Sorry Everybody,
It's been forever since I went anywhere exotic. I've been stuck in Lund since Kiruna. But it hasn't all been bad. Lauren came and visited for a week in the end of March during her Spring Break. Not quite Cancun, but she was happy to see me anyways. Unfortunately, Lauren didn't have the nicest weather ever, but we did make it to Malmo and Copenhagen.
April was the biggest surprise yet. It was beautiful, quite warm, and sunny everyday but one. We purchased a couple cheap Weber knockoffs, and grilled 6 days a week in April. We also had a couple big bbq's where we sold burgers for cost. We had big turnouts on both occasions.
We also went to the beach a couple times. Its only about 15 minutes away by car. At one point, I was running through the water and stepped on a softball sized rock with the arch of my foot. That's the lovely picture of my foot in the slideshow.
I also went on a party cruise to Oslo. We left Copenhagen in the evening, partied all night on the boat, slept a couple hours, and arrived in Oslo. We were only in Oslo for 6 hours, but I got to see quite a bit, including the famous "Scream" painting. The big building we walked up in the pictures is the city's new opera house. After touring the city for a bit, we got back on the boat, partied, and woke up in Copenhagen. It was amusing, because they stuck all the students on the bottom deck, under the waterline and below the car decks.
On the last day of April was the famous Valborgs party. Every 30th of April, the students pack into a park and spend the day lying in the sun and drinking. It was a tough day. There were thousands of people there. People came from all over Sweden and Europe to come. My pictures don't do the numbers justice.
May has gotten off to a cooler start, but its started to warm up the past two or three days. My next adventure will come in the form of bumming around Europe with the family in June. Sorry again that its been since Febuary that I posted stuff. Hope you enjoy the pictures, feel free to ask questions if you have them!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Kiruna
This time, I went to Kiruna, which is a town in the Arctic Circle in Sweden. The adventure started Friday afternoon. I met up with Dan, a fellow student from U of I. He's studying at DTU in Denmark. We met up at the Lund train station, and caught a train to Stockholm. In Stockholm, we met up with Sam, a friend of Dan's, also from DTU and U of I. During the hour wait for the night train, we grabbed cash and a bite to eat. When we boarded the night train, we were excited to find that we had been put in a three bed room, which was much nicer than the six bed room I had taken to Stockholm on the previous trip. Dan and I thought we'd have the room to ourselves since no one got in at Stockholm, but a stop later an older gentleman joined us. Since Dan and I want to not bother the man, we talked to the conducter and he allowed us to move into Sam's three bed room. So we spent the evening playing cards, drinking, and watching stand up comics off of Sam's laptop.
The next morning, we woke up, and transfered trains. We were now on our last train to Kiruna. Breakfast/lunch consisted of a candy bar and tea bought on the train. Another three hours later, we arrived i Kiruna, 23 hours after we had left Lund.
We arrived at the train station(duh), and walked up the hill into Kiruna. Right away you see the mine, and opposite it the town. We walked to the hotel, finding the supermarket, atm, and systembloget along the way. Once in our room, we cleaned up and went to eat some real food at the hotel's resturant. Dan and I had reindeer with a potato and cheese thing, it was very good. After dinner, we watched American shows on Swedish tv, such as Junkyard Wars. After a while, we went to sleep.
Sunday, we ignored the alarm we had set and missed breakfast. Woke up finally around lunch, so we went out and found a place for lunch. Later, we caught the bus for the tour into the mine. The tour was very cool, because they actually take you into the mine, 540 meters down. It's the worlds largest iron ore mine. We had to wear hardhats so stuff didn't hit us in the head. No danger from equipment though, because they are mining about 1000 m down. On the tour we watched a movie, had the tour guide talk, had free tea and coffee, and also got free iron pellets and ore to take home. The airline is going to love me when I go home. Another interesting tidbit, by 2035, LKAB, the mine company, is going to have to move about half of the town, because its right over where they'll be blasting, and buildings will collapse into the mine. I had a hard time believing that the government would allow this, but, LKAB is owned by the Swedish government, so there ya go. After the tour, we went back to the hotel and made frozen pizza for dinner. Later at 1:20 am, we heard and felt the blasting from the mine. Supposedly they blast every ngith between 1:10 and 1:20 am.
