Rostock and Warnemünde

Hey hey, well I'm leaving today for Berlin.. finally! I'm sure there'll be lots to see there. I've been looking forward to it. Still, it will be the biggest city I've ever been to, so I'm quite at risk of getting lost. One thing I've discovered while I've been travelling, though, is I'm good at reading maps! Woo!

I didn't really bother going into the old part of Rostock, or any of it really, because I think it's much like a smaller version of Bremen. What I did do though, was catch a train up the the seaside city of Warnemünde yesterday, about 20min train from here. It was the first day I've had in Europe so far when it hasn't been sunny. There was all this fog coming in off the Baltic Sea and it was beautiful!! I took lots of photos. Enjoy..

Some random observations of Germany thus far: #1 Their pillows are these huge square things, double the size of our little rectangular ones. Same with Denmark. #2 The paper towels in bathrooms are green. Always green. #3 Breakfast always consists of bread rolls or that really thick, heavy bread.. not like our weak, thin stuff! #4 Kinder chocolate is really cheap! Yummm I'm in Heaven! #5 Germans are actually really friendly.. yes, you better believe it. I had a conversation on the tram home yesterday with a German lady who didn't speak any English.. so I was forced to speak in German. And they are really nice when you try!

The Nice Side of Bremen!

So, to begin with I found Bremen quite unfriendly, because I hadn't gotten to know anyone who wasn't staying in my accommodation, and these German people did seem a bit stand off-ish! But on Sunday at 4pm I went to IBC (International Baptist Church) of Bremen, which I'd discovered on the internet. It was an international service so therefore it was in English! There were people from England, South Africa, Ireland, Australia, Kenya, Malaysia, and quite a few residents from Bremen, who had decided to go to an English-speaking service.

When the service started, they invited any people who were there for the first time to stand up.. so I had to stand up and say 'I'm Renae, from Australia'.. and they all clapped and cheered, which was kind of sweet! So anyway, they were super welcoming.. more welcoming than any church I've been to in Australia. We had coffee afterwards and I was able to talk to a girl called Alex about Christianity in Europe. I told her that my preconception was that it was very secular.. and surprisingly, she agreed and said yeah, it's awful. I think that church is doing an amazing job, being Christians in a city where there might not be as many Christians as there are at home. And they're having a big Christian conference soon in Bremen, called Christival (see the comment by Christian on my last blog entry). Anyway, due to the topics of some of their seminars, they've had heaps of opposition. But they're still really enthusiastic about it, and so they should be.. as the pastor said in his talk, God's people always keep multiplying despite opposition.

After church I went with 3 others, all of which live in Bremen, to get icecream, and I heard more about Christival and how Bremen isn't quite so starved of Christian influence as I first thought! Still more secular than here, but there are churches who are doing amazing things and who embrace new people who come in.. and that's pretty cool. Afterwards a Bremen guy called Christian and I got take-away from a döner shop and went down to the Weser River, where we had a really good long conversation, and I learnt a lot. The Christian people I met in Bremen provided a breath of fresh air in what I thought was a fairly unfriendly place.. and, it was super encouraging to realise that in any city across the world, God is no more distant (something Adrian pointed out to me as well). God's still carrying out his plans.. that is really clear.

So, this morning I caught the train to Rostock. A lot of people have said 'why on earth are you going there??' The main reason they give is that it's East Germany. And to be honest, I really don't know why I wanted to come here! But it's ok. Same with Bremen.. but I know NOW why God took me there. Anyway, here I am! It does have a different look to Bremen. In my hostel, there is me and two guys in their 50s. I have my own room. It is very quiet! This is not a tourist place. I originally intended to stay 7 nights so I could just relax, but that is way too long! I think I'll stay 2 nights and maybe head to Berlin early, if I can find accommodation.

The photos are from my hostel here in Rostock.. it is really nice. Go to my photo gallery for more pics. Hope you're all well! Love from north-east Germany.

