This weekend we made our way to Stockholm and from what I hear we will be going next week too; I don't know how much more there is to actually see but I will see. The day started out at Drottningholm Palace or the Queen's palace. The place was really beautifully decorated and had a garden the size of a small forest. The interior was like many others I have seen here in Sweden halls with painted granite (Why buy granite when you can pay artists to paint it?), and plenty of rooms with creepy looking portraits of dead people. All in all, the palace was a beautifully place; course it has to be being that it is still a fully functioning residence. We only got to see about a third the other parts are still for the royal families use. After the tour we had about an hour to lounge around the palace grounds, which consisted of a huge garden with fountains here and there. There was also this Chinese pavilion, which I guess was the Swedes take on China. The thing looked like a circus tent.

From the palace we visited one of Sweden's most epic fails, the warship Vasa. It was built in the 1700's and on its maiden voyage it sank not 1 nautical mile into its trip..on a beautiful day at that. After forgetting about it for a couple hundred years it got rediscovered in Stockholms harbor and brought back to the surface. It is the worlds only surviving warship from that time period, and has reviealed how ships of that era were constructed. As mentioned it sank on a perfectly beautiful day, it was a slight breeze that brought her down. The first thing that went wrong was that the ship wasnt fully loaded so it was really top heavy, and with little wind they had to put up a few sails to get her moving. When the wind first picked up out of nowhere it nearly pushed the top heavy ship over, but it was able to right itself. The problem was that the ballast(a bunch of rocks) had shifted to the one side so the ship couldn't right itself all the way. When the wind picked up again it was enough to topple the great ship. Sadly about 30 people died. It was really quite the sight to behold, it reminded me of something out of Pirates of the Caribbean.

After the Vasa we where given 2 hours in Gamla Stan so I got a salad to go from the local grocery store and ate it by the water, though as soon as I finished this storm blew. So I did as any European would have, I grabbed an Espresso and waited for the storm to pass. From there I spent the next hour and a half doing some souvenir shopping for myself. I picked up this little comic book that was Get Fuzzy translated into Swedish. I am defiantly going to have to pick up a few more before I head back, it was a really good way to practice my Swedish.

(This was parked outside of our bus)

Last weekend I found myself in Scandinavia's largest privately owned castle. It was not the most exciting of all tourist destinations in Sweden, but it was an interesting tour. First of all I opted to take the tour in Swedish which was a first for me. I was a bit clueless most of the time, but I was able to understand a few of the stories so I would have to say the Swedish attempt was a success. The coolest thing about the place was the armory, there were multiple rooms just packed with old muskets and other nifty machines of war. There was even a few of this little pistols that looked more like an axe than a pistol. Then there was the monster, a 9 barreled gun! The thing must have weighed a ton. Beyond that it was just like any other old building.

After that stop we went over to Sigtuna, one of Sweden's oldest cities being just over 1000 years old! Back in the day it was actually the happening place in Sweden, but today it could barely be considered city with a population of just around 7000. We took a guided tour, which consisted of 7 churches. Of the 7 only 2 weren't in ruins/missing. Yes, I guess there is a church that is missing; that they know of it, but can't find it. After the guided tour we had time to meander around the city. There was this little viking camp which had a viking ship that you could actualluy go out and row, so a group of us were a viking horde for about 20 min! I also found this chocolate shoppe with reeeeally good hot chocolate, made from bar chocolate not that powder imitation junk. I also was able to see Europe's smallest city hall, but I guess there is some dispute with another town in Switzerland of which is actually smallest. All in all it was just like any other old town, nothing too special.(The fiercest vikings to ever set sail)

(Europe's smallest city hall)

Last week marked one of the best trips I have even had the pleasure of experiencing. It also marked the farthest north I ever been, at around 67 deg N. On the first day we took the overnight train from Uppsala to Murjek, luckily we had the sleeping cars and were able to get a moderately decent night sleep. At the station I was able to see one of the smallest 'grocery' stores with a shopping cart, it was comparable to the inside of a small gas station and it had a shopping cart in it! From the station we took a bus to Kvikkjok, another reaaally small town. We meet up with our guide and distributed gear and food, which for the vegetarians consisted of lots imitation meats..yea..After a short boat ride to the trail head we started our journey to base camp, up a large hill. After about 2 hours of hiking and 10 or so breaks later we made it to base camp. A site with a wonderful view of the great Sarek Mountains in full view. The first night we had noodles and sauce with imitation bacon..mmm, and due to the wind the bugs were non existent which was very nice. That 'night' I managed to wake up around 1:30 to snap this shot.


