Copenhagen is a really, really great city.
So beautiful, and so much to see and do. We were a group of 7, Marine & Marie-Amandine (France), Pablo, Carlos, Alberto, Elena (Spain) and myself. We woke up suuuper early (3ish? although some of us didn't bother going to bed...) to catch the train to Stockholm, and sort of blundered around Stockholm C for a little while trying to find coffee and the right spår (track... but we didn't know that :P ). Sleeping on a train when you can't find the lever for the seatback is pretty much impossible as well, so me and Elena resorted to looking through my Scandinavian Europe lonely planet guide (that's what my last post was about... I realize the picture is really bad, but it's cool that I posted it from the train, right?).
When we finally got to Copenhagen at 11:30am, we didn't really know what to do, being exhausted and not being able to check in at the hostel until 5pm. We ended up with a really nice walk down Strøget (really famous shopping street) and a cheap boat tour, then walked to the statue of the little mermaid. It was nearly impossible to get a picture of the statue, because every tourist in the city was there also, trying to take a picture (or twelve) with it. At that point we realized our hostel was in the complete opposite direction from the park we were in, on the other side of the city... and the streets don't go East-West so we zigzagged across the city with all our bags for close to 9km over an hour and a half... the boys joked later (yoked... Spanish people always have this problem. Also cheap/sheep/ship/sit) that we didn't need to do any city tours, we've already seen the whole city...
The next morning we really slept in, so we didn't have too much time to see museums/castles etc, but I still feel like we saw a lot of the city. We climbed all the way to the top of Our Saviour's Church, the tallest building in Copenhagen (I think?) with stairs all the way up, that disappear into the spire. After, I was just sort of following the boys (they are all Spanish so logically always speak Spanish) and ended up in Christiania. I recognized the paintings on the walls from the Rick Steves video I watched with Dad ages ago... but I realized it a bit too late as we had already wandered into the Green Light district where they were selling every type of marijuana (legally). The 'market' area was only about a block or two long, the rest of the self-contained city was actually really neat. It reminded me a bit of Tofino or Gibsons or some other tiny little hippie town, or something out of the musical Rent?... with really old neat shack-style cafes and restaurants, and some really artsy/fairytale houses and apartments and mini gardens and strange little works of art. It wasn't like a big settlement of homeless people, more like a functioning city. And, they were just two days from celebrating their 40th anniversary as a little ... settlement?... so they had some decorations and posters up, and some bagpipe players and other oddities. Overall it was really neat, and I'm really glad I wound up there accidentally as I don't think I would have ever thought to go in there.
After that little adventure we spent some more time wandering around the city. It really is very pretty. We tried out the Nationalmuseet, but we were all too tired to enjoy anything except the giant skeleton of a prehistoric mammoth thing (auroch? see the pic!). Then we went into some really nice royal gardens, and cooked some spaghetti back at the hostel. Next day we again had all our bags. The guys really wanted to go to the Carlsberg brewery, but we ran out of time. We ended up finding an outdoor art exhibit and a couple of flea markets, and yet another nice park to eat our ham sandwiches. I swear ham sandwiches were the only thing those guys ate. Breakfast lunch dinner, white bread with ham slices. Oh except for our spaghetti night.
Literally about half an hour after we got home, we went out to a costume party for the international students (dress up something to do with your city or country), which was really entertaining. There was a bullfighter, a cookie, some lederhosen, an eiffel tower, Scary Spice (from the Spice Girls), a couple of Berlin walls, a LOLcat, an Argentinian soccer player, Mozart, and a bunch of other really random costumes. Luckily I had my giant Canadian flag (thanks mom) and some olympic gear so I was set.
Last night, Annika asked "Hej Fiona, wanna go to Stockholm tomorrow?" Guess what I said, I bet you're right! I was pretty tired but I am never sure when people are going to be available to go places, so I said "Of course!!"
It was a really nice sunny day. We set out to Gamla Stan, really nice to walk around. We found a Mint museum that was free on Mondays, which was sort of neat but too many coins!! Then we did a (really expensive) boat tour which was also really nice, but unfortunately I forgot to charge my camera after Copenhagen so it died during the boat trip. We didn't want to spend any more money so we just wandered around on one of the islands trying to find Rosendal slott, which as it turns out is extremely small and not really a castle at all... quite disappointing. But the landscape was really nice. We are going to go back another day (once Annika's scholarship money comes in... hahaha) to the Vasa museum, check out the shopping, maybe Drottningholm, and other bits.
Copenhagen photos: here
Stockholm photos: here
Monday, September 26, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
On the train
4th hour on the train after waking up at 3am... rrrr. But now is the time to find our hostel on the map.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Båtturer (Boat trips)
Right now I feel like I'm rocking side to side...
This weekend was full of boat trips. In total, I spent about 36 hours on various boats over Saturday-Tuesday...
