So my girlfriend arrived on the 15th October for two weeks here in Sweden. Naturally, her coming all the way from Australia it would be a shame to only stay in Sweden, so it's time to hit the continent!
I still had (and have) work to do at this point so three days worth of travel was all we could really fit in unless I was prepared to work non stop on a red bull only diet with the last few days of my assignments due. Anyway we start by flying to Berlin to our hostel at night, sleep there and go back to Tegel Airport early in the morning to start our day trip in Paris.
You hear a lot about Paris. Some people build it up to sound like the most magical city in the world while others say its not as good as those people say it is. In my opinion, it was a pretty damn impressive city. There is a lot of huge and imposing buildings close together and the sheer size of the city itself is massive. Of course, there are the main attractions that we had to see: The Eiffel tower, the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe.
While the city was no doubt amazing there are a few things that I didn't like. For a start there are parts of the city that can be a bit smelly, you will guaranteed be intercepted by some form of beggar every 15 minutes around the tourist traps, they ask you if you speak English first and even if you say no they will still try to pester you. You almost have to shout at them to get them to leave you alone. The pollution levels are evident, too. For a start you often get the smell of exhaust fumes from cars and then you can see it in the greenery in the city. Some of the leaves and plants look like they have almost corroded from it and look seriously unhealthy.
Anyhow, later that evening it was back to Berlin to our hostel for another night in the city...where we don't actually see the city. Next day though we did more or less the same thing, rush to see as much as we could. It's a bit exhausting but fun at the same time, however Berlin is no where near as a beautiful city as Paris is. You can tell there is a lot to do and reasonably cheap if you lived there - but as a tourist attraction, it's not really the best.
There was a lot of cool architecture in the city and the main strip of shops near Zoologischer Garten train station was pretty impressive. Almost American styled with the giant Europa Centre. Apparently it was one of the first American styled shopping malls in Europe in a city? A bit hard to believe though since it is pretty modern looking. Inside there was a cool little chemistry looking feature that gave the exact time!
It was a fairly decent effort seeing two major/capital cities in the space of three days. It is really good seeing all these different cities because you begin to realise that there really is a compromise for everything in terms of size, tourist attractions and levels of development. I think we were both glad to get back to Gothenburg. As fun as traveling is, it can get pretty exhausting and quickly too! The hard life, huh?
Speaking of Gothenburg, since I've had so much work to do my girlfriend and I have just been spending the days having short trips into the centre and showing her the University. It is still, even after two and a half months, an amazing city to chill out and relax in. I'm really glad I chose to come to Gothenburg.
It's Sunday now, and I have a short paper for Mass Media due tomorrow and a larger course paper due for Swedish Politics on Wednesday. After this week I will be starting up with Opinions in a Mediatized Society, hopefully I will know what it's like for everyone else to only have one subject at a time for a change! I will also have to take my girlfriend back to Landvetter airport to wave goodbye on Monday and not see her again until I am back in Australia late January :-(
Until next time!
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