Transport is Arranged - Part 4, Hamburg and Copenhagen (& arriving in Oslo)

Friday

On Friday morning we had a slow start, and we decided to get out and have brunch - maybe head over to the Kunsthalle to see the painting that was recommended to us, and get the train. We went to a place called Moraba and sat on the benches outside, ordered a brunch platter for two and waited...and waited....and yes, it came and it was plentful and delicious but took so long we only had time for a cab ride to the station, across a very busy Hamburg, and only just really made it in time for the train. 

The train journey was our first introduction to the twinning of Danish trains with the UKs*. Firstly, there were no visible seat reservations and the people sat in ours did not want to move - potentially as they knew what was in store for them! They did move, but we saw the same conversations repeated over and over, and heard announcements about the reservations downloading - they never actually did. Ridiculously for a 5 hour journey, no buffet car - also, no way of getting any water - the conductor pointed us towards vending machines but they were all broken. We had two broken toilets either side of our carriage too. Working my way through the train was impossible as people were sat on the floor as tickets for the train journey had been oversold. First class were being given little bottles of water, but they were categorically not available to standard classers, even to buy.

We arrived in Copenhagen at 6pm and the hotel I had booked was around 10 minutes from the train station - it was such a relief to be off that awful train. We stayed at the Scandic hotel in Kødbyen - the Meat Packing district, which is the home to some pretty hip looking places and even at that time, lots of people out for drinks. Once we eventually found the hotel, using Google navigation that we felt might be about to say: 'wait by this portakabin for your assigned scandi-murderer' we checked in and bought two bottles of water from the fridges at reception, and drank them pretty much before we got to the room. 

We headed out quite quickly, conscious our train was early the next morning and wanting to get as much of Copenhagen seen as we could. I had grand plans of getting a taxi to some of the key spots and then finding somewhere to eat, but the thought just seemed exhausting. On a trip like this you just can't tick off the sights, which is a bit of a relief actually. We decided instead to walk around, see what was going on and let's find a somewhere to sit and people watch and get a drink.

The finding of a bar heralded the start of 'how much is that in pounds?' start of the trip, followed by some clumsy maths and a clutch of the heart. We knew that the food & drinks portion of the trip was going to be expensive - from this point on particularly - so tried not to worry too much about it. We knew what we were getting into when we planned this. If we wanted to do this on a tight budget, it would have been possible to some extent - there are 7-11s selling hot dogs and baked goods everywhere, and you don't have to eat out or drink in a bar - but those are things we like to do, so we just went ahead and did them.

First impressions of Copenhagen were that it is super clean, and it's clear that bikes are a preferred mode of transport for many - the bike lanes seem to be mostly separate from the rest of traffic and there are no hills at all, so it makes a lot of sense. Secondly, everyone spoke English to us and others, almost as default. We found a bar called Alfons x Vintrovert which was a classy little place, and I had a glass of wine and James had a beer. It was clearly filled with a post-work crowd and it was all so lovely I realised that this wasn't going to be enough of Copenhagen, that we'd need to come back. 

When we paid, the bartender asked where we were going to eat and we said we weren't sure - she recommended a few places for us, including somewhere she said was likely to be very busy but definitely try - Jah Izakaya & Sake Bar. James already had this on his potentials list, so we headed in that general direction to see if we could get in.

As we headed towards Jah Izakaya, we passed many different restaurants and takeaways, all of them busy. When we arrived, we were greeted - again in English - and told they had nothing - well, potentially something, but at 9pm and we'd essentially have to eat with our elbows in as it was a small space. It looked so cool and cosy inside, so we took it, and gave him our details - he said if anything more roomy came up he'd call us. We found Mikkeller - a small cellar bar with a varied beer menu and outdoor space. Again, there was quite a choice of sour beers which was very welcome for me. Jah Izakaya called to say they could take us earlier and seat us comfortably, so we headed over.

We sat at a table, elbows relaxed, and opted for the tasting menu - it was incredible - the photos below show the overstuffed gyoza and a lovely rice bowl with lots of tasty stuff in it. The food just kept coming, it was lovely. The staff were so friendly and interested in what we thought, it was a great experience.