... but first, the gasque. Gasques are an awesome Swedish university tradition, a fancy dinner party with lots of singing. This gasque was only for new students, a 'reccegasque'... they have several throughout the year open to everybody. But this one began at 3:30pm with everyone meeting in front of their nation in suits and knee-length dresses & heels. We all pair up and 'march' to the central Uppsala University building (from previous photos, it's the oldest building of the univeristy) with our nation's flagbearer, and then everybody 'marches' into the main hall. It's a gorgeous round hall, gold leafed everything, high arched ceilings. We listened to speeches, a classical ensemble, and one of the nation's choirs, then we all marched back to our own nation (technically my nation is Snerikes but all their events sell out quickly... so I go to Värmlands instead). You have the option to buy the nation's songbook, which I did, then you sit at your assigned seat in the main hall. My 'cavalier' was an Australian called Rhys. A gasque involves a lot of sitting and toasting as well, it turns out. We didn't even eat anything until 9pm. There were some more speeches, a skit (in Swedish), and many occasions when you sing a "schnapps song", toast "skål!" in a very precise way (right, left, in front... and NO clinking), and then drink 1/3 of your schnapps. Since they know a lot of international students joined Värmlands, they had a booklet at each seat with a couple of 'rules' like this. Anyway, there are dedicated sections in the songbook for beer, wine, schnapps, Uppsala, and other random categories... ones that involve lots of arm linking and swaying, and also standing on chairs... Amazingly, it includes "The Beaver Song" which I learned at Outdoor School ... I really couldn't get over that. Why on earth??? At the end of the dinner, everyone signs each other's songbooks, and everyone tried to sign on my Beaver Song page...
The next morning, we woke up really (really) early to catch the bus to the Grissleham ferry terminal, to take the Eckerölinjen ferry to Åland. The crossing time is about 2 hours, and then we were in Finland! Åland is self-governing, has their own stamps, speaks Swedish, yet is technically part of Finland. Lots of Swedes take the ferry to Åland just to buy duty-free.
Anyway, we took another bus to get into Mariehamn, the largest city in the 6700 islands that make up Åland. It's a really sleepy, charming little town. There wasn't very much to see, and the main island is fairly flat, but we were able to hike up to a beautiful viewpoint to see a big Russian sailing ship that was docked (complete with real Russian sailors), and afterward we accidentally wandered into a little fall festival. Mariehamn had dozens of beautiful wooden sailing ships docked in the 'marine quarter' where the festival was, and we stayed a long time poking around in the little harbour and just enjoying the view.
Sunday afternoon, we hopped on yet another bus to take us to Stockholm's port, to ride the Tallink ferry to Riga. The crossing time for this trip was 16 hours. It doesn't need to be so long, but it's an 'overnight' trip so that people can enjoy the restaurants, bars, spa, and shops on board. We brought our own food because it's really expensive (30 euros for dinner??). Our cabin was really tiny. I have never been on a cruise ship, so I have no idea if they were unusually small or just normal... there were four beds, a bathroom, and a TV crammed into a maybe 4x6 meter room. We spent a lot of time up on the sundeck and in one of the lounges,and they were actually running a presentation on Riga in the lounge, which turned out to be really helpful. We left as soon as the mime started, though...
We got off the boat around 10:30am Swedish time and had the whole afternoon in Riga. Me and Carina took a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour on a bright red double decker bus... really glad we did, because we would never have seen so much of the city by ourselves. Riga is a really interesting and different city. The old town centre is mostly original medieval/slightly newer buildings, so it's a UNESCO world heritage site. There are definitely a lot of places that look just like haunted houses... ancient buildings, falling apart, boarded up windows, cats jumping around on the roofs of little shacks... it was so cool. But I was glad I was on the bus and not walking past. There are also tons of city parks, and some ultra-functional looking Soviet buildings, which makes for a really jumbled-up city. There is a lot of energy in the city, a lot of really modern stores, but you really get the feeling there is a lot of poverty. We saw several of the stereotypical old baboushkas begging in the underground and by the market. Some of the stores (the grocery stores or ones that sell lottery tickets) had security guards (or policemen?) patrolling the store... it was quite odd.
I would have loved to stay another day to see the old churches and some of the other monuments and parks.
For lunch we accidentally found a Charlie Chaplin themed restaurant, with some somewhat creepy sticker/cutouts of Charlie Chaplin on the walls and in the bathrooms etc, but the restaurant was actually really nicely decorated and we got a really great meal for only $4 CAD. We also tried some deep fried bread with garlic cheese sauce!! It was really tasty but it was a good thing we shared between 5 people!!
I have to go do my group assignment now (finally some homework!) and pack up for Copenhagen Thursday morning! I didn't have time to sort through my pictures or steal any from other people, so those will be posted maybe when I get back from my trip.
Bye all!
UPDATE:
Gasque photos: here
Aland photos: here
Riga photos: here
This weekend was full of boat trips. In total, I spent about 36 hours on various boats over Saturday-Tuesday...
... but first, the gasque. Gasques are an awesome Swedish university tradition, a fancy dinner party with lots of singing. This gasque was only for new students, a 'reccegasque'... they have several throughout the year open to everybody. But this one began at 3:30pm with everyone meeting in front of their nation in suits and knee-length dresses & heels. We all pair up and 'march' to the central Uppsala University building (from previous photos, it's the oldest building of the univeristy) with our nation's flagbearer, and then everybody 'marches' into the main hall. It's a gorgeous round hall, gold leafed everything, high arched ceilings. We listened to speeches, a classical ensemble, and one of the nation's choirs, then we all marched back to our own nation (technically my nation is Snerikes but all their events sell out quickly... so I go to Värmlands instead). You have the option to buy the nation's songbook, which I did, then you sit at your assigned seat in the main hall. My 'cavalier' was an Australian called Rhys. A gasque involves a lot of sitting and toasting as well, it turns out. We didn't even eat anything until 9pm. There were some more speeches, a skit (in Swedish), and many occasions when you sing a "schnapps song", toast "skål!" in a very precise way (right, left, in front... and NO clinking), and then drink 1/3 of your schnapps. Since they know a lot of international students joined Värmlands, they had a booklet at each seat with a couple of 'rules' like this. Anyway, there are dedicated sections in the songbook for beer, wine, schnapps, Uppsala, and other random categories... ones that involve lots of arm linking and swaying, and also standing on chairs... Amazingly, it includes "The Beaver Song" which I learned at Outdoor School ... I really couldn't get over that. Why on earth??? At the end of the dinner, everyone signs each other's songbooks, and everyone tried to sign on my Beaver Song page...