Monday, I started the day calling around to see if Dan and I could find an opening to dogsled and see the northern lights that night. Eventually, I found openings, and booked it. We spent the day taking pictures in Kiruna. We saw the famous Kiruna Church, whiched I recognized from class last term. Later that night, Dan and I went dogsledding, which was really cool. What was cooler though, was the northern lights. Very cool green lights, though they weren't quite bright enough to get a good picture (sorry Dad.) We were very lucky, because it had been cloudy all day, but cleared up at night. Again, we finished the night eating frozen pizza.
Tuesday, we actually woke up early. We had to catch our tour to the Icehotel. We took snowmobiles to the Icehotel, which was very fun. I figured out on the lake that my snowmoblie tops out at a slow 56 mph. Bummer. Once at the Icehotel, I took lots of pictures. Its a strange feeling to be somewhere you've seen on tv, and never thought you'd be there yourself. Once we rode back to the camp where we had started with the snowmobiles, we had reindeer and potatos, which is traditional Sami food. The Sami people are the people that lived in Northern Sweden, kinda like eskimos. Once back at the hotel, we had a couple beers and watched tv. We went to a resturant looking for pasta, but they were only serving pizza that late. There seems to be a theme here.....
Anyways, Wednesday, we started the long adventure back to Lund. This time, we were in a six bed room. We had a full room, but Dan and I played cards with a guy we got to know, Nicklas. The next day, we arrived in Lund at about noon.
It was a great trip. Took a little while to get up there, but definatly worth it.
The next morning, we woke up, and transfered trains. We were now on our last train to Kiruna. Breakfast/lunch consisted of a candy bar and tea bought on the train. Another three hours later, we arrived i Kiruna, 23 hours after we had left Lund.
We arrived at the train station(duh), and walked up the hill into Kiruna. Right away you see the mine, and opposite it the town. We walked to the hotel, finding the supermarket, atm, and systembloget along the way. Once in our room, we cleaned up and went to eat some real food at the hotel's resturant. Dan and I had reindeer with a potato and cheese thing, it was very good. After dinner, we watched American shows on Swedish tv, such as Junkyard Wars. After a while, we went to sleep.
Sunday, we ignored the alarm we had set and missed breakfast. Woke up finally around lunch, so we went out and found a place for lunch. Later, we caught the bus for the tour into the mine. The tour was very cool, because they actually take you into the mine, 540 meters down. It's the worlds largest iron ore mine. We had to wear hardhats so stuff didn't hit us in the head. No danger from equipment though, because they are mining about 1000 m down. On the tour we watched a movie, had the tour guide talk, had free tea and coffee, and also got free iron pellets and ore to take home. The airline is going to love me when I go home. Another interesting tidbit, by 2035, LKAB, the mine company, is going to have to move about half of the town, because its right over where they'll be blasting, and buildings will collapse into the mine. I had a hard time believing that the government would allow this, but, LKAB is owned by the Swedish government, so there ya go. After the tour, we went back to the hotel and made frozen pizza for dinner. Later at 1:20 am, we heard and felt the blasting from the mine. Supposedly they blast every ngith between 1:10 and 1:20 am.
Monday, I started the day calling around to see if Dan and I could find an opening to dogsled and see the northern lights that night. Eventually, I found openings, and booked it. We spent the day taking pictures in Kiruna. We saw the famous Kiruna Church, whiched I recognized from class last term. Later that night, Dan and I went dogsledding, which was really cool. What was cooler though, was the northern lights. Very cool green lights, though they weren't quite bright enough to get a good picture (sorry Dad.) We were very lucky, because it had been cloudy all day, but cleared up at night. Again, we finished the night eating frozen pizza.
Tuesday, we actually woke up early. We had to catch our tour to the Icehotel. We took snowmobiles to the Icehotel, which was very fun. I figured out on the lake that my snowmoblie tops out at a slow 56 mph. Bummer. Once at the Icehotel, I took lots of pictures. Its a strange feeling to be somewhere you've seen on tv, and never thought you'd be there yourself. Once we rode back to the camp where we had started with the snowmobiles, we had reindeer and potatos, which is traditional Sami food. The Sami people are the people that lived in Northern Sweden, kinda like eskimos. Once back at the hotel, we had a couple beers and watched tv. We went to a resturant looking for pasta, but they were only serving pizza that late. There seems to be a theme here.....
Anyways, Wednesday, we started the long adventure back to Lund. This time, we were in a six bed room. We had a full room, but Dan and I played cards with a guy we got to know, Nicklas. The next day, we arrived in Lund at about noon.
