Stockholm Part 2b

Ok the fourth and final chapter of my trip to with my family is here! This is about Sunday and other than our trip on the ferry we did not do soo much on Sunday. We did get up a little earlier in order to get to the ticket office. But there was a huge line and so we were unable to take the first trip of the day and the second one was sold out so we settled for the third trip a 1:30. We knew that the store that sold the jackets did not open til noon so we took the tram as far as it would take us to another island. That island was primarily comprised of a park as well as Tivoli. There was a small castle on the far side but we did not have enough time to see it. Also there is a place like Old Sturbridge Village or Plymoth Plantation but a Swedish version but we decided that was unnecessary to see because we could do that in the US and we wanted to do other things. We wandered around the park for a little bit again enjoyed the glorious weather that we had. We came across this little play ground with a very interesting see saw. It was a see saw that could move in all three directions. It could move up and down like a classic see-saw as well as rotate and sway side to side. So my dad and I gave it a try because it looked strong enough to hold us, which it was. At first we just went up and down and then we realized we could make it a ride by going up and down and then spinning it at the same time. If you timed it right with the bending from side to side it would whip one person around at a pretty good clip. My sister who was initially too cool to play with a kids toy wanted a try. So my dad got off and the two of us really got it moving. But we realized we had to go back because it was almost noon and my store was gonna open so we left the park and rode the tram back into the city center. We got to the store a little early so we checked out a church that was nearby. The the store opened. I got my jacket I wanted and my dad found another that he liked so he got that as well. With our new purchases we made our way back to the boats to grab a french hot dog before it was time for the boat tour. It is a little unclear why it is a french hot dog other than the bun looks a little like a mini baguette but the french dont agree with its name.

The boat tour was nice. It was 2 1/2 hour tour of the Archipelago. Unfortunately the best place to see the stuff was outside on the bow deck but you could not hear the person on the speaker talking about the stuff that we were seeing because the speakers out there were horrible. Still I decided to spend most of the trip out there taking pictures and soaking in the sun. Mostly we passed by small islands with a few houses. Some of the houses were pretty cool And I have some of the best ones in my opinion shown in the pictures below. It was cool to see that part of the city that was not as metropolitan like the rest of the city. For only a few minute boat ride away it was like being on a lake in New Hampshire not like being in what the Swedes call "The Capital of Scandinavia" In fact it was very hard to believe that we were in an ocean or sea at all. Never have I been on an ocean where I could see land on all sides.

This is obviously not a house what it is I am not sure but it was big and beautiful

On of two very cool and unique houses overlooking the water that two brothers built

A classic style estate from long ago, note that the red walls and green roofs are because of copper. Apparently that was a resource Sweden has a lot of which is why many of their older buildings are red and the roofs were made of copper which oxidizes and turns green like this house

On the way home on the tour I got some last great shots of the big houses on the water that the nobles lived in. Apparently they used to be right on the water but at one time a king decided he did not like the nobles and made them give up much of their rights and powers as well as building the road in front of their property and taking some of the buildings which he turned into centers for the arts. For instance the Royal Theater is at the end of the street with all the big houses below:

Some beautiful buildings that the wealthy used to and probably still inhabit

A close up of one of the buildings the flat brown things in front are trees that had their tops shaved off...

After the boat tour we returned to the crowded narrow streets of Gamla Stan for some shopping which we were rather successful at and then went to another part of the city to check out some landmarks we had not yet seen. Below we have a Drick Coke sign and the planetarium. My dad thought that they have forgotten the 'n' hahaha and added a 'c' silly. Remember we are in Sweden so that still means Drink Coke...

Drick Coca-Cola, enough said

The planetarium

After we went back to the hotel and them went out to look for a place to eat dinner. After dinner we walked around the town for a while and then finally stopped by a seven 11 for some Ben and Jerry's. Yea interestingly enough they are the only American ice cream company that can be consistently found in Scandinavia. Yea Vermont!

Stockholm Part 2a

Ok now that I have recapped through friday we have the weekend in stockholm.I will skip to the end first because it is boring. Monday was pretty much a nothing day. We had a late breakfast in the hotel and then packed up and took a taxi to the airport where I left my family. I took a flight home to Copenhagen then from Copenhagen to Aalborg and then a bus ride from Aalborg airport to the university then a 10 minute walk back to my apartment. My family took the plane from Stockholm to Reykjavik, Iceland and spent a day in Iceland before returning to the US. The only cool thing was due to the nice weather there were few clouds in the sky. It was spectacular to look at the Archipelago from 30,000 feet and I watched out the window the whole flight home guessing where I was based on landmarks on the map. As a cool way to finish the flight I looked down s we flew over Helsingør and Kronborg castle. Ok but now back to saturday because I did not have my camera with me so there are no pictures of this outside of what is in my head...

