Schweeeden ya!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Monday, June 16, 2008

Term has finally come to a close, and although the Swedish schedule never really consisted of much class time in the first place – school is now officially out for summer. As such, I managed to lure Alex away from his Dexter’s lab life for a full TWO WEEKS!

Thanks to cheap tickets online & a variety of intra-Europe budget airlines, we managed to get a killer deal on a multi-city flight: Stockholm-Athens & Istanbul-Stockholm. The only trick lay in getting from Athens to Istanbul, but alas… we would figure that out when we got there. I mean people must do it all the time right? How hard could it be?

Well apparently nobody was a keen on the idea as me. First off, Greek people hate Turkey, so trying to convey to them that, yes in fact we did want to go to Istanbul was challenge #1. When they finally conceded that perhaps it is possible to harbor a desire to see Turkey, they insisted that the reality of getting there was absolutely “impossible”.

I had done some reading and found that instead of taking a 24hour bus between the two cities, you could in fact take a boat to the Greek Island of Lesvos, then a ferry to the Turkish mainland and bus up the coast from there.

With images of dolphins floating in my mind, I was hell-bent on taking the boat, despite all the discouraging advice of travel agents who thought we should either:
a) pay 80euros to the Greek bus company or b) just stay in Athens.

Against the advice of the Greeks who feared that Turkey harbored nothing but peril, and that of the American’s who feared Greek-Turkey relations were so dire that we would be held up at the border – we set off.

First: the overnight boat to Lesvos. This was an entirely ‘local’ experience, seeing how the boat was a low budget version of the BC Ferries, where one’s bed consisted of a patch of carpeted floor space. We were the only tourists aboard and, seeing how all announcements were in Greek, were quickly submerged into the local culture.

When we arrived at the Port, we met an adorable Greek man with a thick Aussie accent who helped us buy tickets to Turkey and sent us on our way through customs 10minutes later.

Next: Not only did we see the aforementioned dream-dolphins, but we also met a Professor of Political Science from the University of Kansas and his German wife who were also making their way up to Istanbul (or as the Greeks like to say, Constantinople).
The four of us joined forces and by midnight we found ourselves in the former capital of the Roman empire and current city of 13 million…
Let the games begin.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Swedish Holidays and Raw Fish

“Ask any foreigner what he or she knows about Sweden and the answer will be along the lines of Bjorn Borg, Volvo, Saab, Ikea, watches and raw fish. Unfortunately, Borg has emigrated to Monaco, while Volvo and Saab have been taken over by American auto giants Ford and General Motors. Ikea has moved its headquarters to Denmark and watches are made in Switzerland not Sweden. So that leaves raw fish…”

Yes Raw Fish.... just to clarify we're not talking Japanese sashimi here. We're talking about disgusting pickled herring - some of which smells so bad, that people struggle to keep their stomachs under control as they open the canister. For some reason Swedes like to taint all of their holidays by serving this so-called delicacy.

But fish aside, Swedish holidays can be quite entertaining, so I thought I'd take the time to give you the low down.

Easter Long Weekend

The best thing about having Swedish friends is that they often invite you over for food. As such Alex and I were blessed to be invited by our good friend Staffan to his summer home in the Stockholm archipelago for Easter. It took a car, a mini tug boat, an 'island taxi' and a good pair of legs to get there, but the trip was well worth it. His parents are as delightful as he is, and they even took the time to set up a traditional Swedish easter egg hunt . As you can see from the picture below, Swedish eggs far exceed ours in size (the age old "my egg is bigger than your egg" type deal) - but this is simply so you can find them in the banks of snow.

Another little diddy of Swedish tradition is that mid-meal, everyone will burst into song (harmonizing of course) and then cap it off with a shot of ridiculously strong alcohol which tastes remarkably like pure vodka.

All in all it was a great time!

Walporgis Night: April 30th

Official Description, "around the country bonfires welcome spring, with students donning their white caps and making merry. Int he student town of Uppsala, Walporgis includes fine student choirs, a river rafting carnival and many other events"

Reality: a completely drunken gongshow

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Part three: Riga, Latvia

A ridiculous advertisement at our hostel for an AK-47 tour

A example of the amazing architecture in Old Riga

Yet another Russian Orthodox Cathedral where we enjoyed a smoky prayer session

The freedom monument, (banned during Russian occupation)

Part two: Tallin again:)

my friend kristina (right) let us stay at her second apartment with her housecleaner (left) for a night as we checked out the city

julia and i do the baltic states (minus lithuania, plus finland)

PART ONO: FINLAND, HELSINKI

Goal: SMU reunion.

Thanks to a widespread facebook addiction, I discovered that my old friend Pete was now living in Finland (after some stints in Thailand, Canada, Scotland and Germany)... So what better excuse to board an overnight boat to Helsinki (which costs the same as riding the bus 4 times). Julia came up from Germany, and the two of us set out on a 7 day excusion in Eastern Europe.

Above: making sushi dinner with fresh baltic fish.

we arrive aboard the cruise ship, after a hectic adventure the day before, whereby we went to the wrong cruise ship terminal and had to run with all our luggage in attempt to find a ship sailing to finland. I think I lost 5lbs in sweat! This madness was the result of a proven scientific fact which is: Swedes are incapable of giving directions. (this is not meant to be a derogatory statement, but ask any foreigner in Sweden and they will tell you that if you actually listened to Swedish advice you would believe that there are no bus stops, no pay phones, no convince stores etc. because when you ask anyone where they are they will always reply "I have no idea")