And then there was Bremen

Bremen marked the start of officially travelling on my own! I got a major case of loneliness yesterday... but thanks completely to God there is an internet cafe and call shop right across from the railway station, and I was able to get on here, and also to call Adrian. That helped! Also, after much praying, that night I ended up going out for dinner with Salvatore from Manchester, and then for a few drinks at an Irish pub. We also hung out for a bit today. He's gone now though, but we'll keep in touch maybe.

So, after I gave Bremen a chance to impress me (!) it turned out ok.. the old city has an amazing market square, with gothic architecture and world heritage buildings from the 1100s! And, I had my first experience of a gigantic European cathedral.. we have nothing like it at home! St Peters Cathedral.. there's a photo of it up there. But, as for real Christianity, one thing I've discovered is that it seems dead here. In Denmark, people consider themselves Protestant or Lutheran or whatever, but what does that mean if its only a tradition, that you label yourself? They are confirmed and baptised in the church, and then call themselves Christian. But they have no real, life-saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and if you ask them about that, they think you're crazy.. they don't seem to think they need Jesus.

The gospel is so starved here, it seems. Maybe they had their revival period already, so Christianity now only exists in museum exhibits and tourist attractions, like St Peters Cathedral. It's like some forgotten civilisation, like we'd be fascinated by Ancient Egyptian civilisations.. Just from the small experience I've had here, Europe seems very cold and people are definitely needing Jesus. I haven't seen much sign of him in people's mindsets here. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough though. On Sunday, I'm going to the International Baptist Church of Bremen, so I'll see! But so far, Christianity here seems like a label.

And the number of sex shops.. a lot of people have commented on it - Europe really does have a fascination with sex! I read something once that said the fascination with sex here in Europe is to do with the breakdown in real relationships.. so sex is totally separated from relationship, in people's minds.. so it becomes something of itself, that can be misused however people want.

Well so far Bremen is.. sex shops, cathedrals (ironic isn't it), gothic architecture, street market stalls, bronze statues, and chocolate.

And the Danish find a reason to laugh at the Australian!

Amaliensborg Palace

Well I'm in Bremen now, but since I last posted, I have been in Copenhagen for 2 days. Ditte and I left Bornholm and went back to her apartment in the capital. The next morning, she had planned a cycling trip, into the city, around the sights, and back. That was 12km!! Ok, so to some people that is probably nothing, but I ride a bike, on average, about 3 times a year, and for about 200 metres each time. My bike has no gears and cannot go very fast.

The Little Mermaid

I tried to explain to Ditte and Jacob that Australians don't cycle cos we have too many hills, but they didn't believe me. When they saw me ride a bike, they believed me! We rode down to the nearby shops and back for a start, and I nearly died. My legs were like jelly.. oh no, I thought, how will I make it into Copenhagen and back.. I will surely die. But, to cut a long story short, I made it!! When I got used to using gears, of course. But I was in SO much pain afterwards.

Tivoli

We went to Tivoli, to Amaliensborg Palace where the queen lives, to the Little Mermaid (just a statue covered in Japanese tourists, not sure why it's famous), and to the church where Fred and Mary married, among other things. At Amaliensborg Palace, Ditte wanted to take a photo of me with a guard (there is no visible security, no gates, just a few guards!).. so I walked up to a gate near the guard and he said, surprisingly in English 'excuse me. No closer than one and a half metres, ok?' It was hilarious. That's all the security there appeared to be! And the queen was home, cos the flag was raised.

So to describe Denmark, from what I saw: beautiful green countryside, STACKS of those wind turbines for clean energy, lots of recycling, spotless streets, red rooves, uniform brick apartment blocks, and bakeries! Very clean, pretty, neat place.

Southern Bornholm...

More Photos

More photos are up in my gallery at http://www.bubbleshare.com/users/profile/416956

My camera broke today. The shutter, or whatever it is that closes then opens when you take a photo, is no longer functioning for some unknown reason. This is sad. So I will buy a new camera. It's my last day on Bornholm tomorrow, so tomorrow morning I might borrow Ditte's family's camera and take a walk around Rønne. Then we head back to Copenhagen, where I will be until Thursday. Ciao..

