment to the city center. A trip of about 7 km that took me all afternoon.
Hover the mouse on the pictures to get explanations of the pictures - or click on them.
It’s days like these I feel very fortunate to live in a city like Prague.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gelle_dk/~3/249183969/
I haven’t made a proper post here for a long, long time. Sorry for that - let me get you up to speed.
December flew away with a job in Denmark were I held a seminar on how to do interaction design. After that gig I travelled across the country meeting with Rasmus in Randers, Rikke and Lene in Århus, sister and family in Odder, met with Femi and partied with the boys in Copenhagen and ended up cruising Lund/Malmø with the Swedes.
Fast forwarding I spend Christmas in Toftlund and New Years Eve in Aalborg with old university buddies. I stayed in Aalborg for a couple of weeks and worked on a project with the good guys of CommunicateIT. I then headed to my parents place.
All the while I had been checking records, looking at dmi.dk for long term weather forecasts because Ann was coming to Denmark at the end of January - and as a Maltese she had never seen snow fall. Chances of snow in Denmark are however not that big, we get it occasionally during the winter but it’s not that common. To give you an impression the last 100 years Denmark has been covered by snow 7 times on Christmas Day. End of January came and it looked like all we would be getting was the first storm of the year.
Ok, so finally Ann came to Denmark and we had a great week seeing place, meeting people and enjoying each others company. We started out in Copenhagen (without a camera) were we walked around a little bit and then went to see Mozart’s Lucio Silla at the Royal Theatre.
Neither of us had seen an opera before so it was an interesting experience but it didn’t really blow us away. The next day we walked a bit more and saw Nyhavn, the Royal Palace and The Marble Church.
We drove back home to Jylland just in time before they closed the two main bridges in Denmark due to the storm. Back in the sticks we went out to a farm close by were we got to greet some of the newborns.
The next day we headed to the oldest town in Denmark, Ribe were we saw the old cathedral and went up the tower nearly to be blown off. Ribe is a cozy little town but the weather was really bad with rain and wind so we didn’t make it that far in our layers upon layers of warm cloths.
The whole family joined together for the weekend on the island of Fanø (a bit less than 1/5 the size of Malta). We spend the weekend in a summer house, well heated by the the wood stove having it hyggeligt.
The storm had past the west coast and lo and behold it it’s wake came this…
Enough snow for a proper snow fight and enough to build a small snow man.
All in all a nice cosy family weekend and I really enjoyed showing Ann my family and vice versa. The day after I followed Ann to Bremen were her flight was from and I continued on to Prague.
It’s nice to be back home in Prague although it is still really cold here. In little more than a month I’m going to Malta again for some rays of Ann and rays of sun
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2008/02/20/will-it-snow/
My extended weekend to Malta was fantastic! It was great to see Ann again and it was very interesting to see were she was from - in so many ways we are from the opposite ends of Europe and discovering more about our various background is an interesting journey.
3 months ago my knowledge on Malta was very limited - all I really knew was that it was in the Mediterranean, that they had English as a semi-official language, that there was something about the Maltese cross and knights and that they usually did pretty good in Eurovision Song Contests - “Malta 10 points” - but that was about all.
Since then Ann has told me a lot about the country and I’ve been reading up on the country on the internet. Malta is a couple of rocky islands about half the size of Bornholm or twice the size of Washington DC. With a population of 400,000 it’s one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Knowing this fact I was actually surprised that the place didn’t feel cramped and that they seemed not to have many high rising buildings - but instead a lot of 2-4 floored limestone buildings.
It depends a bit on the family but mostly people I came across speak Maltese but everyone knows and uses English as well. The language reflects the fact that the country has had a number of rulers over time and is a mix of Arabic, Sicilian, Italian and English. To me it just sound Arabic and I can’t make heads and tails of any of it. Have a listen here.
I went with Ann to catholic mass (in English) for the second time in my life but the acoustics made it very difficult to hear what the priest was saying. The catholic religion still plays a big rule in Malta and there are churches and chapels everywhere as well as niches with religious figures. This impact is also reflected in the society were abortion and gay marriage are illegal and you can’t get a divorce. As a Dane I take those liberties for granted so it’s surprising to see a society were they are not.
