Jag är Full

I’m finally in Sweden!! After an amazing Eurotrip filled with drinking, partying, meeting new people, and new experiences.. I’m ready for more of the same - but in Lund!

I live in a studio apartment just north east of the university. It is brand new (from January this year) and I am the first to live in it ever. It has all the fixings – Kitchen (filled with most things you’d expect), toilet and shower, desk and chair, bed and wardrobe. Being a studio apartment, most of those things are in the same room as each other, but the place is very close to my faculty.

However it’s about a 15 minute ride to centre of university & the town. Yes that’s right, I bought a bike; When in Lund… do as the Lund-ians do (I’m sure that’s not the right word there, but who knows maybe I’ll introduce it and it’ll take off and the standard way of referring to Lund people, and you all would’ve been part of the introduction. Legends will write tales of this day.

Ok snap back to reality.

So Lund is a melting pot of cultures – SO many international students and very few Swedes (so far – most are still on uni holidays, but nevertheless there are PLENTY of other cultures represented). Everyone is here to meet others and have a good time.

The only way I can describe the first week gone by is “Hectic”! Lots of running around for registrations, for class (introductory Swedish course), and a fair amount of drinking – hence the title of this blog post; in English it means “I am Drunk”. Which by the way isn’t cheap to do – alcohol is fairly expensive – more so than Australia (and that’s saying something!). Liquor stores have strict and limited opening hours, and they need Passport ID for non-EU people.. pain in the ass.

It’s also the first time I’m living by myself so talk about a bit of a throw in the deep end, especially since it’s in a foreign country – I’m on google translate all the time in the supermarket (took me like 15 minutes to find and buy a steak).

Aside from that, I’m starting to find my way around without having to use a map.

Today I am going to Malmö in order to get my biometrics done for my residence permit (basically so I can live and study in Sweden, and I’m taking the opportunity to check out guitar stores with the intention to buy an acoustic guitar. For the 5 months that I’ll be living here, I need a guitar for a stroke of creativity late at night in my apartment or for a campfire sing-along with the gang.

Now that the dust is starting to settle (in the context of initial admin issues and teething problems with settling into a new country, new accommodation, new uni), I’m looking forward to many more weeks like this one.

Until then Skål! (Cheers!)

Dancing in the Dark

We continue our journey throughout the Greek islands, and since I’m running a little behind on my posts I’ll keep it short.

First important thing to note – we ate Gyros EVERYDAY.. I mean EVERYDAY. Not even just once, I’m talking like every meal was gyros. It was crazy – I’m surprised we didn’t have a coronary right then and there. Every pain in my chest I felt I was like “awwww shit here we go..”.

In Paros, the second island we visited we were living really smack bang in the centre of the town Naousa (a nightlife hub). So much so that we would go out round 9ish for a Gyros, wander the streets and meet afew people, then head back to the room to snooze for a bit and to come back out at around 3am to hit the bars and clubs. Some nights we’d go out, come back and sleep abit, go out again, come back and sleep abit again, then go out AGAIN.

THAT’s how close we were to the action. By comparison, in Naxos we had to walk 20 mins to catch a bus which would take about another 20 mins to get to the nightlife. That’s why we mainly did quad bike exploration, beach-ing, etc.

My favourite island from the 3 was Paros; had most fun there.

We also were abit creative on the islands and were composing tunes and lyrics. We had one song ready to go on Naxos, we went to record it in Paros. We found an awesome deserted old castle which was about 30 meters out in the sea. Accessible only when the tide is out be a slowly eroding stone crossing. Anyways, unfortunately we lost track of time (as you do on holidays) and we actually found this place around 5ish in the afternoon. We crossed over, began recording and then realised the tide was coming back in pretty fast. Anyways, had to bolt on out of there (Some of us made it dryly, others not – see pictures below).

And finally Ios – full of Australians.. absolutely FULL of Australians. But one good thing was 1 euro shots!! 5 euro got you topsy and turvy in no time! Add predrinks to the equation and you got yourself a recipe for good night out.

Run through the Jungle

Quad bikes on Naxos continued:

Since we’d paid for petrol ourselves we wanted to run the tank dry before returning it the next day. We go exploring the island, through every neighbouring village, over every mountain, through every dirt track. And therein lies our next adventure. We went in the very rural parts of the island. Fields of crop surrounding us on every side. Two way dirt road tracks barely big enough for one way traffic. Deserted.

Oh what’s down there? Let’s check it out. Oh what if we take this turn? Let’s go. Such was the nature of this journey.

The great thing about quads is that we can go wherever we want, stop whenever, and discover some amazing hidden gems and beautiful landscapes the general tourists wouldn’t ever see. That we did. We brought along the guitar and had a recorded afew early versions of original songs, looking over rolling hills and meadows.

We also found abandoned caves and houses, wells, fields, etc. That actually was abit creepy, particularly in the setting sun. And that’s when we realised that we were lost.