Saturday morning we decided to do some shopping for a birthday present for me because we learned that a store called Intersport carried a Swedish brand called Haglöfs from which I wanted a jacket. We checked out a few sports stores but even though they had the brand they did not have the jacket I wanted nor the backpack. So we went to another store more like EMS or REI and they had a ton of stuff by Haglöfs including a jacket very similar to what I had wanted although mine was an old model so were told to go to a discount store to see if they had it. They did have it but only in womens sizes and mens XXL so a little dismayed we gave up the hunt and decided that we would go back to the outdoors store and buy the other jacket tomorrow before the boat tour. We had also decided that we would take and Archipelago tour on Sunday. So we returned to the palace and after some trouble with the lines found our way to the royal armory where we could see royal carriages, clothing, wedding outfits, and armor as well as learn about some of the famous Swedish kings like Gustavus Adolphus II and Charles VII. It was a pretty cool exhibit and I think Lindsay really like the entire area that was wedding and other royal gowns that were sorted by color so each room had a different color. However there were attractions for the guys which included full sets of armor guns swords etc as well as nights atop their horses in full scale and a few of the horses were real taxidermy so they were not just fake animals. Also we got the occasional glimpse of the "royal mouse" which was a mouse with a Swedish flag sash and a crown that was put in some of the exhibits across the museum which was located in the Royal Palace. After the knights and gowns we ventured to the basement of the Palace to see the carriages which were impressively large, lavish and seemingly technologically advanced.  Many of them were gifts from other European Royal families to celebrate the weddings of significance in Sweden.

A full set up of what King Charles II would have looked like in battle

Royal wedding garments, and King Charles VII in the background

Various guns used by the Royal family

A Royal carriage of the french design held up by a suspension system made from looks like four of the worlds larges belts (like that would hold your pants up)

The Royal Mouse in all his glory

After that museum we decided to go to look for lunch but in a new location at a park. The park had lots of outdoor cafes which were a bit pricey but had large portions. So we finally stopped at one that had an appealing menu and ordered. We wanted to be outside because it was sunny and in the 70s and beautiful and we could not pass up this weather. I got a fantastic burger for lunch that included fresh mozzarella cheese sauce, bacon, ham and other things. After lunch we headed over to some more small islands that we wanted to explore because there was a lot of daylight left and we had some renewed energy.
On the first island was an architecture museum. So we split up and my dad went to enjoy the museum while the rest of us plodded on to the next smaller island which had a castlette. This Castlette was the only military establishment in the city that was of any note because like I said before the Swedish military designed their defenses so battles would take place outside of the city. At this island we had a great view of Tivoli the amusement pack that was on the adjacent island. It was not yet open however it looked to be much nicer and more developed then the one in Copenhagen. Also we say this strange circular pool of water that formed and then disappeared a few minutes later and we have no explanation for what could have caused it. We continued to explore the island and came across an old boat that they were rigging for its voyage. Apparently it is a tour boat that runs only in the summer. Also I found a very small bunker at the tip of the island where the tour boat was moored that looked like it was from the WWII era. It was maybe only big enough for three men but had an unobstructed view of the sea north of the city and was probably used as a very small last line of defense if machine guns were enough to stop the enemy. After that we made our way back to the architecture museum to grab dad and then headed for the wealthy part of town where the nobles lived so we could check out the buildings etc that were there.

The castlette in all its glory, not exactly big but it is still run by the Swedish Navy which raises the flag on its top at noon every day.

The strange ring of water that formed in the sea, why and how we have yet to figure out but it was big and weird

The tour boat that they were putting a rigging on, you can see men climbing on the sails

