My May-June 2022: Around Denmark, Germany and a slice of the Czech Republic

With May and June came sunny spring days and long nights. Exciting excavations, local weekend adventures and several trips down south to Germany – and a corner of Czech Republic! May and June were two busy months with non-stop activities in the weekends – just the way I like it!

Destinations visited in May-June 2022

Denmark

• East Jutland (Hov, Hørning and Ry)
• Lolland (Rødby, Rødbyhavn, Maribo, Kragenæs, Holeby, Sædinge, Nebbelunde, Kjærstrup, Flårup, Stubberup Havn, Høvænge Havn, Sandager Havn, Handermelle Havn, Errindlev Havn, Lundehøje Havn and Errindlev)
• Falster (Gedser, Nykøbing Falster, Åstrup and Corselitze Østerskov)
• Zealand (Copenhagen and Snertinge)

Germany

• Berlin
• Saxon Switzerland (Königstein and Kurort Rathen)
• Burg auf Fehmarn

Czech Republic

• Děčín

Top 3 favourite new destinations

1. Saxon Switzerland, Germany
2. Děčín, Czech Republic
3. The small marinas of southern Lolland, Denmark

Daily life

May begun where April ended, at home in East Jutland visiting my family with my boyfriend. We attended the annual Easter get-together with my immediate family, before heading off to Lolland. There, I spent most of my time in Maribo working on an excavation of a Neolithic (Late Stone Age) site. We found a huge concentration of worked flint (a flint workshop!), a pressure flaked dagger and several polished axes. A team from the local news channel came by to film me at work a whole day – you can see the result of that here! I worked overtime most of May as I had to process the GPS data from the excavation – something I really enjoyed doing although it did mean many long days and hardly any free time during the week!

A very memorable weekend was spent in Copenhagen for Eurovision with several friends. We spent the entire day cooking vegan dishes from all 25 countries in the final! My favourite dishes were homemade patifu from Czech Republic, and Zhingyalov hats from Azerbaijan and Armenia! I spent most of the day making little flags for each dish – a task I took very seriously. Eurovision night was a huge success, especially because Ukraine won. It was well-deserved on every level. I also loved Moldova, Iceland, Norway (GIVE THAT WOLF A BANANA!), Greece and the Netherlands but didn’t care much for all the ballads! The day after, we celebrated a birthday with virtual reality and a boat trip around the canals of Copenhagen. It was really nice to see my previous home city from the waterside!

During these two months, I had several visits on the farm. My aunt came for a few days to explore Lolland with me, and I took her around Maribo and to Dodekalitten, a masterpiece of an installation located in the hilliest part of Lolland. My boyfriend came by a few times, and my best friend also stayed for a few days along with a friend of hers. They came to attend a Stone Age conference along with my colleagues, which was really interesting with much new knowledge and a bunch-load of inspiration! I also had a very exciting visit at work from distant relatives, one of whom had found me on Instagram a year back. She and I share the same great-great-great grandparents, and we found out that our families both lived in Skals and knew each other! She brought her two daughters and her mum along. Her mum knew my dad’s aunt when they were younger, and I even think they look alike! One of the daughters was very interested in archaeology, and spent the day helping my colleagues and I with sifting and washing finds! That was a great day.

In mid-May, the excavation in Maribo was temporarily put on hold, and instead, we started two small excavations near “my” farm in Rødby. Finally, the days of overtime had come to an end! The first excavation revealed eleven structures thought to date to the Iron Age, including a large house. The second excavation was the most exciting, however. We had discovered two cremation burials during the preliminary excavation back in the winter, and now we were finally excavating them. It was just me and one other colleague, and since he’d excavated several cremation burials before, he let me do it! I can’t tell you how nervous I was, but it was a great learning experience and we got some good results too! In one of the burials, I found an iron artefact (probably a knife), and the other burial turned out to be placed in a well-preserved urn! The iron artefact found tells us that the burials are dated to the Iron Age (ca. 500 BC – 750 AD), but we’ll have to wait for the radiocarbon dating results to know more precisely!

In late May, my host family travelled overseas and left me alone with the dogs for two weeks – plenty of quality time with my two loves! I enjoyed some slow days watching beautiful sunsets, watering all the plants at the farm and keeping an eye on a nest with little blackbirds that eventually flew off to start their lives. During this time, I visited a friend I hadn’t seen for four years in northeast Zealand and finally got to meet her dog, Laika. I also travelled home to East Jutland for a weekend to see my family and celebrate my grandmother’s birthday in the gorgeous town of Ry. We gave her a concert with her hero, Hansi Hinterseer, which she and I will attend in October (I think I’m in for a real treat!).

I also finally handed in my application for the University of Aberdeen! I haven’t heard back yet and don’t know when to expect to, but I’m crossing everything I have for an acceptance letter! It would truly be a dream come true!

