It has been almost a week!

Hey all!

**Skip to the summary at the bottom if the length intimidates you as much as it should!! haha**

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog. Internet stopped being so reliable once I left Vienna, so I never really had the chance to fill in the gaps until now, as I'm safe and sound in my lovely welcoming cabin in Östersund. :)

Alright let's go back to Wednesday. I spent my last day in Vienna in a very laid-back manner...it was just what I needed. Luke and I stopped and got the (apparently?) world-famous Sacher Torte in town, which is basically a heart attack in a cake. It was unbelievably delicious! Then I got to sample some of Luke's new music (all for field research for the biography I'll be writing for him :)) and then hit the streets for a last little look at the city. We all went out later that night and then the next day I was off to Berlin.

Okay. Here's where the Katie vs. Europe segment of my trip comes in. From here on out I was completely on my own. No definite plans other than Berlin for two days, Copenhagen, then home, and no travel pals. Just me, my feet, and my backpack.

So how lucky is it that I manage to make a friend on the train to Berlin who not only can offer advice for what to do in the city, but goes the extra mile and offers to show me around the city the next day?? Here I was, clueless, plan-less, and friend-less, and by a lucky chance-encounter I managed to find a filler to each of those voids in one photographer by the name of Mathias. So anyway we make plans for the next day and then once in Berlin I head off to find my hostel. And get this! In the cheap 12-person room that I reserved a bed in, not a SOUL was staying in it the first night. So no more friends to be made there, but I DID get to choose whichever bed I wanted so there was a trade-off :). Then once I got settled in I set off to fulfill one of my life goals: Go out to dinner at a real restaurant by myself without a book to read. Found a Cuban restaurant, no english spoken, had my favorite meal of the trip, and checked the experience off my list. :)

So. The next day I met Mathias at 9am and was greeted with my very own professional photography camera. Big, black, neck strap and all. I had to keep two hands on it for the entire ten hours we took on Berlin because I was so scared of breaking it! And we really took on Berlin, the touristy places and not-so touristy places. Saw the TV tour, the DDR Museum (not to be confused with Dance-Dance-Revolution...the German Democratic Republic :)), Alexander platz, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reitzdag, Checkpoint Charlie (the American checkpoint during the cold war and where the Americans and the Soviets had a stand off for 18 hours), and of course, remnants from the Berlin Wall. Off the beaten path, we came across an old tower from where they patrolled the wall and shot people who tried to cross it, an old train station that had been converted into what I thought looked like a museum of graffiti and brokenness, an occupied house with the words: Capitalism Kills, Norms, and Destroys, and all sorts of other little unknown places of interest in Berlin. By the end of the day I had taken 353 pictures of locations literally ALL OVER the city of Berlin, a feat I never would have been able to accomplish had I been meandering on my own and not with the guidance of a chance new friend. It's the encounters like that that make me wake up every morning. :)

I'll need to go back someday and give Germany in general more of my attention. I know it may be tough to believe but 36 hours in a country is not enough time to say you know it, regardless of how turbo you go. :) The next morning I was off to Copenhagen at 7:15am. At around noon, the train suddenly stopped and asked that everyone please exit the train while on the ferry. We could leave our belongings on the train and then resume our seats in 45 minutes when the ferry came to port. Ferry??!!! I had not the slightest CLUE that a FERRY was involved in this trip!!! It was such a pleasant surprise! I probably looked like the biggest foreigner in the world but I could not wipe my childish grin off my face throughout the whole ride for the life of me. This boat was massive and just kept going and going...it had THREE restaurants, a BEAUTY SUPPLY STORE, a liquor store, a chocolate shop, an ARCADE, a KIDS' PLAYGROUND, four viewing decks, everything. I was seriously elated.