We went to the the nice string of houses on the water and walked around that area for a while. There were the offices for the tour boats so we learned about which boat we were going to take on Sunday. Also interestingly there was a tram operating in this part of the city. I came to the a conclusion that stockholm has the largest smorgasbord of transportation I had ever seen in a city. First off there were taxis and cars that could drive on almost every road in the city, much unlike Copenhagen. Then there were city buses for in the city as well as those that left the city. There was also the high speed rail to places like the airport, as well as express buses from the airport. Also there was a commuter rail from outside the city as well as a subway that was in the city. And now as I found our there was a tram system in the city. Additionally there were bicycle lanes and pedestrian streets. If that wasn't enough there were more trams on another island and interestingly enough they were all very loosely connected if at all yet the same card could be used for all means of public transit. It was as if 10 different urban planners each with their own idea were hired and each implemented their own strategy for the city. So it was a little nuts. This was also when I really realized how many old American cars were roaming the streets of the city. We saw a 50s coup de ville (tail fins and all), several corvettes most of them old, mustangs of all generations from the brand new mustang gt to the old '67 convertible, and a GTO. Also we saw the viper shown in the previous post, we saw so many American muscle cars it was pretty interesting On top of all that a new but very dirty Ferrari F430 drove by us later that day.
In this part of the city there was a beautiful row of old houses which I had the pleasure of snapping a cool picture that highlights the various different roof styles that they had. Also there were two obelisks that were showing the environmentally friendliness of the city in real time by having LED columns that acted as graphs to show various data such as, air quality, green energy produced, and the amount of water being treated and returned to the city.

The nobles houses in their splendor and glory

Where our boat tour would leave tomorrow

The environmental obelisks

The rooftops of these nice buildings with their spires pointing and perfectly square manicured trees in front

After a brief tour of this area we decided we would come back the next day because we were going to go meet my friends who were returning from a boat tour themselves. After some complications in the plan we finally met them in the plaza where the cafes are on Gamla stan. They were going to a barbecue at a friends place in the city so they could not chat for long but I think they liked meeting my family and my family liked meeting them and putting faces to names. Below is a picture of me with my friends in Sweden.

From left to right: Guillaume, Xavier, Charlotte, Vincent, ME, Fanny, Sandro, Sebastian

Ok to make things shorter and simpler I have decided that this is the end of this post and Sunday will be recapped in Stockholm Part 2b however I still have to talk about Saturday night. After my friends left we decided we were tired and wanted to go back to the hotel and get dinner somewhere. We were making our way to the train slowly when we stumbled upon a restaurant. It seemed German from the looks of it but as we were reading a menu a man stepped out (who we later learned was the owner) and asked us if we had any questions. He explained what some of the foods on the menu are: for instance Swedish Bubble and Squeak. We decided to give it a try since it was an opportunity to have some authentic Swedish food. Also he said the place was German inspired hence the look as such. We learned that it had been moved from its original location in the middle of the city when they created a large plaza now dominated by a huge shopping mall among other things. As he said it since there was no war Sweden decided they needed to destroy part of its capital anyways so they could do some "urban renewal." He said there are 12 other authentic Swedish restaurants that were moved and they all still exist as some of the oldest restaurants in the city but they are all spread out now. The food was excellent and we also were informed that is was blues night in the basement. We went to check it out. It was very cool they were playing some pretty god blues (which is surprisingly popular in Sweden, along with wearing Yankees hats (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!)) Also the basement was a cosy little place with a low roof and a small bar. It was quite a sight so see and really cool. After that we hopped on the T which was right around the corner and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Stockholm Part 1 Finally

Ok so here is the rest of the trip to Stockholm. We arrived at Arlanda Airport (45 km from the center of Stockholm) in the evening on Thursday. We got our stuff and took a taxi over to our hotel. It was in a good part of the city at the end of Drottninggatan which is a long pedestrian street filled with restaurants bars and shops that runs all the way through to Gamla Stan the small island with the palace. Stockholm is built on an Archipelago and the central part of the city is broken up onto about two dozen islands that touch the "mainland" where were staying. In fact the archipelago surrounding stockholm is comprised of over 30,000 islands. Therefore unlike Copenhagen, Stockholm was not covered in fortresses and not designed to have major military engagements in the city but rather on the islands out of the city. For instance the city of Vaxholm which is slightly north of  stockholm has a fortress designed to protect Stockholm from a northern attack. The taxi ride was weird especially for me because besides the fact that the signs were in Swedish  and the billboards were designed to look like metal trees, it felt just like a highway in the US. The roads in Denmark are filled with small "european" cars the dart down small roads along side bicycles. However in stockholm there were wide straight boulevards with bigger cars most common were large station wagons made by Volvo (of course), Saab (duh) and BMW. However there was also a huge presence of American cars mostly made by Ford which makes sense because they have had their fingers in with Saab and Volvo. However the small little Fiats, Pugeots, Renaults, Toyotas etc that cover the streets in Copenhagen were not as commonly occurring. Also Sweden is currently in a period of great economic growth (I know a little surprising huh....) and so there was a lot of development especially in high tech along the highway as we approached the city. Every major company imaginable was represented here, which was very different from the quaintness that Copenhagen has without the gigantic high tech buildings.  And boom we get off the highway and we are in the city and a few blocks later at the front of our hotel. We squeezed into our little room there and due to the bed complications from the last place I opted for the smaller but more comfortable cot that the room had. We then walked down Drottninggatan and found a restaurant to eat at which was expensive but had some classic Swedish dishes and we all ordered some type of fish to enjoy something different than the meat and potatoes from the previous nights.
 The next day we started our tour of the city by walking down Drottninggatan which would take us through parliament and then on to Gamla Stan which is where the old city was as well at the Royal Palace. It was another day of beautiful weather in the 60s and 70s and sunny. We made it down to the Palace just as the changing of the guard was wrapping up. Unlike the guards in Copenhagen with the giant hats similar to the ones they wear in England these guards wear small metal helmets that look like they get annoyingly hot in the summer. Unfortunately all the museums in the palace were closed on account that it was good friday so we decided to stroll around the old city. Below are some pictures of what we had seen until then.

