Stockholm September 23 to 26

After realizing I had a long weekend coming up I decided to take a trip down to Stockholm. I spent four days in the city touring around on foot, looking at the fabulous architecture that differed through the eras and browsing through the numerous exhibitions and museums at my disposal.

A few things that I realized was
...my backpack, which was fairly light at the beginning of the trip, became extremely heavy by the end although the actual weight did not change.

...cobblestone roads, although add a nice touch to the atmosphere, are difficult to walk on after some time.

Gamla Stan, Stockholm's Old Town

Gamla Stan was my favorite part of the city. It is the oldest part of the city and dates back to the 13th century.

The streets are narrow and cobblestone, while the buildings are brightly coloured and tightly squeezed together. Walking through the streets, especially when I found myself the only one there, I could really imagine the peasants of the olden days walking and working.

Kungliga Slottet, the Royal Palace, is where the king and queen of Sweden have their offices, hold audiences with visiting dignitaries and official ceremonies. In 1974 a new constitution removed the monarchy's political powers, although they still serve as a grand representation for the country. The outside facade of the palace was not that interesting to me as I was more attracted to the colours of the adjacent buildings. I did not get an opportunity to venture within the walls of the building.

Stortorget square is the heart of the 'city between the bridges'. It was the scene of the Stockholm Bloodbath in 1520 when the Danish King tricked nearly 80 of Stockholm's noblemen into capture. They were arrested for heresy and the next day, beheaded in the square. It now houses expensive quaint restaurants and cafes.

Marten Trotzigs Grand is the city's narrowest street. It is only 3ft wide and includes 36 steps which gives an indication of how different parts of the Old Town vary in height and how tightly packed the houses are. The street was reopened in 1945 after being fenced off for 100 years. There is a picture of it within the Stockholm PhotoAlbum.

Storsjön Lake Ferry Ride

On Saturday, Hella, a classmate, and I went on ferry ride across Storsjön Lake. It was a school organized adventure with the destination being an island named Verkön Island, about 90 minutes from Östersund.

The island, which is fairly small, was once owned by a family who built a mansion on it in the late 1800's. It has since then changed ownership and neighbouring islands use it for cattle grazing in the summer.

The views of the surrounding islands and distant mountains were beautiful from the boat.

The ride to the island was really cold as it was windy and overcast so there was no sun to keep us warm. On the island, Hella and I decided to have lunch in the mansion, which has now been converted to a hostel. We only had 1.5 hours on the island and the process of lunch took longer than expected, meaning we did not have much of an opportunity to look around as would have liked (I think it ended up to be 15 minutes)... besides the trees and cow manure I don't think we missed much...although there was a viewing tower that, I am told, allowed you to see far into the surrounding area.



Photo Album: Views from Storsjön Lake

Saturday morning...

Saturday morning...

I had to laugh as I went out the door to start my day: someone had stolen my bicycle, my locked bicycle. I am irritated that I have to go out and purchase a new bicycle but I still find the situation funny, this is why:

Imagine walking into an electonics/TV store. The salesperson who greets you informs you that it is your lucky day and you can choose anything in the store and take it home with you at no charge--
and you choose the 1950's black and white TV that needs rabbit ears to get any sort of reception instead of the wide screen high definition/resolution plasma TV.

This person should have looked at his options alittle more carefully before selecting mine to steal-- if you are going to put the effort into stealing something, then shouldn't you want the best for your labour?

My bicycle, excuse my french, was a piece of shit.
The pedals have fallen off, the seat was painful to sit on and the brakes squeeked so loud when applied that I was embarressed to brake---which made stopping a challenge.

In looking around at the selection of bicycles that morning there was a good selection--nice trek mountain bikes, fairly new road bikes--some of them weren't even locked up! Thankfully I had not changed the seat to a more comfortable one I had just purchased the day before.

The running joke in the campsite is that my bike will be returned to me with a note saying that the hardness of the seat was too much...ie. their ass hurt and could not ride the bike...serves him right.

Ancient Rock Carvings at Glösa

On Thursday, my class as well as the undergraduate class went on a field trip to see ancient rock carvings. The location was just outside of town, about 45 minutes drive at a place Glösa.

We learned about the indigenous people ofSweden, the Sumi and how they lived before technology arrived. Some of the demonstrators actually dressed up in traditional clothing made of elk skins.

There were hands on demonstrations with the weapons-- bow and arrow and spear. The spear really impress me because there was a twist to it: they had added a extension that was held in the hand and on the follow-through of the throw pushed the spear to add distance, speed and power.

We were shown different ways to start a fire-- and got an opportunity to try. I don't think any one who participated was able to create fire.

A food demonstration of salmon was also done. The whole fish (minus the head) was sliced in half and had pine needles and other herbs from the forest placed inside and then was wrapped in birch bark and placed in a hole dug in the ground. Around the fish were placed hot rocks from the fire. It was then covered with dirt and left for an hour to cook. In the end we were able to taste it...it tasted like...salmon...

It was a bitterly cold day. The entire day was spent outside or in a log cabin that was heated by a fire pit. This day made me realize that I need to search for some long-johns.

