Hedd in Europe. Eh?! Yup, that's right, and he's on a bike!

Yo yo!!!!

So I thought I might as well blog about my latest trip a) to let you all know what cycling through Western Europe is like, b) 'cos I can use is as my own personal journal, and c) to stop pointless worrying by female relatives.

After a long but comfortable train ride, mum & I finally arrived in her & Ffion's hotel room placed half-way between the world's largest cylindrical aquarium and East Berlin's most famous church. I'd decided to stay in a hostel a 12 minute walk away - more familiar territory. I made a bet with mum to see which one of us could make more new acquaintances, the one staying in a huge hotel but isolated from everyone else or the one sharing a room with four strangers. I won, of course, but only by 2-0 (by the time I'd get back to the hostel most people were asleep anyway and I felt like joining them too!), meeting an Iranian-Canadian who was in Berlin for a topography and word-graphics conference (he'd ran out of business cards on the second evening so was up in the middle of the night trying in vain to do some make-shift new ones) and a Brayillian Guz (sorry, that's these silly German keyboards, but I'm sure you can work it out!) who was half-way through his 8 months of motor biking around virtually all of Europe. The only people they had a chance of being acquainted with in the hotel was a morbidly obese couple Ffion & I saw stark-naked in the hotel sauna!!

Berlin was fun, as usual (!) but hot for a change. We went on a river cruise, randomly found a huge party by the Brandenburg Gate celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Bundesepublik and sped through the Jewish Museum. Oh yes, and we also went to see Andrea Bocelli live in concert, but I thought that's not really worth mentioning... actually, he's the whole reason we were there in the first place, as was the case with what seemed like most people who attended the concert; none of the people I spoke to after it were from Germany. To be honest, I was more impressed with the South African bass than with Andrea - he's obviously accustomed to relying on a microphone (!) - but judging by the queue to say a few words to Andrea and get his autograph after it had finished I was obviously in the minority. Luckily for mum he stayed right until he'd seen everyone who could be bothered to wait which must have meant about 300 signatures and 300 times having his hand plonked in the right place on the programme by his fiancée.

I left mum & Ffion after breakfast on the Monday morning and headed to Prenzlauer Allee where Rahel lives. She'd given me a couple of tips as to where to find a bicycle and I was going to see if I could visit her family there after I'd found something. Unfortunately, after a good three hours of searching, I was still empty-handed, although I had a good idea of what I was looking for and the sort of price it would cost. There was no answer at her house when I called either so I got myself some Greek tidbits (which seem to be very popular here in Germany) and had a picnic lunch in the sun outside the planetarium before getting the bus to Hamburg.

I met Björn and his dad when I arrived in Hamburg and went to their home in a pretty suburb on the edge of the city from where you have the ideal spot to play ‘guess what airline is taking off from the airport’ and still be wrong. I found it very amusing how everyone in the house had such different English accents: Björn’s is still German but also quite British, his older brother’s is very American, his younger sister’s is Australian and then his parents’ are strongly German! After a chat with the family, a much-needed shower, some tasty lasagna, a catch-up with Björn and some strawberries with ice-cream, we were upstairs watching his Year DVD which brought back a lot of old memories. In one way it was nice to see my firsties in the video and remember the good times from last year but in another I couldn’t help thinking about leaving this time last year and about how now I don’t really have any connections at all still in the college – and once Brian leaves next year I really won’t have any at all!! Haven't really seen the yearbook yet (although what I have seen i.e. the cover is very good!) but I know I'll feel the same when I do. So to everyone who’s just left, I’m thinking about you and hoping you’re having a good time and keeping yourself busy – that’s the best cure. Oh, and I hope the poster I sent helped lift your spirits during the IB! Aqeela said she’d take a photo of it, but knowing her… :P