This is the city hall for Stockholm which looks surprisingly almost exactly like the one in Copenhagen

Looking north on Drottninggatan and through the arches that are part of parliament

A small old french (Citroen) in Copenhagen

A little taste of a car in Sweden, American made Dodge Viper SRT 10 just compare this and its 500+ HP to the car above...

The Royal Guard of Sweden, note their far more spacious booths than the ones in Denmark or England despite not needing as much space because of there much "smaller" uniforms

Another interesting thing of note about the royal guards is like in Denmark they are almost all very young. I am not sure but I am guessing that also like in Denmark when boys turn 18 they must join the military in some fashion unless they can prove some disability or other thing to bar themselves from service. I know that many of the young Danes do not need to join up and go and serve in Iraq or Afghanistan instead they can be in the civil service, national guard or royal guard. Therefore I am guessing that like in Denmark most of these guys were 18. Later on we saw a bus full of what looked like "new recruits" and they looked about that age so I am betting I am correct in that guess. Also interestingly in Denmark the guards held American made Colt M16s with Bayonets but here in Sweden they are armed with British made SA 80s which probably makes their job easier since the SA 80 is lighter but they have a bayonet that looks more like a combat knife then a pocket knife. Ok back to the important stuff.
We looked on the map and say there were a bunch streets with narrow alleys and I thought they may be interesting to check out so we headed that way. We came across a plaza that has some famous cafes in some interestingly colored buildings and my mom remembered that her friend Annette had taken a picture in front of the cafe with the orange building with one of the green fleeces on while sipping a coffee. The Scandinavians love to be outside even when it is not so warm out. So their cafes often have tables outside with fleece blankets and heaters so that people can dine outside even in the cold months. It is kind of a traditional Scandinavian thing to do this, however due to the recent nice weather slightly unnecessary (although we learned from the taxi driver there was snow on the ground only a week before). The cafes were very full and busy so we decided to maybe come back later and for now do some walking and shopping.

The very old and famous cafes we later stopped by the skinny orange building in the center for a coffee

One of very many narrow roads and alleys in Gamla Stan the whole island pretty much looked like this

A larger more crowded road with some shops on it

This snows truly how close the buildings were to one another and that they get bigger as they go up almost to the point of forming a tunnel out of the alley

We walked though the entire island and finally came out to the southern most part of the island. I wanted to loop back around and check out a section we had missed as well as get a front view of the Palace and my family agreed so we set on that course. And good thing I chose to do this. First off we got some great views of the rest of the city as seen below. But secondly we got to witness a religous parade coming one way down the street to the church and then the royal guards on horseback going the other way and literally walking right past us.

We found this statue and it just made sense

The buildings on the southern end of Gamla Stan, you can see how narrow the roads are that run between them

An old ship on a neighboring island that we later found out was a cafe and a hotel

Looking across the water to the wealthy part of town where the nobles used to live

The Easter (good Friday) parade

The royal guards on horseback tromping through the city, however here we see them with the Royal Palace in the background and to the back and left you can see the church that the religious parade had traveled to for a sermon just minutes before.

I really just like this picture especially because both times are different and they are also both wrong...

Lindsay got a white hot chocolate at that cafe and was very much enjoying it

The oldest church and building in the city, although the spire that makes the steeple of the church is newer because of a fire that destroyed the old one in the 1800s

After this we returned to the plaza with the cafes and decided to do some more shopping and look for a place for lunch because it was around 2:00pm and we were a little hungry. We ended up at another Kebab shop because many of the restaurants closed for lunch after 2:00 and by the time we got to them it was past 2:30. However this was not a problem because after their experience from the day before my family really like Kebab shops and was telling me how they wished there was fast food this good in the US. Lunch was had on one of the small little alley ways on Gamla Stan which we meandered through for much of the afternoon before going to another island to look at a cool church which turned out to be the oldest building in Stockholm. Before doing that we returned to that iconic cafe for a coffee and hot chocolate stop. We finished the day by walking around more of the city near Drottninggatan and due to some tired feet decided we had enough walking so we took the T which is the subway in Stockholm back to our hotel.