Travels and local adventures

Adventures on Lolland

As the summer holidays came nearer, I felt the need to speed up my explorations of Lolland a bit. Before I know it, it will be December and I’ll be moving away to (hopefully) Aberdeen, so I am trying my hardest to spend my weekends exploring my local area. There’s still so much to see and experience – even after 1,5 years of living there! I went for two bike rides, one short ride of some twenty kilometres, first to Holeby where I discovered the most beautiful cottage ever and a cute little church. I sat in the sun and worked on my computer for a while, before cycling off again to the two adorable villages of Sædinge and Nebbelunde. The second bike ride was a whole other story! 66 kilometres in unbearably hot weather with 30+ degrees around southern Lolland! It was the perfect day for cycling as there was hardly any wind, and the hot weather seemed to keep most other people either inside or on the beaches, so I had the narrow country roads to myself. I cycled past a few castles (Lolland has 44 castles!!), stumbled upon a tiny local museum, visited all six tiny marinas dotted along the southern coast of Lolland, bought some beautiful antique artefacts in a small thrift store, stood on Lolland’s largest rock and enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the lowlands of my temporary home. What a gorgeous – yet tough for the butt – day!

June 23rd was a hot day, and in more than just one sense. One of my absolute favourite traditions fell on this day – the midsummer celebrations in Denmark (Sankt Hans). I cherish this tradition as it has a wonderful way of bringing communities together all over the country, and I love to imagine how we’re all staring into a bonfire at the very same time. This year, I celebrated it with four colleagues, first with an event at the Medieval centre in Nykøbing involving a fun lance tournament and a bonfire on the lake, and later with a sunset bonfire at the harbour in Nykøbing. It was such a lovely evening, and another great Sanks Hans to add to the book of memories.

Another great experience was a May tour of the building site for the new Fehmarn Belt tunnel, set to be complete in 2028. It’s a truly exciting project, not only for the development of Denmark and connections within Europe, but also for the local archaeology as it has given us over ten years of work with many incredible results! It was really interesting to see behind the scenes of the largest construction project in Denmark’s history, something that is only possible a few times per year on arranged tours.

A wedding and adventures on Falster

On May 21st, my boss married the love of his life at their beautiful rural farm on Northeast Falster. I was invited along with a few of my colleagues and my boyfriend who travelled from Berlin to attend his first wedding ever!

We met the day before in Gedser for what was supposed to be a relaxing night in a shelter, but it didn’t turn out quite so. Because the shelter was FULL of big spiders that came out in the evening – and I mean FULL. They were hanging from their webs all over the wooden ceiling, and when some crawled over our sleeping bags, I decided it was enough. I’m super scared of spiders, and I just couldn’t imagine sleeping in there, knowing they’d be crawling all over me. So, we ended up sleeping in the harbour’s bathroom instead! Thankfully, it was quite comfortable – and more importantly, it was clean! No spiders to be seen!

When we weren’t cleaning cobwebs or escaping from the spiders, we spent our time exploring the small town of Gedser which had clearly seen better times but had this cozy historic charm to it that I really liked. The following morning, we walked out to Denmark’s southernmost point, which is located a four-kilometre walk from Gedser. That was a fun experience!

The wedding was the same evening, a cozy event full of love, laughter and funny Danish traditions – oh, and kittens that had been born that same day! My boyfriend and I stayed overnight at my boss’ farm, and spent the next day hiking through my favourite forest in the area, Corselitze Østerskov. The enormous forest is full of prehistoric burial mounds, megaliths and rocks with petroglyphs, and it’s also home to Falster’s prettiest cliffs right at the edge of the forest!

A perfect trip to Saxon Switzerland

The following weekend was extended with two days due to Ascension Day, so my boyfriend and I travelled back to Berlin together, and set off for Děčín in Czech Republic the next day. We had chosen Děčín as our base for exploring Saxon Switzerland as it was much cheaper than staying on the German side, but the city turned out to be much more than just a convenient place to sleep. We really liked Děčín, which is small and cozy and nestled beneath the low mountains that make up the Czech side of the national park.

While we spent the first day exploring Děčín and climbing a mountain above the city, we set off for the German part of the national park the remaining two days of our trip. On the first day, we explored the medieval hilltop fortress Königstein in depth, hiking around its base, exploring its interior with the second-deepest well in Germany, and enjoying the magnificent views from the fortress walls.

The next day, we headed to Kurort Rathen, where most tourists go for a day trip to see the famous Bastei bridge set in an otherworldly location in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. But we weren’t only there to see the bridge, we also wanted to go for a long hike between the protruding rocks, seeking out viewpoints and secluded places to relax and just enjoy nature and each other’s company. But of course, we also wanted to see that famous view, and it definitely didn’t disappoint, although I preferred the other trails as they were MUCH less crowded – although we did face some challenges involving rock climbing and some pretty huge drops, but that’s a story for later!

An extended weekend in Berlin

I returned to Germany five days later as I now had the Monday off in connection with the weekend due to the Whitsun holiday – I love spring with all its public holidays! June had just begun, and Berlin had warmed up significantly.

We had planned to travel around northern Germany but we were both exhausted after our trip to Saxon Switzerland, so instead, we decided to stay put and enjoy some summer days in Berlin. We spent a lot of time walking around Kreuzberg and eating my favourite dish ever (mock duck!) at my favourite restaurant ever (Phantasia!).