I wasn’t there during season but every village or every church (or band club?) has a huge celebration when it’s the day of their respective saints during the summer.
Here’s a niche from Mdina.
The first thing I realized when moving around Malta was that there is literally layers upon layers of history. As a sucker for history I had more than enough sites and museums to check out. So yet another reason to come back another time Here are the places we checked out this time around:
View Larger Map
Not very far from Ann’s house are the ancient temples of Mnajdra and Hagar Qim unfortunately both of them were closed for the winter for renovation so we couldn’t get close.
Mnajdra (above) was started in the 4th millennium B.C. which makes it the oldest freestanding building in the world - more than a millennium older than Stonehenge. While we didn’t make it into those site we made it into the Hypogeum which is an equally fascinating structure.
The Hypogeum is the only known, underground temple in the world and was a very interesting experience. The place is carved out of the underground over hundreds of years. In order to preserve the wall paintings only 10 people are allowed to visit per hour. We were not allowed to take pictures but this site has a lot of background info and good pictures.
Moving up in time the St. Paul Catacombs in Rabat are from the Roman era in the 3rd century.
The catacombs are next to the old capital of Mdina that was settled by the Romans, conquered by the Arabs, conquered again later by Normans and rebuild to it’s present state after an earthquake in 1697. Here is a view through a street of Mdina as the sun rises and before the hordes of tourists arrive. We had both early mornings and late nights in Mdina and then it’s a very quaint and quite place.
When the Knights of St. John arrived to Malta they moved the capital to it’s current place of Valletta. After The Great Siege of 1565 were the knights managed to fight off the invading Ottoman forces they founded Valletta as an easily defensible city in the center of Grand Harbour. Here’s a painter overlooking the view of Grand Harbour from Upper Barracca.
The St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta is quite remarkable. It doesn’t seem like anything special from the outside (no reason to entice the Turkish attackers) but inside it is lavishing with ornaments, sculptures, paintings and gold.
Malta has always had a strategical importance for the dominance of the Mediterranean which was also the case in WWII as well during the Battle of Malta. First it withheld massive assaults from Italian and German air forces with more than 3000 air raids over two years. And later it was the outset for the invasion of Sicily and subsequently Italy. The planning of the defence and attack took place in Lascaris War Rooms a cave under Valletta carved by the knights centuries earlier.
Phew! That was a lots of history - and there is plenty more to see. But we did a lot of other things as well.
The food is a chapter in itself. It’s inspired by Italian but with a twist of it’s own. I didn’t get pictures of much of it but I covered about 10 of the things on this list and all of it was good I did manage get a picture of a Pastizzi before it disappeared. A delicious snack bought at a pretty obscure local spot.
I was really surprised to discover that the family had orange trees in their backyard. Apparently not a big thing for the Maltese but for a Scandinavian it was fantastic to have fresh picked and squeezed orange juice for breakfast.
Before I took off we got the a big meal - yet again really good food They rarely use the big dinning room table so getting visit from Denmark is good for something.
I was lucky with the weather which can vary a bit in November but Saturday we had 23 degrees and clear sky One of my top things to do in Malta - since I started planning the trip - was to go for a swim in the Mediterranean. Under much objection Ann finally agreed to take me to a beach so I could get my swim.
With above 20 temperatures people in Denmark would flock to the beach but apart from a handful of other pale, pale tourists we were the only ones at the beach. The water was probably around 20 degrees so it was quite refreshing but not too bad. Here we are at Golden Bay after the swim.
What a long blog post - but I had a lot to tell about this island.
Malta is called The Jewel of the Mediterranean and I totally agree - and I got a special gem there.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/12/02/enjoying-malta/
Tomorrow, Thursday I’m flying to Malta to spend the weekend! The weather should be quite nice with temperatures around 20, they have good Mediterranean food and plenty of interesting sights but the real reason and what I’m really, really looking forward to is seeing Ann again.
I met Ann in Prague three months ago when she was doing an internship. For three weeks in September we spend almost every day together enjoying the city before she went back to Malta.