There's nothing more Danish than Denmark

Hej! I've made it safely to Denmark and am now in Bornholm, a Danish island off Sweden. I felt like I was flying forever to get here.. 28 hours altogether, and that's just flying time, not counting the waits in airports! Air China was actually good, so there you go, but if you fly with them, I don't recommend the fish - it was terrible. Other than that, they were pretty good! I managed to sleep for a couple of hours on the 10 hour Beijing to Frankfurt leg, but not the Sydney to Beijing leg. So I was preeetty tired when I got to Denmark, but still felt reasonably good! Bad thing is, I now have the beginnings of a cold which I suspect was from flying so long.. planes are cold and you're in close proximity to so many people! Aaargh!

I had a scary experience at Shanghai airport! A flight attendant told me I didn't need to fill out an entry card as I was just passing through.. it was a stop over on the way to Beijing. So at Shanghai, we had to get off the plane and go to the transfer place, where the snatched out passports off us and yelled at us to get in line.. yep, that's personable!! At customs, the guy looked at my passport and made me fill in an entry card, then said 'wait!' and pointed for me to stand aside. He didn't tell me why and I thought there must've been something wrong with my passport! Thankfully, the next guy through said he was also going to Frankfurt, so they made him stand aside too. It turned out we needed stay permits to just pass through the airports. This other guy was Robert from Poland, and we stuck together until Frankfurt so we didn't get lost, or arrested by the Chinese police!

Beijing Terminal 3 was really big! It's the new one just opened for the olympics, and the biggest airport terminal in the world. But it was easy to find your way around, thankfully. I managed to fall asleep on the boarding lounge seats for over an hour so that helped!

So anyway, I got to Copenhagen and walked out, and immediately recognised Ditte, my penfriend that I'd been writing to since we were 12, and who I hadn't yet met! She and her boyfriend Jakob are really nice, and we went back to their apartment in Copenhagen where I had another sleep, yay. Seriously, when you're sleep deprived (from the most mammoth flight ever) it's really hard to absorb a new place! Anyway, from what I saw, Copenhagen is very very small! Surprisingly so. We went and walked around a big open grassy area with a castle and lots of deer roaming around. It's where Frederik and Mary go hunting deer! It was just so quiet there. And the streets were very quiet too. Everything just looked sooo Danish. That's something I've been saying a lot these past days.. 'that's so Danish!' Just ask Ditte. She thinks it's funny. But it's so Danish in everyway: countryside, orange and terracotta coloured houses with straw or thatched rooves, little churches..

Later that day we caught a train across to Ystad in Sweden, and then the fast ferry (one hour) to Bornholm, the island where Ditte and Jakob both grew up. We're staying here with her parents. This is what I've learned about Danes: they are very very patriotic and Bornholmers are extremely proud of their island.. they raised the Danish flag when I came to mark the special occasion. They're not allowed to have it raised the whole time, so when it's not a special occasion they raise a small skinny version of the real flag! They also start the morning by drinking a tiny cup of what they call 'bitter', or what we call schnapps. I tried this. You raise your glass and say 'Skøl!' and then drink all in one go. And they often have beer in the morning, and as far as I can tell, it's common to smoke a cigarette or pipe. Isn't that so Danish? ;)

Something else I learnt about Denmark.. they have a social law that you shouldn't dress up excessively or wear lots of make-up, because if you do, you are thinking too much of yourself. It's true that people in Denmark don't seem to dress up much more than sneakers and jeans. The word they use for this law is 'jantelov'. Jakob explained it as an unwritten law in Denmark that if you start to think too much of yourself and lose your modesty, people will tell you that you're not as good as you think you are, and bring you back down to earth. Ditte said there's no point trying to be better than everyone else, cos there's always going to be someone who's better than you. She said 'because all is equal.' Interesting.

