Update: Since Eurotrip

Didn't want to do any other posts before I was finished with the posts about my eurotrip, so here's a little update on what's been going on since.

A week or so after I got home I started looking for a job. Planned on getting a job for three months so I could have a good long summer holiday before maybe starting on university or something. After searching some I found a temp agency which I figured might be the best solution since I didn't need a job for so long. It turned out to be a good solution, not that the things I got to do was especially exciting, just simple factory stuff. However the temp agency had a lot of work, so there were only like three or four days during those three months where I didn't work, of those days I wanted to work. Quitted at the end of june.

During those three months it was also a very big priority to figure out what I wanted to do after the summer. I was pretty certain I wanted to go to university as I really liked the time in high school I thought it could be cool. However I was, and still am for that matter, really not sure what I wanna do/be eventually. However a field that I've been somewhat interested in for a long time has been architecture. Back in tenth grade when we did projects about what we wanna be I made mine about that. Then for a long time I didn't think that much of becoming that, but in senior year in high school we were at this education messe where I where at a lecture about architecture and that kind of got me thinking of that again. Also a couple of series and movies has had influence, such as Ted Mosby who's an architect in How I Met Your Mother. Anyway this were the different educations that I considered:

• Architect School (Århus)
• Engineer in Architecture and Design (Ålborg)
• Landscape architecture
• Movie- and Media Science (Copenhagen)
• Media Science (Århus/Odense)
• Digital Design - IT esthetics and Interaction (Århus)

However with most of these there were some problems. For Architect school I would need a much highter grade or go to some entrance examination which I didn't get around to. For Engineer in Architecture and Design aswell as Landscape architecture I needed two subjects (chemistry and physics) which I didn't have time to take before september when I found that out. As for Movie- and Media Science aswell as Media Science I also needed a higher grade unless I wanted to go to Odense, and on second thought I figured out that it wasn't really what I wanted to do. Digital Design however was the only one I could get directly into.

So eventually the decision I made was to choose Architect school as first priority and Digital Design as second, well knowing that I would be very lucky to get into Architect School. Digital Design is starting it's only second year this year, so it hard to say what it really is, so I thought I could just try it, and if after half a year I hated it, I would still have time to take the nessecary courses to get into Engineer in Architecture and Design.

Some time during this period I discovered the band Paramore. They played in Copenhagen in June so I took a quick decision to go see them. On the day of the concert I took the train to copenhagen where I'd booked a room in a hotel and took the train back the next day. As previously mentioned Avril Lavigne also played in Copenhagen in June, which I'd bought ticket for already in January. For that concert I borrowed my mothers car and drove there at the day at the concert and took home the same night. Both concerts were pretty awesome, especially Avril Lavigne =)

In July I was on vacation with my family and my fathers sister and her family to Corsica for two weeks. Hot weather, bathing, watching the nature, eating were some of the highlights.

July 31st I got accepted on Digital Design. So August went with finding an apartment and moving. Pictures here. On August 25th I started on the university but more about that in another post.

March 18 Hamburg/Denmark

After waking up and checking out of my hotel room I took the metro to the train station. I still had some time before the train departed so I found a logage box for my bag so I could walk around a bit without having to carry that with me. I found a pizza place at the station for lunch. Other than that I spent the time walking around a bit in the city and looking at the shops at the station.

Changed trains in Padburg and Fredericia and was in Århus in the evening where my parents, my sister and a friend of hers were to pick me up. As they hadn't gotten any dinner either we found some highway eating place to eat at.

After that it was straight home <3

March 17 Nightwish

Before the concert I didn't felt like doing much so I watched a little TV in my room, some Paris-Nice and some A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. After looking some at my Hamburg map I decided on which metro station to go to for the concert, there weren't any really close, but it wasn't too bad. Color Line Area where the concert took place were quite big, only bigger one I was at were The o2 arena.

Cool concert with fire and everything. A lot of leather wearing and goth kind of people there.

