Boat Cruise to Tallinn, Estonia!

Hej everyone! Here's the update on the latest travels. Last Tuesday about 150 international students from my school and myself took a bus to Stockholm. Once we got to Stockholm, we got on a HUGE cruise ship headed to Tallinn, Estonia. The whole event is called "SeaBattle." There was international students from about 6 other universities in Sweden, as well as students from Finland and Estonia. We left Stockholm around 5:00 pm on Tuesday and arrived in Estonia at 10 am the next day. Needless to say, the entire boat was full of college kids. I don't think I saw even one person on the boat traveling who wasn't. There were several bars and clubs on the boat, and everyone had a great time. The clubs and bars didn't close until 9 AM! I woke up the next morning and could still hear music and people awake in the halls. It was crazy! There was two people to a room in the cabins and I roomed with a German friend of mine, Anne. The cabins have no windows so it's incredibly dark inside when the lights go out. They had speakers in the rooms with announcements in the morning waking us up to let us know we were in Estonia.
We got off the boat and spent the day in Tallinn. Tallinn was not my favorite city I've visited, but definitely the most interesting. Estonia is considered Eastern Europe with Russia literally right next door and it definitely felt that way. The city had beautiful architecture but was a little more run-down than most western European cities. Walking through the older part of the city, I felt like I was at the Renaissance Festival. Stores and restaurants had big torches lit on the outsides of the doors and vendors with little wooden carts were all over the streets. One distinct feature about Tallinn was the churches. They were BEAUTIFUL. We went into a few different churches, my favorite was a huge orthodox church in the middle of the city. (I posted pics of this) We went inside and they told us absolutely no pictures. People were inside lighting candles and praying. The inside was GOLD and the center dome inside was a light turquoise color with little gold spots that looked like stars on it. You can probably find pictures of the inside online somewhere. We also witnessed some kind of protest in front of the Estonian Parliament building. So a group of us basically spent the day exploring the city. We ate breakfast and lunch at a couple little cafes for really cheap. The Estonian kronor is not strong at all. For 1 Euro, you get 15 EKK. So that was nice. The city had a lot of really strange details. Like random statues of a 17th century-looking man on top of buildings looking through a little eye glass down towards the streets. That was weird. Never in my life did I think I would visit Estonia. But I'm glad that I did. It was definitely an eye-opening experience.
I only have about a month left in Sweden- time flies! This weekend I'm headed back to Copenhagen with Scott. Then the weekend after that I will be in London for four days! I can't wait!
Enjoy the Estonia and SeaBattle pictures!
Hej då!
-Sara

Sensation White Pics!

Copenhagen- Round Två!

Hejhej!
So school has been taking over my life the past few weeks... but I did manage to take a weekend vacation back to Copenhagen for Halloween weekend! After the first time in Copenhagen, I liked the city. But after this trip, I love it! Probably my new favorite city. On Friday afternoon, two American friends, Jen and Allie, and myself took the train to Copenhagen. Jen's dad works for a Marriott hotel, so he managed to get us a really good discount on a hotel room for the weekend. It was reaallllly nice not having to stay in a hostel the whole weekend! On Friday, we checked into our hotel and decided to climb Vor Frelser Kirke, meaning "Our Saviour’s Church." It's an extremely tall and cool looking church with spiral steps along the outside that go all the way to the top. We started climbing it inside at the bottom of the church. We worked our way up what felt like a MILLION steps. The church was built in the 1600's so the staircases we walked up were extremely tight, chilly, dark, and a bit scary. The steps were so incredibly small and the staircases were so steep I had to walk up them sideways- and on the way down I was trying really really really hard not to fall. When we finally got to the top there was a little door that led to the outside spiral steps. The view was INCREDIBLE. I could literally see all the way to Sweden. I could see the Baltic and the Öresund Bridge that connects Denmark with Sweden, the entire city of Copenhagen, the windmills in the sea, and all the way past the city into the Danish countryside. We walked up the spiral stairs on the roof of the church all the way to the very top. The experience was absolutely amazing- it was a little nerve racking though, climbing up 400 year old stairs on the outside of a very tall building with nothing but one little railing for safety. The pictures that I took are great, but they really don't do it justice. I've attached some video I took at the top as well. Climbing back down all those tiny steep stairs is NOT easy after climbing up all of them and then being really nervous outside. My legs were shaking on the way down- mostly because I think I was scared I was going to wipe out down the steps. We all got down safely, thank goodness.
After climbing the church, we walked to a Danish bakery and had ordered a strawberry tart to split between the three of us. Strawberry tart=most amazing desert I've ever tasted. I posted a picture of it on here! I wasn't going to mention it, but it was seriously one of the highlights of that day. After walking around the city all day, we were exhausted and made it back to the hotel for dinner and sleep.
Saturday was Halloween, and Sensation White. Sensation White is a giant music festival that's held in different cities throughout the world, specifically in Europe and Australia. It was at the Copenhagen stadium, which holds 30,000 people. Everyone that attends wears all white. If you don't wear all white, you can't get in. From 7pm until 3am some of the best DJs in the world play their music. There was a giant rotating stage in the middle of the stadium where the DJ stood. The theme for this year's Sensation White was "Wicked Wonderland." There was an Alice in Wonderland theme throughout the whole show. I'm posting separate pictures and video from this because there's way too much to show. It was such an amazing show and made for a really good Halloween.
Sunday we met a friend of ours that goes to school with us in Sweden. He's actually from Denmark and grew up in Copenhagen so he knows all the good places to go. We all had coffee at an awesome little cake house downtown and then got on the train to go back to Sweden. WONDERFUL weekend! To top it all off, when we were checking out of the hotel, the Danish guy at the counter asked where I was from. I said Minneapolis (not thinking he would know where Lakeville was.) Then he says to me, "No way! Are you familiar with Burnsville, Minnesota?" CRAZY. Turns out he has cousins in Burnsville and he spent a year with them- and even played tennis at the Lakeville High School courts! Small small world.
Sorry, I know this was a long one! But hopefully you got a good idea of what the weekend was like. :)
Next weekend I'll be in Göteborg, Sweden, so I'll post again then.
Hope all is well!
Hej då!
-Sara