Saturday

On Saturday we got up early with a mission in mind. We have recently watched The Bear on Disney Plus and one of the characters becomes inspired by baking and mentions Hart Bageri. On Googling, we realised that it is in Copenhagen, so yes, we would definitely like to go to there. I also spotted a tweet from Nigella Lawson recommending their Cardamon Buns so that helped narrow down what we were going to be having for breakfast.

Of course, it was a trek, and of course there was a queue - but we had plenty of time and the queue moved quickly. We purchased some Cardamon Buns and drinks, then learning from our mistake the previous day, some sandwiches (Goats Cheese and Walnut on Rye) & fancy biscuits for later. We headed towards the train station to find somewhere to sit and eat 

So obviously the bun was incredible, and the spot we found to sit and eat was quite picturesque. We headed off to Copenhagen train station for the next disappointing Danish Trains experience. ALL TRAINS delayed and then cancelled - due to an electrical fault? We weighed our options and decided as we were going to need to get the bus from Gothenburg to Oslo anyway, then a mammoth bus journey was probably the best option. I had an e-mail from Omio, who we booked our travel with, saying they'd processed a refund for this trip. I went online and booked our journey with Flixbus, who would apparently leave from outside the station.

Of course, finding the bus was not easy - no stand number and no indication of which bit of the road the bus would stop at, but we did find it and the journey was pretty comfortable. We had a couple of rest stops and had the fear that we would see the bus pulling away as we headed out of the shops, but we managed to not get left behind. OH, and we went over The Bridge! There was a tunnel first, which confused me, but I realised what was happening before I missed it. We were also stopped at Customs, and James was interrogated as his Shengen Area passport stamp was not clear. But they decided to let him in anyway, thankfully!

After stopping for a while at the Nils Ericson station in Gothenburg (If you want to know more about this station, I found a comprehensive blog about it here) & eating some fresh and tasty noodles, we eventually got to Oslo around 10pm - watching Karen Pirie and making good audiobook progress on the way. After checking in to the Raddison Park Inn, which was absolutely fine - and yes, I am damning it with faint praise - we went to explore Oslo. It was Hallow'een so there were lots of people dressed up but nothing too rowdy going on. We found a bar! It was an underground cellar bar, all Moroccan style decor and very cosy. Everyone we spoke to was, again, so friendly but after not too long we realised we were too tired for anything more and went off to bed.

*https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.dsb.dk - say no more...

Transport is arranged Part 3 - Hamburg

Wednesday and Thursday - Hamburg

I need to write faster - I am already forgetting things! Two things help jog my memory - James checked into every place we visited on Swarm, and I take photos of literally everything. So with Google Photos & Swarm open, I am ready to go!

Because we messed up the trip from Brussels, we arrived in Hamburg later than anticipated, so we quickly showered, changed and headed out to explore. Our hotel was in Sternschanze, a district which has a youthful, hipster-ish vibe - lots of bohemian looking apartments, cocktail bars, brunch spots and artful graffiti. We had some drinks sat outside Cafe Kostbar and ate some burgers at a place called Nosh. It was great, relaxed and friendly and when we left the waitress said "are you English? I'm confused, English people never tip!"      

The following day we had the luxury of not having to pack and leave, so we got up (not too early obviously) and decided to start the day by finding some food and going on a U Boat. 

We walked quite a way down to the Fishmarkt near where they U-Boat Museum was stationed (is it still stationed if it's decomissioned? Don't write in). On the way I was taking photos and a woman stopped to ask if I was from the council, and had I come about the leaves. 

Near the Fishmarkt we happened upon a restaurant called Eir Carl which had some great traditional dishes.We had well missed breakfast by this point so went all in on the Schnitzel & it was amazing, I couldn't resist trying the Egg Liquers either (copying the table who had just left) and had a flight of different flavoured ones - this all definitely set us up for the day.

The U-boat Museum is definitely not one for claustrophobes. It is amazing how much of the inner workings are open, and how compact everything is. It didn't take long to walk through but was definitely worth doing. The website is also pretty good - talking about the history of this Russian Submarine and how it came to be a museum in Hamburg, and has a webcam so you can have a look at it if you want to. 