After the concert I walked back to the metro station, but nothing was written on the monitors, so I was a little afraid I couldn't get home, but as there were a lot of other people waiting aswell I guess there might come one. There did, it just didn't show on the screen untill five minutes before. Had to change metro at the hauptbaunhof where I went by McD for a McChicken meal, waiting in a long queue first. When I took the metro back to my hostel I was totally alone in my waggon. Back at the hostel I tried opening the door with the key I'd gotten but couldn't. There were two doors so tried both but nothing worked and started getting worried. However I kept trying and eventually it opened and I was quite reliefed. Quite a mongo lock though. Then I could eat my McChicken in my room.

March 16 Lille/Hamburg

From the hotel back to the train station with the metro and finding my train to Hamburg. Once in Hamburg I once again had to figure out a new metro system. But I managed, maybe even legally. My hostel was in the St. Pauli area, but even though I arrived there in the evening there wasn't any hookers or mafia, only a couple of homeless people, atleast in the area I were.

From this day and on I didn't get any notes written so I might not remember everything, as for food I might have bought a bic mac meal at the train station which I brought to the hostel.

March 14 Dinosaurs and Mommies

As the first thing that day I went to an IMAX cinema to see if anything interesting was playing. There weren't really any IMAX stuff, expect an Hannah Montana concert, but there were some interesting movies, thought not untill later on the day. So I went to the Manchester Museum instead which also was placed in the Manchester University campus (like the concert place). It was free to get in and they had some really cool stuff, such as a Tyrannosaurus Rex, around 5-8 mommies and a lot of stuffed animals.

When I was done in the museum I went back to the IMAX cinema and saw Semi Pro. The cinema was quite close the Arndale so I went in there afterwards to get something to eat. However the eating area was closing at that time so I had to find some other place. I found an Subway not far from there, in which I bought an Italian BMT (like on the day of the panic concert) which I eat at the hotel, after stopping by some small supermarket for some drinks.

March 13 Urbis

After breakfast at the hotel I went to Urbis, which is some exhibition hall. When I found it there were some school class on their way in so I waited a bit with going in, and instead took a look at some surrounding things, such as an old church and a river. Inside Urbis there were an Advertising exhibition and and Manga exhibition which opened that very day, and actually not untill a little while after I arrived.

After seeing that and buying an Manga Clip Art book in the giftshop I went to the Manchester Arndale again. I bought a used version of the Torino 2006 game. After that I didn't felt like doing much more and went back to the hotel where I saw two episodes of The Class, Friends and Scrubs. For dinner I went back to Arndale again and had some at KFC.

March 12 Panic at the Disco

After eating breakfast at the hotel, which had a nice sortiment compared to the one in Lyon, I went to explore the nearby parts of the city. I came by this huge shopping centre called Manchester Arndale which I walked around in for a while, but didn't buy anything. It also had an eating place on the second floor, consisting of a bunch of fast food chains around in a circle with a large seating area in the middle.

As the time of the concert approched I walked to concert place which was inside the Manchester University Campus. After finding the concert place I searched for somewhere to eat and eventually found a subway which I decided to try out. I got an Italian BMT which was really good.

Then I could go back to the concert place a queue for some time before getting in. I can't remember the name of the warm up band, but after them Panic came on. They didn't play for that long, but atleast played all the songs that I know.

March 11 London/Manchester

Hadn't made any plans as for which trains to take from London to Manchester as it's not that far and there's a lot of train going there every day. So I went to the train station and found a train that gave me time to also buy an eurostar ticket for when I'm going back from London to Lille. I changed trains in Sheffield where I also had lunch at a Burger King.

When I got to Manchester I first checked out the metro kinda train they had, but it seemed they didn't go near to where I was going. So I took a cab to my hostel. When I got there the placed was locked and there was a note to call this number for hostel inquiries. I called it but the number didn't exists. So there I was in some southern Manchester suburb with no where to sleep. Anyway, I got a cab back to the train station. I recalled there were some hotel booth there but appearently that had been somewhere else. So I started walking around to find a place, and eventually found a place with a decent price, which also luckily had a room for me for those four nights if I changed room after the first night.

