Day-cation to Sweden

For travelers, the most amazing and convenient thing about Europe has got to be it's size. As you (hopefully) already know, European countries are very resemblant of American states. This close proximity is exactly what allowed Federico, Alexandria and I to casually spend a day in Malmö, Sweden!

Quick geography lesson, Denmark proper is connected to Germany but the country also consists of a peninsula (Jutland) and 406 islands (although only around 70 are actually inhabitated). Copenhagen is located on the largest island, Zealand. So Copenhagen is actually closer to Sweden than the next biggest Danish city (Aarhus). See the map below!

When Federico and Alexandria invited me to come to Malmö with them while Victoria was at school, I was so excited! Since I had arrived in Denmark, I had yet to spend a day alone because I went to school with Victoria on Friday and then it was the weekend but I wasn't really looking forward to when I'd have to be alone so it worked out perfectly that I had some travel buddies! :)

We packed a lunch, took a train from Hellerup (the round-trip ticket cost 30 euros) and 45 minutes later we were in Malmö! Of course, since both countries are part of the Schengen Area we didn't have to go through border control. So easy!

Malmö was actually one of the biggest cities in Denmark until the 17th century when Sweden took over control. Honestly, besides the differing language and currency, I didn't notice many other differences between Sweden and Denmark. However, I was only there for one day so obviously I'm not saying that Sweden and Denmark are the same but at least on the surface they look very similar!

I know it sounds harsh but I didn't think Malmö was anything that special. Victoria said that she pretty much only goes there when she wants to do some shopping because it's a bit cheaper but there's not much else to do. I mean I still thought it was cool just being in Scandinavia in general but I think Stockholm seems much nicer. Whatever, even though Malmö wasn't all that great, at least I can say I've been there! If I never went, I never would've known what it's like. I think to be a true world traveler, you have to be able to visit every place (even if it's nothing extraordinary) and gain your own personal understanding/opinion of it.

 

No idea who put this on display in the center of the city or why?

So I did a little research online about Swedish and Danish and, to my surprise, discovered that they're both supposebly easy for English speakers to learn... This article on Matador Network has Danish listed as the second easiest language for English speakers and Swedish as #9. Wtf... Maybe it's because I honestly haven't attempted to learn either language but their pronunciation just seems impossible!! According to Matador, both languages have simple grammatical structures but difficult speaking patterns and vowel sounds. 

Aw someone's trying to find their lost teddy bears!

Scandinavians LOVE their bikes!

Kungsparken

I thought this tree looked really cool! 

We saw two Swedish daddies on a stroller date with their babies! I thought this was the cutest thing ever and also really suitable because Sweden ranks #4 in the Global Gender Gap Report 2014 (followed by Denmark), so it makes sense that men would be doing so-called "feminine" duties. After reading online a little bit, I discovered that in Swedish a new gender-neutral pronoun "hen"is becoming more common instead of using "hon" (she) and "han" (he). I think this is really interesting because it shows just how committed Swedes are to obtaining 100% gender equality. To read more on gender equality in Sweden click here :)

Although Malmö wasn't the coolest city ever, I had so much fun hanging out with Federico and Alexandria! It was awesome to speak Italian again and I got along with them really well :) They're such a nice couple and remind me so much of me and my boyfriend, Mihai, because they love to travel! Last year, Federico and Alexandria spent a semester living in Helsinki with Erasmus (An EU university student exchange program) and also take two trips together every year to a new European city. 

Speaking of Mihai, in case anyone is wondering, our long-distance relationship is going great :) He's now living in Kiel, a medium-sized city in the northern-most region of Germany (if you look at the map at the beginning of this post you can see Kiel; it's only 4 hours from Copenhagen!) with his permanent host family. He said his host family is a perfect fit for him, which is great news!! Check out his blog here for more info! 

Sometimes the distance is really hard though because it's easy to feel a little bit forgotten whenever the other is having a ton of fun in a new country. It's important for us to remind each other just how much we care by making the time to talk. Me and Mihai can both be really busy sometimes but we always try to wake up earlier or stay up later to talk on the phone. Communication is key :)

Some really good news is that Mihai and I will be seeing each other in 5 days!! I found a workaway (budget travelers can work for someone 20-25 hours a week in exchange for room & board) only 45 minutes away from Kiel! I'll be staying in Germany for a month and I'm beyond excited to see Mihai after 2 months apart! 

Hope you're enjoying reading my blog just as much as I'm enjoying writing it! I have a lot of blog posts to catch up on (the stuff I wrote about in this post actually happened 3 weeks ago...) so expect another post verryyy soon! Until then, hej hej! :)

One blonde backpacking through the entire world?

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but there's been a couple major curveballs affecting my travel plans for next year that I've had to deal with!

So first of all, has anyone ever heard of the Schengen agreement? Nope? Well that makes two of us. So basically, an American is allowed to travel freely within the Schengen Area without a visa for up to a max of 3 months. The Schengen Area includes the majority of European countries excluding the United Kingdom, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Ireland. So my initial plan of staying in Germany for the year wasn't possible without a visa. In order to get a visa you either have to have proof of enrollment as a student at a European school, proof of a source income in Europe or proof of marriage to a European citizen, all of which I do not have. And since the Schengen Area includes so many countries, not only am I unable to stay in Germany for longer than 3 months but I'm also unable to stay in Italy, Denmark, Germany and nearly any other European country collectively for longer than 3 months. Well crap... What am I supposed to do then? My plan was to go to Italy for a couple weeks, Denmark for a couple weeks and then Germany for the rest of the year... Now I can only stay in those three countries for a max of 3 months...