However for me the day was not done. I had a whole group of my friends from Aalborg that were also visiting Stockholm. I met with them at their Hostel which happened to be on Gamla Stan. We went out to the cafe with the green facade two doors down from the one I had gone to earlier. You can see it in the picture above. We ordered some coffees and beers and just hung around for a while because they had an early morning the next day so they did not want to stay up late. We also planned for them to meet my family the next evening because my family really wanted to meet them.

Part two of the events in Stockholm will be coming shortly... (and I actually mean it this time)

Photos from Copenhagen

I know this took a little while but now I will continue the story from the past weekend and include a few pictures. Here are a few of the pictures from Copenhagen:

Kronborg Castle

In the courtyard of Kronborg

Painting in the Royal Apartments

The royal dining room, to appreciate the scale note that Lindsay is the person examining the picture in the middle

Hølger Danske: Protector of Denmark

Where the King kept his soldiers

Christiansborg Palace from the top of the spiral stair cathedral

Atop the Cathedral

The pipe organ in the Cathedral

Easter Holiday in Copenhagen/ Stockholm

I wrote my previous post I was heading out the door to go to Copenhagen where I would rendezvous with my parents and sister and then together we would travel to Stockholm for Easter weekend. I have so much to tell about that trip that I am going to split it into several parts. The first part will be my time in Copenhagen which consists of Tuesday night to Thursday afternoon. Due to length I will most likely also break the part about Stockholm in half however I have not completely decided that yet. I have yet to load all the pictures onto my computer but I had some time to write this text so there are no pictures in this post but I will have another post shortly with the pictures for this part followed by the Stockholm posts.
First I have to say that with the except of one or two days, every day since my birthday has been in the 60s or 70s and sunny here in Denmark which has been awesome. Tuesday was no exception and was in fact possibly the hottest day thus far. I decided to pack a light sweatshirt and rain coat just in case but I could not help thinking that they would be useless because I knew the weather was going to be similar in both of my destinations for the remainder of the week. One interesting thing about the weather here is how it is predicted compared to the US. In the US they choose the model with the most shocking or "exciting" weather because that increases ratings and makes more people check therefore more revenue from advertisements. However this weather is very frequently incorrect. However here in Denmark they do not advertise and can not make any revenue via that media type which is why websites like Pandora or Hulu which excuse copyright information for use of advertisements are blocked. Therefore there are no ridiculous weather forecasts and I find that they often under predict the weather if anything rather than exaggerate it.  For instance if they say it will be 15 and sunny it is likely to be 18 or 19 and sunny or if they say snow showers it is will briefly be dumping snow then nothing other than cold wind.... Anyways so I knew it was going to be warm. Having already familiarized myself with the procedures at Aalborg International ( much like Burlington international in size...) I knew there was no rush getting there and if I arrived a mere 30 minutes before my flight I would have no problem getting on. Unfortunately for reasons I do not know my flight was delayed nearly a half hour however before long I was in the air peering out at the danish countryside of cut into farms with wind turbines popping up like the daffodils that were now in full bloom. Unfortunately for me when the plane docked there was an issue with the jetway so even though I was in the closest part of the terminal to the metro they had to off load us onto buses then drive us to the farthest away terminal so I had a 1 km walk back to where I had just been. However it was still quite warm and sunny out despite being after 7 pm so I got my metro pass and met my family for dinner at a cozy little restaurant off of Nyhavn. The next day (wednesday) we ate breakfast at a little bakery they had found that offered up a nice selection of pastries, juice, and coffee. I showed my parents the traditional danish breakfast of a bun with butter or cheese on top. There was also a nice selection of what Americans call Danishes and what the Danes call Weinerbrød (Which would be Austrian bread? I wonder what the Austrians call it...)
After breakfast we got some additional metro passes and headed north to Helsingør a small town with one of Denmark's largest and possibly its most famous Castle, Kronborg Slot. This castle is made additionally famous because it is where Shakespeare's Hamlet takes place. The castle is perched at the corner of Zealand (The island that Copenhagen is on) closest to Sweden and the Swedish town Helsingborg (Used to be a part of Denmark). It was built because there is a choke point in the water there and it was a good location to build a structure that could control boat traffic into and out of the Baltic sea from the Atlantic. In fact from the early 1600s when the original building was built until the 1850s Denmark charged a fee to any boat passing through the waters and any boat that tried to avoid it would have to deal with the guns of the Castle as well as the Danish Navy stationed near by. (Punishment for a captain that did not pay the fee was extra fees for each cannonball fired and beheading of the captain). Due to the modernity of the castle it did not have quite as tall or majestic walls as some in say Portugal or France but it did have an impressive star fort around it along with two moats. The castle was only once captured by an enemy force and that was during the war with Sweden. It served as a giant source of revenue for Denmark as well as the residence of many of the Danish kings. During our visit we went under the castle to the basement where the ever famous Hølger Danske sleeps. The Danes consider him the protector of Denmark and when Denmark is threatened he will wake up and defeat Denmark's foes. In addition to him the dungeons are where many of the soldiers who defended the castle lived, worked, trained, ate and slept. In the dark cold and musty space below the castle 1000s of men were kept only leaving and entering the world when they were summoned to battle. Possibly the only thing that kept these men sane were the 12 liters (3.25 gallons) of beer that they were rationed, daily... We also saw the Royal Apartments in all their splendor including paintings and tapestries the size of the wall and luxurious furniture. After touring the castle we enjoyed the nice weather and shopped around Helsingør until we took the train back to Copenhagen.

