Sweden

On Jenny’s Birthday (sorry, Jenny) I caught a plane to Stockholm, out of the small airport near the Netherlands. Other than a small delay needed to clean a bird off of the wing of the plane from the previous landing, everything went smoothly. I got off the plane and met up with my friend Håkan, who I had played ultimate frisbee with in Brisbane. He came all the way to the Skavsta Airport to pick me up (thank you!) and so we had a bit of a drive to get back to Uppsala, which is 70km north of Stockholm. There was a little snow on the ground, which was exciting because I don’t think I’ll see much of it this year. But the biggest surprise on the drive home was that the sun was setting at 3PM! I’ve never been anywhere where the days were so short, but I guess it makes sense because this was the closest I’ve ever been to one of the poles. Håkan drove me through the main part of Uppsala, which was very charming. We got to his apartment, set up my bed, and then drove out to Balinge, the town where he grew up and where his brother and family now live. We walked through town and picked up Håkan’s nieces, Tilde and Elvira. I felt badly because I couldn’t speak to them in Swedish, although I did learn how to say goodbye. We drove back to Uppsala and stopped to get some Glögg and Julmust, two very Swedish drinks. Glögg is a thicker, sweet, warm drink that you usually have with raisins and nuts (I have since learned that it is basically the same thing as Glühwein, which is big in Germany). And Julmust is a dark soda. Between the two, I liked Glögg better. Apparently they have it in Minnesota, too, although I had never tried it before. A fun fact: Minneapolis has been a twin city with Uppsala since 2000!

Once we got back into town we went out for dinner at one of the Nations. A Nation is kind of like a student union in the U.S.. Student members get tax free food and drinks (which is a big discount in Sweden, since tax is usually 25%), can attend sponsored cultural events, etc. Uppsala is a big university city. It is home to Uppsala University, which was founded in 1477 (makes UVA look like a baby) and is the oldest center of higher education in Scandinavia and much of northern Europe. Pretty cool! Anyway, we met up with Håkan’s friend Johan, grabbed dinner, a few beers, and played a game of darts at one of the Nations. We went back to Håkan’s to try some drinks with the Julmust and hung around for a bit before going out to another Nation for drinks and dancing.

I slept in very late the next morning (and every day I was in Sweden, sorry, Håkan), but once I was up Håkan took me on a tour of Uppsala. We went inside one of the old University buildings and saw the Gustavianum, with the anatomical theatre at the top. We went inside the Uppsala Cathedral, the largest gothic church in all of the Nordic countries, and the place where many Swedish coronations have taken place. We also visited Carolina Rediviva, the main university library building, which holds the Silver Bible. Next we walked up to Uppsala Castle (the pink building), which has its cannons pointed toward the Cathedral – apparently one of the Kings didn’t like the Church very much. The last stop on the tour was the new music and convention hall in Uppsala. It is a contemporary, several-story black and white building with panoramic views of the town. So we went up to check it out. Here is one of the shots from the convention hall - I love the pastel colors of the buildings. It was a bit cloudy, so not great for picture-taking, but still cool to see. On our way back to Håkan’s we stopped at the liquor store to buy a bunch of different types of beer (Swedish, Czech, and others) for me to try while I was in town. For an easy dinner we stopped and got kebabs and then went home and watched The Heartbreak Kid, the newer Ben Stiller – Farrelly Brothers movie.

On Thursday we went to Stockholm! It’s less than an hour train-ride from Uppsala. When we got there Håkan took me to the Medieval Museum, so I got to see what Stockholm was like hundreds of years ago. We walked through Gamla Stan – old town Stockholm, past Storkyrkan (the oldest Church in the old town - it dates back to the 12-1300s - that's old), and past the palace. Stockholm is really cool in that it is built on several islands. So there are bridges and boats everywhere. The pictures I’ve seen from summertime look pretty spectacular. We ducked into some of the nicer shopping areas to get out of the rain and everything was decorated for the holidays – I love that! We used our shoes to skate around an ice rink, passed the statue of Charles XII pointing east (towards Russia - watch out), and went to the Royal Armory Museum. Despite not being able to read most of the captions in the museum, there were still some very interesting things to look at – lots of weapons/swords, armor, fancy clothing, and carriages. By the time we left the museum it was dark already. We walked through a few more stores and then caught the train back to Uppsala for dinner at one of the Nations. I tried the famed pea soup and liked it (Håkan does not), punsch, and waffles with jam and cream. The best part was that I got to meet a lot of his friends and hall mates. All of whom I really liked. We made plans to meet up with everyone later as they visited each of the Nations. It was a fun night!

After a late night I slept in and watched Pirates of the Caribbean III – I hadn’t seen it yet! I think my first time outside was when we went to Håkan’s parent’s house for dinner. The food and drinks were great and it was so nice to get to know everyone. Håkan’s nieces were there and we were able to communicate a little better than we had the first time we met – they even taught me to count to 24 in Swedish on their Advent calendars! Unfortunately, have now forgotten. I tried a bunch of different drinks – Glögg (this time with nuts and raisins), wine, beer, and two different kinds of schnapps. It would probably take me a little bit to get used to drinking schnapps. I loved the food! We had fish, dumplings, meatballs, and of course, the lasagna that Håkan made in Australia (my favorite!). After dinner Tilde, Elvira and I played a game of memory and they beat me by a landslide. Tell your parents thanks again for me, Håkan! I had a great time. We had to make it back to Håkan’s by 7 because he had invited a bunch of friends over for a party. We waited for everyone to get there, tried the assortment of beers we had picked out, and went out to the Nations again.

On Saturday we had Fika – the Swedish, one-word term for going out for a coffee/tea/snack/etc. I still am not sure how to use the word in a sentence. We hung out drinking coffee/tea and talking for a while before heading back to Håkan’s. For dinner we ordered pizza with Christian and Annie, watched a movie, and then met Johan at one of the Nations for a concert. I was fully expecting the music to be in Swedish, but since I don’t normally listen to song lyrics anyways I didn’t think it would matter. But to my surprise all of the songs were in English – the band just spoke Swedish in between.

Sunday was a lazy day, too. It was also my last day in Sweden. We woke up and watched a string of Scrubs episodes. We left the apartment a little earlier than needed so that we could walk through town and check out the festivities for First Advent. On the way we passed by Carl Linnaeus' house and it was open this time! Linnaeus was from Uppsala and did a lot of his work there - Sara, you would have liked it!! (For those who don't know, Linnaeus is know as the "Father of Taxonomy." He came up with the whole classification system we have for living organisms, which I have had to deal a lot with in classes.) I was pretty psyched. His is the yellow house - I got this picture from Hakan - I was there in winter. After Linnaeus' we kept walking and came across the Advent market and a children’s choir singing carols. Then Håkan walked me over to the train station where I took the long trip home – train, bus, plane, and car back to Düsseldorf.