I have to tell you about Rønne.. this is the main 'city' (more like a town) on the island. You walk up from the harbour and it's like a maze of tiny stone streets, really narrow, and all the houses are very tiny with either orange or terracotta or red paint. The fronts of the houses are right on the streets. There is a small footpath which is tiled. Even the window panes on the houses have to be made to look like the cross on the Danish flag. They have Danish flags everywhere, but only the small skinny ones cos of course you can't have the other raised all the time, it's just not what's done! But Rønne is beautiful. I'll put a few pics up here, but more later, once I've been for a good walk.

We went for a drive up the west coast to the north of Bornholm today. There are big mounds in a lot of the fields in Bornholm, which are viking tombs. There is so much history from the middle ages, but no big tourism attractions showing it off, like we have with Port Arthur. Bornholm is very pretty and very green. Every house is perfectly maintained and beautifully built and painted. You never see anything looking run-down! They also have the famous round churches, which are only found on Bornholm.

I'm enjoying Denmark. But I'm still looking forward to starting to explore on my own! It's been great so far, and I'm learning lots. I hope this cold disappears quickly! But it probably won't until I leave Denmark.. It is freeezing here! People are still getting around in beanies and scarves, and still freezing! The wind is so icy.

Photos..

Smog makes the air hazy at Beijing airport

Ditte and I at a castle in a field (can't remember the name!) It's where Frederik hunts deer.

These are everywhere.. straw rooves! This is in Copenhagen.

Beautiful Rønne.. the streets are so pretty. This is Ditte's street, just up from the harbour.

The smallest house in Rønne.

One of Bornholm's famous round churches.

Ditte with Cleo, the cutest cat in all of Denmark.. he dips his paw in milk and licks it off! He'll drink a whole glass of milk this way! Aww!

Bye!

I fly to Sydney at 7am Thursday and out of Sydney 9:30am Friday! See ya there!

And Adrian Steals My Blog Traffic...

No-one's commenting on poor Renae's blog now that they have South America to read about!! Pfft. Haha.. no, I fully endorse going to Adrian's blog. In fact, go there and click on Photo Gallery cos there's new pics up!! Right up to La Paz. Also go to Media Gallery to listen to audio recordings and see a video of crazy traffic.

www.fixmypix.com.au/blog

Adrian Leaves for South America

Adrian left Australia this morning from Sydney Airport and, as I speak, he's on his 16 hour flight to Santiago, Chile! He'll get there at the equivalent of 3:00am on Friday 11th (Australian time), but in Santiago it'll only be 2 hours later than when he left! He'll spend one night in Santiago, then fly to La Paz. This is where there will be massive altitude (please pray that he won't get sick). He spends 3 nights there, then flies to Cochabamba, where he'll be based for the 4 months! Thankfully, this is a bit lower than La Paz!!

Yesterday, we both made our way to Sydney and saw a few of the sights and spent some really good time together. We had some moments of sadness but also lots of fun and LOTS of laughing too (how could there not be with him?), so that was cool. Next morning we said our goodbyes and I used up enough tissues to create an environmental catastrophe, but I was happy to find I could sit inside the terminal with the big glass walls and watch the LAN Chile plane getting ready to leave! I took lots of photos of it taking off!

Please, if you are inclined to pray, pray. Adrian has a few days of transiting and trying to understand Spanish speakers before he arrives in Cochabamba, where he will meet the team there for the first time. So pray that he doesn't get sick, that he doesn't miss family and friends too much, that he travels around safely and confidently and that meeting the people in Bolivia all goes well. All in all, that it's a good start to one fantastic year. This year is a unique opportunity for him to grow as an individual, grow his faith, learn a lot, contribute heaps, and learn to depend even more heavily on God, following his lead wherever it takes him.

Here are some pics. Look for the plane taking off in the last one! It can just be seen in the background, behind the other plane. :)

Adrian and Renae's Farewell Drinks

Monday 7th April, from 8:00pm at Bar Celona, Salamanca Square.

Adrian leaves on the 9th April, which is next Wednesday, and I leave 8 days after him.

It's all happening far too quickly..!