The next day we only had a few hours after checking out of our hotel until we had to make our way to Kastrup Lufthavn (Airport) to fly to Stockholm. After checking into the Jewish museum we found out it did not open until one. So we decided to go to the church with the spiral tower on Christianshavn's island. For a small fee you can climb this church and the spiral stars on its steeple and get one of the most impressive view of Copenhagen. After climbing several flights of "normal" stairs we next moved into the bell tower area and climbed some steeper and more tight and windy stairs and ladders to get to the steeple. In fact we climbed right past all the bells but unfortunately I never got to see them ring. I would have liked to even though they would likely have been deafeningly loud. Finally we emerged outside and what a view. It was possible to see an unobstructed view of the entire city and even as far away as the bridge to Sweden. Despite the clear skies it was a little hazy so we could not see Malmø more than just shadows. However our climb was not done and we then climbed up the slick brass stairs around and around the spiral. Impressively my mother, who is terrified of edges continued upwards even though there was a good 100 feet between us and the streets below. However possibly the very tall guardrail had something to do with that. I climbed as high as one could go... The stairs became so small I could no longer fit and the handrail was much lower so it was a little scary up there especially when you could feel the tower swaying due to the slight breeze. On are way down we bumped into Ari a guy who is from Missouri and is studying abroad in Aalborg with me, he was just returning from a trip to Budapest and Prague and he said they are places I must go, so hopefully I can see at least one of them. After the tower we went inside the church which had a magnificent pipe organ that was one of the most ornately decorated I have seen. We then crossed back over the water and headed over to the Jewish Museum. It was small but interesting, mostly concerning the arrival of Jews in Denmark and their escape during WWII.  It had some cool artifacts and was a very interesting design because it was done by some famous architect. My dad calls them "starchitects" because everyone wants them to design some ridiculous structure. After that we headed over to the airport via the metro and boarded our plane to Sweden.

21st Birthday

Sorry I have not written in a while. I am currently packing up to go to Copenhagen to meet my family. Then on Thursday we will travel to Stockholm for the weekend before they return home to the US via Iceland.  The reason I have not written is the weather has been incredibly nice and I have not spent much time inside or on the computer and at night there has been a flurry of birthday parties for me to attend including my own so I have not spent much time on the computer recently. For instance, for the last 5 days it has been in the 60-70s F and sunny with few clouds and limited win. In fact this is going to be the weather here for the next week as well so my family will have excellent weather in both cities they are visiting with me. In the nice weather I have spent the day outside going on long runs or bike rides and playing football. Yesterday in fact I traveled all the way to west Aalborg ( about 8-9km away from where I live in East Aalborg) to play football. We were not planning on going so far but a lot of the other small fields were in use due to the nice weather (it was in the 70s yesterday).
My classes are almost all finished I only have one last class next tuesday for energy and the environment. So now it is time to really crank out the project which is due at the end of may. I am going to have some leisure time though in may. In the middle of the month I am traveling to Berlin and I just bought my tickets today for that trip. I will also go to the northern most point in Denmark called Skagen. And then just before my project finishes Lyndsay will be arriving and we will spend the last weekend in May together in Aalborg enjoying the festivities of Carnival before heading off to italy for the first week of june.
My birthday was excellent. I invited a bunch of friends over and cooked some bacon cheese burgers and hot dogs for them which they were all very excited about. After we hung out and had lots of cake because another one of the guys from my collegium also is born on April 11th (In fact I now know 9 people that I share my birthday with). He was turning 25 which is a significant thing in Denmark. They have a tradition that if you turn 25 and you are not married your friends can throw cinnamon on you. And if you turn 30 and are not married then instead of cinnamon they throw pepper... Unfortunately for him he was "cinnamoned" several times. First was during the day after class because he is also an engineer so I witnessed a very thorough cinnamoning. Below is picture to show the scene. To prevent him from running away we used 4 industrial strength zip ties to fasten him to a light pole. After he was doused with water and 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of cinnamon he was cut free and we all had to take off for fear of being hugged by the cinnamon-man. However that was not the last time as later that night after he had showered for the second time that day some guys in my collegium got hold of him and more water and cinnamon... I know one thing I will stay far away from Denmark when I turn 25....

