Scandanavian Adventures

We didn't visit these countries at the same time but it made sense to put them together :)

Oslo harbour - view from Fram museum

Saturday 16.1.10
After just a few hours of sleep we dragged ourselves out to Kates car for the rather sleepy trip to Stanstead airport. One uneventful flight later we found ourselves in a winter wonderland. We'd had plenty of snow in London but it would always melt after a few days. This snow was deep, and not going anywhere!
After finding our hostel and dropping our bags we headed straight for elegant Vigeland Park. The Park has a broad tree lined field leading to a long bridge and promenade lined with statues of entwined lovers, screaming toddlers and attentive fathers. This all culminates in a big obelisk on top of the hill, the obelisk itself is a statue made up of entwined human bodies. We had fun walking through the deep snow, having snowball fights and making snow angels. Norwegian families were happily skiing through the park and down some of the longer slopes. Children in Norway are cute, all rugged up in their one-piece ski suits, with ruddy cheeks and they all seem to have a little birdsnest in the back of their blond hair- adorable!


Me in the Park
Looks like trouble...
Innocent Kate
Or is she??
Kate & TJ gang up on Nick


Bullseye!
Two little Aussies
Making snow angels


Crazy ducks swimming in the only non frozen bit of the stream
The Gates to Vigeland Park.

After getting thoroughly wet and cold we all got on the tram, Nick and I got off at a design shopping mall (all shops dedicated to design!) and Kate and TJ stayed on to see the Nobel Peace Prize centre. We checked out the shopping centre for a while, enjoyed some live music, then walked down the hill to check out the Nobel Peace prize centre and catch up with Kate and TJ. After a look around we all headed back to the hostel to thaw out and put on dry socks. It was late afternoon by now so we chilled out for a while before heading out for dinner. We spoke to the hostel owner and asked for a local food spot- we didn't want a touristy restaurant or anything, he suggested what the locals call a brown cafe... basically a cafe that serves alcohol and pub grub- sounded good to us! We found the place fine and had some delicious dinner (nick and I had fish) and enjoyed some local brew. After dinner we headed over to the beautiful opera house to check it out...... Kate, TJ and I amused ourselves by sliding on our feet down the frozen slope of the roof where it meets the ground.

Dinner- delish!

Nick and the Oslo opera house

Sunday 17.1.10

Once we dragged ourselves out of bed (very hard when its dark outside!) we headed over to see the Polar Ship Fram. The bus dropped us about 1km from the museum so we had a nice snowy walk down some pretty streets before we got the the museum itself. The museum wasn't heated at all (or insulated it seems) so it was one of the coldest museums I've ever been in but it was worth it! SO interesting, had heaps of info on Polar exploration especially the trips done by the Fram, and the explorer Nansen. Highly reccomended if anyone goes to Oslo! Nick had to leave from here because he is off for two days in Amsterdam on his own (hence I doubt there will be an Amsterdam blog), and I stayed with TJ & Kate.
We made our way back into the city and wandered around the historical area which has the castle, the University and the main pedestrian road through the middle of everything. We went to the Nowegian National Gallery which I totally loved. As well as Munch's 'The Scream', there were loads of other artists which I'd never heard of that were really good! We had a big lunch and then headed off to look for 'brown cheese' which TJ couldn't leave Norway without. We found a supermarket in the train station and stocked up on Norwegian cheese, chocolate and hot chocolate to take home with us, then headed off to catch our plane!

Sweden!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Swedish road.
Thursday 1st April 2010

We had an early-ish flight from standsted airport, decided on the train (over the cheaper but longer bus) and it was really quick! We arrived at the airport in Sweden and walked to the local bustop. On the way about 1,000 Volvo's passed us and when we stopped into Macca's to ask for directions Abba was playing- oh and there was an Ikea next to the bustop! So Swedish! Plus all the people we spoke to were so friendly.
We caught the bus to Uppsala and Christopher, Nick's Swedish cousin, picked us up at the station. We drove to his place which is about 30 mins from Uppsala, in a smaller town called Knivsta- literally translated Knife Town!!



