Stockholm Syndrome

Touring really is hard work but I am having so much fun I don't really mind. I've walked more ks in the last few days than I probably have in the last six months, but I'm no longer getting blisters, my back has stopped hurting, and I'm not (as) exhausted. I think I'm on the traveller's equivalent of a runner's high. What's especially keeping me going is the thought that in a few days I will finally get to see Russia. I am so excited about it and to add to that all my tour mates are really mad about it too, so it rubs off.

I'll try and describe some of the stuff I've seen, it'll be a cheap knockoff of the real thing, but here goes. The coolest things in Copenhagen were the Rosenborg Palace and the Church of our Saviour. The Rosenberg Palace has four floors and a basement (where the crown jewels are kept). As you go up the stairs, each of the four floors was more lavish than the last, with intricate tapestries on the walls, gilded everything, rooms of glass things and porcelain things, big long halls, and of course, thrones. The crown jewels were really impressive, much better than the English ones (I reckon anyway).

The church was awesome not only because it was really beautiful, but also because once you'd climbed up the more than 400 steps to the top of the spire, the view of Copenhagen was pretty amazing.

There's also a street called Nyhaven, which is like a sort of Danish Lygon street, only with really picturesque buildings, and a canal, and well, really not like Lygon street at all. But everyone was out eating on the street and sitting by the canal, and it was all very atmospheric, probably due to the fact that it was a Sunday afternoon and the only sunny day we had seen in Copenhagen. There's a lot more to tell, but not much time to tell it in.

Stockholm I think is almost as pretty as Copenhagen, but a bit more "city-like". We had a guided tour of the town hall where the Nobel prizes are awarded, and it was totally cool, a really beautiful building. One of the rooms had mosaic walls made mainly out of real gold. There were other, nicer rooms too, one with tapestries, heaps with really high ceilings (I love cathedral ceilings) and beautiful furniture. The tour guide was really cute too, which always helps the concentration span.

The Gamla Stan (old town) in Stockholm is just gorgeous, and it doesn't cost anything just to look at the picturesque old buildings. Just don't decide you're hungry, thirsty, or want to get a souvenir. Today we went to the Icebar, as the name suggests it's a bar made entirely out of ice. It has an airlock, and they give you big silver eskimo coats to wear, and the bar, walls, lampshades, decorations and even the glasses are made of ice. It was so cool (boom ch!). I'll post pictures of all this when I get to Dublin and can get them off my camera.

The tour has been great so far, my roomates are fun, but not too crazy, so we all have fun but get to bed at a reasonable time!

I probably won't be able to access the internet much for a couple of weeks, so don't freak out if I don't update this so much till I get back from my tour, or at least till I get out of Russia. At the moment I'm in the central station in Stockholm, and I'm actually stealing this internet time and not paying for it (naughty naughty) so I keep looking over my shoulder expecting the Swedish police to jump out and arrest me any second. Take care all!