For dinner I found a pizza hut and had a Hawaii deep pan with pepperoni. A combination that has lately grown to be my favorite pizza (with or without the deep pan).

March 10 Covent Garden, Leicester Square ect.

In the afternoon I went back to Covent Garden again, as it had been closed the day before. It weren't all that interesting though. The small shops and such didn't have much stuff I was interested in. And it was raining a bit aswell, so there weren't anything going on outside. I thought about going to see the Lion King musical, but they weren't showing it that day. So after walking around there a bit I went into a nearby HMV store where I bought a couple of DVDs and a CD: The Pursuit of Happyness, Hollywoodland, Will Ferrel Box (Old School and Anchorman) and The Corrs - Live in Dublin.

As advised in the mini metro card I had I went to the Leicester metro station instead of the Covent Garden one, as that one can be a bit crowded. On my way there I came by Leicester Square, which I checked out a bit. It was mostly a lot of cinemas in a circle and a small park in the middle.

March 9 Back to the O2

As my shaver had partly broken aswell as run out of power and I'd forgotten my reloader I had to find a solution. So I took the metro to the victoria station where I'd been a couple of days before, so I knew there were some shops there. I found some one time shavers and foam. I've never used anything but electric shavers before, so it took some time to get shaved. But I managed to.

I'd read about an egyptian exhibition at the O2 from home, so I went there to check it out. You had to buy a ticket for a certain time limit, I got 15:30 to 16:00 which was two hours from the time I bought it. So I took the metro to the london bridge station to check out the bridge and get something to eat. I never actually found the bridge, and the only place to eat I found was a McD, not nesecary a bad thing though.

However I got back to the O2 again for the exhibition, which despite all the fuss wasn't that special, well atleast not when you've been in actual egypt :).

After the egypt exhibition I saw Vantage Point in the cinema at the O2. Fine movie, rated it a 7/10 though I didn't really like the ending. Bought some sweet popcorn in there, which were totally uneatable.

In the evening I went back to Covent Garden as I didn't really had had that much time to check it out the day before. The market turned out to be closed though, so it was pretty empty. So I found a Pizza Hut to get something to eat and went home.

March 8 LOTR Musical

I went to the internet cafe again today as the first thing to get tickets for eurostar for when I'm going to Lille and to get tickets for the lord of the rings musical which I'd read about on visitlondon.com at home. I couldn't get the eurostar ticket because of some visa validating shit, but I got a ticket for LOTR, that same night.

In the afternoon I went to see some of the usual tourist attractions. First I went to Westminster to seee the bridge, big ben, house of parliament and all that. Then I went to Tower Bridge and walked a bit around there. While I was there my parents called. I didn't hear it at first but called them back, and we walked a bit.

As it soon was time for the musical I took to covent garden where it was. Where I found the place to collect my ticket. There were still an hour till it started so I walked around a bit and got a hot dog. At covent garden there were a market so there were a lot of people. There were also this guy driving on a one wheeled bike, who also jongled with a motor saw amongst other things, all wearing nothing but his underwear.

The lord of the rings musical was pretty nice. They had some really cool effects, such as the balrog.

March 7 Rihanna

Around noon I went to the local McDonalds for lunch, after which I went to the internet cafe to check a few things out along with checking my mail and cs-manager ect.

After going back to the hotell and gettting ready I went to the O2 for the rihanna concert. The O2 showed to be a huge place which along with the concert arena also holds a lot of eating places, a cinema, exhibitions and some other tings, all under one roof, or rather one tent. It opened only last year.

There weren't any queue yet at the entrance so I walked a bit around in the O2 to check it out, and as I came back to the concert entry a queue was starting, so I joined it. I came into a huge arena which had seating everywhere even on the ground floor. I had a seat on the left wing in the first row quite close to the scene. I cant remember if it were before or after the warm up act - David Jordan who were fairly decent - that some guy came into the crowd to see the concert and everyone started screaming and taking pictures of him, I guess he was some famous person, but I didn't know him. There were a lot of teenage - and some probably even younger - girls at the concert so there were a lot of high voice screaming. Somewhat annoying at some points. Anyway it was a fine concert, she played a lot of the songs that I know.