Christian getting "cinnamoned"

Additionally this past week a friend of mine and I organized a game of "the hit" to be played in our collegium. For those of you who don't know the hit is like the game "assassins" except everyone can "kill" everyone. The game started on my birthday and on friday in an epic firefight I was the victor and sole survivor of the game. This was our second collegium wide game and after two successes a third may be underway for mid May.
Also due to the good weather we have been doing a lot of grilling which has been awesome. Although the collegium has a large grill it is too big unless you are cooking for more than 30 people. So instead we are using small charcoal ones that some of the Danes have. One thing that I am very excited to make is something that only a Dane would conceive... A hot dog wrapped in bacon and then grilled... I am definitely making a bunch of these soon. This is like the most un-kosher food I can think of but incredibly awesome- Epic Meal time would be proud... Speaking of Kosher it is now passover however due to the lack of jewish people in Denmark I have yet to see a store selling even Matzah let alone anything else kosher for passover. Hence I will not be following that tradition this spring. I have to run for now because I have a bus and a plane to catch. A very long and detailed post of my adventures this easter holiday will soon follow...

Football, pizza and more football

Since returning from Sweden football (soccer in America...) has been the thing for me this week. Along with football has been lots of good pizza. On tuesday Vincent and I made a masterpiece of a pizza which you can see below. On top of the dough there were two halves although they were very similar. On one was tomato sauce and the other was creme fraiche (It is like sour creme but less sour and less viscous-more liquidy...) The rest of the pizza was the same on both sides. On top of the base layer was a layer of mozzarella then red peppers,  caramelized onions and basil/red pepper powder. Then after that we covered the pizza in ham and chicken nugget slices. To top it off it was clear we needed more cheese because everything is better with more cheese. So we added slices of bleu cheese and goat cheese and then covered the whole deal with the remaining mozzarella. 20 minutes of oven time and Voila, deliciousness.

 

 

 

 

Our yummy pizza

On wednesday was pizza and football night with my project group. After a day of working on the project we headed over to my group-mate, Jens' apartment for some pizza and after we were going to the Common House at his complex because they had a small cinema where we watched the Manchester United FC vs Chelsea FC game. This time Sandro, who in addition to being in my project group lives right below me in my colleguim was head chef. Conveniently he is from Italy so I got to have my second round of authentic Italian pizza. If you remember before he cooked a pizza dinner for almost twenty of us in February. We had the same pizzas this time, the "New York" that is covered in hot dogs and french fries as well as the really authentic pizza with hard boiled egg, mushrooms, peas, black olives, ham, and mozzarella. The football game was good Man U won 1-0 with a Rooney goal in the 24th minute.

The rest of the week was beautiful weather in Denmark however on thursday and friday it was incredibly windy. On friday the average wind was 60 km/h(~40mph) and gusts around 90km/h (~55mph). However the wind stopped for the weekend which was awesome. On saturday it was at least 16C (60F) and sunny with no clouds or wind. Today was over 20C (70F) and no clouds or wind. Yesterday afternoon I went and play football with my project group. We played a small sided 3v3 game and it was a bunch of fun. Today I woke up early and was very motivated so after tossing the pig skin around with Egon for a while we went on a 6k run. It was a bit hot but a nice run. It is rather nice to run in Denmark because it is relatively flat and there are paths everywhere. Also the few hills that exist are very gradual slopes up and down. After the run I biked over to play football like I did two weeks ago. That was a bunch of fun to play some more serious football with cleats and big goals etc. Needless to say I am quite tired today.