After closer research I discovered that all I have to do is leave the Schengen area for 3 months and then I'm allowed to come back again for another 3 months! I looked over the non-Schengen countries and realized that leaving wouldn't be impossible. My boyfriend, Mihai, has relatives in Romania that I could stay with for about a month or so and I could come home to Ohio for Christmas and spend another month in either Ireland, Croatia or the U.K. doing a Workaway program (hosts give you a place to stay and food in exchange for around 25 hours of work per week). Problem solved! I began buying plane tickets and getting into the details of my trip. I'm leaving on August 5 to visit one of my prior host families in the Southern Italian city of Brindisi for 3 weeks, then off to Copenhagen, Denmark to stay with a friend for another 3 weeks, then stay with another friend, Paula, in Central-Western Germany for another month and half, then go to Brasov, Romania for a month and a half, then come home to Ohio for Christmas and New Years then to Ireland for a month and lastly return to Germany and stay with Paula for the remaining 3 months! Sounded like a perfect year, I couldn't wait! I bought the first few plane tickets up until the one that would take me from Denmark to Dusseldorf, Germany.

Well thank goodness I never bought that plane ticket because a few days ago, Paula messaged me saying that her and her family would be unable to host me at all next year in Germany. Well CRAP... now I'm really in a pickle... I was supposed to spend half of my year in Germany...

My entire year revolved around Germany, the only reason I was going to Romania and Ireland was to essentially kill time until I could come back to Germany. Germany was supposed to be my "home base" next year since I had a good friend and welcoming family to stay with. Now I questioned all of my plans. I mean I could just do a bunch of workaways in Germany but that didn't feel right. The main reason I wanted to go to Germany was because I had people I knew there who could host me, instead of strangers. It felt like I was back at square one again. Besides Italy and Denmark the entire year was pretty much a clean slate.

I began thinking of every single possibility. A new opportunity opened up that I had never even thought of: I could stay with my distant relatives in Japan! I talked to my Obachan (grandma in Japanese) and she said her sister would happily host me for a couple months in Tokyo! My Obachan even said she would meet me there and take me sightseeing all around Japan! I've never been to Japan or met any of my relatives there but I've always wanted to! I studied Japanese for two years when I lived in Australia, I'm beyond obsessed with sushi and Japanese cultures in general, so I was exhilarated by the possibility. There were so many options; I was overwhelmed. I could volunteer with IVHQ? Stay with friends in Australia? Still go to Romania? Do a bunch of workaways all over Europe? Volunteer in Ghana, Madagascar, the Philippines, Nepal or Vietnam? There were also doubts and worries. Did I have enough money to go all the way to Japan? Did I still want to stay in Europe for a while since I already bought my plane tickets to Italy and Denmark? Did I want to visit Mihai in Germany? Would our relationship suffer if we didn't see each other at all for an entire year? How long did I want to stay in each destination?

If you know me at all, I'm an extremely indecisive person and all the questions had completely consumed my mind. I wanted to be able to do it all: Visit Mihai in Germany, go to Tokyo with Obachan and volunteer with IVHQ. However, I didn't think it was financially possible to travel to 3 continents in one year. I thought I had to give up either Japan or volunteering but I couldn't decide for the life of me. I drove my family and Mihai crazy with all my deliberations and uncertainty. I spent two days thinking, looking up flights, researching and calculating hypothetical budgets to see what was possible. It was easy to eliminate the Philippines and Vietnam because they weren't the safest of countries. Madagascar has a really cool scuba diving program but it's nearly double the price of other IVHQ programs so I eliminated that as well. Nepal made the most geographical sense since it's near Japan however my parents were cautious of more earthquakes so I finally decided on Ghana. I'm not sure if you remember my first blog post, but I mentioned Ghana as an option. I've always wanted to see Africa. It's really cool that all these challenges and changes in travel plans led me back to Ghana!

Anyway, I discovered it would actually be possible to do everything I wanted: go to Europe, Tokyo AND Ghana! However, I would be on a very tight budget so my parents decided to help me out a little bit. I'm so lucky to have such supporting parents that allow me to accomplish my dreams.

Now I'm just hammering out the final details but I'm so happy to have the main itinerary figured out! After Italy and Denmark, I'm pretty sure I'll spend a month in Germany, then 3 months in Japan, 2 months in Ghana and lastly 2 more months back in Germany! But who knows, from experience, everything could easily change again and those timeframes may become completely different (but I really hope that doesn't happen)! I can't believe how many times my plans have changed. Back in April I still thought I'd be going to South Korea with NSLI-Y, then I thought I'd be spending the year in Germany, then I thought I'd travel throughout Europe and finally I'm traveling to three different continents! Every curveball has brought me here to my final plan, which I think is the best one yet! I have such an amazing, life-changing experience ahead of me, I can't wait for it to begin!!

Stay tuned for updates from around the world ;)

P.S. I'm not sure if I should change the name of my blog since I'm not really going to be just in Europe anymore? Opinons?