I decided to wait around a bit after the concert to avoid the worst crowd in the metro and went to get a hot dog. The first place I went sent me to another place close to as she didn't have anymore sausages. However nor did the other place, but she started making some. While I waited she offered a free soda for the wait and asked about the concert and wether or not I thought she looked better irl than on the pictures, to which I said yes. Then she sent me back to the first place as they had some sausages ready. I eat it and went back to the hotel.

March 6 My foot hurts

The day before my right foot started hurting a bit. I didn't think more of it, but today I woke up to it being even worse. It hurt everytime I stepped on it. So I decided not to do too much that day, hoping it would get better for tomorrows concert.

For lunch I got a whopper meal on the local burger king. Form there I took the metro to the victoria station to do some shopping and to have a look around. I bought a london map in some souvenir shop. As I walked around a bit I found a shopping centre at the victoria station and looked around for a top part for my shaver which I had broken. I only found some small shops carrying shavers which didn't have what I needed. I came by an internet cafe aswell but decided not to go in as it seemed quite filled up. So I went back to the WHSmith store I'd seen - a store where they have a lot of magazines - to buy a couple of magazines and some drinks. From there I went back to the hostel.


As I got hungry in the evening I went to explore the local area a bit more and found there to be a lot of eating places, some shops and an internet cafe all quite close to my hotel, including a pizza place I went into to get an hawaii deep pan. In a free thelondonpaper I got on the my way back I saw that channel 4 sent and episode of The Big Bang Theory at 10, which I obviously turned in to see.

March 5 Lyon/London

I checked out of my hotel at 7 in the morning and walked the 3km to the train departing at 8:22. I changed train twice in two smaller cities before reaching Paris. I had to get to another station in Paris, so I took the metro. However I got on a metro driving the different direction of where I was heading. As the previous train had been 25 minutes late, this made me miss my train to Lille. From Lille I was going to use eurostar which are the only company to cross the France/England channel. So I decided to take eurostar from Paris instead, so it wouldn't be too late before I got to London. Eurostar is not part of interrail, so I had to pay even more to use it from Paris instead of Lille.

Anyway, I got London fast that way, and my hotel in London were only some 300 meters next to the train station, so I was soon there. The room there weren't exactly stunishing. The matress sucked, the light were only a single pære hanging from the roof, the only chair was a garden chair, the heat regulator on the radiator didn't work which made it quite hot, the TV had own antenna which resulted in a poor connection, a shower that wasn't working, and it looked like it hadn't been cleaned for ages.

March 4 Exploring Lyon

I got up again a little past nine to catch breakfast, and then I slept another hour. Around noon I went out to explore the city a bit. I went the opposite way as the day before and found a pedestrian street with a lot of shops, a few only that seemed interesting though. I walked further and found a lot of bigger and smaller landmarks and got a few pics.

As I got hungry I went into an McD to get a big mac meal. After which it soon started to rain, so I decided to go back to the hotel and see if it would stop.

I did stop, and I went out again to explore the parts around the rhöne river. On the pedestrian street a guy approached me who wanted me to give money for trousers for african kids. I ended up giving him some and got a nice key hanger.

Eventuallly I got hungry and felt like pizza. I saw this one place but it was rather expensive so I went towards my hotel, next to which there also were a pizza place. However it was still closed eventhough it was past 18:00. So I walked around a bit to find another place, but eventually got back to the first place. The pizza was quite different from a pizza from a normal pizza place, good, but I'd prefer an hawaii from a normal pizza place any day. As I walked back I got some pics of the river and surroundings in the nighttime.

March 3 Alicia Keys

I woke up a little past nine to catch breakfast in the hotel before 10. The bread was rather dry but the hot chocolade was good. I stayed in my room for some hours, still a little tired from the day before and wanted to a lot of energy for the concert in the evening. I spend tthe time reading 'Norwegian Wood', showering and watched an episode of Happy Hour on my cell. The sound was terrible out of sync though, some nab program I used to convert them to 3gp appearently.

