vrijdag 1 augustus 2008

A lot of travelling... from Norway to Poland

The last weeks I have had very little time to update my blog, partially due to some travels. I thought I would stir up the travel desires in you all and report a bit on my voyages.
 
 
 
 
First destination: Oslo, Norway.
 
Oslo is the capital of Norway and only somewhat big city (unless you consider places like Bergen or Trondheim big cities, which I don't). The Norwegian capital has approx 600000 citizens but if you count in the surrounding towns you will get well over 1000000 people. About 50% of the country's population resides in the capital city or surrounding towns. It is rapidly growing city and one that attracts a lot of immigrants searching for employment and welfare. The city has a growing expat population with mainly non-European expats such as Pakistanis, Indians, Arabs, Turks, ... While growing more cosmopolitan, the city also expands in terms of population which means a lot of construction is going on. Despite that, Oslo is still not a big city like some other capitals such as Paris, London, Berlin, ... Oslo still has the cosy feeling of a big town rather than a metropolis.
 
Those who know me, know that Norway is the country of my dreams. It has been since childhood, and it has always remained like that. Countries such as Turkey and Israel can be added to that list, I am a Middle East fanatic as well. But my obsession with the far north and Scandinavia goes back to early childhood. In fact it is mainly the north of Scandinavia that attracts me. Everything above the polar circle, and in particular the city of Tromsø which combines the arctic feeling (no sunlight in winter, no sundown in summer) with a vibrant city life, strongly attracts me. The north of Norway combines desolate areas with a few small villages surrounded by mileslong wilderness, and a unique scenery. Places like Honningsvag or Grense Jakobselv (nowadays a ghost town but it used to be the very last outskirt before entering the USSR ; a sort of arctic gateway into the communist world) are the true edge of the world, unless you include very isolated arctic villages further north like Longyearbyen or Ny Alesund. I still hope to relocate to north Norway someday, but meanwhile a visit to Norway is always a pleasure even when the voyage takes me to the more southern outskirts of the country.
 
Oslo lies in the south of the country, by the south coast. The city is quite unique because it is surrounded by nature, unlike many other capitals. To the north of the city there is endless woods. Take a train only 20 minutes out of the city and you're in the middle of nowhere. Even the train from the Gardermoen airport to the city center goes through some rural areas with only a handfull of houses in several miles. Knowing some of those woods are on soil that belongs to Oslo municipality, means Oslo is a very green city. To the south of the city there is a big fjord with some small islands off coast. This fjord is extremely close to the city center, you can see the sea between the shopping malls and buildings when walking along the main boulevard in the center. Only 5 minutes walk from the main shopping street take you to the fjord, where a lovely promenade along the sea and a cosy marina await you. A drink on a terrace overlooking the fjord, followed by a walk through the hypermodern architecture of the neighbouring Aker Brygge district is a very idyllic way to spend your evening.
 
The train from Gardermoen airport takes you directly to the National Theatre close to Aker Brygge and Slottparken, or to the central station in the heart of the city. Slottparken is the big park where the royal palace is situated. You can walk through the park and just come extremely close to the palace. There is no fencing around the palace, it is just a building in the middle of the park. Some guards will make sure nothing nasty can happen, but other than that you can just walk passed the royal residence without any hassle or have a picknick a few meters further in the park. At the end of the Slottparken you find the main shopping boulevard Karl Johans Gate. All modern shops and a few hypermodern malls are on both sides, as well as some cosy pubs and classy restaurants. In the middle of the big avenue you have some terraces where people enjoy a drink. In between the houses and shops you can see the sea, as the big Oslo Fjord is only a 5 minute walk to your right, with a cosy promenade and marina overlooking the idyllic fjord.
 
At the end of Karl Johans Gate you can find the parliament building Storting which is worth a few pictures on your camera memory card. Once past this building you enter the nightlife district with, apart from the huge shopping mall near the central station, you will mainly find bars and clubs. Cross the river to the left of the center and you come in the Grunerløkka district of the city which is known as the big nightlife area. Grunerløkka is quite different from the rest of the center, as it mainly has a lot of small streets with older houses housing bars and pubs. No hypermodern architecture like Aker Brygge or no big malls here, but mainly narrow streets housing cosy pubs and bars.
 
Oslo is not a big city, even for a capital it feels quite small. It feels more like a smaller city than a capital, because the city center can be walked through in less than 1,5 hour and it doesn't breathe the atmosphere of a metropolis. But Oslo is cosy. It feels cosy and clean, and it combines some hypermodern sights with natural beauty and lovely scenery a stonethrow away from the main shopping and clubbing districts.
 
