This week two of my long standing goals came to fruitition; I graduated with a BSc degree and got a Residency VISA til live and work in Australia. Now there is nothing prohibiting us moving to the other side of the globe as Suzy wishes to so once the summer is over I will buy my ticket to Australia and leave my home for some score of years. Between here and then though is a whole summer of fun. Although it doesnt have the same ring to it as “The summer of 69″ does, the Icelandic summer of ‘07 will be remembered for a long time. A big thank you to all those who came to celebrate with us on saturday night, it was a great night.
Category Archives: Australia
Copenhagen, act 3
As the most intresting aspect of my trip to Copenhagen was without a doubt the fact that I brought my bike with me as a form of transport I think I will write up a sumary of my experience for anyone interested in attempting a similar endevour. Noone was really sure this would be allowed but encouraged by a story from a friend who said he had seen some tourists do this before I decided to give it a go. The plan was to just leave the bike at the busstop or airport if they refused to board the bike. I took no luggage with me, just a sholderbag with all my stuff so there was nothing going in with the bike and nothing extra to carry once I got there. I guess you could take a backpack with you or special bags that go on the bike but a suitcase or any other type of luggae, even a plastic bag would make this type of travel impossible. I also took a GPS navigator with coordinates installed for all the locations I would have to visit. This was in fact a most genius idea as I never had to hover over a map or anguish over what direction to go in to get to my destination. It made the ride much more relaxing than normally in a foreign city. And now for an overview of the process:
I cycled from home to the bus stop and got the driver to load the bike with the other luggage. It was surprising that they dont have a rack on the back of the bus to accomodate the bike like many busses do. The driver was surprised but happily loaded the bike. Later I found out that not only are you meant to pay 50% extra for your ticket when you have a bike but also that not all the busses will accomodate a bike, especially when the busses are full.
Once at the airport I took the bike in with me and felt a little silly carrying a bike when everyone else was all dressed up, carrying typical trolleybags, full of the typical I-am-going-abroad stressed self importance that Icelanders do when going into a flight terminal and giving me that “is that really allowed” look when they saw my bike. I kind of likd the feeling but Im not sure everyone would. Then when I got to the checkin the lady didnt know what to do so it took a long time to check in. In addition I had to pay 2.000kr extra to load the bike. This was all rather expected but once it was realy yo go in they were not sure wether I had to make any changes to the bike so that it would pack better. A common request is that you turn the steeing bar paralell to the bike and perhaps take off the pedals. However even if they requested this in Iceland and in Denmark I was able to persuade them not to bother. Having the tools to do that is advisable however. The one thing I was not able to talk my self out of was to deflate the tires during checkin in Denmark so a handpump would be a good thing to have. I walked the bike to a petrol station near the busstop in Reykjavík to air the tires again.
Once in Denmark biking from the airport was a breeze, it was in fact quite enjoyable and only took about 20-30 minutes. With the GPS I never worried about getting lost and really enjoyed the ride. The weather was sunny and hot. On the way back the weather was crap, rainy, windy and cold. I also left it too late to get going so the ride back was much more stressfull and hard work. In addition one of the roads was closed for about 10 minutes due to a procession of the royal family. I got to see the royals but it cut my time to get there even shorter. Once there I was wet and sweaty but actually very happy, much more so than when i take the train because the exercise was invigorating. During checkin I got the bike loaded for free as I had no other baggage but I had to deflate the tires. This was very different form the Reykjavík experience but it gave me no grief. Once I arrived at either arport the bike then came out through a special gate, not on the luggage conveyorbelt. All in all this was not a bad experience.
Once at keflavík airport the bus driver refused to take my bike as he said he didnt have room. This was the only real trouble I had bringing the bike. However the next bus had enough space but there I had to pay 600kr for loading the bike. I had to wait 20 minutes between busses so that was not too bad but honestly I was alittle crossed at the icelandic AirBus company for inconsistency in their services. I was not in a hurry though and didnt really ming the inconvenience that much. Ofcourse I should have biked to and from keflavík airport but I have to admit that I found the 45km ride too daunting to attempt.
All in all I thouroughly reconment this mode of travel. Having my own bike in CPH was really nice. You can rent a bike but those are all marked as such so the tourists never quite blend in. On your own dirtly old bike you are more like the rest of the crowd and that always feels good. The overall cost of taking the bike is 5.200kr if you get charged for all that you are meant to be charged for but due to the rarity of those situations a lack of cosistency got me away with paying 2.600kr. I probbably cycled about 60-70km all in all while I was in Denmark for those 5 days.