We then set off in the general direction of where all the other stuff was on the map, resolving to follow our noses and stop and look at whatever piqued our interest on the way. There was a lot to look at in St Pauli - leafy and overgrown with a lot more run-down looking houses, overgrown shrubbery and doors to apartment blocks like this one which had a sign on that said, "No Dealing, No Phonecalls, No Cops" - it was vibrant and lot of signs of community like allotments and communal gardens.

We kept on walking and covered a lot of ground - finding ourselves on the edges of the city centre and working our way in. We happened across St. Michaelis church, which has an impressive spire and a bronze statue of St Michael smiting the Devil above the door. We stopped for a coffee and admired it for a bit, then walked around it to find a statue of Martin Luther tucked around the corner. 

As we headed into the city we passed streets of peep shows, sex shops and massage parlours which definitely had a seedy feel as opposed to anything cool or edgy. Nothing was open when we walked past but would have been interested to see how it all came to life and if it's a tourist or local scene.

Oh, also on this bit of our walk I saw a red squirrel - it ran across our path and then into a cool-box that was at the back of a newspaper stand, presumably trying to hide from us. It then darted across the pavement and up a tree. I haven't seen a red squirrel for years and it felt incongruous to see one in a city!

It was about 5pm when we made our way down the colourful umbrella covered streets, with the fancy shops, and arrived at the Außenalster - one of two man-made lakes in Hamburg. We walked around it, taking lots of photos obviously - taking another rest stop at Alex at Alasterpavillion, a huge bar cafe great for people watching and snacks.

At 6pm, till not hungry due to the aforementioned Schnitzel and at this point quite a way from our base, we decided to try and find a nice warm bar to sit in. It was surprisingly difficult, most places looked very restauranty, so we did a quick search and found Bar Oorlam which was about a 20 minute walk away, and I am so glad we did! Bar Oorlam is a Craft Beer bar, and we were met by the bartender Josh, an American speaking fluent German, and a customer intent on showing us a TikTok video of someone saying "Bottle of Water" in an accent he found hilarious. They had some guest beers from a local brewery on, and had a great variety, including some sours. The owner recommended one that "just soaks all of the fucking moisture out of your mouth, honestly" and that is so far up my Straße, I was delighted. We also sampled some Genever, which was lovely - and pairings were suggested to go with each of the beers we had. Josh recommended we go and see a painting in the Kunsthalle called Sea of Ice, as it was the inspiration for a sculpture in the harbour at Oslo. We spilled into the street promising we would definitely, definitely do that*, and went off in search of food. We found Otto's Burger, which was way too cool and hip for us - they asked how we wanted our burger done and it actually came out medium rare, as requested, which considering how busy they were and how used you get to that not being actually a thing, was pretty impressive. Great burgers, fantastic waffle fries and then we headed back home to bed. Step count for the entire day was 23, 866. 

 

*spoiler alert, we did not, in fact, make it to the Kunsthalle...

Transport is Arranged, part 2 - Brussels to Hamburg

Tuesday - Manchester to Brussels

I don't need to say anything about flying from Terminal 3 in Manchester do I? It wasn't anywhere near as bad as it has been in the past thankfully, especially considering somehow we had planned this trip in the summer holidays (blame Malkmus!) - our flight wasn't delayed and we breezed through security. Someone in the village told me they prefer to drive to Leeds to avoid Manchester Terminal 3 - certainly something I thought about in the hellish depths of our journey to Porto earlier in the year.

We arrived at Brussels airport at the scheduled time, then headed out to look for the bus into the city centre. The arrivals side was quite busy, and quite a few people huddled around a street food stand, so we joined them and bought some hot hot chips - actually the best chips I think I've ever had. Big splodge of Mayonnaise too, perfect. The bus into Brussels was supposed to take an hour but took much less than that - we bought tickets beforehand from a little booth at the terminal. Once at the bus station we took a train from the Central train station to the Midi and then walked about 10 minutes to our hotel. We were all checked in by around 6pm.

When booking hotels I tried to keep the costs down, so we didn't stay anywhere fancy, but tried to balance cost/ location and reviews. Although a lot of reviewers seem to be on the unhinged & demanding side at times, it is good to get a sense of the types of things people complain about and consider if that is the kind of thing you care about, or not. I didn't add breakfast at any place as it's usually easy to find some breakfast when you're walking around a place - I had no regrets about that!