The cliches of Norway are proven correctly here as well. Yes, the women are drop dead gorgeous and most of them are blonde! Yes, the nights in summer don't last long, it gets dark only around 11:30 PM and before 5:00 AM sunlight is welcoming you again. And unfortunately yes, the country is damn expensive. I tried to keep my expenses low, but to give you an idea: a glass of coca-cola costs about 3 to 5 euro, in more expensive clubs probably more. I am not a beer drinker, but I heard those cost over 5 euro often enough. Internet cafe: 4 to 5 euro for an hour, while in my current home Berlin it would be 1 euro per hour maximum. Hotel, while not a luxury hotel, was about 60 euro for a night. Locals do earn salaries adapted to the cost of living, but for tourists and expats not used to Norwegian salaries the city is very expensive. Recent polls showed Oslo is in the top-10 of the world's most expensive cities. So this may not be the ideal destination for those who feel like clubbing and nightlife. Not that options are very diverse in that area anyway, probably enough choice if you just want a drink in a cosy pub but I could not find a single goth bar and only 3 rock bars of which 1 would close down forever the night after my visit...
 
But, overall I like this city. Small but cosy. The people are friendly and the vast majority of them speak English fluently so you won't have any problems talking to locals. Everything is very modern but with a bit of searching you find some more historical sights just as well.
 
One downside I need to mention: while I would love to relocate to Scandinavia, jobhunting is not easy unless you want to work in fishing, hospitality or unless you have a very high degree as engineer or so. For regular office jobs, companies will demand fluent knowledge of a nordic language, even though the majority of the people in the city speak English fluently. It is very hard to find vacancies you can reply to, as either the language is a barrier or the demands include a bachelor degree or higher. Working in a pub or hotel is an option but those jobs are not available all year and often enough they want you to work a few days as a trial and start immediately when you are doing well, so finding such job while still being based abroad is also very hard. I hope to realise my dream sooner or later, but it will be a goal that is difficult to reach.
 
 
 
 
Shortly after my return to Berlin, me and a few friends decided to make a day trip cross-border to Poland. Destination was Szczecin, a town less than 10 miles across the German-Polish border and thus very easy to reach from Berlin. Note: because few foreigners manage to pronounce the name of the city well, the Germans have their own name Stettin for the city. As this is indeed a bit easier, I will resort to using this name ;)
 
To reach Stettin you just take a train from Berlin-Alexanderplatz or Berlin-Gesundbrunnen and this takes you straight to Poland. Stettin is less than 1,5 hour away. The weekend ticket cost us 35 euro and divided by 5 this means 7 euro each. Bargain! The train drive took us through the countryside of the former East Germany, where miles without any sign of civilisation were followed by very tiny towns of less than 4 streets. I felt fascinated to know what the people living in such remote towns do for a living... As we crossed the Polish border and left the train in Stettin's central station, it felt like entering into a different world. Even though the German border is so close, the differences are huge.
 
The first sights from the train station were very old houses that apparently did not get renovation or paint in many decades. It felt a bit like a ghetto: very old houses in a bad state. We thought this may be just a few less attractive blocks, but soon enough while walking into the city center we realised the majority of residences were like that. The city seemed full of very old buildings that really need renovation or at least a layer of paint. They all look in very poor state, maybe they look pretty inside but with this appearance outside it really felt like a bit of a ghetto. A few of those blocks were full of graffiti and did not have glass in the openings that should normally contain windows. I felt sorry for those living in those particular blocks. It was a sunny day and it all looked a bit special, but I can imagine that in winters when it is dark and rainy, this city can give a depressing feeling if you live in the wrong areas.
 
Another thing that surprised me: despite the German border being so close, hardly anyone spoke English or German. In the dining places we visited, we often needed to point at the food we wanted, after which the waitress had to write down in numbers how many Zloty we needed to pay (yes, Zloty... like most new EU member states, Poland will only introduce the Euro as currency a bit later on. 1 Euro is something between 3 or 4 Zloty). It really felt a bit like a different world in some bizarre way.
 
However, the city looking old and sometimes a bit grey does not make it an ugly city. There is still enough to see. Not that Stettin is a place full of beauty and history, but there are some places worth seeing for sure. We saw a lot of churches (a lot more than you would see in the average city) of which a few were really nice. There was a more cosy area which featured some nice restaurants and terraces, and a lovely old mansion with a courtyard that contained some really lovely architecture. On that courtyard a Russian folk choir was performing Russian folk music.
 
It is not the most exciting city but it felt totally different than the average German city and therefor worth a visit and still stirring up the desire to travel. Also, we had our oddities to photograph such as a true army tank in the middle of the city center streets, and a tram with the carriage number 666 on it.
 