No doubt, after so many random turns it was bound to happen. Problem was, there was no view beyond the road we were on. Surrounded on either side by fields of crop taller than 2.5 meters. A labyrinth of vegetation. With the sun setting, and the fuel tank running nearly dry, prospects didn’t look so good in terms of finding our way back home that night.

That’s when disaster struck. The Quad broke down on us – the gear stick came loose and no gear would engage. From the many bumps on these roads, clearly the quad had had enough. We get down, in the middle of a deserted and rapidly darkening dirt road, and check out the damage. Proud to say, I inspected the engine, saw where the problem was and managed to hook back on the gear stick. Surely enough, the gears engaged and on our way we went. Unfortunately it kept getting unhinged with severe bumps on the road so each time I drove over one too many we had to get off and fix the thing again.

Thank God my cousin remembered a particular road we’d come from, because to me they all looked exactly the same.

We found our way back to the main road and got home safe. In time for a quick nap and headed back out on the highway ready to party the night away at a local watering hole.

On the Run

The Greek Islands – as beautiful as they are eventful. Always something to do, especially in peak season. Two weeks on the islands of Naxos, Paros and Ios.

Naxos:

We hired a quad bike – which sounds like a dangerous idea.. and it was. Keep in mind I’ve never driven on the streets of Greece before, and my cousin hasn’t even got his licence at all, nor has he ever driven a quad bike before. So we go to a nearby field to practice on the bike before taking it out on the road. I go him a crash course (no pun intended) on quad bikes and off we went.

I’m driving first. We drive straight into town; a 25minute journey. Road signs in Greece/Europe are different from Australia. So as we passed each one significant to us, he was explaining to me the road rules on the run: “This means this, go there. That means this, do this”. Very interesting experience – throw in the fact that Greeks drive like.. well.. Greeks. Dangerous overtaking, illegal turns, speeding, just to name a few.

Anyways, we make it to town in one piece, park the quad and scope out the bars and clubs in the day time to see where we’ll go that night. Naturally we grab a pita gyros (which by the way we lived off of for 10 days. Breakfast lunch and dinner, this is all we ate and I wish I was exaggerating.. but I’m not).

As we’re heading back to the quad, I see a police woman near the bike writing us a ticket (apparently we couldn’t park there). We run over and she’s already written down the number plate and afew other particulars. My cousin does the talking. Basically, “This is Greece” he says to me as we drive away from her without a parking fine. He talked his way out of it, luckily, as the bike in front of us had indeed gotten a ticket. So off we go home to relax ready for our afternoon adventures. To be continued..

Thunder Road

I’ve decided I don’t really like tourist hot spots. Across my travels so far I have touched some tourist hotspots and other places that barely any tourists go to. It’s those “off the beaten path” places that I really feel better in. I like to meet the locals, go to places tourists rarely find out about, learn abit of the local language and immerse myself in their routines. I ask what’s typical of people in the place I’m visiting.

This is a little hard to do when almost every person you meet is visiting from somewhere else. Worse still, in places such as Prague or Amsterdam where so many tourists flock, get high/drunk and become obnoxious and ignore local road laws or just generally become boisterous, they give other tourists a bad name. The locals just learn to blacklist all incoming tourists. But I digress.

Having said all the above, we did meet some interesting folk.

For example – Miss Rachel Lynn Sebastian. A self-proclaimed modern day rockstar on tour from California. We got talking about how she started in the music business, where her favourite performances have been, where she’s performed, tips on song writing. For a music enthusiast such as myself, this was quite a nice meeting. Check her out – she’s pretty talented. http://www.reverbnation.com/rachellynnsebastian

And on the last night in Amsterdam we walked randomly into a bar in the red light district from which we heard some good music. Had a pint, met some English guys just fresh from a stag party. Intended to stay for one drink, then stayed for several more, listening (and singing) to the likes of creedence, rolling stones, springsteen, nirvana, guns n roses, pink floyd, INXS, etc. with our new mates from Newcastle.

While I’m on the red light district topic.. it’s.. interesting there. Rows and rows of windows with women each more beautiful than the last. Perfect strangers knocking on glass and beckoning you to come in, flashing a beaming and all-knowing smile. The second they see you pass, that expression changes to a deadpan faster than anything, and you see them locking eyes with the next passerbys. A little bit of haunting imagery for you, sometimes they open the doors at you, as if to remove one of the barriers between you bringing you one step closer to walking in. Opened so many times each night, the doors become squeaky, and all you hear as you pass is creaking doors opening and shutting for each new eligible bachelor (or not in some cases unfortunately!). The streets flooded with intense red light which adds another dimension to the already intense experience. Some girls are more into their work than others though. By which I mean some are dancing about, some making eye contact with you as you pass, others are having a smoke or on their phones (probably updating facebook statuses, texting, etc.).

At the end of the day, it’s just women standing behind glass windows.. you can spot the pimps as well.