After buying supplies for Björn’s Vietnam Project in the funkiest outdoor adventure shop ever, we heading to the city centre where, after being given the infamous and apparently predictable ‘Björn’s Tour of Hamburg City Centre’ (I liked it anyway!) we met up with Tariq for lunch. I thought I’d ordered squid, and I had, but in true German style it was squid stuffed with pork and bacon!! Lovely all the same, if rather filling. We had your average prolonged AC dinner conversation: gossip, European elections, gossip, pros & cons of nationalising the education system over having a market-driven one, gossip… We walked about for a bit, sat by a lake watching the boats capsize and staring at the joggers going past, walked a bit more and then went to watch ‘Angels & Dæmons,' which was better than I was expecting! A lot of unnecessary explanations about the Catholic church and dubious quantum physics at the beginning and some totally unrealistic action scenes towards the end but enjoyable all the same with a few very funny laugh-out-loud moments. I want to see the new X-men film next if only to finally see on screen the best X-man of them all: Gambit!

I left on the S-bahn from Hamburg for a town called Stade, just the other side of the river Elbe, from where it would be easier to start my cycling tour and also where I hoped to finally buy a bike. It's quite an interesting town, a bit like a small Shrewsbury or Durham where the main old town is surrounded by a river/canal (haven't quite worked out which it is yet, it has locks but is definitely flowing!), full of old buildings that were obviously built before the spirit measure was invented. But the streets in this old town are deceiving: they look straight but they must all have invisible kinks and bends in them because it's impossible not to go round in circles! I've tried to navigate my way through at least eight times now and not once have I come out the other end where I was aiming for. I hadn't been able to find anyone to stay with in Stade so I checked into the youth hostel when I got here (well, after I'd gotten lost going round in circles a few times first actually) and was told that there was room in the cheapest dorm (€16.90 including a decent-sized buffet breakfast - a lot compared to £3.50 in the Cameron Highlands or Jen's £5 in Guanajuato, but there we go) as long as I didn't mind sharing with a load of 16 & 17 year olds. "It might be a bit loud," said the receptionist. I went for it anyway but it turned out that I would only be sharing the corridor with them whereas I had the whole six-bed dorm all to myself. Great in one way 'cos I could spread all my stuff about and get a good night's sleep but it meant I didn't get to meet any of my neighbours apart from in front of the telly watching the UEFA final, where our attention was concentrated more on the football than on each other. Oh well, there's always tonight instead.

This morning after my buffet breakfast and reading about why sea water is salty in 'Straeon ac Arwyr Gwerin Norwy' (Norwegian folk stories in Welsh - any Norwegians know the one about the rich farmer, his lazy brother and the hand mill that makes what ever you want it to?) I started my second hunt for a bicycle. It turned out that there's only one place that sells them in the centre here but luckily they had a pretty good selection of the type I was looking for. I found one that I really liked but then the shop was shutting for lunch so I left to think it over. I went to this huge music shop just by the train station to buy some manuscript paper (typical, I only get inspiration when I'm travelling alone and have things on my mind but that's the most inconvenient time of all the actually write a composition down!!), spend some time plucking mandolins and balalaikas for fun and playing some salsa on the electric pianos, then walked slowly back to the bike shop. I was thinking "hmm, should I really go for it? I mean, it's a good bike but brand new so a little pricey. Perhaps I should save the money and spend it on some cheap Air Asia tickets for a fortnight in sunny Malaysia in August instead!" But I went ahead and bought it anyway, went back to the hostel to change into my cycling gear and took it for a test-spin about ten miles in the direction I'll be travelling tomorrow and back again. And while speeding down the straights and overtaking everyone on the hills with ease I realised I'd made the right choice! Malaysia will have to wait until next Christmas or Spring instead!

So that's about it so far. I'm cycling to a town called Nordenham tomorrow, just the other side of the huge port of Bremerhaven, where I'll have my first couchsurfing experience with a woman who's first loves under her 'Personal Description' are music and smelly cheese, so I'm sure we'll get along well! Then it's down to Jacob's to celebrate Tariq's birthday and onwards and Westwards over the next four weeks ^_^

Speak soon. It's been a while!
Hedd.

P.S. Thought of changing the blog name to something like 'Berlin and Back' or 'Hamburg2Home' but can't think of anything catchy starting with 'Stade'... Any suggestions, or can we just pretend I'm in Asia like mum does with Italy?