Our first hotel was The Hotel Hubert Grand Place. It is quite a trendy/ opulent looking hotel with plush seating in reception and some quirky branding which attempts to make it friendly - kind of like Hubert is a person. That aside, it was a lovely spot, and we had a very friendly concierge who gave us a free florentine while we waited to check in.

We went out to eat in Brussels, choosing somewhere both James and I had happened upon in our research: Cafe Novo. It was somewhere where it was stated you could get some traditional food - James had Carbonnades - a delicious beef in ale stew and I had Stoemp - sausages with potato & root veg mash. James also had a beer from Grosse Bertha - a Belgian Brewer. We sat outside! That is still a thing in late October somehow - it was nowhere near cold and after all day cooped up it felt like a good thing to be doing.

Language-wise in Brussells most people spoke to us in French or English, which I could cope with. As usual if I spoke French most people reply to me in English but it feels like a good thing to try!

We slept really well at Hubert's Place - he was a good host! I would definitely recommend it. It was our first go at unpacking and repacking our stuff too, and thankfully everything went back in easily. 

Wednesday - Brussels to Hamburg

We were up early to Brussels Midi to get to the Centrale station. The journey was Brussels -> Cologne (Koln) ->Hamburg HBF but things didn't exactly go according to plan. We bought coffee and a croissant at the station and then headed for our train. The station is huge and lacking in signage but we worked out where we needed to be - our train was late, then it moved platform at the last minute. We followed our fellow travellers to that train and ran onto the train on the platform. We found our carriage and seats, to find a man sitting in one of them. We showed him our reservation and he said, "it says these are unreserved.." another man who had just got on supposed perhaps the reservations were wrong as his said the same. Our Seat Guy moved to another seat and I pulled up the route on my phone. As the train pulled out I realised in a panic we were on the wrong train. Of course it was nothing to really panic about, it was all sortable but the thought of the lost time and potentially lost money made me feel a bit sick.

We got off the train at Dusseldorf, crucially without Our Seat Guy knowing that we'd turfed him out for no reason, and headed back to Cologne. At the station we had some funny encounters with some staff which resulted in our reservation for our journey just being changed at no cost. Amazing. We got some interesting looking but ultimately dry and uninspiring baked goods to try as at this point we'd managed to fanny around in the wrong direction until lunchtime. When we got back on the right train though, we noticed the first stop was Dusseldorf (before heading off in a different direction than the original train) and we both started laughing maniacally - it was really quite difficult to stop.

So we arrived in Hamburg later than expected, but we were in the right place! Our accommodation was in walkable distance from the train station - the My Place Hotel in Schanzenviertel. I had managed to not to take in all of the instructions for checking in, but we found eventually our key was in a locked box and had a code to retreive it. The room was basic but well appointed, and the bed was comfy and the shower good - which sometimes is all you really want. It could have felt cosier - the floor was plastic/ lino - but ultimately it easy to see that it was v clean.

I'll save more about Hamburg for the next post - we stayed there for two nights so had a full day to explore, which we took full advantage of...

Transport is Arranged - part 1, planning

We have just returned from a Grand Adventure - from UK to Bergen - seeing Pavement in Oslo, in 8 days, travelling mostly on trains. I used the ridiculously helpful Man in Seat 61 website to structure the trip, and we definitely would not have been so well organised without it. I also might have fell for those websites that look like ticketing websites but actually are brokers who add on a lot of additional fees. I sent all of our travel and accommodation confirmations onto Tripit, which produced an itinerary we could refer to and share with relatives so they knew where we where and when and we could focus on sharing pictures rather than location updates.

Although we wanted to do the whole trip on trains, the UK leg proved difficult as the tickets weren't available, so we flew to Brussels and planned trains up until Gothenburg, when the only option onto Oslo was the Flixbus.

We also decided to use hotels rather than Airbnbs, as we weren't going to be anywhere for long enough to  need the facilities of a full apartment.