The next morning, we woke up really (really) early to catch the bus to the Grissleham ferry terminal, to take the Eckerölinjen ferry to Åland. The crossing time is about 2 hours, and then we were in Finland! Åland is self-governing, has their own stamps, speaks Swedish, yet is technically part of Finland. Lots of Swedes take the ferry to Åland just to buy duty-free.
Anyway, we took another bus to get into Mariehamn, the largest city in the 6700 islands that make up Åland. It's a really sleepy, charming little town. There wasn't very much to see, and the main island is fairly flat, but we were able to hike up to a beautiful viewpoint to see a big Russian sailing ship that was docked (complete with real Russian sailors), and afterward we accidentally wandered into a little fall festival. Mariehamn had dozens of beautiful wooden sailing ships docked in the 'marine quarter' where the festival was, and we stayed a long time poking around in the little harbour and just enjoying the view.
Sunday afternoon, we hopped on yet another bus to take us to Stockholm's port, to ride the Tallink ferry to Riga. The crossing time for this trip was 16 hours. It doesn't need to be so long, but it's an 'overnight' trip so that people can enjoy the restaurants, bars, spa, and shops on board. We brought our own food because it's really expensive (30 euros for dinner??). Our cabin was really tiny. I have never been on a cruise ship, so I have no idea if they were unusually small or just normal... there were four beds, a bathroom, and a TV crammed into a maybe 4x6 meter room. We spent a lot of time up on the sundeck and in one of the lounges,and they were actually running a presentation on Riga in the lounge, which turned out to be really helpful. We left as soon as the mime started, though...
We got off the boat around 10:30am Swedish time and had the whole afternoon in Riga. Me and Carina took a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour on a bright red double decker bus... really glad we did, because we would never have seen so much of the city by ourselves. Riga is a really interesting and different city. The old town centre is mostly original medieval/slightly newer buildings, so it's a UNESCO world heritage site. There are definitely a lot of places that look just like haunted houses... ancient buildings, falling apart, boarded up windows, cats jumping around on the roofs of little shacks... it was so cool. But I was glad I was on the bus and not walking past. There are also tons of city parks, and some ultra-functional looking Soviet buildings, which makes for a really jumbled-up city. There is a lot of energy in the city, a lot of really modern stores, but you really get the feeling there is a lot of poverty. We saw several of the stereotypical old baboushkas begging in the underground and by the market. Some of the stores (the grocery stores or ones that sell lottery tickets) had security guards (or policemen?) patrolling the store... it was quite odd.
I would have loved to stay another day to see the old churches and some of the other monuments and parks.
For lunch we accidentally found a Charlie Chaplin themed restaurant, with some somewhat creepy sticker/cutouts of Charlie Chaplin on the walls and in the bathrooms etc, but the restaurant was actually really nicely decorated and we got a really great meal for only $4 CAD. We also tried some deep fried bread with garlic cheese sauce!! It was really tasty but it was a good thing we shared between 5 people!!
I have to go do my group assignment now (finally some homework!) and pack up for Copenhagen Thursday morning! I didn't have time to sort through my pictures or steal any from other people, so those will be posted maybe when I get back from my trip.
Bye all!
UPDATE:
Gasque photos: here
Aland photos: here
Riga photos: here
Monday, September 12, 2011
Kulturnatten och resplaner (Culture night and travel plans)
Hej hej!
This past week has been VERY busy (although much of my time was spent on google. I'll get to that) but VERY exciting.
By the way, I suggest clicking on the links in the text (hopefully you can see them? the underlined pink words) because usually they link to a picture or a map of what I'm talking about.
Wednesday was a shopping day. I went in search of winter shoes, but came home with fancy boots instead... I'm finding it really hard to figure out what exactly I should be buying for winter. All the shoe stores seem to have three options for winter: Fuzzy lined sneakers, fuzzy lined chunky heel shoes (1) (2), or waterproof/goretex hiking boots (EXPENSIVE). (BTW the word for rain boot is the cutest Swedish word ever: gummistövlar.)
After a mandatory hour in the first shoe store, we headed over to the other mandatory stop, H&M. It gets freezing cold at night, pretty much as soon as the sun goes down, and I quickly realized I only have a sweatshirt or a winter coat, neither of which is appropriate for going out to dinner in 8 C. Luckily H&M is the perfect spot for a cheap fake-wool peacoat (which I have worn every night since then, definitely going to get my $45 worth out of that coat this year). We also stopped in a few other neat stores, which I have learned from my dutch friends are very popular in the Netherlands as well, like Cubus and Vero Moda. We stopped for lunch at MAX, home of "Sveriges godaste hamburgare" (Sweden's tastiest burgers... also most expensive burgers... 64 kr, seriously??) I don't think I'll go back there.
Then we finally made a trip into Uppsala's main Systembolaget, the government-run liquor store. In Sweden you have to be 20 to buy alcohol of more than 3.5%, which is only sold in these Systembolagets. It was MUCH bigger than I expected. You can get wine in a single serving bottle, a juicebox-size carton, a big bottle, a really big bottle, a tetra pak, or a box. They have (almost) any kind of alcohol you could ever want, and if they don't have it they can order it in for you (for a fee of course). I came away with a bottle of Cidre de Normandie (YAY!), a tetra pak of Rose (see the photo!) and some really ridiculous flavoured 'ciders' (Cactus and lime?? why??). Swedish ciders are incredibly sweet, and they only seem to have Pear, Apple, or Wildberry flavours. I think I'll stick to cidre brut de Normandie...