Copenhagen, part 2
After spending 5 days in Copenhagen I have finally found something I really like about the city, besides the fact that they are big on riding bikes. Den Botanisk Have, or the Botanical Gardens are an absolute paradise of a place. The park is quite spacious and every inch of it has been immaculately landscaped over centuries of botanical cultivation in the area. Some of the trees are hundreds of years old and very big. The park is really serene and soothing. As I stood on the bridge over the pond there and stared absent mindedly into the water I thought I recognised a familiar shape just under the surface. The mind first registered it as an old stump of a tree but as I keps staring the tree reminded me of a turtle. It was only after staring at the thing for a few minutes that I finally saw the head and it was a trutle about half a meter in size. The turtle, like most of the animals in the park was quite relaxed and easy. She paddled about around the bridge for a long time and hardly ever went under the water. The local ducks are the same. If you sit down they will come to you expecting a bite, no correction, demanding a bite of what ever you may or may not have. With some birds that are used to human feeding you can fool them by giving a hand motion indicationg that you are throwing something like food and they will get all excited untill they realise you were teasing them. Not these ducks, they are more clever than that. They dont even flinch and probbably find it quite insulting that you would thing they will fall for such a simple trick. They look at you accusingly saying “common stop beeing so childish, I allready knew about that one when I was still just an egg!” A stroll through the botanical gardens is a very relaxing experience. Good on ya Copenhagen for that one!
Copenhagen, day 1
As I cycled from home to the bus terminal I was glad I took the gloves with me as it was bloody freezing. I wasnt sure wether to or not as I didnt expect I’d need them in Denmark and I am only taking a small sholderbag with me. The bus people were not too surprised to have to accomodate a bike amongst the luggage but the receptionist at the checkin at the airport was and so were the other passenges. I felt the familiar ‘now whats this guy doing’ glances people were giving me. It reminded me of the Valberg, Haukur og Arni days and it felt good. It was obvious that the stressed out passengers had never seen this done before, nor had I to be honest. The young girl at the reception desk gave me a ‘oh, what now’ look and got a bit flustered about how to handle this. After consulting with the older and more experienced receptionists she found out how to deal with the situation and checked the bike on to the flight. Now I am in Copenhagen with my own bike and it feels great. Copenhagen is big on bikes and I am fitting right in on my icelandic mountainbike.
Next stop, Copenhagen
The next step in my application for a residency visa to Australia is to have a physical examination. Unfortunately there are no Icelandic doctors lisenced to conduct this examination so I will have to go to Denmark. My trip there is now booked and payed for and I have to say that I am quite happy with the price of my flights. Although I have not spoken kindly of Iceland express for a long time I now find my self compelled to grant them kudos for beeing the only ones with a cheap option to get away from this island. The tickets cost only 13.900kr, down from 26.000kr with Iceland air. If these flights go without problems I will perhaps make some provision for modified opinions on the service provided by Iceland express. Although I’d rather be free of this trip it will be good to get away for a bit.
Australia, Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you. Amen! *
My application to become a resident of the Commonwealth of Australia has now been received by the Australian Embassy in Germany and is beeing processed. Earlier this week we received a formal notification that my application had been received and that a case officer had been assigned. The processing time can be anywhere between 1-6 months, depending on the completeness of the application it said. Well, now we just have to wait then.
The application process began for us long before that though. A couple of years ago we decided on a time when we whished to move back to Suze’s place and since then we have been cropping at this application. The work only began in earnest though two months ago since some of the papers have to be recent enough to be considered valid. So it took us almost two months to put this application together. The processing is not cheap eighter. It cost about the same as a return ticket to Australia and there is no guarantee for it beeing accepted. In fact, if it doesnt get accepted we will have to rethink all of our plans. Oh, the joy of uncertainty 
We do however have some hope that the application will be accepted so we are proceeding as planned. A day for the move will not be decided untill the application has been accepted but we are and have been aiming for next September. That way we pretty much go from summer to summer. Things can still change though, Suze might decide she just wants to stay in Iceland and not go home (yeah, right).
* Quoted from Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketch of the Bruce’s