Long distance relationships are never easy - but we’ve been keeping in touch every day since and now I’m going down to visit her I can’t wait to kiss her again.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/11/21/the-girl-from-malta/
After a 6 day trip up north I am now back in Prague. It was my first time home since we moved to Prague 5 months ago and it was great going back. I don’t miss Denmark but I really, really enjoy coming back.
First I got to visit Dennis (my canoe-buddy from this summer) and Jenny in Braunschweig. Very good people and I have to come back some day to explore more of this city.
After that I hit Århus were Christian and I took a ride on his bike and caught up on everything that’s been going on since last time we spoke. The day after we continued to Haderslev were Søren and Helene treated us with dinner and another night of catching up.
Finally I spend a couple of days with my sister, nephew and parents in Toftlund. Tuesday I had Magnus for the day which was so much lot of fun.
As I said it was really good to get back to Denmark - everything is so neat, cozy and familiar. But I also realized that I don’t need to live in Denmark right now. A good dose now and then and then I’m good for a while.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/11/01/back-in-prague-2/
The Danish prime minster called for a snappy election on November 13th just two weeks away. Well luckily I’m in Denmark so I went to the city hall to figure out how I could fulfil my democratic duty. Turns out I had to cast the vote right there and then to get it in. So I didn’t get the whole 20 days of campaigning - my vote is on a ballot ready to be counted.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/10/30/election-day/
Yesterday the local committees of IAESTE in Prague organized the annual IAESTE Day to promote the IAESTE programs at different universities across the world. I was happy they asked me if I wanted to give a presentation about how I had benefited from IAESTE. So I told the story of How I Ended Up In Prague Because of IAESTE (Some of it is on page three of this IAESTE UK alumni newsletter). It’s been a while since I had done a presentation but I really enjoyed the afternoon talking with people about going abroad.
Even better was the evening were they had organized a banquette for business contacts, alumis and member. Good and free food and drinks is a great thing that I come across way to seldom.
See more pictures at flickr.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/10/19/iaeste-day-2007-in-prague/
This past weekend Mehmet fired up his Skoda and we went on a westbound road trip. Mehmet is a Turkish friend from IAESTE Prague and together with Femi, me and Mehmet’s friend Murat, we started out Thursday night around 1am. We got to the German border about an hour later.
I never realized how privileged I am being pale and having a Danish passport. Going in and out of countries have never taken me a long time. This time was quite different however. Apparently there was a stamp in Mehmet’s passport that wasn’t right so it took almost 2 hours before they finally let us through. That set us back quite a lot in time and it took us until Friday afternoon before we reached Breda, Netherlands were we met up with Aytek another of Mehmet’s friends.
All three Turkish guys works for ExxonMobil so in we got the tour when we went to pick up Aytek. Here are Murat, Aytek, [Aytek’s coworker], Mehmet and [another coworker].
Friday night we spend in the old and beautiful city of Bruges, Belgium. Here are the guys in front of the Belfry Tower from 1280.
Femi and I crashed at a hostel in town while the other guys went on to met another friend. Saturday the next stop was Antwerp were we stayed for the afternoon walking the city and getting some true Belgium fries.
And then it was on to Amsterdam with the Red Light District, coffee shops and canals everywhere. We all had a blast and ended the night at the night club Escape which must be one of the biggest in Amsterdam.
We ended up with two 50 euros parking fines and since we couldn’t find a hotel or hostel we slept in the cars. Everyone was tired so it wasn’t as bad as expected and Sunday morning we went for a short walk around Amsterdam before driving the 10 hours back to Prague.
Another awesome weekend is over so fast!
[ Update 13/9] Murat just uploaded his pictures and there are gems like this two:
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/09/12/belgium-and-holland-tour-de-force/
Last week I got my first visit from Denmark Solveig my aunt and Jens came by for five days. They brought me some aquavit and winter clothes which was useful since the autumn seems to have seriously taken it’s grasp on Prague.
I showed them some of Prague and on their own they discovered some areas like the Jewish cemetaries that I still haven’t been to. One thing I discovered when they were here was the beutiful Wallenstein Garden below the castle. A really nice (and free) spot in the middle of the city.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/09/10/visit-from-denmar/
So it’s been a week since I got back to Prague so it’s about time I start to tell something about Hawaii. Here is a video from our hike on the Kalalau Trail read more below.