Class on Thursday was more of the same. Two coffee breaks in a three-hour class. We were scheduled to go until 2pm, but the professor announced "I can't make it after lunch so we will end at 12 today". The class is actually quite interesting now. And still no homework. Did you know that in Sweden you get four chances to pass the final exam? FOUR! With no penalties whatsoever! I can't imagine how anyone could ever fail a Swedish degree program. (Don't worry I'm not planning on retaking my exam four times...)
Magical discovery of Thursday: my building has FREE COFFEE. But not just coffee. Any kind of hot drink. Tea, cappuccino, hot chocolate, mocha, caffe au lait...(see pic of the machine!) but you must bring your own mug. We only discovered this on Thursday, when we followed our professor out the door in the first coffee break. None of us had mugs, but a TA suggested we use the tiny disposable cups from near the bathrooms and switch them out... so of course we did. I guess this is where my 25% tax dollars go... Excellent.
After class we all discussed what we were going to do in the week with no lectures (Sept 19-23). Luckily I have been Google-translating all my advertising e-mails from Ticnet (Swedish Ticketmaster) and SJ (Swedish rail company), so I ran across a 94 kr cruise to Riga, and a SJ promotion where if you go to the SJ booking office between 10 and 2pm on Saturday Sept. 10, you can get 50% off up to 2 round trips anywhere in Scandinavia (and Denmark), travelling before November 30. This is a SUPER good (and rare) deal, so we spent Thursday afternoon and all day Friday exploring every option and planning the cheapest trips possible.
Here is what we have planned:
Sept 18-20: Night cruise to Riga, capital city of Latvia. One day in Riga, night cruise back to Stockholm. Total cost with return bus from Uppsala to the port in Stockholm: 314 kr ($48). That is cheaper than two nights in a hostel anywhere. If you're interested, here is the website: Tallink swedish page (translated)
We have also learned ALWAYS look at the Swedish webpages, for trains, cruises, tours, whatever, because they ALWAYS have better prices and better offers than the English pages. If I had booked on the English page, I would have paid 41 Euros just for the cruise (41 eur = $56, whereas 94kr = $14... pretty crazy). Google translate is my best friend.
Sept 22-24: X2000 (high speed) train trip to Copenhagen. Leaving at about 4:30am to Stockholm, but we can get from Stockholm to Copenhagen in about 5 hours (arriving 11am!). We will have one full day and two half days in Copenhagen. The half-price round trip cost is 575 kr, $87. Our hostel is about 20 euros a night, ($27) so the trip cost is about $141.
Oct 7-9: Cruise to Helsinki. This was planned beforehand by a big group of us, but we managed to miss the cheapest pricing by a couple of days. This cruise is the same sort of thing as the cruise to Riga, two nights on the ferry and one day in Helsinki... but we will be with at least one native of Helsinki, so we have a free tour guide :) This cruise (and bus trips to port) cost $71. (Not so helpful) website: Viking Line translated page
Nov 25-28: Train trip to Abisko. Although Abisko and Kiruna are more exciting in December and January, I would much rather go with friends and get 50% off my train trip!! We leave Friday evening, take the train north for 17 hours (!!) and arrive in Abisko national park around lunch. In the evening we booked a package with a family-run tiny tour company (Lonely Planet recommended :P) for a snowshoe northern lights tour. Afterwards we stay in their hostel (which of course has a sauna), and in the morning, a two hour dogsled tour. The original 'Icehotel' in Kiruna unfortunately doesn't open until December 3, so we will miss that (unless of course I go back next term, from Umeå... much closer so it seems likely!) We are trying to also book a snowmobile moose safari (hahahahah.) but it may not be possible because of the lack of transport between Abisko and Kiruna on the weekend (only two trains a day and no busses). Cost of 'couchette' roundtrip: 533 kr. Cost of tours and hostel: 1425 kr. In total: $296.
So, for $556, I can see three countries/capitals, be above the arctic circle, go dogsledding, see the northern lights, and get 9 nights accommodation. I call that a win.
Saturday morning we got to the SJ shop right at 10am. It's true what I've heard about the numerlapp (Take-a-number machines) so there isn't a giant line, there are just billions of people hanging around on the benches outside the shop, watching the numbers on the screen. We didn't leave until 11:30... but luckily they had glasses of sparkling apple juice and After Eight mints for us. How civilized. I love this place.
Afterward, since I was with three animal science students and one cat lover (and I am of course also a cat lover), we went to the Scandinavian Winner Show, which just happened to be in Uppsala this year. I just discovered that yesterday, two cat lovers got MARRIED at the show. Weird. Anyway, we got to see loads of different breeds of cats, especially special Scandinavian breeds we'd never seen before, like the Norsk Skogkatt... huge animals, the biggest cats I've ever seen, with fluffy necks and ears. We saw ocicats, rex cats, sphinx cats, British shorthairs, Scottish folds, Maine coons, chinese squishy faced cats (??) and lots of others with strange Swedish names. Unfortunately my camera died after about 10 minutes so I have a few blurry ones from my phone in the album.
Then I ran home to charge my camera battery, and we went to Linnaeus's house for a free tour in English (most things were free because of Kulturnatten). It was really really neat. Lots of original furniture, clothing, wallpaper, etc. The garden is also very nice, although most flowers are starting to die now. He had 3 gardens in Uppsala, I'll let you know when I visit the others! Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) is a big deal here, considering he studied and taught at Uppsala University. I learned that one of his daughters lived in a house next door to him, and that house is now the two storey Café Linné, where I had fika with Marie-Amandine just a couple of days beforehand!