Chris' House
He has this great little farm, an old farm house (renovated) from the 1920's, a sauna, a pool and a little summer house (1 room with a balcony), he has all this land in front of his property with beautiful forests at the edges & two gorgeous cats Teddy and Alicia. Lovely!
After a little while we headed out to meet another one of Nick's cousins' Tobias. We met Tobias' girlfiend (who is pregnant- due in July) and met his two cats. While we were there another Aussie guy called Mike came over (their cousins from their Dad's side) he was also from Coffs Harbour and his aussie accent was so strong! He's been in Sweden for ages... more proof for my theory that our accent is very hard to shake!

Uppsala

Friday 2nd April 2010
Today we headed to Uppsala on the bus, the bus driver was really friendly and wouldn't let us pay! Once in Uppsala lots of things were closed because it was Easter Friday but we headed straight for the two famous sights- the church and the castle. The church was really beautiful and there were choir singers practising while we were there which was really lovely, the castle was nothing special close up- it was more impressive when you see it from the town below. The centre of Uppsala is really pretty with beautiful buildings and a fast flowing river that runs through town. Chirstopher told us that at the end of April Uppsala has a boat race down the river, everyone makes their own boats which makes for some pretty spectacular crashes and boats sinking. By this time it was past lunch time so we thought we should eat something. We went to a lively looking restaurant which had awesome food! I got a Spanish salad (truly delicious) and Nick got a local dish, fried Herring with potato mash and lingam berries, he said it was one of the best meals of the whole trip.
Back at Chris's in the evening Anthony (another cousin), his flatmate Jonas and two of Chris's other friends came over for a traditional Swedish easter dinner. We had Potatoes, Salmon, Meatballs, Sausage, Eggs with mayo and prawns, pickled fish (Sil - rollmops in Aus), this crispy swedish bread (which is a bit like Ryvita) with cheese on it and lots and lots of Schnapps! And lots of singing Swedish songs! It was really hilarious.


Anthony & Jonas

Saturday 3rd April 2010
Stockholm! Headed into Stockholm in the morning and went straight to the old town to check it out. Stockholm is a really beautiful city with loads of little islands all joined by bridges making up the majority of the city. As we walked up to the castle there was a big military parade and a marching band, it was really cool (the marching band), the Army/ guards looked funny because they didn't have to have short hair so some guys had long blonde hair coming out of their hats. After a bit more wandering we headed down to the waters edge and walked over to the next island. We had a look at the Architecture & Modern art Museum and then headed along the water for about 30 mins to yet another island to see the Vassa museum- all along the water front the Swedes were out enjoying the warm weather. Several times we saw people just standing in the sun with their eyes closed soaking it in, saying hello to an old friend who'd been away for some time.

Models of the Vassa
The Vassa is a 16th century boat that sunk on its maiden voyage (a la Titantic), but in the 50's someone found it in Stockholm harbour, refloated it, and restored it really well. The boat is huge! It was very impressive when you first walk in and totally worth the Scandanavian sized entry fee. We saw a movie hat explained why it was built, why it sunk and how it was restored. After a while we headed back towards the centre of town, looked at some shops and bought a couple things. Then we caught the train back to Knivsta and Chris picked us up at the train station. We had dinner with Chris and went to sleep early.

Sunset in Stockholm

The waterfront in Stockholm

Cini's in Stockholm Downtown Knivsta at dusk
Chris whipping us up some dinner.

Sunday 4th April 2010
Today was pretty quiet, spent the morning hanging out at Christophers then Anthony and Tobias picked us up and we went off to visit Monique (another cousin!) who was sick in hospital. We spent about 2 hours talking with her which was really nice. Afterwards the guys took us to dinner in Swedish Chinese restaurant, which was pretty much the same as an Australian Chinese restaurant!! That evening we hung out at Anthonys.

Nick, Annette and Chris eating breakfast.Lunch at Ikea- Gravadlax & Meatballs...

Monday 5th April 2010
This morning we had Breakfast with Chris, his friend Annette and his dad Anders. After breakfast we left for Stockholm again, went to the Ikea mothership (biggest Ikea in Stockholm) and had an Ikea lunch (I had swedish meatballs and Nick had gravadlax). Then we went back to see a little more of the old town and wandered around exploring the little streets. At 5 we went to catch the bus to the airport hotel (which is only 50m from the airport)- had dinner and went to bed early!