The highlight of the three weeks was without a doubt the four days we spend in the island of Kauai. Kauai is the oldest islands of Hawaii and also known as the Garden Isle because of the flourishing nature found here. It’s one of the wettest spots in the world and the massive amounts of water has shaped the rock into what is called pali in Hawaiian. On this picture you can see the palis:
Fernando had gotten hold of permits for us to hike the Kalalau Trail. The trail follows the the massive windswept Na Pali coastline overlooking lush green valleys and towering rocky cliffs that rises almost 1200 meters to the deep blue pacific below. The trail is 11 miles (18km) long and winds it way along the cliffs in a very varied landscape with rain forest, desert and rocky cliffs. The trail is almost never straight but moves up and down, in and out. The view is spectacular and around each corner awaits new wonders.
It was hot and humid to do the hike so we drank a lot of water. Luckily there are plenty of streams and creeks on the trail so we could refill our bottles.
Also there were plenty of guava trees and a few mango trees so we could get some fresh fruit as we walked.
It took us 8 and a half hour to walk in and the reward was amazing. I was very busted and enjoyed just chilling on the beach for the rest of the day.
We had our camp in shade of trees close to the waterfall were we got fresh water and showers when it got to hot to sit in the sun.
And the beach was of course beautiful.
We spend a day on the beach and the hiked back the next day. Here was what we looked like after having walked back to civilization.
A truly amazing trip.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/09/02/walking-to-paradise/
I will be away from my computer the next three weeks but if you want to hear how the Hawaii trip is going check back here. I will be sending SMS to this post as I travel.
Click here for older updates
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/08/01/hawaii-travel-update/
Rasmus from the Danish BlogMagasinet asked in one of the recent podcasts, how we use blogs to meet people. So I figured I’d tell about how I’ve used it here in Prague.
Before I moved down here I search on google.com, technorati.com, blogbot.dk or overskrift.dk for people blogging about Prague in either Danish or English and I found two Danes.
The first one is Laus Sørensen. Laus runs the vacation agency Prag Eksperten and has made a business from renting apartments and giving tours to Danes. He is blogging at prag.urbanblog.dk were he writes about the city, his business and his friends. As a newcomer in town there is definitely some good information about the city and his company site has the most comprehensive site about Prague in Danish.
A couple of weeks ago I went to dinner with Laus at U Maleho Glena (picture above) a very cool jazz spot in Prague. We talked about the city, running businesses and realized that we both have parents in Jylland so maybe we can carpool to Denmark sometime.
The second Dane is Holme but he is actually not in town yet. He is going to stay in Prague for a year with his Czech girl friend while studying. I think he is moving down here sometime in August so I’ll try and see if I can catch him over a pivo sometime.
In my daily life I only speak English - apart from when I’m calling home - so it’s nice that there is a few Danes in town.
There is of course also a number of English blogs about life in Prague. The ones that I am keeping a tap on these days are:
Prague Dog Eat Blog
Prague City Beat
Finofilka’s photoblog
The Prague Post
Tischlers in Prague
Radio Prague
Prague Pictures
Prague Blog
Life in Prague
Gridskipper
ABC Prague
[Update 18/9 ‘07] Just came across another Dane in Prague called Pavel-Helge - he has a lot of updated info in Danish about what’s going on in Prague.
[Update 14/1 ‘08] Just came across another Danish blog about Prague called Prag HotSpots by Jens Gregersen.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/07/30/danish-bloggers-in-prague/
Back in 1631 a Swedish army invaded Prague and now they are back! - This time with a more peaceful aim.
Backsell the Swede was an intern in Michigan at the same time as Femi and I and after spending a year in Germany him and Toni (another Swede) did a trip of central Europe before heading home.
It’s a weekend of Swedish style drinking, snus chewing snus’ing and partying sprinkled with a little touristy activities in the mix.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/07/28/the-swedish-invasion/
Last weekend I joined the local chapter of IAESTE on a trip to Southern Bohemia. We were 50 people from about 20 different countries so there were a lot of different talks and a good atmosphere.