None of us were able to figure out where everyone was getting their schedule booklet for Kulturnatten, so I just set out into the city to see what I could find. I missed a parkour presentation by about a minute (Rrr!) but I saw loads of food stands (mostly for hotdogs, though... lots of pictures of stands), and about 12 outdoor stages all with something different... kids dancing to traditional songs, 'oriental' dance, screamo, techno, pipe bands, heavy metal, etc etc etc. There were book sales, booths for churches and political groups, there was a movie screen being set up on the ridge where the Uppsala castle is, choirs in front of the famous university library Carolina Rediviva, choirs at the cathedral (I missed these! boo), and lots of free movies in the local theatres. We went to a bollywood movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. It was a lot of fun, most of the people I went with had never seen a bollywood movie. This one had the two main characters instantly falling in love, quickly followed by the epic dance scenes around the Egyptian pyramids (even though they are still in India). Just watch the first couple of seconds of that video and you will get the picture. Everybody in the tiny 70s theatre was laughing with the pyramids shot, but almost everybody stayed right to the end of the (3 1/2 hour) movie. It was a really great night.
A couple of random bits to finish off my post. I got my awesome sparkly student card in the mail, I got my Nordea bank card (I can finally stop using my Mastercard as soon as the bank transfer goes through), my stove was fixed, I went to an info meeting for a 3-day St Petersburg tour, and this Friday is the Reccegasque, the big formal dinner party for all the new students. Each nation has their own gasque, mine was sold out but luckily you're allowed to go to another nation's party, so I'm going to the Vrmlands one... most of the exchange students seem to have joined that nation. It starts at 3:30pm and goes all evening... I am to wear a dress and heels, expect lots of singing, and not be surprised if everyone has to stand on their chairs at some point in the evening. I'll tell you all about it!
Here's the link to my photo album from this week: https://picasaweb.google.com/111478015196222952326/September122011?authuser=0&feat=directlink
This past week has been VERY busy (although much of my time was spent on google. I'll get to that) but VERY exciting.
By the way, I suggest clicking on the links in the text (hopefully you can see them? the underlined pink words) because usually they link to a picture or a map of what I'm talking about.
Wednesday was a shopping day. I went in search of winter shoes, but came home with fancy boots instead... I'm finding it really hard to figure out what exactly I should be buying for winter. All the shoe stores seem to have three options for winter: Fuzzy lined sneakers, fuzzy lined chunky heel shoes (1) (2), or waterproof/goretex hiking boots (EXPENSIVE). (BTW the word for rain boot is the cutest Swedish word ever: gummistövlar.)
After a mandatory hour in the first shoe store, we headed over to the other mandatory stop, H&M. It gets freezing cold at night, pretty much as soon as the sun goes down, and I quickly realized I only have a sweatshirt or a winter coat, neither of which is appropriate for going out to dinner in 8 C. Luckily H&M is the perfect spot for a cheap fake-wool peacoat (which I have worn every night since then, definitely going to get my $45 worth out of that coat this year). We also stopped in a few other neat stores, which I have learned from my dutch friends are very popular in the Netherlands as well, like Cubus and Vero Moda. We stopped for lunch at MAX, home of "Sveriges godaste hamburgare" (Sweden's tastiest burgers... also most expensive burgers... 64 kr, seriously??) I don't think I'll go back there.
Then we finally made a trip into Uppsala's main Systembolaget, the government-run liquor store. In Sweden you have to be 20 to buy alcohol of more than 3.5%, which is only sold in these Systembolagets. It was MUCH bigger than I expected. You can get wine in a single serving bottle, a juicebox-size carton, a big bottle, a really big bottle, a tetra pak, or a box. They have (almost) any kind of alcohol you could ever want, and if they don't have it they can order it in for you (for a fee of course). I came away with a bottle of Cidre de Normandie (YAY!), a tetra pak of Rose (see the photo!) and some really ridiculous flavoured 'ciders' (Cactus and lime?? why??). Swedish ciders are incredibly sweet, and they only seem to have Pear, Apple, or Wildberry flavours. I think I'll stick to cidre brut de Normandie...
Class on Thursday was more of the same. Two coffee breaks in a three-hour class. We were scheduled to go until 2pm, but the professor announced "I can't make it after lunch so we will end at 12 today". The class is actually quite interesting now. And still no homework. Did you know that in Sweden you get four chances to pass the final exam? FOUR! With no penalties whatsoever! I can't imagine how anyone could ever fail a Swedish degree program. (Don't worry I'm not planning on retaking my exam four times...)
Magical discovery of Thursday: my building has FREE COFFEE. But not just coffee. Any kind of hot drink. Tea, cappuccino, hot chocolate, mocha, caffe au lait...(see pic of the machine!) but you must bring your own mug. We only discovered this on Thursday, when we followed our professor out the door in the first coffee break. None of us had mugs, but a TA suggested we use the tiny disposable cups from near the bathrooms and switch them out... so of course we did. I guess this is where my 25% tax dollars go... Excellent.
After class we all discussed what we were going to do in the week with no lectures (Sept 19-23). Luckily I have been Google-translating all my advertising e-mails from Ticnet (Swedish Ticketmaster) and SJ (Swedish rail company), so I ran across a 94 kr cruise to Riga, and a SJ promotion where if you go to the SJ booking office between 10 and 2pm on Saturday Sept. 10, you can get 50% off up to 2 round trips anywhere in Scandinavia (and Denmark), travelling before November 30. This is a SUPER good (and rare) deal, so we spent Thursday afternoon and all day Friday exploring every option and planning the cheapest trips possible.
