LUCK? Or DESTINY???

When it comes to traveling, having a Colombian passport sucks!
Nobody knows anything good about Colombia, but EVERYBODY knows about the drugs, bombs, and guerrillas. That’s why getting visas is rather difficult. In airports Colombians can expect questions like “Are you carrying any drugs?”, excessive and often prejudice screening of luggage and sometimes even getting personally searched. Thank God these kind of things have never happened to me, but I’ve heard stories like these too many times … none of which were fun.

Ever since I decided to come to Europe, I’ve had all kinds of unusual experiences with the visas I had to apply for. The first one was the visa to come to Germany in 2002. The day before I was going to apply for it, I met the German consul of Colombia in a Vienna café in Bogotá. He gave me an appointment for 9 o’clock next morning and by 9:30am I already had my Schengen visa which allowed me to travel freely around all the countries that make part of the European Union.

In an equally spontaneous manner, I received my Hungarian visa. In august 2004 I decided to travel to Hungary. Two days before the trip I found out that I needed a visa to travel there. I went to the Hungarian embassy and after telling a big story I got my visa in less than an hour, which is NOT common. For that same trip, I was supposed to meet Chris in Vienna and go to Budapest together. Austria is part of the European Union, so I didn’t need a visa, but in order to get there by bus I had to go through the Czech Republic, which I didn’t have a visa for. I got kicked off the bus by the police at the border. After performing the most amazing show, I got a hand written visa at 3 o’clock in the morning.

Not only that, the border patrol went so far as to help me hitchhiking, because my bus had to left without me.

On December 2004 I applied for an American visa (which we all know is a pain in the ass to get). I went to the embassy with all the papers they asked for, plus many others, but the guy not only didn’t look at any of my documents, he gave a multiple entry visa for 5 years!
On June 2005, Chris and I decided to visit our friend Anna in Moscow. That visa is also very hard to get. Me being Colombian I had to pay more while Chris being from the States had to fill out twice as much paper work. Apart from not understanding a word in the embassy, we got it fairly easy through a travel agency.

A month ago, I was living in Copenhagen, when I decided to go to Berlin for the weekend. I didn’t have a visa for Germany anymore (my Schengen visa had expired) and as luck (or destiny) would have it, I got stopped by the police at the border. They took my passport for the 3 longest minutes of my life and after me thinking that they where going to deport me, the police officer brought my passport back and wished me a nice trip… I still don’t understand how did that happened!! In my opinion the only explanation is a MIRACLE!!!

Finally two weeks ago I went to the Danish Foreign Affairs Office, where they are suppose to give me my residence permit to stay in Copenhagen, to tell them that I was going to Norway and Sweden and that I needed a temporary visa. The woman said clearly that that wasn’t possible, but suddenly she asked me, “Do you have Danish ancestors?” After simply repling “Yes”, her attitude changed completely … gave me the ‘impossible visa’, again hand written, and gave me lots of advice about how to apply for a Danish passport.

Luck?? or Destiny??

Weekend in BERLIN!!!

While feeling both depressed and lonely in Copenhagen, I decided to catch a bus and escape to Berlin for the weekend. I manage to not tell anybody, because I wanted it to be a surprise! After 7 hours on the bus I arrive to Berlin, called chris and told him that my good friend Christian was going to bring him some things that my mom sent from Colombia. He was suppose to send to me and that he should come downstairs in 15 minutes to pick them up. I had to call from a pay phone, so that he wouldn’t see my number in his mobile screen, then I run to his house and when he came down stairs instead of Christian, me and pooh bear were waiting for him… he said that it was a great surprise!!Next day I had lunch with Marcelo and on Saturday dinner with Kerstin, Marcelo and Chris, it was a great weekend, we didn’t do anything special, but had lots of fun. On Sunday night I took a bus back home and as always the goodbye was very hard.
To read Chris’s perspective click here

My AMAZING advent calendar!!!

Yesterday in the morning, I got a very nice surprise. Around 11 am the doorbell rang and it was the postman with a big box for me. I was expecting something from Chris, but what I got was way better than I imagined!!! Chris sent me a CARE PACKAGE, just like the ones that his mom normally sends him. I never got one of those before, so I was very excited. The box looked very nice, with many stars.



I opened it and found the most AMAZING advent calendar that he made by himself, with his own socks hanging from a garland full of stars!!!... and in each sock a present!!! It was simply PERFECT!! I completely loved it. I was so excited that I even cried, of happiness of course!
I got my calendar on the 5th so I got to open 5, presents at once and those were nice too: the head set to talk on SKYPE, a couple of power bars that I needed, chocolates and the cable to connect the dvd to the computer, because all that stuff is terribly expensive here in Copenhagen.


I hung it on my bed posts and now every morning, before even getting out of bed, I get a present! It’s GREAT!!!
It is so nice to have somebody taking care and doing nice things for you…
THANKS CHRIS!!!

My first GREAT weekend in Copenhagen!!:)

When I first went to Germany 3 years ago,the adaptation process was hard. I remember feeling lonely, sad, vulnerable and I having no one to hang out with.
For some stupid reason I thought that the second time would be easier… well, that’s definitely NOT the case!! It has been VERY hard to start again up here from zero. It is winter again, Christmas is coming and I don’t speak a word of Danish! It sucks!
About a year ago Chris was studying at the language school in Berlin with a guy ½ Brazilian, ½ Danish, who’s name is Lucas. Chris introduced us and we all hung out a couple of times,.Then Lucas went to Brazil and THANK GOD now he is back in Copenhagen.

That’s why this past weekend I finally had lots of fun in this city. He invited me to a xmas party at his place on Saturday. The Thursday before, we went shopping for xmas presents, then on Saturday I had my first VERY DANISH experience…I had typical Danish food and played typical Danish games. It was GREAT!!!

Finally on Sunday I went to TIVOLI, one of the oldest and most famous amusement parks in Europe. Anyone who knows me, knows that if we are talking about these kind of parks, saying that I had lots of fun and that it was great is just a Obvious. I went on 8 rides in the most amazing roller coaster call THE DEMON, and many other attractions.

Everything was full of Christmas lights and it was very pretty.

HERE are some more pictures!

XMAS Decorations

XMAS in Copenhagen is a VERY big deal, here are some pics…




The whole city is full of lights and everything looks pretty!