Swedish Horse Racing

Tuesday night in Östersund is Horse Racing. Chariot horse racing is very popular in Sweden and most larger urban areas have a track and a designated night of the week for racing.



Last night I decided to go see what it was all about. I was charged 40kr to enter into the stadium (which I think is about $6) . Inside the stadium were various buildings where the gamblers could keep warm while watching the races. There were about 15 horses in the race and they raced into the night. I was there for the second, third and fourth races which was about 7pm, and when I went to bed around 11pm I could still hear the announcer.

The racing is so popular here that it could be said that you know it is cold-- when the Swedes cancel the horse races. The temperature must be below -27 degrees C before any horse race is cancelled.

Hopefully this winter there is no chance of that happening.

Huset

My first European Club experience was on Saturday. I went to a bar called Huset (English translation: The House). It was a fair size techno-bar. From the pictures it might look larger than it really is...I think it might be comparable in size to The Drink Nightclub.

Partway through the night there was a popular Swedish band on
stage, who sang renditions of Bon Jovi, as well as the popular Swedish songs. They were a lot of fun and the crowd really got into the songs which where possibly Swedish folk songs...everyone knew the words anyways.




This is Josephine and Ida (pronounced eeda, brunette). Ida is one of the Swedish mentors. Josephine is a first year Swedish student in the same program as myself.




Me, Miki and Åsa.

Frösön Island

I finally made it over to the Island. There is a small ski slope there which I think might be comparible to the Boler Bump, although slightly bigger. The big mountains are about an hour drive away at Åre (to the West of Östersund).

Check out the photos I took...found in the links.

Commuting through town just became easier

After 3 days of walking in to town and then back out again plus with my morning run my body was really sore and so i started looking for a bike. The studentbo (the organization that set me up with my housing) helped me out by showing me where a second hand store that sold bicycles was. I was able to get a 10 speed for less than 50 dollars. I had to do some adjusting to make the seat more comfortable though.

It is making the trek into town much more enjoyable...I might even venture to the island one of these days...I was procrastinating without the bike because the walk is so drastically long, I did not think I would make it home.

Sorry Ryan...not a mountain bike, this was the only option in that it fit me. The rest were too small. But already I have had problems with it-- for example yesterday on my ride to school the pedal fell off. But I have made friends with the owner of a local bike shop...well I don't know if 'friends' is the appropriate term...when he sees me come in he immediately goes to the back of the shop and pulls out his tools (he knows I am having problems). I have offered to do the labour and just borrow his tools but he ignores my request and does it for me....

...I think that one of these days I am going to have to go and buy a shirt from him.

Autumn has arrived.

Another week has gone by and summer I think is over here in Sweden. The trees are starting to turn colour, pine needles are scattered on the pathways. The weather has changed from my first week, it is now cold and windy everyday and it has rained pretty much every day this week. Sweaters and jackets are a necessity now.

The first week of school is done. It will be interesting; very thought provoking. Today's lecture focused on the general layout of earth-- biomes, ecological cycles, matter and energy, laws of thermodynamics-- a review of basic biology, geology and physics-- giving a visual perspective on how the world works as a whole, how different cycles contribute to making life sustainable on earth. A glimpse of how human life has interacted with these natural cycles and the effects (negative and positive) of this interaction was seen. Over the next few lectures I'm sure we will delve deeper into this topic.

Lectures are longer than what I am used to, so it is taking abit of concentration to keep focused on the conversation. I will adjust though-- we do get 20 minute coffee breaks at the mid point which helps a lot.

This week, being the first for school has been somewhat of a 'frosh' week. There have been a lot of activities and parties through out. Yesterday was a games day held on the grass--games like tug of war, obstacle races, very simple team participation games whích were alot of fun. Wednesday night was a small department party (20 people or so) where more icebreaker games were played as well as name memorizing type games. We ended up going to the bars afterwards.


They are expensive. At the bar, beer cost around 48kr ($7.25 approximately). Only the wealthy frequent the bar scene here. Beer ranges in alcoholic percentage as well: 2.8%, 5.5% or 7.2%. You have to be really specific when ordering or careful when buying or else you will end up with the 2.8%.........which is near-beer. Liquor stores carry a large variety of alcohol at reasonable prices. They are abit more expensive than in Canada but still fall in what I would call a reasonable range....so my alcohol consumption has not been dampered by any means.

The Pool

So I went swimming for the first time yesterday. The pool is right next door to the camping site...very convenient.

It is a beautiful pool. Aside from the 25m, 6 lane pool there is meandering rivers of chlorinated water with bridges and deep pools for diving, rock gardens and slide (fully covered, like you would find at a water park). This is a kids swimming haven. I now understand why swimming is expensive here...if you are not a student.

I bought a pass: 12 swims for 300kr, which works out to be about $3.75 per swim...not bad. I think that I will be swimming a lot this winter.

Pictures

I have added pictures to the first two posts at the bottom of the page...as well have added more to the photo albums.

