Her kommer et lille postkort fra min forlængede weekend i Sverige sidste weekend. Jeg får helt stress af at tænke på, at det allerede er en uge siden. Tiden flyver afsted. Eller det vil sige ikke hele tiden. Denne uge er jeg nemlig helt alene på mit kontor. Ud af otte, er jeg den eneste, der ikke holder rigtig sommerferie. Når man ikke har været fastansat ét sted, siden man blev færdig, så har man heller ikke noget ferie sparet op. Øv bøv. Men jeg skal ikke klage, jeg har trods alt haft en forlænget weekend i skønne Berlin, været i sommerhus med drengens familie og en tur til Sverige med min egen. Men jeg kunne nu godt klare et par uger i streg med strand, sol og en god bog.
Det var simpelthen så dejlig i Sverige. Ét at jeg endelig fik set mine forældre, som jeg ikke synes, at jeg har set i tusind år. Derudover var vejret skønt, lidt blæst nogle dage, men masser af sol og fine sommertemperaturer til både solbadning i haven og vandplaskeri i badesøer. Vi tog også på nogle ture ud til den meget gamle slotsruin Eksjöhovgård i Sävsjö, Vallsjö kyrke og en stejl vandretur i de svenske skove. Vi så bjørnespor – måske. Det ville være virkelig sejt, hvis det var! Vi plukkede masser af vilde blåbær i skoven, som jeg brugte til en lækker blåbær- og citronkage – også pyntet med små søde skovjordbær, den mindste fandt i skoven ved siden af huset. Jeg købte en sej ‘vand-hoppebold’, som vi fik meget sjov ud af – både i vand og på land. Mest når nogen fik den i hovedet. Ja, sådan en familie er vi så. Den mindste og jeg spiste masser af den lækreste vandmelon nogensinde, som også blev brugt til en lækker sommersalat. Min far var grillmester. Drengen gravede et hul og lavede et bål. Jeg fik læst en masse i min bog og som indlægget her bevidner, taget en masse billeder af det smukke svenske sommerland.
English: Here comes a little postcard from my long weekend in Sweden last weekend. I get a little stressed out realizing it’s already been a week. Time flies. Well, not all the time. This week I’ve been all alone at my office. Out of eight I’m the only one who’s not on vacation. When you haven’t had one normal steady job since graduation, you don’t have any vacation time saved up. Buh. But I can’t complain, I’ve after all had a lovely long weekend in wonderful Berlin, spent a weekend in a vacation house with the boy’s family and a trip to Sweden with my own. But I could manage a few consecutive weeks with beach, sun and a good book.
It was so lovely in Sweden. One thing was that I got to see my parents, who I felt like I hadn’t seen in ages. Furthermore, the weather was nice, a little windy some of the days, but with plenty of sun and nice summer temperatures for both sunbathing in the garden and water splashing in lakes. We also went on some trips out to the very old castle ruin Eksjöhovgård in Sävsjö, Vallsjö kyrke (red. church) and a very steep hike in the Swedish woods. We also saw bear tracks – maybe. It’d be so cool if they were! We gathered lots of wild blueberries in the woods, which I used on a delicious blueberry and lemon cake – also decorated with sweet little wild strawberries, which the youngest had found in the woods next to the house. I bought a very cool water bouncing ball, which we got a lot of fun out of – both in the water and on land. Mostly when someone got hit in the head. Yes, that’s the kind of family we are. The youngest and I ate lots of the tastiest watermelon, which also was use for a delicious summer salad. My dad was barbecue master. The boy dug a hole and made a bonfire. I read a lot in my book and as this post testifies, took a lot of photos of the pretty Swedish summerland.
På 4. dagen af vores Berlin-tur var vejret helt fantastisk og det blev fejret med en tur til Berlin Zoo. Der er to zoologiske haver i Berlin, men efter lidt søgning på nettet, besluttede vi os for at besøge den zoologiske have, hvor isbjørnen Knut boede. Det viste sig også at være en meget pæn zoologisk have og et skønt sted at tilbringe et par timer. Vi kunne heller ikke have timet besøget bedre, for næsten alle dyrene havde fået små nuttede unger. Det lille æsel var simpelthen så sødt. Som det også ses på det ene billede, havde det ikke mestret kunsten at gå helt endnu.
Bagefter gik vi til Kurfürstendamm, som ligger ret tæt på. Herfra tog vi toget til Wittenbergplatz, hvor Europas anden største shoppingcenter ligger – KaDeWe. I min Lonely Planet havde jeg læst om deres food court, som skulle være helt fantastisk, så det måtte vi prøve. Jeg havde bare forestillet mig det som food courts er i USA og Australien, hvor du kan få lige hvad du har lyst til (italiensk, thai, indisk, sandwiches, burgere, sushi etc.) fra en masse små individuelle restauranter/’madstationer’ – men det var det slet ikke. Der var bestemt masser af lækre varer og små ‘madstationer’, hvor man kunne sidde og se sin mad blive tilberedt. Men for to sultne piger, der ville have noget hurtigt frokost til billige penge, var det ikke lige stedet. Vi fandt dog nogle wraps og lidt chokolade til gaver til respektive familiemedlemmer.
