1920's party and pictures

There was a 1920's themed party the other night which was pretty fun.  We had a 45 minute walk and got pretty lost but managed to find it eventually.  Someone pointed us in the complete opposite direction that we were supposed to go so that kind of threw us off.  It was a great time when we finally got there though.

Al Capone and Lucky Luciano

I'm about to go to the train station to take the train Stockholm and then the 1.5 hour bus to the RyanAir airport named Skvasta which is in middle of no where but it is worth the cheap flights.  I woke up this morning to find out that our water is turned off today so I might have to take a dip in the mediterranean when we get there being only a few blocks from the water!  

Zadar, Croatia and summer plans

March 30th to April 2nd a few friends and I will be in Zadar, Croatia.  I don't know much about Croatia other than it used to be a pretty war torn place and used to be part of Yugoslavia.  We will probably just hang out in the city and hopefully do some swimming in the mediterranean as our hostel will be right near the water.  It will be kind of nice to just chill out and not catch trains all over europe like we have previously done.  Everything there is very affordable and there are some very scenic national parks around which we might try and check out.  Croatia is an up and coming tourist location so hopefully it lives up to its expectations.

Zadar

Today I reserved my room for the summer.  I still am unsure with what I am doing this summer but since the rent is free over June and July I figured I would reserve it.  Most of the jobs for exchange students pay very little but you can get 2 meals a shift which in Sweden is big money.  The snow is continuing to melt slowly but surely.  Grass is visible in a few places but a solid foot of snow still needs to be melted.  

When my family comes in May we were planing on going to Copenhagen, Denmark for a couple days.  After I checked out some RyanAir flights I found out that it would be much cheaper to go to the other side of Europe to an island in Greece.  We are going to the island of Rhodes for 3 days and 2 nights.  None of us have been there and we have some Greek in our blood so it only made sense.  I think the cheapest way to travel europe is just to get to Ireland or England and then book RyanAir or EasyJet flights for a fraction of what they would be on any other airline.  

Right now I have a take home exam for my geography course.  It is surprisingly difficult as we have to type 1,500 words for each question and there are 4 questions in 48 hours.  The clocks ticking I need to get back to work.  

Haircut and soccer

I finally got a haircut today.  Probably the most expensive haircut I will get in my life which cost about 40 US dollars.  Apparently that is cheap and they are usually about 50 US dollars.  I pay 12 in Boulder during there happy hour special.

I have been playing a lot of soccer now that the weather is above freezing which is nice.  The other day we had 10 people and 6 countries were represented which was kind of cool.  


Couple random swedish facts I have learned in my geography class.
- Families with higher incomes pay just about 60% on income tax.  Middle to lower class pay 40%.
This results in a lot of companies and affluent people leaving the country like Volvo and yes, even IKEA.
- 80% of swedes live in "urban" areas
- 45% of the citizens in Uppsala work for the government in some way.  Population is about 150,000.
- 75% of jobs in Sweden are services

Lapland

Friday-  Hung around all day before our train at 10PM.  We thankfully had a sleeping cabin so we stayed up for a few hours then were able to get some descent sleep until we had to switch trains at about 10AM.  We then took a 3 hour train from Boden to Kiruna.

Met my new bestfriend

Saturday-  We arrived to Kiruna at about 2pm and it was snowing pretty hard.  The town of Kiruna was pretty ugly because it has a huge iron mine right in the middle of it but the outside of the town was amazing with all the mountains and forest.  Our first night we had a 5 person cabin.  We checked in at the camp named Camp Alta and got ready for some dog sledding.  The temperature was probably about 20F but the people that worked there said a couple weeks prior it was -40C which is also -40F for about a week. Some people were late so we got to play with the husky puppies which was so much fun.  When we finally got the whole group together a group of 4 of us sat on the dogsled and we cruised through the forest.  The dogs were freaking out before they were able to run.  I think all 30 of dogs between the 2 sleds were howling to start running but once they were running they went completely silent.  They took us to a tent in the forest and we were given soup and a sandwich and hoped to see the northern lights.  The sky was clear but we couldn't see much at first then a little streak in the sky appeared but then disappeared in about 5 minutes.  We left the tent and during the ride a very faint greenish blue line appeared again but wasn't anything special.  The dogs pulled us about 20km.  I was getting a little disappointed until we got back to the camp and I looked up and saw a huge green line and asked the guide "is that what we're looking for?"

dog sledding

Staying warm outside the tent

The line didn't move much at first but started to get larger and larger until it took up a large portion of the sky.  The lights then started to change colors to orange and purple and kind of danced around the sky.  I had always thought that the aurora borealis was like a lighted cloud and didn't really move but I learned quickly that they are quite active.  It was amazing and completed one of the goals I had when I came to Sweden.  The pictures don't capture the color very well or the magnitude of the lights but they give a pretty good idea of what they looked like. The next night was cloudy so thankfully we got a great show Saturday night.   

start of the aurora borealis

starting to expand

amazing

Sunday-  Sunday was our snowmobiling day. Franzi and I shared a snowmobile as you had to pay extra to drive your own.  It also wasn't cold at all so we were very lucky with that. We went on a lake then through a narrow trail onto another lake which is where the Ice Hotel was.  I thought the Ice Hotel was in the middle of no where but there was a little town surrounding it.  It is a major attraction to the area and basically runs the economy in that town.  We learned that the Ice Hotel is actually made of man made snow and it changes every year as it melts every year.  It takes 6-8 weeks to open and opens around Christmas and closes in April when it melts which takes about 2 months.  Artists apply to make one of the 20 luxurious rooms.  There are also 40 other "snow rooms" as well as an ice bar and a church where about 100 weddings occur each year.  The temperature is kept around-5 to -10 Celsius so that melting doesn't occur on the inside.  