We had our first actual lecture today and it was rather interseting. Inga (the professor) talked to us about the earth, its population and how it effects the environment. She included factors that affect population and population control and how these have changed over the last 1000 years or so-- so that we could have an understanding of the effects of our actions and the rate at which our society is growing on the environment. It gives you..me..the chance to think about how society needs to change in order to support the continual growth of its population because there will come a time when the earth will not be able to support its population if things don't change drastically.....
....very interesting.

It is dinner time and I am famished. I will do abit more tomorrow.

First week of School

Last night the swedish student mentors (who are students offering to help the international ones get around) organized a barbeque for my class so that we could get to know each other. It was an enjoyable time. There were many icebreakers that allowed us to learn the names of everyone and abit about them. Then we played a game of baseball--although the swedish style of baseball makes the game alittle simpler than the american syle.

Everyone is really friendly. I am one of three girls and now one of four caucasions--the class has grown in size since yesterday and there are now 14 people enrolled. Two are from Bangledesh, two from sweden, one from canada (me) and the rest are from africa.

Class is beginning to cut into my free time...which I have been thoroughly enjoying. I am no longer able to aimlessly meander throught the cobblestone streets of the town centre looking at the shops and I miss it. I really enjoyed looking at the stuff...

I decided to try on afew clothes in the department store and found that I did not like anything that I tried on. Perhaps it is the style in sweden that I am not used to. This is probably a good thing because I won't be tempted to buy things that I don't need...such as more clothes. I have boxes and boxes of clothes at home.

Grocery shoping here is easy. There are supermarkets all over the downtown core. I think I have walked through at least 6, but I know there are more. I have figured out what most things are, the words are similar...ie. milk is mijko or something like that; pictures on the packages are a great help. As for cost, I think things are fairly similar to Canada...when I convert to canadian dollars the cost seems reasonable.

For the first few days i was the only one on the campsite but i have met afew more people since then. Ivonne from germany, who is in her second year in the same program, Wanton from China, who is also in his second year and Madjeck from Poland..who was just here for a week writing exams. Now that school has started, I have met alot more people. My class has 11 people in it and about 60% are from africa...nigeria, ghana, zimbabwe...I am in the minority being caucasion (one of two).

What is seen is not all to be seen.

The observed is sometimes not reality.

Today I was really suprised. I went into the drugstore today and was wandering around when I came to the back door. So I went through it to find myself on the top floor of an underground 3 storey mall. Never would you have thought, from the outside of the drugstore, that this building housed such a thing. And the funny part is that because everything is on a hill, the second floor was a street level to the otherside of the block.

There is more to this town than what meets they eye. I wonder what more is hidden from the unexpecting eye....

Observations of Ostersund.

Ostersund is a beautiful town located on a hillside adjacent to a lake. Everyone can speak abit of english- so it is fairly easy to get around and get assistance when needed.

The houses remind me of barns: brightly painted and full of windows. Each house is a different colour- red, blue, green, pastel yellow, mustard yellow, cream, salmon, pink, and the list goes on and on. They are very co-ordinated aswell-- the picket fences match the house colour.

There are parks everywhere you turn. Some are large and some are small, all with benches, waterfalls, pathways & kids playgrounds. The whole atmosphere here is very naturalistic, with garbage cans located sparatically around town as well as in the vast trails outside of town.

Bicycles and walking are a part of life here and are well integrated into the road system. On bothsides of the road are pathways which are as wide one road lane that house the bike path and sidewalk.

Off the main roads are small one way streets; very european looking. Pedestrians rule the roost here. They do not look before crossing; they just cross--it is up to the drivers to anticipate and stop. Sometimes they, if they realize you are waiting to cross, will stop and let you. Other times if you do not just go...and hope that they will stop...you will never get across. Everything is a mode of transportation here, aside from the automobile-- from bicycles to dirtbike to motorcycles, scooters and I even saw a ATV 4 wheeler on the road this morning.

As for the cost of living...I thought it was going to be really expensive, but it seems (if I am converting correctly) that it is somewhat reasonable to Canada. There are afew things, such as household items that seem rather expensive. I have learnt that there are three ways to indicate monetary value:
SEK400
400kr
400:-

The krona is difficult to adjust to. It is like paying for everything in pennies. The numbers can get very high, which, if you don't convert, may seem really expensive. For example my rent is 1985kr which is about 300CND- not bad.

Cabin in the Woods

My housing is located just outside of town about 3km walk from the downtown. It is a single room cabin in amongst many others in the Ostersund Campsite.

The campsite is not really a campsite but meerly a place for tourists to rent a room for a relatively cheap price. Per month I pay about 300 CDN.


There are about 150 cabins in the camping site set up in a 'multiplex' setting. Everything is supplied from water to heating, cutlery, plates and furniture. The beds are bunk beds and I have two sets, which can be folded up at attached to the wall when not in use.


The mattresses are not comfortable as they are foam...but they will do for now. The cabin is small, but quaint. I have a kitchen table, desk, chest of drawers and shelves as well as a kitchen which is the same size as the one I left on Princess Ave: SMALL.