We had to do some thinking about packing as I couldn't imagine that our trusty holiday wheely cases were going to be much use in this scenario. After doing some research I chose the Miles Duffle Bag from Millican* which is light and has a folding feature at one end which means it opens almost all the way up, and it has some handy straps inside which I used to fasten my raincoat out of the way. It has a separate padded section at the back for a laptop (used for my iPad and Kindle). I also got some packing cubes which I was glad of every step of the way - it keeps the inevitable rummaging around in the rucksack in public respectable. The non-back-strap handles were really helpful for wrenching it out of the overhead storage places, and for places where wearing a huge rucksack is a bit antisocial. I also took a small cross-body bag and one of the smaller Longchamp La Pliage bags, one of those long-ago eBay bargains you can't seem to find anymore! It origamis to a much smaller size and unfolded it's big enough to pop my padded camera protector in it so I can cart my camera around.

As is usual on a trip, I downloaded more entertainment than I could possibly have consumed - especially when looking out of the window was such a draw! We were one episode into the fabulous Karen Pirie, so I downloaded the rest of that and a few audiobooks but was hooked by the new Kate Atkinson - Shrines of Gaiety from the start, so that was the audiobook soundtrack to my journey.

Rizzo went on her own holiday to the Pooch Pods in Farelton, which is as far away from a kennels as it's possible to be. She has her own pod, her own bed (a single bed, not a dog bed!) and spends all day playing with other dogs.

I was going to do one post about the whole trip but it was taking too long, so I am breaking it down into stages. I realise relatively few people will be interested and read the whole thing, but I wanted to do this so I can remember it! I also thought it might be useful in case anyone is planning something similar and some of our experiences might be useful.

*James took the Cotopaxi Del Dia, which was a huge success; light and capacious and opened up fully like a suitcase. Both bags are made of recycled materials and will be hardwearing, they were a bit of an investment but will get a lot of use and take up next to no space at home.

On goals

I had a really interesting discussion this afternoon about goals, and the things that we all (generally) focus on, versus the wiser things to focus on.

It started with a discussion on writing – there are lots of books about inspiration, plot, character development, about getting going, about developing good habits.  Where there seems to be a gap is in editing and revision – the finishing and completing - yet that’s the part that it’s hardest to get excited about.  So we wondered for a while why that was.  It’s certainly not as interesting or compelling – especially when there’s a new idea bouncing up and down vying for your attention.  Yet we are told that ‘first drafts are rubbish’ and met a successful writer last week whose book went through 14 drafts.  We're aware that there's graft to be done, but there's little help out there in calibrating our expectations, or building our skills to get on and do it.

There’s a parallel with weight loss – there is lots of focus on reaching a target weight, but relatively little about maintaining it.  Some cynical part of me wonders if it’s that there’s a bigger market in the ‘reaching a goal’ category than the ‘maintenance’ one?  And actually if we focussed more on finishing and maintaining, there’d be less need for the ‘reaching a goal’ resources?  Would there be an impact on how much people spent on weddings if their focus was instead on how to maintain a healthy and successful relationship, with the wedding celebration as a milestone, not the peak?

The discussion certainly made me think about long-term goals, and how maybe the euphoria that comes with reaching an ‘end point’ might make carrying on or finishing off even more difficult.  Perhaps if you view your goal as part of a long-term vision about how you want your life to be, attaining and then sustaining it would be easier?

Also seems like there’s a gap in the market, aspiring self-help book writers! 

Nobody asks

As I’ve mentioned before, I have been getting some feedback on my writing from friends and my mentor, who is the brilliant Maggie Sullivan.  I promised to share with you some writing, and I am going to do that now - some before and after stuff – so you can see where and how changes have been made and maybe give me your thoughts on them?

As you will know from previous posts, I am completely new to poetry – even reading it, so it is no surprise at all that a large part of my feedback has been about structure.  In writing and rewriting, I am ok with words, subjects, trying to pin down whatever it is I have decided to try and say.  When it comes to how it’s flows – where you punctuate, why you start a new paragraph, how many lines to use – I have no idea.  Along with not having enough experience of reading it, I don’t think it’s something I am good at intuiting.  So I need to work on that.