Here is what we have planned:
Sept 18-20: Night cruise to Riga, capital city of Latvia. One day in Riga, night cruise back to Stockholm. Total cost with return bus from Uppsala to the port in Stockholm: 314 kr ($48). That is cheaper than two nights in a hostel anywhere. If you're interested, here is the website: Tallink swedish page (translated)
We have also learned ALWAYS look at the Swedish webpages, for trains, cruises, tours, whatever, because they ALWAYS have better prices and better offers than the English pages. If I had booked on the English page, I would have paid 41 Euros just for the cruise (41 eur = $56, whereas 94kr = $14... pretty crazy). Google translate is my best friend.
Sept 22-24: X2000 (high speed) train trip to Copenhagen. Leaving at about 4:30am to Stockholm, but we can get from Stockholm to Copenhagen in about 5 hours (arriving 11am!). We will have one full day and two half days in Copenhagen. The half-price round trip cost is 575 kr, $87. Our hostel is about 20 euros a night, ($27) so the trip cost is about $141.
Oct 7-9: Cruise to Helsinki. This was planned beforehand by a big group of us, but we managed to miss the cheapest pricing by a couple of days. This cruise is the same sort of thing as the cruise to Riga, two nights on the ferry and one day in Helsinki... but we will be with at least one native of Helsinki, so we have a free tour guide :) This cruise (and bus trips to port) cost $71. (Not so helpful) website: Viking Line translated page
Nov 25-28: Train trip to Abisko. Although Abisko and Kiruna are more exciting in December and January, I would much rather go with friends and get 50% off my train trip!! We leave Friday evening, take the train north for 17 hours (!!) and arrive in Abisko national park around lunch. In the evening we booked a package with a family-run tiny tour company (Lonely Planet recommended :P) for a snowshoe northern lights tour. Afterwards we stay in their hostel (which of course has a sauna), and in the morning, a two hour dogsled tour. The original 'Icehotel' in Kiruna unfortunately doesn't open until December 3, so we will miss that (unless of course I go back next term, from Umeå... much closer so it seems likely!) We are trying to also book a snowmobile moose safari (hahahahah.) but it may not be possible because of the lack of transport between Abisko and Kiruna on the weekend (only two trains a day and no busses). Cost of 'couchette' roundtrip: 533 kr. Cost of tours and hostel: 1425 kr. In total: $296.
So, for $556, I can see three countries/capitals, be above the arctic circle, go dogsledding, see the northern lights, and get 9 nights accommodation. I call that a win.
Saturday morning we got to the SJ shop right at 10am. It's true what I've heard about the numerlapp (Take-a-number machines) so there isn't a giant line, there are just billions of people hanging around on the benches outside the shop, watching the numbers on the screen. We didn't leave until 11:30... but luckily they had glasses of sparkling apple juice and After Eight mints for us. How civilized. I love this place.
Afterward, since I was with three animal science students and one cat lover (and I am of course also a cat lover), we went to the Scandinavian Winner Show, which just happened to be in Uppsala this year. I just discovered that yesterday, two cat lovers got MARRIED at the show. Weird. Anyway, we got to see loads of different breeds of cats, especially special Scandinavian breeds we'd never seen before, like the Norsk Skogkatt... huge animals, the biggest cats I've ever seen, with fluffy necks and ears. We saw ocicats, rex cats, sphinx cats, British shorthairs, Scottish folds, Maine coons, chinese squishy faced cats (??) and lots of others with strange Swedish names. Unfortunately my camera died after about 10 minutes so I have a few blurry ones from my phone in the album.
Then I ran home to charge my camera battery, and we went to Linnaeus's house for a free tour in English (most things were free because of Kulturnatten). It was really really neat. Lots of original furniture, clothing, wallpaper, etc. The garden is also very nice, although most flowers are starting to die now. He had 3 gardens in Uppsala, I'll let you know when I visit the others! Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) is a big deal here, considering he studied and taught at Uppsala University. I learned that one of his daughters lived in a house next door to him, and that house is now the two storey Café Linné, where I had fika with Marie-Amandine just a couple of days beforehand!
None of us were able to figure out where everyone was getting their schedule booklet for Kulturnatten, so I just set out into the city to see what I could find. I missed a parkour presentation by about a minute (Rrr!) but I saw loads of food stands (mostly for hotdogs, though... lots of pictures of stands), and about 12 outdoor stages all with something different... kids dancing to traditional songs, 'oriental' dance, screamo, techno, pipe bands, heavy metal, etc etc etc. There were book sales, booths for churches and political groups, there was a movie screen being set up on the ridge where the Uppsala castle is, choirs in front of the famous university library Carolina Rediviva, choirs at the cathedral (I missed these! boo), and lots of free movies in the local theatres. We went to a bollywood movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. It was a lot of fun, most of the people I went with had never seen a bollywood movie. This one had the two main characters instantly falling in love, quickly followed by the epic dance scenes around the Egyptian pyramids (even though they are still in India). Just watch the first couple of seconds of that video and you will get the picture. Everybody in the tiny 70s theatre was laughing with the pyramids shot, but almost everybody stayed right to the end of the (3 1/2 hour) movie. It was a really great night.
A couple of random bits to finish off my post. I got my awesome sparkly student card in the mail, I got my Nordea bank card (I can finally stop using my Mastercard as soon as the bank transfer goes through), my stove was fixed, I went to an info meeting for a 3-day St Petersburg tour, and this Friday is the Reccegasque, the big formal dinner party for all the new students. Each nation has their own gasque, mine was sold out but luckily you're allowed to go to another nation's party, so I'm going to the Vrmlands one... most of the exchange students seem to have joined that nation. It starts at 3:30pm and goes all evening... I am to wear a dress and heels, expect lots of singing, and not be surprised if everyone has to stand on their chairs at some point in the evening. I'll tell you all about it!