København, Denmark!

Hej all! I just got back last night from Copenhagen (capital of Denmark)! What a great city! Lots to do and see. I left Sweden on Saturday morning and took the train about 2.5 hours to Copenhagen. I went with a group of 12 friends from school. We arrived at the central station and took the bus to our hostel- "Sleep in Haven." This was my first hostel experience, and it wasn't too bad. The only bad part about the hostel was that it was situated kind of far from the downtown area and my bunk bed was right by the door in our room so I woke up every time someone came into the room. Other than that, the hostel was pretty good. I posted a picture of the hostel common area with the other pictures. So Saturday afternoon we walked basically around the entire city of Copenhagen and even made our way to Christiania (a free town on the other side of the city). Christiania was one of the strangest places I've visited. It was a bit like a miniature Amsterdam. It's a small town within the city boundaries of Copenhagen, with about 850 residents. Over the last 30 years, it's been the subject of several police raids due to the high amount of marijuana sales that take place there. Because of this, I also wasn't allowed to take any photos inside Christiania- they don't want any of the people in the pictures able to be identified by police. Seriously... but it was a cool place. The streets are mostly dirt roads and gravel, and vendors selling crazy clothes and jewelry are everywhere. There's also a couple small pubs, coffee shops, and little parks with benches and trees and flowers everywhere (also where the locals sit and smoke pot. no joke). It's basically a hippie village. I was SO mad I couldn't take pictures inside! It would have made for some amazing photos. I did manage to sneak one picture- leaving Christiania, the big archway reads "You are now entering the EU" (European Union).
On Saturday night we went out downtown and found a couple cool pubs and then made our way to another club. The clubs and bars in Copenhagen don't close until 5 am. So people are walking home when the sun is coming up on Sunday morning. It's crazy. What I really liked about Copenhagen was how the city didn't shut down on Sundays like most European cities. There was actually cafes and a few stores open. Usually in Europe, NOTHING is open on Sundays except the gas stations and grocery stores for a few hours. Copenhagen is a BIG city- much bigger than the Twin Cities- except instead of skyscrapers everywhere, there's 500 year old buildings and churches that make up the skyline. I'm going back to Copenhagen two more times before I leave Europe, so hopefully I'll get to see a lot more of it then. You can't possibly see the whole city in one trip.
OH, and I almost forgot to mention that my weekend in Copenhagen also happened to be the same weekend of the Denmark-Sweden soccer game- that took place in Copenhagen. So Saturday was CROWDED. And there were tons of crazy soccer hooligans running all over the place. The Swedish fans even took over an entire park and hung up blue and yellow flags and played music and blew these big fog horns every 10 seconds. So that was a pretty fun thing to see.
Hope everyone is well, Hej då!
-Sara

Swedish Crayfish Party

Hejhej! Last Wednesday, I attended my first ever Swedish crayfish party! This is a common tradition for Swedes usually between August and late September. Crayfish is served whole and cold with dill juice over the top of it. Then there's some other food (we had Swedish potato/ham/cheese pie-that I made!- and deviled eggs, warm bread, salad, and of course, shots of snaps. Snaps is the official crayfish party drink and during the party everyone sings songs about snaps before taking a shot of it. It's also common to have crayfish party hats and bibs. (we just had that hats) So a few of our Swedish friends prepared the crayfish and salad and two other Americans and myself brought the rest. It was my first time making a Swedish pie from scratch and I was pretty nervous about how it would turn out. I think we were all a little surprised when the pies turned out really well! I posted a couple pics- one of a plate of ready to eat crayfish, the other of my ham and cheese pie. :) Also, I have a short video of a few Swedish friends trying to teach everyone some snaps songs.