I went out sometime in the afternoon to get something to eat and get at the concert early. I went along the river in the direction of Halle Tony Garnier where the concert were. Along the river there weren't any places to eat and it started raining, luckily it soon stopped again. Eventually I got to Halle Tony Garnier and I could see a lot of people waiting outside. Still needing to eat and with almost 3 hours till it started I walked past it as I could see some shops and restaurants in that area. It took some time for me to find a place to eat since some places were still closed, but eventually I found an Ali Baba Kebab that seemed decent, though the kebab was not especially good. Well it was food.

Afterwards I went back to the concert place seeing that the doors had been opened. So I went in eventhough there were still an hour and twenty minutes left. However as I got in I found that there were already a DJ warming up. Eventhough I had a seating ticket I decided to stand as I could get much closer that way. The DJ played some bad hiphop, however the warm up act Dumaine Paul (spelling) was decent.

Alicia Keys put up a nice show and I enjoyed it quite a lot eventhough there's many of her not so known songs that I'm not that much into. However as second last she played 'No One' and it went crazy, a couple of thousand people who really really loves that song singing along, that was amazing.

As I walked home along the river it was a nice sight in the dark, sadly my camera ran out of power.

March 2 Denmark/Lyon

The night before as I was home alone, I did the past preperations for the trip such as packing my bag. Other than that I spend the night watching Zulu Awards, a couple of Scrubs episodes and eating popcorn and ice cream.

As for this day, there really isn't much to say. The whole day spent sitting in a train. The day started at 3:0 in the morning when my dad drove me to the train in Kolding, which departed at 6:40. From there to Padborg to Hamburg to Basel to Geneva to Lyon at 21:47. The train from Hamburg to Basel at one time was delayed and I started getting a little worried as I only had 8 minutes to do the transfer in Basel. However it luckily caught up on the lost minutes just before reaching Basel.

Somewhat frustrating it is sitting in a train when you don't understand a word of what everyone says. There were two swedish poeple next to me in the Basel-Geneva train. Eventhough I didn't talk to them, it was nice to hear something I could actually understand some of. In the Geneva-Lyon two frenchmen asked me something, but obviously I could only answer that I didn't understand them. Should be nice getting to england.

And dame it's a long time since I've written this much in hand. I found this nice pen I'd forgotten I had just before the trip, quite a pleasure to write with it was.

The Spectacular return of Kopaka

So I have returned, from the dark streets of Hamburg. I came home last night a little past ten, but much more about that later. Pictures are beeing uploaded to my gallery as I type, and I've handwritten a lot about the happenings these past 17 days, so be ready for a lot of entries!

Edit: You can see the pictures now on sshoyer.net/gallery/travelling/eurotrip

My Eurotrip

As previously mentioned I'm going on a small trip in march, so that's pretty soon. By now I've pretty much planned everything out. The main goal of the trip is to exprience some concerts with some nice bands and artists, and it has been planned around that. At one point I had ordered tickets for six concerts, but then in one day two of them cancelled their tours (Natasha Bedingfield and Sophie Ellis-Bextor) and a few days before I found out that I didn't get the ticket anyway that I'd ordered for Kelly Clarkson. However I managed to find a ticket for Kelly Clarkson on some other website, though more expensive, and I found one more concert.

Here's a schedule of my trip:

March 1: Leave from Denmark
2: Lyon
3: Alicia Keys at Lyon
4: Lyon
5: Lyon -> London
6: London
7: Rihanna at London
8: London
9: London
10: London
11: London -> Manchester
12: Panic! at the disco at Manchester
13: Manchester
14: Kelly Clarkson at Manchester
15: Manchester
16: Manchester -> Hamburg
17: Nightwish at Hamburg
18: Hamburg -> Denmark

As transportation I've ordered an interrail ticket. Today I bought 100€ and 100£. I've booked hostels in all the cities where I'll be. So I'm quite ready by now.