Me inside the ice hotel lobby

reindeer fir is on the bed for warmth

car bed

Jesse snowmobiling

dinner with the crew minus jesse

We then snowmobiled back and then Jesse and I cross-country skied around the lake which was 9km so about 6 miles.  I had never cross-country skied before but I picked it up pretty fast skiing considering I downhill skied about 50 days a year growing up.  We made it around the lake before dark and then made dinner and ate it in our little cabin.  We had to change to 2 three person cabins the second night.  After dinner we made a fire down by the lake and went to bed pretty early.  

x-country skiing

Monday-  Took the train at about 1pm to 4pm then switched trains in Boden again.  We got on the train at 5pm and got off at 5am in Uppsala. That was also a sleeper cabin so we were able to get some good sleep.  Walked home and then went back to bed as the travel was pretty tiring.  

back from lapland/ pick up soccer

Just got back from Lapland early this morning and I will put a post together as soon as I have pictures from everyone but we did get to see the northern lights and they were absolutely spectacular.

Played pick-up soccer today as the temperature got up to a balmy 41 degrees.  An artificial turf soccer field is nearby so we played some 3 on 3 and should start to play quite often now that the sun wants to cooperate.  I also washed my clothes today and managed to make them all smell terrible so I will need to wash them again tomorrow.

Surprise at the supermarket

Apparently the supermarkets get there seafood from Maine here!  Kind of shocking considering Sweden is surrounded by water on 3 sides and Maine is about 3,000 miles away(real efficient).  The old yacht club that I went to every summer for sailing camp is visible in the background of the picture which is kind of funny.

One of many ice sculptures in town

Gasque

I have pictures from the gasque so now I can post about it!  A gasque is basically a very formal and traditional dinner that they do in Sweden.  Kind of like a prom except much more formal and serious.  Everything happened in the V-dala nation which has a very large building for big events like this.  It started with walking downtown trying not to slip in my no traction Florsheim shoes which was eventful.  We got there pretty early so we avoided the huge line at the coat check.  I have never checked  a coat in before coming here and now I do it just about every day.

They rounded us up and up the stairs we went into our assigned seats.  I was across the table from Franzi who is from Germany and who I know.  She is in the group going to Lapland this weekend.  Mike from Canada who I talk trash to about the Toronto Maple Leafs and Bruins was 2 seats down and Penelope from Australia was about 3 seats down who I went to Berlin with so it was nice having people I know around me.  They started the night with some schnapps which tasted and smelled like gasoline( never tasted gasoline but I could only imagine).  They have a very fancy way of toasting or "skol" as they say here.  I'm still not very sure how to do it but each time you drink you have to raise your glass to the left, right and then center and drink.  Then to put it down raise your glass right, left and center and then drop it.  I think I messed it up every time.

They fed us reindeer and some salad for the appetizer which was pretty good.  The main course was moose and some potato salad.  The dinner was this very good ice cream.  The food was surprisingly great for 300 people.  Throughout the night they supplied you with beer and tons of wine as well as champagne.  I really don't like wine so I got the pleasure of observing everyone get pretty drunk.  At the end of the meal they give you a huge shot of Baileys whiskey which put a lot of people over the edge.  They sure do love their alcohol in Sweden to say the least.

Throughout the night during the 3 hour meal they had multiple musical performances.  They had an international choir as well as a violin group.  The dinner was completed with a drum line.  After the dinner they cleared the room and set up karaoke and a couple bars opened in the nation as well as a cover band which was pretty fun.  It was a very fun night all in all.  Here are some pictures from the gasque from a Penelope!

at the dinner with Mike from Canada on the right

Hanging out after the dinner with Lukas from Austria on the left and Jesse on the right

The crew going to Laplands this weekend!

Me being me in the background at the Snerikes pub crawl last week.  Went to 7 of the nations pubs

Here's a random cool map I made on Facebook.  It shows where in the world your Facebook friends are.  

  
Other News outside of the gasque is that the weather has warmed up quite a bit.  We went almost 30 days without going above freezing but got up to about 35 degrees yesterday and could get into the 40's next couple days!  This weekend we are off to Lapland.  15 hour train ride straight north to Kiruna on Friday night.  Look up the town on google it is about as far north as you can go in the world.  We are going about 700 miles north of here and we are already about 1,000 miles north of Portland, Maine.  Yikes.  I thought Maine was "up thea".  We will dog sled, snow mobile to the ice hotel, possibly see northern lights and snow shoe around the arctic or at least I will.  I am really excited for this trip.  

Lapland