Pics from Gotland and Fårö

Gotland & Fårö! *AMAZING* Weekend

Hejhej everyone!
So I just got home late last night from a weekend spent on the Swedish islands of Gotland and Fårö. And it was absolutely wonderful. I'm going to do 2 separate posts- one just for the pictures!
Late afternoon on Friday we took a bus from Växjö to Oskarshamn, Sweden, right on the east coast. Then we hopped on a ferry that took us to Gotland. Destination Gotland was the name of the ferry- and it was the biggest boat I've ever been on. People drive their cars right onto the ferry below deck, get out, and then ride to Gotland in the passenger area (which is really really nice.) It was a lot like what I imagined a cruise ship to be like. There was a cafe, gift shop, and restaurant on the ferry so it was a very comfortable 4 hour trip.
When we got to Gotland, we arrived and stayed in the capital city, Visby. It was completely dark when we arrived in Visby so we had no idea what everything really looked like. We were all assigned to different cabins at this little resort park. They were basically brand new small mobile homes and were very nice! The next morning we woke up and looked out the windows... and realized the Baltic Sea was about 150 feet from our cabin. That was pretty awesome.
So that Saturday morning we took the bus into the city center of Visby. Visby is a medieval city and has a large wall (built in 1300) to keep out invaders that surrounds the entire city center. Everything was so OLD. Older than anything I've ever seen. The Visby Cathedral (which I had the pleasure of attending Sunday mass in!) was built in 1225. The streets in the city center are very narrow and all cobblestone. It was hard to believe people actually live in a place so beautiful. In a way, Gotland is a lot like how Hawaii is to the U.S. It's still part of the main country, but there is a sort of exoticness to it. Fun Fact- Gotland is where Pippi Longstocking was from! Walking through the streets, one thing I noticed was how quiet it was. There were no stop lights or traffic. Maybe one or two cars every 15 minutes passed us while walking. Between the cobblestone streets, the medieval aged buildings and statues, the countless flower gardens, and the Baltic Sea in the background, I would say Visby was the most gorgeous city I've ever visited.
Saturday afternoon we hopped back on the bus and drove to northern Gotland and took another short ferry to Fårö, another small island off northern Gotland. This island is famous for what's known as "raukarna". Raukarna are the huge rocks that jet out vertically from the ground or water. The beach on Fårö where we spent the afternoon was hands down, without a doubt, the most beautiful place I've ever been. The beach is snow-white, not with sand but with chalky rocks. The raukarna were a product of a glacier melting. Most of the rocks have little fossil patterns on the outsides of them. We brought small portable grills and cooked some burgers for lunch on the beach. The sun was shining and the temperature was pretty good. The only thing was the WIND. Wow. But it was a beautiful afternoon.
We got back to Visby and ate dinner at a night club and stayed there until 2:30 in the morning. It was a reaaallly long day, but a great one.
We left Gotland on Sunday afternoon and didn't get back to Växjö until about 11 pm. Everyone was completely exhausted and drained. But this was my favorite weekend in Sweden so far! And I would love to go back to Gotland later in life sometime. It's too good to go just once.
I'm posting pictures from the trip above this post!
Until next time,
Sara

Mushroom Picking on a Sunday

Hejhej everyone! Today was my first wild mushroom picking experience. It was also my first run-in with a poisonous snake in the wild! (Mom when you read this don't panic. Everything's fine.)
So two Swedish girls, two girls from CA and myself, drove out of town and down this dirt road/path into the forest. We walked a ways back into the woods and picked mushrooms and had "fika". Fika means a break during the day where people talk and drink coffee. It's a very popular tradition in Sweden. So we sat down on a log and had fika in the middle of the forest. We also found lots of good mushrooms to eat! There's tons of different kinds of mushrooms that grow where we were, so we had to be extra careful to pick the right ones. But we found quite a few and they are TASTY. While we were picking, I stepped right on top of a black snake. I don't think I hurt it, but it scared the crap out of me! Frida, one of the Swedes I was with, says that seeing black snakes are a sign of good fortune and it's pretty rare to see them in the wild. They're also completely harmless. I'm not sure about that good fortune bit because about an hour later I almost stepped on another snake... except this one happened to be poisonous. Sweden has only one type of poisonous snake and this was it. It's a burnt orange color with a jigsaw pattern on it's back. Maybe it was good fortune I didn't get bitten?
On the way out of the woods we stopped at a summer cottage that belonged to one of the girls' boyfriend's grandparents. (A bit confusing I know.) The cottage was right next to a GORGEOUS lake. It was a nice ending to a really good Sunday afternoon.
GOTLAND this upcoming weekend!!!