One other tasty thing of note was my dinner last night. Due to the gorgeous weather we had a barbecue. Everyone prepared their own food for the grill. I made chicken kebabs (on the skewer) with green and red peppers and onion. I made my own sauce with mustard, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some spices and it was amazing. The flavor was awesome and the chicken was juicy. I can not wait to try and make more food on the grill. Speaking of which I will be doing just that tomorrow, weather permitting as a celebration of my 21st birthday. I some friends over to hang out and grill some dogs and burgers. By the time I write my next post I will be 21! and finally considered an Adult in the US.

Göteborg

The same boat we took to Gothenburg

This past weekend I made my first trek out of Denmark since arriving in Europe. I traveled to Sweden to the city of Gothenburg or Göteborg in Swedish. The city is located on the west coast of Sweden and is the second largest after Stockholm with around 500,000 residents. Instead of flying we took the ferry because it was cheaper, perhaps in some ways faster, and definitely easier. I traveled to Sweden with two friends from my collegium, Vincent and Mathieu. On friday we took the train from Aalborg to Fredrickshavn about a one hour ride then hopped on the ferry for the 3:25 minute ride to Sweden. Interestingly upon arrival customs was barely existent with the exception of a walking past a drug smelling dog. The ferry ride was nice and we left rain in Denmark for a setting sun in Sweden. After we found our way to the hostel with some difficulty navigating the tram we met up with some of Vincent's friends from his University in Brest who were currently studying in Gothenburg. We ordered some pizza and hung out with them at their collegium.

The trams (Trolleys) that dominated the streets of the city

On Saturday we wanted to get and early start. Luckily there was a grocery store literally right below the room we were staying in and I scored some fresh croissants for breakfast. By 10:30 we were down town walking the main street conveniently called Avenyn (pronounced Avenue). We walked all around the small island that made up the city center. Like the cities in Denmark it was filled with shops and had what was more or less a mall with outdoor corridors. In addition it had some very beautiful buildings.  The little island that this was a part of also looked like a star fort like Christianshavn in Copenhagen which makes sense because the city is young by European standards at only a few hundred years old. As a result there was a lot of more modern housing in the form of apartment buildings and many of the older stone buildings were of the Victorian and mostly Colonial styles. Nevertheless there was some spectacular architecture as some of the photos I put on facebook showed.

An old hotel/manor turned restaurant/bar on Avenyn

We say the national museum but unfortunately did not have time to go in with only two days to explore the city. We also say the ship yard which had a variety of sailing ships, military ships, and fishing boats. After lunch we traveled across the city to see the Slotsskogen park. The park was really nice and large and featured a zoo with both small and large animals amongst other things. The large animals conveniently live year round in the zoo so we got to check a lot of them out including moose a favorite animal in Sweden and goats.

I know he is a little blurry but this seal really was photogenic

After the zoo we headed back to our hostel where we made tacos for dinner before meeting up with Vincent's friends again. On sunday after checking out of the Hostel and grabbing some more croissants, chocolate ones this time we decided to explore a new part of the city. Unfortunately it was sunday and it was misting out so we were not able to feel the full effect of the section called Haga. Haga is the older part of the city with the more traditional houses and would normal have streets lined with vendors and cafes. Unfortunately that was not the case but it was still nice to explore it. It reminded me of Nyhavn in Copenhagen but less vibrantly colored. After Haga we traveled around the city looking for the large churches we spotted from the ferry on the ride in that we wanted to see up close. One of them was a beautiful gothic church that's copper roof had oxidized to green giving it a interesting contrast to the red brick walls.

Gothic church

Inside was beautiful stained glass windows but they were doing some construction so the pictures could not be perfect. After that we went to the small fort/tower on the hill overlooking the city. Apparently when the city was built it was the master stronghold that could protect the city from invaders. After lunch we did a very french thing and met up with Vincent's friends one last time and went to a cafe which was surprisingly enough french. There were an abundance of pastries there and the ones I tried were very good. After having some coffee it was time to return to Denmark so we took the ferry back. The last part of the adventure was back in Denmark. We quickly unloaded from the ferry and walked to the train station. However we were not quick enough and missed the train by only a few minutes. So we realized our fate of having to wait an hour for the next train. However after no more than 10 minutes of waiting we realized that there was a bus station next door. So we decided to check it out only to find one bus remaining that luckily was going to Aalborg. It cost the same as the train and took about as long so that was nice. Also as soon as we entered the bus it left for Aalborg so we diffinately caught a lucky break which allowed us to make it home before 10 pm on sunday.