 
 
 
Then a few trips in Germany itself. I won't comment on Leipzig as I already did that before, even though the second visit was just as pleasurable.
 
Potsdam was the first stop. A small city in the suburbs of Berlin, but because Berlin is a Bundesland (county or state within the federal German republic) on its own, Potsdam is technically another Bundesland and serves as capital of Brandenburg Bundesland. It has about 150000 citizens or slightly more. The city is only a 20 km out of Berlin so very easy to reach. It is a small yet cosy city with some narrow streets in the center which serve as shopping district. A few old houses and a nice city gate (like a miniature version of the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin) gave the city center some nice sights. The gate is by the way called Brandenburger Gate, but definitely not to be confused with the big arch in the heart of Berlin.
 
The main attraction of Potsdam however, is the big park that contains the Sans Souci and several other palaces. The Sans Souci Palace is in the middle of the Sans Souci Park, only a stonethrow from the shopping streets. Sans Souci means "without worries". It contains a large lane full of nice statutes, a lot of green, many fountains, and several palaces. Nicest palace by far is the impressive Sans Souci palace which stands on top of a small hill with many trees and hagues between the stairs to the palace. The biggest palace is on the other end of the huge park and is called Neues Palais. About 5 or 6 other palaces and nice buildings can be found in the park, on both sides of the huge central lane. The nicest ones you should not miss are the Chinesisches Teehaus (a pavillion in Chinese style with some very nice golden decorations) and the Schloss Charlottenhof.
 
 
 
 
 
Saving the best for last then, as the last city I visited was probably the most beautiful one. Dresden is the capital of the Sachsen state within the federal republic of Germany. Dresden is in the extreme southeastern corner of the former GDR, very close to the border with the Czech Republic and less than 150 km from Prague. Distance to Berlin is about 200 km. It has almost 700000 citizens in the city proper.
 
Dresden is known as one of Germany's nicest cities in terms of architecture, but it is also a quite big city with many suburbs who each have their own character and some have their own sights worth seeing. To discover the whole city you need quite a bit of time, a Stadtrundfahrt (a tourist bus through the whole city) may be a good idea although the drive takes over 2 hours in total. The most central parts are the famous Altstadt (old city district containing all historical buildings) and the Neustadt (the new city district) and those are also the two areas I visited.
 
The Altstadt is definitely a must see. It is full of beautiful architecture. Old buildings and new modern buildings such as business complexes and malls go hand in hand, but the old buildings dominate the cityscape of this district. Most impressive is definitely the Frauenkirche in the middle of the market square, it is a beautiful old yet colourful church. Surrounding the church are a few opera buidlings, museums and other halls who each have an equally beautiful appearance with mainly baroque outlook. When going away from the market place you come in the Kneipenviertel where you will find a few narrow streets with many cosy restaurants and bars that, during the heatwave we experienced during our visit, have terraces all over the street until late night. Add a nice fountain and another old church next to the pubs and you get a really cosy feeling.
 
Even outside of the heart of the city you will stind find a lot of academies, opera buildings and churches who each have beautiful architecture to offer. Dresden clearly is a baroque city and this style pleases me a lot. The city center is not large, you can walk through it in 1,5 to 2 hours time, but it has a lot to offer with beautiful buildings and monuments on nearly every street corner. The Hofkirche is definitely a must-see. Just outside of the city center you find a very weird building with minarets in a more moder style (it looks like a sort of future-esque mosque) and the extremely beautiful Zwinger Palace, a huge palace accessible through a bridge over a small river and an impressive gate decorated with gold. The tower overlooking the inner yard of the palace is beautiful and the whole palace is extremely pretty to see. Don't forget to consume a drink or lunch on one of the many market squares in the city, enjoy a drink or meal surrounded by the fantastic architecture of the Altstadt!
 
The Neustadt is less impressive but still worth a short visit. It is a collection of very narrow streets where the (not necessarily new!) houses are home to a somewhat alternative population of punks, goths, students and such. Many small pubs, punk and goth stores, record stores selling hard-to-find music, small restaurants etc give this city area a somewhat special touch, even though it has no monuments to witness. But with its alternative touch and wide variety of subcultures present here, it definitely has a nice atmosphere and is worth a short peek. The bridge connecting the Neustadt to the Altstadt overlooks the river Elbe with in the background the towers of the many impressive churches in the Altstadt. A lovely sight, and an excellent place for a picknick or sunbathing along the river if the weather is fine.
 
Definitely a city I would recommend to visit.
 
 
 
 
In two weeks time I am off to Istanbul. Back to the city for which I felt love at first sight and where I spent several months full of pleasure last year. Reports of that travel will follow as well of course, as well as photos of my last voyages I just described.

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