Touchdown in Europe

What a contrast flying into Germany and Norway is from my Middle Eastern experience. The settlements become more developed and structured. There are more infrastructures like railways, large connecting roads, wind farms, airports, power stations, and definitive farmland, cities and suburbs. Even the materials in which houses are built are significantly more complex. Even though I was only in Frankfurt for a few hours, landing in Europe gave me a breath of fresh air. I love this part of the World. Whilst the Middle East fascinates me, the beautiful countryside cities, high quality living standards, healthy landscapes and general societal order of Europe brings me much comfort. Germany is 38% forest and the European Union spends over 50% of its budget on farming subsidies for both cultural and economic reasons, and this is really evident from a birds-eye-view. The architecture in the little German and Norwegian settlements is unique and very timely indeed. Just by examining the way the towns and settlements are built and structured I can feel the immense and rich history of Europe, dating back hundreds if not thousands of years. It’s impossible to imagine there are 80million people that live in Germany, because most of the country is very low-density living. I’m really mesmerised by vast amount of really old, little towns surrounded by farmland. I almost feel like settling down and retreating to a little farming village where I can enjoy a daily pint at the pub with my neighbours and talk football. Speaking of which, all the Germans I’ve met have been very sympathetic given I’m Australian (who lost to Germany 4:0 in the World Cup) and my boyfriend is Brazilian (who despite being one of Germany’s biggest rivals, also ended their World Cup rendezvous quite tragically). Soccer, or I should say ‘football’ on this side of the World, is the universal language here at the moment.

There is also a lot of water around. The skies are sunny blue and there is a perfect air temperature which hugs you with warmth, but is still cool and refreshing to breathe. Everything is very green. One thing you get a sense of in Germany, Denmark and less-so Norway is that every corner each country has been walked on or touched by someone at some point throughout history. Even the forested areas. The use of land in these countries seems really saturated. I mean to say I can’t foresee any significant land-use changes or mass development. Not that I can necessarily see that in the Middle East either, but there is still a real rawness and untouched aspect about much of the Middle East’s sandy setting. Perhaps this immensely long plane trip has given me too much time to think and ponder.

Norway is unique from other European countries though. It still has many of the elements I described, but you feel different when you fly over Norway. Perhaps it is the incredibly Northern latitude, and the beautiful Nordic sun. But the land, the water, the sky, the air all have a purity about them. A surreal and magical existence. I felt like God was gifting me Norway when I arrived. I’m pretty sure the pilot detoured through the beautiful fjords and over the perfectly still and shining lakes and forests just to impress. The beauty of Norwegian summers is that when I touched down at roughly 7.30pm, the sun looked as if it was still 4pm in the afternoon. In fact, it’s after midnight now and still light outside. The airport was all wooden and sustainably engineered, and the Norwegian houses and villages were even more sparsely distributed across the countryside and beautiful natural landscape. They almost look like perfect little lego houses and villages. In summary, it took me roughly 3 seconds to completely fall in love with Norway again. The even-more-beautiful-than-I-remember Lene was waiting for me at the airport and we had a gorgeous summer BBQ on the lawns of her elegantly renovated 400 year old family farm-house. We drank wine and talked politics and caught up on old stories. I am now cuddling up into a gloriously comfortable bed after a refreshing shower, and am looking forward to waking up for the first time since the day I left Australia and enjoying what happens next.