It was a great trip. Took a little while to get up there, but definatly worth it.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Berlin
So I found the picures, so I figured I get the post up! Here we go....
We left Tuesday evening, after I took my Multivariable Calculus in Swedish test(still don't know the grade on that). Will and I got bored in Lund, so we took an earlier than planned train to CPH. It turned out it was a good thing that we did, because the train ended up being 45 minutes late. Made it to our flight just fine though. We flew Air Berlin, and the flight was quite short, only about an hour. Even though it was so short, we still got fed some snacks. Nice.
Once we landed, we caught a bus, then the subway to our hostel. It turned out it was pretty easy to get to the hostel. Wow, it was a really nice hostel. Check out some of the pictures. It was called Wombats. Many of the things that we extra at other hostels I've stayed at were free here. They even gave you a free beer! Gotta love Germany. Will and I enjoyed our free beer, and turned in for the night.
Wednesday morning we got our butts out of bed at a decent hour, so that we could make the free walking tour. It was nice, the tour guide picked up our group from the lobby of the hostel. Once we walked to meet up with the rest of the tour outside the Brandenburg Gate, we went on the tour. In the pictures you can see Will making a fool of himself, by request of the tour guide. On the tour we saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial, stood were Hitler's bunker used to be (an ugly parking lot), walked past many Soviet buidlings, the remaining part of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charle, Twin Churches, the book burning memorial, and lots of other fancy buildings.
After the tour, Will and I made our way back to the hostel to nap and enjoy the bars Happy Hour pizza. We ended up just staying there the rest of the night.
On Thursday, we were lazy and slept in. Once we had a gourmet lunch at BK in Alexanderplatz, we made our way to the Riechstag, and went to the top, where its covered in a glass dome. I don't remember where, but we ate dinner, then made our way to museum island. On Thursday nights, the museums are open for free. Unfortuantly, most of the museums were closed because they had some fancy exhibits that were not free. We did go in the art museum, which was boring, because it only had church carvings, and then to the eygpt museum, which was a little better.
Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to sleep. Early the next morning, we flew back to CPH.
We left Tuesday evening, after I took my Multivariable Calculus in Swedish test(still don't know the grade on that). Will and I got bored in Lund, so we took an earlier than planned train to CPH. It turned out it was a good thing that we did, because the train ended up being 45 minutes late. Made it to our flight just fine though. We flew Air Berlin, and the flight was quite short, only about an hour. Even though it was so short, we still got fed some snacks. Nice.
Once we landed, we caught a bus, then the subway to our hostel. It turned out it was pretty easy to get to the hostel. Wow, it was a really nice hostel. Check out some of the pictures. It was called Wombats. Many of the things that we extra at other hostels I've stayed at were free here. They even gave you a free beer! Gotta love Germany. Will and I enjoyed our free beer, and turned in for the night.
Wednesday morning we got our butts out of bed at a decent hour, so that we could make the free walking tour. It was nice, the tour guide picked up our group from the lobby of the hostel. Once we walked to meet up with the rest of the tour outside the Brandenburg Gate, we went on the tour. In the pictures you can see Will making a fool of himself, by request of the tour guide. On the tour we saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial, stood were Hitler's bunker used to be (an ugly parking lot), walked past many Soviet buidlings, the remaining part of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charle, Twin Churches, the book burning memorial, and lots of other fancy buildings.
After the tour, Will and I made our way back to the hostel to nap and enjoy the bars Happy Hour pizza. We ended up just staying there the rest of the night.
On Thursday, we were lazy and slept in. Once we had a gourmet lunch at BK in Alexanderplatz, we made our way to the Riechstag, and went to the top, where its covered in a glass dome. I don't remember where, but we ate dinner, then made our way to museum island. On Thursday nights, the museums are open for free. Unfortuantly, most of the museums were closed because they had some fancy exhibits that were not free. We did go in the art museum, which was boring, because it only had church carvings, and then to the eygpt museum, which was a little better.
Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to sleep. Early the next morning, we flew back to CPH.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sorry, I'm still dragging my feet...
Hello Everybody, sorry I haven't gotten the Berlin pictures up. Was busy over Christmas and New Years, and then when I had time to get the pictures up, I had computer issues that put the pictures in jeopardy. Luckly, I still have the pictures, but not in the folders they used to be in, so I have to find the Berlin pictures. Hopefully I'll get the pictures and write up posted in a couple days. I'm back in Sweden now. Flight wasn't too bad.
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