It was the darkest point of the night and as you can see, it isn't dark at all. The next morning we were up around 8 for a breakfast of oatmeal-like cereal and left for Vallespiken around 10. The water situation was another thing worth mentioning, any stream we passed one could just fill up right out of the stream. I am just glad nobody got sick, that would have not been fun. After bush-whacking through shrubs, across some snowfields and up a bunch of rocks we summited Vallespiken. The view was well worth the hike and at it marked the border of Sarek National Park and the northern most point of the trip. After a picture session and a looong break we all headed back to camp.
When we finally made it back we had guests..the mosquitoes had finally decided to join us in full force. Not the worst I have ever experienced, but they made cooking dinner a not so great experience. However, the vege-meatballs and mashed potatoes were delicious. We also were able to have a little fire that night, which helped big time with the bugs. There is nothing like freshly cooked vege-meatballs over the fire! One bummer was that my tent was downwind of the fire...oh how I love the smell of smoke...On the last morning we packed up and headed back down the mountain. Not the most pleasant hike, every time you stopped you would be attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes, so we made it back in record time. We got a short boat tour of the area by this cool old Swede and had a few hours of down time in Kvikkjok waiting for the bus. The night was spent at this campground outside of Jokkmokk, Sweden's 4th largest municipality by size definatly not by population. I found a love of Hallumi that night at dinner..best cheese ever! After dinner came the most epic sauna session one could ever have. The campground had this cool floating sauna on the lake which we used till late into the night..sooooo cool.


The last day of the trip consisted of a day bumming around Jokkmokk, visiting the museum, shops and me hiking back to the campground. I failed to get all my gear and had to hike back to pick up some stuff I left, good for me was that it was only a 6km round trip. The Sami museum was interesting, but we had sooo much free time that by the end of the day I was defiantly ready to get on the train to go home. In all the trip was a wonderful experience and really got to know everyone who went much better, and the views were just unbelievable. No camera can even come close to capturing the beauty of some of the sights.

Time to catch up with the times..Last week before my Lappland trip was one of the most hectic weeks I have experienced here in Sweden. For starters I had my typical homework in my language class, but on top of that I had to write a paper on the the current state of the welfare system. No more than 500 words, but I had to cite 6 different articles. Most of which had little or nothing to do with the welfare system, so that turned out to be an interesting paper. Then I also had to prepare for my final in my language class which I mangaged to do in the morning hours prior to the exam. It all turned out well to my knowledge, I still don't know about the paper but I pulled an A on the exam! After all that was involved with the school part of the program came the farewell banquet for the 4 weekers. Definatly one of the best parties I have been to in my life, and am totally looking foreward to the next party in 3 weeks. It was a formal Swedish party that included a 3 course dinner that involved lots of performances from students and teachers, singing, traditional drinking songs, Swedish Schnapps, and plenty of other forms of alcohol. After the dinner the dinning area was converted into a dance floor and the party went on till the wee hours of the morning. It was lots of fun and a good way to celebrate the leaving many new friends. There was no time for relaxition, for the next day I had to be packed and ready to go to Lappland, but I will write more on that adventure later.

Friday marked my 3rd trip to Stockholm in the past 3 weeks, and I have still yet to see everything I want to see. The day started out a little rainy, which worried me a bit knowing most of the day would be spent outside, but it turned out to be a lovely day. We started out with a tour of Carl Milles sculpture garden on the northern side of town. Defiantly one of the cooler houses I have ever seen. It was sort of like an Italian Villa with a Swedish spin on it. It sat on this hill and had some terraces around it filled with his works. Nothing too empressive among his works, but he did have a wicked house.After the garden we went over to Gamla Stan for a guided tour history leason. It included seeing the oldest pub in town which opened in 1720's, the old red light district, and the smallest street. After the guided tour we had about 3 hrs to roam the city. I ended up going to lunch with some friends then split off and hoped to go to a museum, but it was closed. I found this really nice vegan bakary with some amazing apple pie, so that was awesome. I basically just wandered around and took the sights in, it was a nice relaxing day.

The first rounds of midterms are due this Thursday. From the variety of topics we have covered in the past two weeks, I am a little scared. I have found one can cover a ton of material in seven days of four hour long classes. It shouldn’t be too bad though given most of it is review for me. It’s just the committing random words and rules to memory that gets me.