Here's the link to my photo album from this week: https://picasaweb.google.com/111478015196222952326/September122011?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Våfflor (Waffles)
So, even though our stove/oven is impossibly complicated to operate, it seems to be broken. Which leaves me with very little food choices... cold sandwich, microwaved oatmeal, or waffles. Dinner tonight I think will be a salad with lunch meat and waffles...
Our hiking trip through the Upplands trail yesterday was very nice. We went through a lot of different forest types, rocks covered in lichens, mossy ground, grass, fields of wildflowers, boggy stuff... it was great to get into nature. The Finnish girl we went with picked a bunch of berries and mushrooms (a recurring theme in Scandinavia...), and we saw some really neat poisonous ones too :P
We must have taken a wrong turn, because instead of going south to Knivsta, we ended up on a highway in between Uppsala and Knivsta... at least we had our GPS, so we were able to follow the roads to Knivsta and then take the train back home (about 6 hours of walking, 10 minutes on the train...) Luckily we saw some very cute farmhouses.
This afternoon, we went in separate groups (depending on how late you stayed up...) to Gamla Uppsala, which means old Uppsala. Uppsala used to be located north of where it is today, when the river level was higher and you could reach it by boat. It was the original sacred spot, for thousands of years. It's the site of 3 large burial mounds, thought to hold a king or queen. Two have been excavated to check, but one was left alone. They have all been restored, as people used to ski and sled on them, not knowing what they were! They were only protected about 25 years ago.
We went into the little museum, mostly about vikings and the original pagan centre here which was turned into a church in the 12th century, and was the seat of the first Swedish archbishop. We went into the cafe for a fika (coffee/cake/relax time), and wandered around the burial mounds for a little while. I think we will come back another sunny day and bring a picnic... there is a little hill with a path that you can sit on, and it has a great view. You can even see the Uppsala cathedral from there.
Other news... I have bought two winter jackets. One is just a warm raincoat, the other is a big fluffy thing with a fur-trimmed hood... I chose one with removable fur though as I think it looks kind of silly on me. Apparently now is the time to buy, because if you wait too long all the good ones are gone (so say my finnish friends). Tomorrow I'm going on a hunt for winter boots, and a jacket to wear in the evenings... it gets down to 8-9 C after the sun goes down most nights. I seem to only have cardigans and a sweatshirt, I'm not sure how that happened.
I have learned that here, each day is 5-6 minutes shorter than the day before (I think for Vancouver its 2-3). When I got here, the daylight was 05:22-20:20, but now it's 05:51-19:45. Having fun with the daylight calculator... Vancouver's shortest day is 08:05-16:17 (8 hrs), Uppsala's is 08:50-14:45 (6 hrs), and in Umeå it's 09:29-13:48... four hours of daylight. It's going to be interesting...
I forgot to talk about my classes!
Our building is gorgeous. BRAND new, opened a few weeks ago. Our classroom is on the top floor (5) which you need an access card to get into, which none of us have (ha ha). We have to arrive a bit early and wait for a staff member who has an office up there to let us in. It has a great view though. (yes dad I will bring my camera to class one day :P)
My class consists of three are Spanish exchange students, one French, and one Swedish student. The professor is very much a forestry guy. And very much Swedish. I asked Olof, my Swedish classmate, what was up with the coffee break... he said all Swedish professors seem to have this unwritten rule that you break for coffee 45 mins into every lecture. Also, Mr. Johansson likes to turn his g's and j's into y's... he makes yokes, and talks about the reyeneration of trees. This will be weird to get used to. Other than that, it's not too hard to understand him.
I'm pretty excited for our field trip. On October 17, we will be piling into a minibus and driving all day to a house that SLU owns in the middle of a forest close to Östads Säteri, and staying there to do 'forestry exercises' for Tuesday to Thursday, and driving back on Friday.
That reminds me, our international student facebook group likes to plan things, and we have planned for a whole lot of us to go on the Viking Line cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki and back. If we booked in groups of 3, it's only about 430 kr for the bus to Stockholm and the cruise ($66). This doesn't include food of course... I think we will pack some food and do the big buffet on the way home, all together. We leave Stockholm at about 5pm Friday October 7, arrive in Helsinki Saturday morning, and leave for Stockholm again on Saturday night. We are going with at least one girl from Helsinki, so hopefully she can show us all around!!
Also this week I joined a nation! My nation is the Södermanlands - Nerikes nation, Snerikes for short, after the two regions from which the Swedish members are from. I stole a lovely picture of their 'castle' from their website, because it was evening when I went. They had their first 'club night' on Friday, and a few friends and I went to dinner there. It got a bit chilly but they hand out blankets! (see pix.) Afterward we wanted to go to the party at the Värmlands nation, but arriving at 9:05pm means you pay 80kr each to get in! Instead we paid 80kr at the ICA and got some nacho supplies. "What? You put chips in the oven??" It was a fun experience. We then played a dutch "Animal Sounds" card game followed by some slapjack and spoons in my tiny kitchen.
My pictures from the Snerikes dinner and the Upplands trail are in the first album. The second album starts with photos I stole from others from the hike, and my pix of Gamla Uppsala and a couple other random photos as well!