Friday we drove to a camp site on the Vltava River were we camped for the night while making Czech sausages and drinking pivo around the camp fire.
Next morning we got up and got suited for a canoe ride seven kilometers down the river.
It was a warm day with temperatures up to about 35 degrees so it was great day for cruising on the river. I think Dennis and I capsized 4 or 5 3 times during the sailing because we had to get through a couple of falls which we weren’t very good at.
I ended up getting my camera wet so no more pictures from me that day. Instead I’m borrowing some from Dennis who was a bit more thoughtful with his camera.
We sailed until we reached Cesky Krumlov which is a really magical town with a huge castle overlooking the town. The centre of the town itself is also very beautiful. The city center is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Here is one of Dennis’ pictures overlooking the town from the castle.
Sunday we went to see the real Budweiser brewery in České Budějovice before returning to Prague.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/07/19/south-bohemian-weekend/
My parents asked me for a video of our place. I made the video Friday - it’s in Danish so if you don’t understand you have to follow the plan below for explanations.
Click To Play
Here is the ground plan of the place.
The stairs you can see outside of the house are the once shown below here. They led to the Belohorska street were the trams goes. So even though we live at the ground level there are still three stories of stairs to climb to get home
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/07/16/the-apartment/
A 1 minute clip from the escalator at Hradcanska Metro station in Prague.
Click To Play
When you are standing on the escalator for a short while you experience the optical illusion that you are going straight and the people are leaning in weird ways.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/07/13/people-watching-going-down/
Today is the 650th birthday of Charles Bridge - the first bridge in Prague to cross the Vltava river.
The foundation stone was laid at 5:31am on July 9, 1357 with the help of king Charles IV. He consulted his astrologers and the date and time were chosen so that the odd numbers that ascend and descend on the scale of 1 - 9 would form the palindrome 135797531. - My Czech Republic
Charles bridge is probably the most photographed spot in Prague - there is something magical about this bridge. I’ve already taken ten pictures of it and Flickr reports that it’s users has tagged 24,914 pictures of the bridge.
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/07/09/karluv-most-650-years-today/
My parents went to Prague back in the 70s. They brought home a book of pictures from Prague. The pictures were of the beautiful castles and buildings in Prague but they were all gloomy and very dark grey - almost black. Prague is not grey and black any more - it is full of colors.
You can still see the grey buildings but in the city center nearly all houses are newly restored and in the suburbs a lot of construction and refurbishing is going on. This two-family house not to far from our place were one side has had a makeover you can really see what differences it makes to the impression.
This one is close to a busy tram route were only the part facing the road is painted so far:
First time I was in Prague was back in 2003 and the city looked nice back then as well. But here is first a picture I took of a building back then of the rustic facade and the picture below is from 2007:
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/07/08/colorful-prague/
The red drink is Griotka which is a sour cherry liquor that tasts pretty good - like the Danish cherry sauce for rissengrød, just with alcohol. The cream coloured Vajecny konak is some kind of eggnog.
Enjoy you weekend
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/06/09/cheers/
With six months in Prague we got a luxury in that we don’t need to stomp around town and cover all the attraction in a weekend or a week. So we’vepurposely just jumped on the trams and metros and gotten ourselves ‘lost’.
The first day we ended up by - what we later learned was - the Strahov Stadium. It looked quite big but it wasn’t until I got home and looked at it on a satellite image that I understood the size of this place. It was build to host parades and huge gymnastic shows and the stands would allegedly hold 250,000 people.
Here you see it to the right of Stadion Evzena Rosickeho which is a ‘regular’ stadium that holds nearly 20,000.
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Another day we ended up by a walled park. When we looked through the gate we saw this boulevard through the forest.
It took forever to walk to the other end but when we finally got up there we were met by this star shaped building.
It is The Star Royal Summer Palace but it is closed for another few weeks so I’ll have to come back another time. Once again there were a lot more background and history to be found online. It is build with a great attention to symbolism and so it was build in 1555 as a hexagram.
Update July 9th @ 14: Oh yeah and there was a small video from the stadium:
Click To Play
http://blogging.gelle.dk/2007/06/08/getting-lost-in-prague/
Update Sources