Inden turen gik tilbage til hotellet, fik vi en lækker frozen yogurt fra Wonderpots (ved Zoologischen Garten stationen) og skrev lidt postkort i solen. Der blev også tid til lidt shopping på Kurfürstendamm, men så havde vi også lidt travlt med at komme tilbage efter vores kufferter og så videre til lufthavnen.
English: On the 4. day of our Berlin trip the weather was amazing and that was celebrated with a trip to Berlin Zoo. There was two zoos in Berlin, but after a little research online, we decided to visit the same zoo where the polar bear Knut lived. It turned out to be a very lovely garden and a really nice place to spend a couple of hours. We couldn’t have timed the visit better, because nearly all the animals had gotten their little cute baby animals. The tiny donkey was so adorable. As you can see on one of the photos, it didn’t quite master the art of walking yet.
Afterwards we walked to Kurfürstendamm, which is quite close. From there we took the train to Wittenbergplatz, where the second largest shopping mall in Europe is – KaDeWe. In my Lonely Planet I had read about their food court, which was suppose to be amazing, so of course we had to give it a try. I had pictured it like food courts in the States or Australia, where you can get almost anything you like (Italian, Thai, Indian, sandwiches, burgers, sushi etc.) from lots of little individual restaurants/’food stations’ – but it was nothing like that. There were definitely lots of delicious things to buy and little ‘food stations’, where you could sit and see your meal get cooked. But for two hungry girls, who just wanted something quick and affordable, it wasn’t the place. We did eventually find some wraps and some chocolate as gifts for respective family members.
Before we made the trip back to the hotel, we got a delicious frozen yogurt from Wonderpots (by the Zoologischen Garten station) and wrote some postcards in the sun. We also managed to squeeze in some more shopping on Kurfürstendamm, but then we also were in a hurry to get back to pick up our suitcases and then on to the airport.
Vores tredje dag i Berlin startede med vores
forudbestilte aftale
i Reichstag-bygningen, hvor vi fik en gratis audio tour af glaskuplen, parliamentsbygningens historie og de omkringliggende seværdigheder m.m. Modsat audio touren vi tog på
Schloss Charlottenburg
, var denne speaker mere kortfattet og det var faktisk rigtig spændende. Rundvisningen gav også en rigtig god fornemmelse af hvor de forskellige seværdigheder og bydele ligger i forhold til hinanden, så jeg vil klart anbefale at tage rundvisningen, hvis man skal til Berlin for første gang.
English: Our third day in Berlin started off with
our appointment
in the Reichstag building, where we got a free audio tour of the glass dome, the history of the parliament building and the surrounding sights etc. Unlike the audio tour at
the Charlottenburg palace
, this speaker was much more brief and it was actually really interesting. The tour also gave a a really good sense of where the different sights and parts of the city are in relations to one another, so I will definitely recommend taking the tour if you are going to Berlin for the first time.
Jagten på resterne af Berlinmuren tog os vidt omkring i byen. Det viste sig ikke at være helt nemt at finde de famøse rester af Berlins historie. Mere om det senere, næste stop var Alexanderplatz og Barbie The Dreamhouse Experience.
The hunt for the remains of the Berlin Wall lead us all over the city. It turned out not to be so easy to locate the infamous remains of Berlin’s history. More about that later, next stop was Alexanderplatz and the Barbie The Dreamhouse Experience.
Jeg var lidt skuffet Alexanderplatz. I mit hoved havde jeg forestillet mig den lidt a la et parisisk torv med brosten og masser af små hyggelige fortorvscaféer. I stedet var det bare en meget stor plads med nogle kæmpemæssige bygninger i trist beton og nogle shoppingcentre, der havde lukket fordi det var søndag. Vi havde desværre ikke rigtig tid til at komme op i Fernsehturm (læs fjernsynstårnet), hvilket ellers skulle være en ret fed oplevelse med gode cocktails om aftenen og en lækker brunch om morgenen. Det bliver næste gang!
I was a little disappointed about Alexanderplatz. In my head I had pictured it like a Parisian square with cobbles and lots of little quaint sidewalk cafés. Instead it was just a large square with some really tall buildings in sad-looking concrete and some shopping malls, which were closed because it was Sunday. Unfortunately, we didn’t really have time to visit the Fernsehturm (red. The Television Tower), which supposedly should be quite fun with nice cocktails at night and a delicious brunch in the mornings. Next time!