First: https://picasaweb.google.com/111478015196222952326/September32011?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Second: https://picasaweb.google.com/111478015196222952326/September42011?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Our hiking trip through the Upplands trail yesterday was very nice. We went through a lot of different forest types, rocks covered in lichens, mossy ground, grass, fields of wildflowers, boggy stuff... it was great to get into nature. The Finnish girl we went with picked a bunch of berries and mushrooms (a recurring theme in Scandinavia...), and we saw some really neat poisonous ones too :P
We must have taken a wrong turn, because instead of going south to Knivsta, we ended up on a highway in between Uppsala and Knivsta... at least we had our GPS, so we were able to follow the roads to Knivsta and then take the train back home (about 6 hours of walking, 10 minutes on the train...) Luckily we saw some very cute farmhouses.
This afternoon, we went in separate groups (depending on how late you stayed up...) to Gamla Uppsala, which means old Uppsala. Uppsala used to be located north of where it is today, when the river level was higher and you could reach it by boat. It was the original sacred spot, for thousands of years. It's the site of 3 large burial mounds, thought to hold a king or queen. Two have been excavated to check, but one was left alone. They have all been restored, as people used to ski and sled on them, not knowing what they were! They were only protected about 25 years ago.
We went into the little museum, mostly about vikings and the original pagan centre here which was turned into a church in the 12th century, and was the seat of the first Swedish archbishop. We went into the cafe for a fika (coffee/cake/relax time), and wandered around the burial mounds for a little while. I think we will come back another sunny day and bring a picnic... there is a little hill with a path that you can sit on, and it has a great view. You can even see the Uppsala cathedral from there.
Other news... I have bought two winter jackets. One is just a warm raincoat, the other is a big fluffy thing with a fur-trimmed hood... I chose one with removable fur though as I think it looks kind of silly on me. Apparently now is the time to buy, because if you wait too long all the good ones are gone (so say my finnish friends). Tomorrow I'm going on a hunt for winter boots, and a jacket to wear in the evenings... it gets down to 8-9 C after the sun goes down most nights. I seem to only have cardigans and a sweatshirt, I'm not sure how that happened.
I have learned that here, each day is 5-6 minutes shorter than the day before (I think for Vancouver its 2-3). When I got here, the daylight was 05:22-20:20, but now it's 05:51-19:45. Having fun with the daylight calculator... Vancouver's shortest day is 08:05-16:17 (8 hrs), Uppsala's is 08:50-14:45 (6 hrs), and in Umeå it's 09:29-13:48... four hours of daylight. It's going to be interesting...
I forgot to talk about my classes!
Our building is gorgeous. BRAND new, opened a few weeks ago. Our classroom is on the top floor (5) which you need an access card to get into, which none of us have (ha ha). We have to arrive a bit early and wait for a staff member who has an office up there to let us in. It has a great view though. (yes dad I will bring my camera to class one day :P)
My class consists of three are Spanish exchange students, one French, and one Swedish student. The professor is very much a forestry guy. And very much Swedish. I asked Olof, my Swedish classmate, what was up with the coffee break... he said all Swedish professors seem to have this unwritten rule that you break for coffee 45 mins into every lecture. Also, Mr. Johansson likes to turn his g's and j's into y's... he makes yokes, and talks about the reyeneration of trees. This will be weird to get used to. Other than that, it's not too hard to understand him.
I'm pretty excited for our field trip. On October 17, we will be piling into a minibus and driving all day to a house that SLU owns in the middle of a forest close to Östads Säteri, and staying there to do 'forestry exercises' for Tuesday to Thursday, and driving back on Friday.
That reminds me, our international student facebook group likes to plan things, and we have planned for a whole lot of us to go on the Viking Line cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki and back. If we booked in groups of 3, it's only about 430 kr for the bus to Stockholm and the cruise ($66). This doesn't include food of course... I think we will pack some food and do the big buffet on the way home, all together. We leave Stockholm at about 5pm Friday October 7, arrive in Helsinki Saturday morning, and leave for Stockholm again on Saturday night. We are going with at least one girl from Helsinki, so hopefully she can show us all around!!
Also this week I joined a nation! My nation is the Södermanlands - Nerikes nation, Snerikes for short, after the two regions from which the Swedish members are from. I stole a lovely picture of their 'castle' from their website, because it was evening when I went. They had their first 'club night' on Friday, and a few friends and I went to dinner there. It got a bit chilly but they hand out blankets! (see pix.) Afterward we wanted to go to the party at the Värmlands nation, but arriving at 9:05pm means you pay 80kr each to get in! Instead we paid 80kr at the ICA and got some nacho supplies. "What? You put chips in the oven??" It was a fun experience. We then played a dutch "Animal Sounds" card game followed by some slapjack and spoons in my tiny kitchen.
My pictures from the Snerikes dinner and the Upplands trail are in the first album. The second album starts with photos I stole from others from the hike, and my pix of Gamla Uppsala and a couple other random photos as well!
First: https://picasaweb.google.com/111478015196222952326/September32011?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Second: https://picasaweb.google.com/111478015196222952326/September42011?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Upplandsstiftelsen ("Uppland Foundation")
This morning we are going hiking on the Upplands trail,
http://www.upplandsstiftelsen.se/eng/hike-the-upland-trail__448
of course the english page is tiny compared to the Swedish page, but it gives an idea. We're going to walk to Knivsta and take the bus back. Don't worry, I'll post pictures!
http://www.upplandsstiftelsen.se/eng/hike-the-upland-trail__448
of course the english page is tiny compared to the Swedish page, but it gives an idea. We're going to walk to Knivsta and take the bus back. Don't worry, I'll post pictures!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Cykel (bike)
My new (old) bike! Practically the last used bike in the city. 800kr, but no basket or lights yet.
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