Another piece of useful feedback from Maggie was about not over-explaining things.  I think that’s good advice in general.  It was interesting as I’d just got back from Birdman and been reminded of the brilliance of Raymond Carver and in my inbox was an e-mail referring to his writing style – ‘get in, get out, don’t linger’.  That’s definitely something to work on.

This first poem will be familiar to my postal correspondents.  It’s the very first thing I wrote for the class and seemed to get a lot of positive response.  It was based on a story that I was by a friend steadfastly ignoring some attention seeking behaviour from a colleague – I’ve since spoke to who I thought told me that and it turns out they didn’t.  Most odd.  Anyway, I am going to post my version and then the edited version.

If they ask

If they ask, I’ll tell them it was my mothers

“She died recently, I like having her things around me”

Or maybe I’ll say ‘its nobody else’s business” and run

And they’ll follow and I can show them where it hurts

If they ask, I’ll say “wouldn’t you like to know?”

And I’ll wink, and we’ll laugh and go to lunch

Or maybe I’ll tell them about my brother

On remand now and the charges are mounting

All I’ve got left and I don’t want him

I sit and I wait, ready at last

But nothing has changed

Nobody asks

If they ask

I'll tell them it was my mothers

"She died recently, I like having her things around me"

Or, maybe "it's nobody else's business" and run

They'll follow and I can show them where it hurts.

If they ask, say "wouldn't you like to know?"

and wink, We'll laugh and go to lunch.

Or maybe I'll tell them about my brother

on remand now, charges mounting

All I've got left and I don't want him.

I sit, wait, ready at last.

Nobody asks.

The things I like about the editing of this one: it’s much more efficient (the removal of the I’lls and conjunction, plus there’s no longer the repetition at the beginning) and I think the space works – the ‘nothing has changed’ being implied.  The gap feels more like a beat, or a breath.

There are suggested edits to others, too, but I am conscious that this has become quite a long post already.  What do you think?  Which one do you prefer (if any)?

I’ll write another post about the other poem I’ve sent out to people – the night journey.  It was a bit of a mess, but I really liked some bits of it.  The suggested changes to that one are more drastic, which is necessary, though I am still mulling them over!  I start a new class tonight, so hopefully that will give me some more inspiration!

Soul Moon Ribcage

So I did it! I stood up and read my poems to people and managed to not die of embarrassment.  The showcase was great actually, it was so good to hear other people’s writing – a mixture of stories, poems and plays – some of them great and very funny.  Then a lot of wine was consumed (shock!) so I was more hungover than I’d have liked to be for the workshop with Buddy Wakefield in Portobello Library the following day.  I’ve never been there before, it’s really cute – a small but vibrant library with an upstairs meeting room.  On the back wall of the meeting room is a Town Mural, something I have only heard of existing before in Pawnee Indiana!  This one is much less offensive though.  I was a bit late so I missed Buddy Wakefield's introduction, and to be honest I’d not had a lot of experience of his work before.  I bought some books though, because I really liked him and what he said made a lot of sense.  I wasn’t disappointed, his stuff is really good – check him out!

I had a real lightbulb moment at the workshop (quite a feat considering my hungover state).  I’ve been in a class where I was expected to read out a bit of writing each week.  Despite my efforts in getting over myself, it was really hard to get rid of the sense that what you read out has to be ‘something’ – ‘something good’ even.  Hearing a successful writer say that even with writing every single day, he has one poem he considers good enough per month, was a bit of a reality check.  A lot of his focus was on performing, obviously not something I’ve done a lot of and I’m not overly drawn to.  His biggest piece of advice – I had my pen poised for this – was ‘don’t fake cry’.  I didn’t write that down.  Do people really do that?  Another bit that made me laugh, mostly because it’s what makes me cringe in writing, is use of clichés – and not all the ones you expect.  “Stop fucking with the moon” he said “and opening your ribcage” – I can think of a lot of these poetic sounding phrases that (for me) disconnect me with whatever the writer is trying to say.  Is that universal, or does that work for you?  Any that particularly rile you?

More has happened since the workshop – I have been appointed a fantastic Mentor through the WoMentoring Project, and some of my poems have gone through an editing process with her.  I am going to share some of the reworked stuff - some that my postal correspondents will be familiar with - in my next post.