We spent an afternoon exploring Teufelsberg, hoping for a great view over the city. What we didn’t realize was that we were about to enter a time machine taking us back to the uncertain decades of the past century. The “mountain” which was built of 26.000.000 m3 rubble from demolished buildings was once home to an unfinished Nazi military-technical college, and later used as a secret US listening post during the Cold War. It was since abandoned and left to decay, but is now open for visitors to roam for a small entrance fee. Today, Teufelsberg is a mecca for graffiti and street art, and is arguably one of the most awesome places in Berlin!

A very hot day on the island of Fehmarn

When I first visited the northern German island of Fehmarn back in the summer of 2020, I had no idea I’d soon be working just across the ocean on the Danish island of Lolland. Fehmarn actually served as a good first taste of life on Lolland as the landscapes are very similar = flat, flat and flat!

Fast forward two years, and I’ve been living and working on Lolland for over a year without revisiting my neighbouring island – well, except for using it as a transit island en route to Berlin. But on the last Saturday in June, that finally changed. I returned to Fehmarn with the intention to explore more of the island. I visited the town of Burg, the largest on the island, and spent a few hours walking around the countryside surrounding the town. It was a hot day – unbearably hot – but I enjoyed my revisit nonetheless. I was especially captivated by all the cute details of Burg’s old townhouses.

New on the blog

Most popular post

• Days in the Harz Mountains, the northernmost mountain range in Germany (Published in June) – All about my trip to a low mountain range in Germany, unknown to most but wildly popular among Danes!

The other posts

May:

• My April 2022: From Rømø to Germany and Belgium – April was a busy month full of travels!
• Kazbegi National Park, Georgia: A hike above the Gergeti Trinity Church – My second post from Georgia, a country that holds a special place in my heart
• The ultimate Nólsoy hike: Over the mountains to the lighthouses in the south – If you have one day on Nólsoy and enjoy hiking, this is the perfect route for you!
• An abandoned world: The tale of Spitzer Castle, Beočin, Serbia – The newest post in my series on abandoned places around the world is this creepy castle in rural Serbia!

June:

• To Biesenthal and Magdeburg: the end of a summer roadtrip through Germany – My last post from my long summer journey through Germany in 2020!
• Experiences in Bergen that will make you love the city, even in constant rain – Bergen is a rainy city, but it’s crazy beautiful. I visited in November and really enjoyed the city!
• Fruška Gora National Park: An autumnal hike through ‘the Jewel of Serbia’ – A gorgeous hike in Serbia back in October when autumn put on its best show!

Most popular Instagram picture

Train travel is my favourite mode of transport – and according to the comments on this post, most of my followers agree!

Vis dette opslag på Instagram

Et opslag delt af Mel (@north.trotter)

A brand new domain name

In June, I changed my blog name from iliveasidream.com to northtrotter.com! This happened after months of brainstorming on a new name, as I’d outgrown iliveasidream and felt it was a little pretentious and selfish-sounding. We live in a world where most people don’t have the resources to live their dream, and I don’t want my blog to reflect an attitude that everyone can follow their dreams, because that’s simply not true. Most people on this planet barely have enough resources to survive and thrive.

That being said, I still want to write about my travels as it’s something I truly enjoy, and if I inspire just one person to spend this life on adventures, be them local or across the globe, it’s all worth it for me.

I wanted my new domain name to truly mirror who I am, and since my greatest passion is exploring the north – both in travels and in archaeology -, I thought ‘northtrotter’ was the perfect name for my blog. It’s a wordplay on ‘globetrotter’ and quite genius, if I should say so myself 😜

Technical issues on the blog

Unfortunately, changing to a new domain was nowhere near as straight forward as I’d imagined, and my website hosts weren’t of much help.

I struggled with this domain transfer for a month, going going back and forth with different guys on their live chat and in countless emails they’d answer every 4-8 days… They all told me something different. One guy cloned and crashed my site and caused all of my images to disappear, another guy said I needed a backup which I tried to do but didn’t work, and another guy refused to help me with the backup. Then a guy successfully transferred the domain without a backup, then all was good with the domain but still not with the images, so I contacted another guy who said I’d have to manually upload all of my images again! So I contacted another guy who started a restoration process but said I would still keep my main domain as northtrotter.com afterwards! And then I was told the opposite, that it would revert back to iliveasidream.com.

In the end, I was so tired of going back and forth, that I decided to just live with the fact that I have to re-upload all 20,000 images on my blog – something that’s going to take months, if not years. Y’all will have to bear with me until then! I’m super frustrated about this whole ordeal, but I’m happy to finally have a great domain name, and be able to publish posts again! I’ve missed it.

Coming up in July 2022

July began with a weekend visiting my boyfriend in Berlin, and I spent the second weekend saying temporarily goodbye to Lolland before my summer holiday – with a party and some small adventures!

I’m taking two months off for summer, which started on July 15th with a trip home for a few days. On Wednesday, I’ll be heading back to Germany for a few days in Berlin and then to the annual Stone Age gathering in Marburg where I’ll see July off!