European Adventure

I headed off from Vaduz and caught a train to Basel where my Aunt and Uncle are based and where I was to meet family for Christmas. Basel is a lovely little city but as this time of the year everything is shut, and after a while alone, people seemed to annoy me sooner than usual! But it was great to have Christmas with others and not alone.

Basel had a few highlights, including an outing across the German border in which we had to act unsuspiciously in the car so the German police would think we were locals! We trapsed around a german forest for a few hours before tiredness set in and we headed home act like normal people for a few days. It was the last that I would see famliy for another two months so it was with a bit of sadness that I headed off again - this time for Austria.

Well I was in Liechtenstein and had pretty much seen all it had to offer by lunchtime! I spent an hour visiting the cities musuem, which was probably longer than necessary, then headed to the famous stamp musuem which was one room above some offices and a strange receptionist who must have thought I was a theif by the way she watched me like a hawk.

I even caught a bus up to the small town of Trieslberg but even that only filled in two hours. I walked from one end of Vaduz to the other in about 20 minutes stopping at every shop along the way which was few. So I headed up to the Prince's Vineyard (its actually his!) and bought wine for the folks back home because how often can you have a wine from Licehtenstein!. I retired to my hotel at about 4pm and spent the rest of the day reading, and then had a meal in the hotels restaurant which was the strangest meal I ever head (it seemed to be fried spam or something similar). I had an early night and was glad to be leaving in the morning as I had truly exhausted what Vaduz had to offer.

Today excited me more than others as I got to see snow for the first time in my life at the age of 21! I was on a tour up to the top of Mt Titlis via a stop over at Lucerne. Lucerne was lovely but a half hour stopover didnt exactly let me experience the city, although the lake was beautiful!

We arrived at the bottom of Mt Titlis and I was already smitten. I touched snow for the first time and although not as fluffy as cartoons make it out to be it was still snow and it made me smile. It took over an hour to get up the mountain - first a shaky little cable car, than a slightly bigger one, then one the size of a room up to the very top. It was absolutley stunning, half way up we cleared the dark foggy level that people at the base were looking at and made it up into clear blue sky - I had not expected this and was thus even more stunned. We had two hours at the top of the moutain including a trip over a glacier in an open ski lift (terrifying for me, and trust me I'm not one who scares easily!) But it seemed that as soon as we got there it was time to go again with another hour to get back down the mountian, then onto the bus back to Zurich.

I arrived back in Zurich after 6pm a just made the Train to Sargans, the last stop before Leichtenstein. Of course the train line runs through it but there are no stops (common sense is obviously not a strong point). I arrived at my hotel after 10pm (after getting of the Bus to Vaduz at the wrong stop thanks to a helpful driver! and then having to wait an hour for the next one!) and found that the proprietoress spoke no english, so I had to check in using school girl german. I was it turns out the only one staying there (perhaps the only one in Leichtenstein - the thought pleasing me greatly) and settled in for a good nights sleep finally in a bed that did not have one above or below it!

A quick flight had me in Denmark before long, and a long bus in from the airport had me at my hostel on the outskirts of town. But I was beginning to get used to all this walking an soon the distances seemed to matter less and less. Denmark remined me of home, it had similar shops, a similar atmosphere and of course 'Our' Princess Mary (I've got a postcard to prove it!).

I checked out the Musuem and it had some wonderful collections but I was beginnning to feel a bit of musuem fatigue, so I threw caution to the wind (and a lot a Kroner too!) and spent a wonderful day at Tivoli, one of the oldest gardens in Europe, with rides, restaurants and a pretty little lake to top it off. I spent hours rushing between the rides and exhausting myself in the process. I filled up on junkfood (waffles, hot chocolate and fairyfloss!) and yet still didn't feel sick ! More rides were needed! I highly recommend the ride that is like a tower of terror as you get the best views of Copenhagen from the top before you plummet back down to earth!

I cruised around the harbour heading out to Chrisitania but only getting to see it from the comfort of a boat full of load obnoxious tourists. I wandered around the picturesque Nyhavn and strolled along the longest pedestrian shopping street in the world which seemed to contain more tourist shops than anywhere else in the world.

But that was the end of my three short days and I had to catch a flight to Zurich (via a five hour stopover in Berlin - who on earth knows why?) and thus had to leave the rest of Denmark for another time

Well, its not as nice as Sweden but it sure beats Norway - its Finland. If I had not just left Stockholm, I'm sure Helsinki would have seemed like a perfect little Scandanavian city. But it does have its charms - the people are extremely friendly and seem to have a real love for life even in the middle of a cold dark winter. I didn't know much about Helsinki, or Finland for that matter, before I arrived, but the towns musuems had me up to speed quickly.

I headed off to Soumelina Fortress, taking the ferry across some very choppy water, but the colourful little buildings there made it worth it, and a brilliant video in the musuem on the Island was fascinating. I explored the rest of Heslinki with the help of a bus-tour. I was probably the only one under 50 on the bus, but that just made me feel lucky to be experiencing the world at a young age. Sibellious Park was beautiful even with the strange metal tribute. But my only problem came when I went out to find a traditional Finnish sauna, every one I went to seemed to be filled with creepy older gentlemen who had the look that if I went in I might not come out or would come out as their new young bride! So I never did get to experience the traditional Suana.

The night life in Helsinki is better that its neighbours and after a few too many shots at a local hotspot, a friend and I had to hightail it across town at 3:30am in order to make the curfew of our hostel at 4, arriving with only 2 minutes to spare! I happened to book a room based on the fact that it was located at the old olympic stadium, rather than location as it was a little bit out the way, especially when under the influence of strong Finnish liqour!

But that was all that I had time for in Finland, I still had to get to Denmark before meeting family in Switzerland for Christmas