It was a couple hours after the ferry trip that I arrived in Copenhagen, feeling refreshed and energized. And despite the fact that I still had nowhere to stay that night, I was feeling positive and excited about the city. So I immediately set off to find accommodation for the night, and soon realized how ridiculously expensive everything in Copenhagen is. The cheapest place I found was...not cheap...but it was the best deal that included a breakfast the following morning so I took it. Then once I was settled I just went out to check out the city. I've come to truly enjoy wandering. You see so much stuff when you just sort of let yourself get a smidgen lost in new places. I came across this great community art project in the square outside of city hall, for example, that consisted of thousands of white legos spread across a half-dozen tables in the shape of Copenhagen. It was called the "U-turn project" and invited everyone who came across it to build a part of what they'd like Copenhagen to look like someday. So the artists were the citizens and tourists alike. Then later I found all these black-and-white 6'X6' photos of residents of Christiana, the controversial hippie settlement on the east side of the city that I'll get to later. The pictures we gripping and so full of personality that I felt that they should be displayed somewhere where they were protected from the weather and vandals, but the artist's point was obviously to make a public statement so they were perfect right where they stood. I stopped at this awesome little diner for dinner and then basically called it a night after a feeble attempt to find live music somewhere. I was exhausted.

Back at the hotel, I figured I should take advantage of having TV, and ended up getting dragged (drug?) into this awful program for an hour and a half. It was a movie of some sort (there were never any commercials so I have no clue) that was in the format of a documentary that told the story of President Bush's assassination. There were fake interviews with his associates, potential gunmen, everyone. And it was all in English, with clearly American actors. It was absolutely nauseating to watch...I mean I'm not fan of Bush myself but I was shocked to see such an intricately hateful film out in the media. A movie about his assassination? While he's still in office?? It shook me. Not only because of how relentlessly hateful it was, but just for the mere fact that there are people who feel passionately enough in their disgust with Bush that they'll spend time making a full-length film about it. Like I've said before, it's a peculiar feeling to be in Europe at the time of such a political turning point in the States. It's a completely different perspective. There's more about this actually later in my trip.

Anyway I woke up the next morning after (!) 8 and a half hours of sleep! Went to breakfast, stole sustenance for lunch, and then headed out for a full day off seeing Copenhagen. Right from the get-go, I was one left turn away from completely scrapping my plan and going to the the famous Tivoli Garden all day (the famous Copenhagen amusement park that the Nazi's bombed during the resistance and now IS the bomb...pun intended :)), but thankfully I talked myself out of it and ended up having an extremely fulfilling day. It started off with a canal tour, which was splendidly touristy and gave me great background on the city. By mid-morning I was back on land and excited as ever to get the exploring started. I saw the famous Nyhavn canal (the one where Hans Christian Anderson lived and that has all the sail boats and multi-colored houses), the somber Little Mermaid statue, the Danish Resistance Museum (which was much more powerful than its no-entrance-fee policy suggested), that Christiana burrough I mentioned earlier, and lots and lots of pretty old buildings and canals. Copenhagen is charming.

Let me go into more detail about Christiana, because it's really an interesting place (you should wikipedia it). From what I gathered, in the early 70s a group of young people took on the abandoned storage land used for the army years back and declared it their own, calling it Christiana after the old king (?). The space provided homes for hundreds of homeless people, and over the last 37 years has developed into a community of common understanding and harmony. They denounce the Danish government and instead govern themselves, making decisions solely on unanimously-agreed opinions. (Ex: They all agreed to put up a sign as you leave the village stating, "You are now entering the EU [European Union]".) About 800 people consider themselves residents there right now, and the Danish government doesn't know what the hell to do with them. On the one hand, they have figured out a solution to some of the homelessness issues in the city, have concentrated the marijuana trafficking to one central location where it can be monitored and therefore less hazardous, and have, for the most part, remained a peaceful, community-based, and love-spreading bunch all the while. On the other hand, they have a reputation for occasionally attracting the wrong kinds of people which end up disrupting the peace on a large scale (someone was even killed in one such disturbance in 2005), and also over the years their dream has become a bit more commercialized than it originally was, as more and more tourists find out about the place and wander around through it (enter: Me). But this is not a typical tourist attraction, and the government worries when some outsiders come across the place and are completely mortified by what they see. I wasn't allowed to take pictures in there, but try to imagine it: Old run-down stone buildings that were clearly used for military purposes, all completely covered in spray painted art/graffiti. Over-grown plants lining dirts paths that at first glance just give off the appearance of being neglected, but upon closer investigation have actually been clipped into the shape of people or animals or other images. Merchant stands all over a central square (where I was incredibly disappointed to find some products "Made in Nepal"...everyone's a sell out I swear). The smells of pot and food everywhere. Clothes hanging outside cottages on a line. Dread locks mixed with leather jackets. Live music playing from somewhere. "Stray" dogs running around your feet. An entire shack dedicated to the Save Tibet cause. A bike rent and repair shop. It was really a neat little village to say the least. I'd love to go in an write an ethnography about the place someday. 

