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Welcome to my Blog. I am one of the 5000 young people from the UK attending the 22 world scout jamboree in Sweden in July and August 2011. In this blog I will talk about the camps and meetings running up to the jamboree as part of "Avonasarus", the Avon unit of the UK, and then, hopefuly have almost daily posts from the jamboree site as it happens. Hope you enjoy reading and feel free to follow

Monday 25 July 2011

DAY TWO - 25/07/11 - MY BIRTHDAY!

I woke up with the help of Mikes raptor (solar powered radio, torch, alarm clock and basically anything else) at 6:30. Tom and Mike had their showers and then I did too before going down into the basement of the hostel for breakfast. The room was large and yellow and had a wall that was completely mirrored. I then queued for a breakfast of cereal, fruit juice and toast. The leaders then handed us each a notebook which were going to be our diaries before Kev got Avonasaurus diaries made for us. We then ate breakfast and then went upstairs and packed our day sacs before meeting the leaders in the hostels entrance. Once there, we were told that we were going on a 'boat trip' and that it was a 'short walk' away. So we set off for our walk around Copenhagen and 1hr and 30mins later after walking at a reasonable pace we reached the stretch of river near to the entrance into sea. Once there, it started to rain a bit so we all (us and some other UK units) put the florescent covers on our bags and piled them up. We then joined the queue where we saw that what we were told was 'a boat trip', was actually power boating in the sea just outside Copenhagen! We quickly got to the front of the queue and put on our life jackets, we then got into the boat and went to the sea. The power boating was amazing, we sang 'don't stop be now' and 'YMCA' with actions at the front of the boat!
After a few minutes we came back to shore and were told we had been going approximately 80mph!!!!
While we waited for the others to come back - you couldn't fit very many people in a boat, we had our 'lovely' vacuum packed lunch. When the rest came back, we walked down to 'the little mermaid' - a famous monument which was right next to the power boating. We had some group photos there and then walked down slightly further, where we met and spoke to some Danish scouts. We then hid round a bush while we waited for Alan to come out of the toilet but unfortunately he didn't come from where we were expecting him to come so he saw us. We then had another group photo before going onto a massive fountain outside the Copenhagen army barracks. We then went into the barracks and on a massive gravel parade ground, decided to spell out Avonasaurus with our bodies. We were then told by a running army person who was clearly a man on a mission, that we weren't allowed on the parade ground, so we went on the grass opposite. After that, we walked back through Copenhagen until we reached the square opposite the main entrance to Tivoli gardens. When we were there, we met some of the Australian contingent and spoke to them. After speaking to them, the whole unit as well as the Australians sang me Happy Birthday which was great. I was also given an 'Avonasaurus card' which had been signed by everyone in the unit and a Birthday cup cake with a candle in it. After that, Alan took some of us to do 'sportOrama' while the others went to Tivoli early with the other leaders. On the walk to the sports center, I ate my cake which was delicious!!! Alan, Catrin and I, then did bowling with some scouts from Cheshire, which was quite funny as we were all (me especially) not very good at it.
Afterwards we all met up outside the spots center and went to the train station to get some food as several people had just thrown their lunches away. We had a brief look around the station which had amazing architecture. After the hungry people had eaten their McDonald's and CURRY IN A BOX! - which for some reason we found very impressive.
We then went to Tivoli gardens and went on a ride where you spun round a central point and on your own axis (i think it was called spinning tops). We then walked round and went on a small ride where we were told traditional fairy tales and animated models acted them out. We then queued for the runaway train roller coaster but gave up because it took so long. We then wondered around some more and went on a ride where you were on a boat in some sort of mine which we didn't really understand. After that, 'the star flyer' (the worlds tallest caroul), after being broken for some unknown reason (we thought it must be quite serious as they had to have engineers climb to the top of the tower) suddenly opened, so Kate and some northern Scouts we were with, went on the ride while me and Emily took all the bags. We then decided to go on the spinning tops ride again but the queue was so long that we were 10mins late for dinner which was @6:00pm. We went into the aquarium at Tivoli where then UK contingent had put out 'build a burger' for our dinner. We then queued for ages to be given a drink and crisps and to be allowed out of the building.
We then went and ate our dinner and were told by the leaders that when the gardens closed @11:00pm we were to go round the corner and meet the leaders @11:15pm at the hard rock cafe.
The Yorkshire unit then started their chant which went: "YORKSHIRE, YORKSHIRE, YORKSHIRE...." with them pointing upwards. We then erupted into one of our many chants, led by Josh "I SAY AVON, YOU SAY, SASURUS!   AVON.....SASURUS, AVON.....SASURUS, AVON.....SASURUS!!!!"
I think we one! We then decided to go to Vertigo, by far the scariest ride at Tivoli as we thought the queue would be smaller while most people would still be eating their dinner. Kate, Dan and Luke joined the 2hr queue while me and meg went for a look around the site. I also swapped a dinosaur woggle for a koala bear woggle. We then went back and watched Vertigo which was very impressive. Afterwards we went and queued for probably the second scariest ride at Tivoli - the star flyer. The queue took us about 1hr 30mins - 2hrs and while we queued we swapped badges and chatted with some of the south Yorkshire unit and high fived people coming off the rides. When we eventually reached the front of the queue it had got dark so was all lit up and looked even more impressive. There were double seats, so I went on with Alice. The view from the top was absolutely amazing, you could see the whole of Copenhagen all lit up. That added to the fact that it was freezing and you were spinning fast enough that you were almost on your side made it an incredible experience.
When we came off the star flyer we went round the corner to the Odin Express (runaway train), where some of our friends were near the front and were able to sneak me and Sam to the front (the others were caught) before the rest of the queue noticed. I went second front the front with Catrin and it was pretty good.
After that ride we wandered around the site some more and had a look in the Danish royal families shop.
After than we left Tivoli through the main entrance (we had come in through the side entrance) which was very impressive with fire lighting up. We then went round to the Hark Rock cafe and spent a few minutes waiting for everyone to come together before walking as a group back to hostel where we chatted for a bit before going to bed.    



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