Efter lige at have set Berlin Dom (læs Berlin domkirke), bare udefra altså, var det igen tid til at indtage lidt føde (denne gang i form af en stor fed burger) og så fortsatte vi jagten på Barbie The Dreamhouse Experience, som også var lidt vanskelig at finde.
After having seen Berlin Dom (red. Berlin’s Cathedral), just from the outside that is, it was yet again time for food (this time in the shape of a big greasy burger) and then we continued our hunt after Barbie The Dreamhouse Experience, which also was somewhat difficult to find.
Barbies drømmehus var virkelig en oplevelse, men bestemt ikke som vi havde troet. Jeg havde bare læst om stedet i
Politiken
, men vi havde ikke nærmere undersøgt, hvad det var for et sted. Og det var et sted for små piger, der elsker lyserød og naturligvis Barbie – og deres forældre. Ikke to voksne piger uden børn og med sparsomme tyskkundskaber.
Det koster € 15 per person at komme ind, derudover skal du lægge € 5 per mand i depositum for et interaktivt armbånd (som ses på billedet ovenfor), hvilket giver en mulighed for at prøve en masse aktiviteter på forskellige skærme og computere inden i huset. Det er helt sikkert et paradis for små piger, men hvis man ikke er god til tysk og ikke vil sidde sammen med en flok 5-årige og give dukkehoveder make-up på, så er det måske ikke pengene værd. Udstillingsdelen af huset er i hvert fald meget begrænset, så det er mest en stor lyserød legeplads.
Barbie’s dreamhouse was really something, but not quite what we had thought. I had just read about it in a Danish newspaper, but neither of us had look into what kind of place it was. And it was a place for little girls, who love pink and of course Barbie – and their parents. Not two adult girls without kids and with only a very limited German proficiency.
It costs € 15 per person to get in and an additional € 5 in deposit for an interactive bracelet (as seen in the picture above), which allows you to try a lot of different activities on the different screens and computers around the house. It’s definitely a paradise for little girls, but if you aren’t that good at German and don’t feel like sitting together with a bunch of five-year-olds and putting make-up on a doll head, then it might not be worth the money. The exhibit part of the house was nonetheless very limited, so it’s mostly one big pink playground.
Endnu et must-see på min liste over Berlin var deres Holocaust Memorial tæt på Brandenburger Tor. Vi fravalgte det tilhørerende museum, men det var en virkelig smuk oplevelse at gå rundt på den anderledes mindeplads, der markerer tabet af så ufatteligt mange uskyldige jødiske liv. Herfra fortsatte vores jagt på muren. Vi gik og vi gik og vi gik…
Another must see on my list over Berlin was their Holocaust Memorial close to Brandenburger Tor. We chose not to visit the belonging museum, but it was really moving experience to walk around the very different memorial square, which marks the loss of so inconceivably many innocent Jewish lives. Afterwards our hunt of the wall continued. We walked and we walked and we walked…
…Ved Checkpoint Charlie (på Friedrichstraße), lykkes det os endelig at finde det første rester af muren, men i en meget uautentisk form; skåret i små brudstykker og malet af diverse kunstnere. Jeg var ikke helt tilfreds. Heldigvis havde en rar tysk vagt ved Holocaust Memorial-pladsen fortalt, at det eneste sammenhængende stykke af muren, der er tilbage, ligger ved floden Spree i den tidligere øst-del af Berlin, kaldet East Side Gallery. Så vi tog toget til Ostbahnhof, og derfra var der kun en kort gåtur ned til den 1,3 kilometer lang rest af den tidligere Berlinmur.
…by Checkpoint Charlie (on Friedrichstraße), we finally succeeded in finding the first remains of the wall, but in a very unauthentic manner; cut in little pieces and painted by various artists. I wasn’t completely satisfied. Luckily, a very helpful guard at the Holocaust Memorial had told us, that the only longer piece of the wall that is left is down by the river Spree in the former East-part of Berlin, called East Side Gallery. So we took the train to Ostbahnhof (red. Berlin East railway station), and from there it was just a short walk to the 1.3 kilometer long section of the former Berlin Wall.
Ovenpå en lang dag og med meget trætte fødder, sluttede vi af med drinks og mexikansk mad på Simon-Dach Straße i den livlige bydel Friedrichshain. Her er et stort antal hyggelige cocktailbarer og restauranter, vores fødder var bare alt for trætte til mere udforskning den dag. Man kan godt gå fra East Side Gallery til Friedrichshain, der er bare lidt langt. Jeg taler af erfaring.
After a long day and with very tired feet, we ended our day with drinks and Mexican food at Simon-Dach Straße in the lively part of Berlin called Friedrichshain. Here is a large number of cute cocktail bars and restaurants, our feet was just too tired for any more exploring that day. You can walk from the East Side Gallery to Friedrichshain, it’s just a little far. I’m talking from experience.