I spent quite a few hours in Christiana just walking around and people watching, and by the time I left it was about time to make my way back to the hotel to grab my stuff and prepare for my night train. On my way back, I came across a peace demonstration going on outside of city hall. There were posters and pamphlets and peace flags in all different languages all over the place. I learned that these brightly-dressed people had been sitting outside the city hall every single day since we went to war with Iraq in 2001, so 2,558 days as of Sunday. To talk with these people was refreshing; they knew that fear was the enemy of peace and that it's amazing what you can discover when you try to put yourself in the shoes of someone you think may be your enemy. But amongst the posters there was one that seemed counterintuitive: It called for a delivery of George War Bush, Dead or Alive. Dead or Alive? What's peaceful about that? 

So as you may have gathered, I have arrived back in Östersund more traveled and even more contemplative about my country and what we portray ourselves as to the rest of the world. I just mailed in my absentee ballot yesterday, and am joining most of Europe counting down the days to November 4th. 

But this blog is not about politics! Haha it's about my trip and how crazy awesome it was. I saw SO MUCH and had SO MANY wonderful experiences. I can't believe it all really happened.

But I must say I am glad to be back to the safety and comfort of my cabin and friends here in Östersund. It's truly amazing how quickly a fun-loving, smiley girl can turn lukewarm when it's Her Against the World in a foreign country. Don't get me wrong, I made friends and was obviously open to new experiences, but wow let me tell you I've never been more suspicious of the people around me in my whole life. By the time I was at the Copenhagen train station waiting for my night train back to Sweden, I had everyone pegged as a thief or worse. I mean I still grinned when I made eye contact, gave directions to people who asked for them, held the door open, ran to return a dropped wallet to a woman, said excuse me, etc., but it was insane to get into my own head and see what little faith I had in strangers by that point. I was convinced that I stood out as a target, being a woman and clearly a tourist (the backpack that was twice my size gave it away if my lack of language skills didn't), and that at any moment my safety could be in jeopardy. 

But was I? Was I a target? Or was it all in my head? I'd like to say it's better to be safe than sorry, and that feeling protective of my belongings, and more importantly myself, was the naturally intuitive way for a woman/single tourist/young person to go, but was it really necessary to psych myself out at all? Is it when we give in to that distrust, that fear, that peace becomes an unreachable concept and hostility becomes the norm? I don't know the answers here. But now, sitting in my warm cabin where I know I can sleep and eat and go about my business with little to no fear of the consequences, I confidently look back and think I could have fostered more positive thoughts about the strangers I encountered on my travels. Maybe I didn't need to feel any fear at all; maybe no one even noticed me. It's just incredible to see how quickly trust appears to be naivete when you're traveling by yourself, I guess. And then all of a sudden you meet an incredibly generous photographer who'll show you around the city, or a waiter who'll gladly take time off his shift to point out where to go on your map, or a homeless person who just wants to talk about the bright lights of New York who ends up making you laugh your ass off. It would have been the best if I could have put myself in the shoes of all the unknown faces that surrounded me, then I probably wouldn't have been so protective.

Well clearly this post has gone on way too long! Haha so in summary: My Paris-Amsterdam-Vienna-Berlin-Copenhagen trip was full of adventures and smiles. Pictures will all be up on facebook soon, and hopefully on the blog here too. I thought of you all while I was out and about and I hope you are all doing exceptionally well. Keep sending me updates of your lives! They're great to read! :) Love you!

kt