Sensational Snowy Sweden

start of the trip -- Court and I on the train to the airport
see all photos »

Sweden was an amazing city!! We pet the nicest people, had both a relaxing and productive weekend, and overall enjoyed ourselves immensely.

This was the first weekend trip that I have planned all on my own and set off on without “the group” or school. I planned it with my friend Courtney, who goes to Santa Clara, a couple of weeks ago we found out that 7 other girls planned to be in Sweden that same weekend as well, so we all decided to get a room in the same hostel – this worked out nice because we were able to find a hostel with a 10 bed room available for that weekend. Most of the weekend I spent my time with Courtney, and another friend Steph, and we did the museums, saw movies and explored the city. The other girls were more into spending their time sitting in coffee houses for hours at a time, we decided to make the most of our time in Stockholm!

The sun was shining, the ground was freshly covered in snow and we had another full day ahead of us!!

area of Old Town in Sweden
see all photos »

Court and I took the train from Florence to Milan Central, then from Milan to Bergamo train station, then a bus from Bergamo train station to Bergamo airport, we finally took off about 8 on Thursday evening and found ourselves in Sweden just a couple of hours later. Everything worked out so smoothly with traveling, it was like we hit everything at perfect timing! Our first night in Sweden we didn’t make it to the hostel until about 12 30 or 1, so we just crashed. We rose early the next morning, I grabbed coffee with Stef (a luxury was “to go” cups that were actually legitimate Starbucks-like coffee cups), from there all 9 of us set off down the main street towards Galama Stan (or Old Town). The main street is a walking street in the newer part and older part of town, in the new part major store, restaurants and bars line the street, after crossing the bridge and by the palace you enter the old part of town which is much more quaint and the shops are all a little cuter, with souvineers, traditional Swedish goods and cute cafes and restaurants. If you keep straight along this street you come to the water, where we hoped on a ferry over to one of the little islands. Not everyone wanted to do the same museums, but Court, Steph and I were set on seeing the 75 acre museum, all outdoor, that was described in my travel book as the Swedish version of “Colonial Williamsberg”, it was top rated and definitely stood up to its high rating. This was a place that the kid in me absolutely adored!! There were old log cabins with people practicing craft (a man was carving bird traps from wood near and open hearth, wearing traditional Swedish garb), there was a general store with all sorts of goodies, houses set up as they would have been, farms, etc. etc. etc. This is a place that I can imagine is wildly popular with children, especially in the summer months when the weather is warmer! While we were there it started to snow, and by the end of the day the snow would accumulate to over 5 fresh inches! The highlight of the Skansen Museum for me was the outdoor animal area, where I got to see Reindeer. Mom, do you remember that Christmas story you used to read us about the little Swedish girl who goes into the forest and looses her mittens, I felt like I was right inside that story!! I had a pretty great time here being a kid!

an American food store....it was SO exciting :)
see all photos »

From there we hoped on a ferry that took us to another island. By this time it was snowing heavily, so we headed into the Modern Art Museum. This was a treat after being in Florence for these past 5 months and seeing mostly only Renaissance Art. The Modern Art Museum had a great café, where we sat and enjoyed a bowl of soup and chocolate chip cookies before seeing the museum. This museum was great for me because one section houses a collection of Dali, Matisse, Picasso, Da Da Movement Artists and others that I studied last spring in an LMU art history class. It was cool to see works which I had previously only see on powerpoint in person. Some of the art was too modern for my taste, but it was a really great museum and I enjoyed it a lot. By the time we left it was dark and the snow was still falling hard, already having accumulated at least 3 inches. We walked back across a bridge that took us to near the palace and easily made our way back. While at the Skansen Museum one of the ever so friendly people working there told us some movie times for movies. Did I mention how friendly the Swedish people are!! The friendliest of any I have met anywhere!!!

Stef and I in matching strawberry hats!
see all photos »

We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant. I had a green curry chicken that rivaled that of the best thai restaurant I always eat at at home! It was especially nice to eat something other than pasta or pizza for once!! We decided to see “Walk the Line”, and it was a REAL TREAT to see a movie in English. The three of us loved the movie. After the movie we met up with the other girls and went to the “ice bar”, everything is made of us. The table, the bar top, the glasses you drink from, the walls, everything! We donned stunning silver parkas and made our way into the crammed little bar, we had a good time!!

Skansen Farm -- there are real reindeer behind me!!!
see all photos »

Our second day in Sweden was beautiful! The sun was shining, the ground was freshly covered in snow and we had another full day ahead of us!!

Steph and I got up early and made our way out for coffee, from there we decided to walk towards Old Town, turned down a different street and wondered through a cute snowy part of town. When we came out towards the center again we stumbled upon a free museum and went in, it was a collection of money from all over the world, some of it dating back to the times of Cesar. There was also a gold Florin which was neat to see! When we left the museum we then stumbled upon the changing of the guards ceremony infront of the palace, all the guards march up the hill and then two change, it was neat to see!

the night it snowed 5 inches!!
see all photos »

We then met up with Courtney and the tree of us set off to explore some more, we walked all around and eventually found ourselves passing a moive theater…we went in to find that “In Her Shoes” was playing, so we got some popcorn and enjoyed another cute movie! We met up with the other girls, two of which had gotten haircuts that day, and one had gotten her hair colored, they all had a 6 am flight, so they decided they would catch the 7 30 bus back to the airport and sleep there—I was glad Courtney and I had scheduled a different flight from them!!

all of us girls before going into the Ice Bar
see all photos »

They took off and Court and I decided we weren’t really in the mood to go to a bar, so instead we thought, hey why not see another movie – probably our last chance before getting back to the states! So, we say “Fun With Dick and Jane”, funny and cute, but not great…I still laugh thinking we say 3 movies in 2 days. After the movie we grabbed Mexican food—yes, Mexican food! Another luxury when being used to only pasta and pizza! Court and I enjoyed a fun night talking and relaxing.

changing of the guards...
see all photos »

The next morning we got up early, Court picked up last-minute souvineers and we walked down by the water once more. It took us about ½ a day to get back to Milan and unfortunately the last train to Florence left at 8 30, only a ½ hour after we got in, not enough time to make it back to the central station, so we stayed in Milan for the night and arrived back in Florence before my 10 30 class Monday morning, a busy, but very fun – actually one of the best – weekend trips!!

…more to come…

snow along the river
see all photos »

Ciao!