Kosta Boda Glassworks

This place was AWESOME. Kosta Boda is Sweden's oldest glass-blowing factory, founded in 1742. The gallery at Kosta Boda was full of incredible glass art that was created by different artists employed there. It was incredible! It's hard to imagine how someone could create some of the things they had.
We had the opportunity to watch some of the glass makers at work. While we were there, they were making champagne glasses. I posted a couple videos so you can see how they are made.
There was another man there who was an independent artist and was making these really cool vases. We got to see almost the entire process, starting with a small ball of melted glass. The video I have for this is too big for the blog, but I posted some pictures of him.

Moose Adventures

So yesterday was pretty exciting! I visited Sweden's biggest moose farm and Kosta Boda Glassworks. I'm splitting them into different posts because there's too much to tell for each!
So the moose farm was very cool. Our crazy tour guide spoke zero English and even the Swedish students with us had a hard time understanding him. And we were all pretty positive that in the off-season he was actually Santa Clause.
We got lucky enough to see a couple moose... sometimes they stay away from the people but they literally were right at the fence. At one point I was trying to take a picture in front of two of them and one stuck his nose in my hair. Terrifying! So we have a funny picture of me panicking and ducking out of the frame.
There was also an exhibit showing the danger of moose and traffic. They had an actual vehicle that hit a moose while driving, and the real pictures from the scene. It was a bit morbid. The Swedish government actually began installing elk and moose fences along major highways to reduce the number of accidents involving moose. They're the biggest member of the elk family and lots of people are killed in their cars if they hit a moose. Nothing like driving in Minnesota where we just have to worry about whitetail deer.
Sweden has roughly 350,000 moose and every year during hunting season, the number goes down to about 250,000. Moose meat is considered a delicacy in Sweden. We had the pleasure of grilling our own mooseburger... sooo good! I think I actually prefer it to a regular hamburger.
All in all, the moose farm was great.

Cultural Tidbits

Hejhej!
So I've been in Sweden for a little over 3 weeks now and I'm starting to pick up on trends and do's and don'ts of living here.
I put together a little list of my top ten cultural tidbits for Sweden...

1. Take your shoes off! You never enter a Swede’s home and walk around their house with your shoes on. This is practically a sin in Sweden.

2. Don’t smile at complete strangers. It gives the impression that you’re either interested or really creepy.

3. Don’t be early and don’t be late. If something is scheduled for 12:00, you need to be there at 12:00.

4. Wait your turn. Swedes will wait in line for HOURS. I’m not kidding. They’re known for waiting in ridiculously long lines for everything (groceries, department stores, banks… anything you can think of). It’s actually a joke here that waiting in line is a professional sport in Sweden.

5. During dinner, there should be at least 3 types of sauces at the table. Swedes eat everything with sauce. There’s a sauce isle at the grocery store. And it’s not just ketchup, mayo, and ranch dressing. Even desert! Whip cream on your pie? Nope… cream sauce.

6. “Lagom.” There is no word in English that this translates to, but it basically means not too much, not too little. Swedes are all about moderation and they tend to live their lives that way. For example, a wealthy person probably wouldn’t drive their most expensive car around a poorer side of town because they don’t want to look like they are bragging about their money. Very opposite from American culture where “bigger is better.”

7. Bicyclists rule!

8. If you don’t recycle here, you’re a loser. In my corridor alone, there are 6 different recycling bins for different materials. If you’re unsure of where something should go, chances are you could set it on the garbage can and someone would take it and put it in the right recycling bin.

9. Baggy jeans do not exist here. Women wear leggings, tights, skinny straight leg jeans and skirts. The only guys here wearing baggy jeans with their boxers showing are probably American exchange students. A Swedish friend told me they tried to bring back the flared jean here and it didn't go over well.

10. You cannot buy a case of beer in Sweden. The liquor stores, System Bolaget, are government run and if you want beer, you pick them out one by one. It's supposed to make it more difficult for people to buy tons of alcohol and get trashed.

Hopefully these are interesting and give you a better idea of what life's like here.
Onto other things... On Friday of this week I'm touring a glass and crystal factory! Sweden is world famous for their glassworks so this should be a really cool trip. I'm also visiting a Swedish moose farm and get to taste some moose burger and sausage.
Then off to GOTLAND next weekend!!
I posted a few recent pictures to this post. They are, in order, Iron Age grave field in the woods on campus- the Student Union, just down the path from my corridor- and of course, Teleborg Castle again.
I think that's all for now... I'll post again after the moose and glassworks tour!
Hej då!

-Sara