In my cultural class today we visited one of the strangest features of Sweden: System Bolaget. It is Sweden’s state run monopoly on alcohol over 3.5%; now why it is 3.5% and not 4% is beyond me. There are a few pros that make this a very likable thing here in Sweden, like the fact that little to no profit is to be made off of any sales so there are ‘cheaper’ prices offered to the consumer. Another thing is the customer service. You can bring a copy of a menu that you will be serving at a house party and they will have someone walk around with you to best pair a drink with your menu. How sweet is that! There are some major downsides. One thing is the lack of competition, but with a selection of over 2,000 beverages to choose from, few complain about that one. The other biggest thing that hits home to me is the strict 20 year old age limit. They are ubber strict with checking ID, so it makes things a little harder for me. The strange thing is that I could go to any pub and order anything off the drink list or run down to the local market and pick up some 3.5% Heineken, soooo weird (and expensive for me). Oh well.

Then tonight when making some stir-fry to add to my ramen noodles I managed my first semi-major knife related accident that I can think of while cooking. I was cutting some green peppers and the blade slipped; nothing too bad. I guess there is a first for everything. One plus, I did get a pretty neat scar out of it!

After some slight debate and pressure I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and start a blog about my experiences here in Uppsala!!

Week one has went great! After Kari left for London on the 20th I managed to make it back to Stockholm OK, but finding my hostel was another thing. I walked around for about a half an hour trying to find my hostel, it didn't help matters that it was a national holiday and the city was void of locals to ask. The next morning I went to the bus station to find that the ticket desk was to open at 7..the bus I wanted to take left at 6:40 so I ended up taking the train instead. I got really lucky with check-in; the guy who's room I am currently living out of booked his train ticket a day to late so he was around when I was moving in and when I started asking him about bike shops around town he ended up letting me borrow his bike for the 8 weeks! Other then that the rooms are par..I have my own WC and bedroom, but the showers and kitchen are shared. Typical to Sweden the building has its own Sauna! Orientation later that day was the norm..way to much info in a small amount of time about the program and what to expect. There are more old people than I expected; right now there are 32 countries represented among the UISS students, ages 17 - 74, 30 people over 40, and 23 people between 30 and 40 and 130 people between 17 - 30. Nothing too exciting the first day.

I am still trying to get used to the sun being out ALL THE TIME (sunrise ~3:30 - sunset ~10:30) and getting up for class at 7:30. Thank god I have a bike because without one it is a good 20 min walk to class so more sleep for me! I started in a language class that was a bit over my head so I moved down a level, the first day I was lost pretty much the whole time..its much better now. It is SOOOO much Swedish, we are in language class from 8:30 till 12:30 but I guess that is a good thing. For lunch we have the choice between a buffet and this sweet 'mostly vegetarian' cafe. Both are great, but you never really know what you are getting from the buffet at times. They have a really poor labeling system. After lunch I have a Social Swedish Institutions class until about 4, which consists mostly of us going on field trips! (I feel like a kid again) Of course, the first place they take us to is a daycare center...Daycare is practically free for all children and they focus on being outside and playing as much as possible. The next day we visited the national insurance agency that deals with giving people money for child care, housing, sick pay, and pensions. Sweden is considered to have the best parental care in Europe, they get 480 paid days off when they have children! They do however have problems with people taking advantage of the system..go figures.

After we get out of class the day is pretty much spent after the commute back home, but we also have a few things planned in the evenings. We had a trivial pursuit night to meet people; sadly my knowledge of Sweden isnt that great..The night ended at a student club/bar and with the sun always being out it really throws off your perspective of time..not good with class the next morning. We have also had a singer visit to play some folk songs..not for me...

Yesterday we had our first day trip! First we visited one of Swenden's most famous artist's house: Carl Larsson. It was by far the most segmented, thrown together house I have ever seen, not very organized at all. Surprisingly not the most exciting place...however the gardens were really beautiful. From there we went to one of Scandinavia's oldest and biggest mines: Falun Mine. At times the copper from the mine made up for 2/3 the production of all the copper in the world. It was first mined around 700 ad and now has over 33km of tunnels. Some of the caverns were just HUGE for being man-made, my photos really dont do the place justice. From the mine we went to the small town of Talburg that is situated on a lake, sadly I forgot my swimsuit. The water was just wonderful on the feet though! I tried a Hjortron (Cloud) berry waffle at a local cafe..SOOOOOOO good! I think it now just might be my favorite type of jam. We watched some crazy Swedish film on the say home..strangest chick flick I have ever seen in my life!