The Final Post

Today is my last full day in Stockholm.  It's hard to believe that this time tomorrow I'll be on a plane heading back to America.  I've had a wonderful time in Sweden.  I'm going to miss all the friends I've made here.  I'm also going to miss living next door to a forest preserve and a beach, and this city in general.  Stockholm is my favorite city that I've been to (though I haven't been to many).  I won't miss sharing my kitchen with strangers.

Only packing and a 9 hour plane ride until I am home for the rest of the summer.  I can't wait to see all my friends and family back home!

Svalbard Synopsis

Hey guys!  So since it's been over a week since I was in Svalbard, I figured it was about time to write about it.  I probably can't give a good overview of it anymore, so you can check out this blog: http://eucenterillinois-abroad.blogspot.se/ instead.  This is where people from my class post about each day, so they're really detailed.  You'll have to sort through some other guy's blog too, but most of the posts are from us.  My favorite part of the trip was probably the glacier hike (shown on the right), even though I loved it all!  I'm planning on going back to the Arctic when I retire so that I can see an actual polar bear.

Since we got back, I've pretty much just been relaxing since Svalbard was so intense.  We have to write papers in groups of 3 that are 7000-7500 words.  I finished my part at about 2,200 words a couple days ago, so I'm free of that until we write the conclusion.  On Wednesday, a group of us went to Drottningholm, the palace where the royal family actually lives when they are in Stockholm.  We didn't pay to get a tour of the inside, but the grounds were HUGE so there was lots to look at for free.  It was a very beautiful place and I would imagine it would be a nice place to live except for the crazy amounts of tourists.  I wonder what it was like there before the tourists...Here's a picture of me in the garden at Drottningholm.

Yesterday I was going to head for Barcelona for the remainder of the trip, but unfortunately my travel buddy got really sick, and we ended up not going.  I guess I'll just have to come back to Europe another time!  For now, I'm enjoying the time that I have left with the people who are still here.  Today we are planning on going to see the Olympic Stadium from the 1912 Olympics, find a beach in the city, and then watch the opening ceremony later tonight.

Last 10 Days and I'm about to leave!

So much has happened in the last 10 days, so I'll do a quick list and then elaborate on anything especially exciting.  You can also look at the pictures can be seen on my facebook, and I give you props if you make it through all of my excessive pictures.

• Natural History Museum
• Out with Sofia

A few of us went with Sofia, a Swedish girl in our class, to a restaurant/bar just outside of Stockholm's city center.  It was a really nice place where you could sit outside and get a view of Gamla Stan and the rest of the city.  I got some great pictures of the "sunset"

• Indian Buffet
• Skeppsholmen/Kastellholmen

These last two were done on the same day.  The Indian Buffet was in a really tiny building in Gamla Stan, so to conserve space they had the food in drawers in a heating cabinet.  It was really strange, but the food was good.  Afterwards we went for a walk on Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen, a couple of small islands next to Gamla Stan.  Kastellholmen has a small castle-type building and was originally used as a military base, but now the two islands just have museums.

• City Hall

Stockholm's City Hall is AMAZING.  They have the dinner for the Nobel Prize presentations here.  There is a room that is entirely covered with 23.5 karat gold.  It took 10 kg to cover the room with the mosaic pieces.   There was a lot of symbolism in the building too, such as the three chandeliers in the "Tre Kronor" room.  The word for chandelier is the same as the word for crown (kronor) in Swedish, and the Three Crowns is a symbol of Sweden.

• Nordic Museum
• Ice Bar

This is a MUST for any tourist of Stockholm.  This bar is entirely made of ice, even your cups!  They give you a coat and gloves to wear, and you stay in the bar for about an hour, which is plenty because it's cold!  Every year the Ice Bar is rebuilt with ice form northern Sweden.

• Djurgarden

Derek, Noel, and I went for an innocent walk around Djurgarden, a HUGE park/forest right in the city of Stockholm.  Djurgarden used to be the royal hunting grounds, but is now just a park.  We ended up walking for almost 5 hours because we wandered almost to the end of the island, but we saw a lot of cool things along the way.  We found the most AMAZING playground ever, were practically able to touch a swan, and saw some hot air balloons take off.  We ended our walk with a run to Gamla Stan for delicious ice cream. 

• Uppsala

9 of us took a day trip to Uppsala, Sweden.  Here we saw Uppsala Cathedral, Uppsala University, the Silver Bible, botanical gardens, Uppsala Slott, and Gamla Uppsala.  Everything was so beautiful.  In Gamla Uppsala we saw the burial mounds, where people (probably ancient kings) were buried in huge mounds in the earth, kind of like a pyramid, but way simpler.  There was also the old church, which used to be the main church of Uppsala.  I liked it because it was like a mini version of the Cathedral.  There was also an old-style graveyard around the church. We were lucky because while we were in the Cathedral, a brass quintet was performing, and in the old church they were practicing the organ.  I took videos of both, so you should go check it out.

I guess I sort of talked about everything that's happened anyway, haha.  Tomorrow we leave for Svalbard/Spitsbergen.  I'm so excited!!!! It will be a long day of travelling because we have to take 3 flights and there's a long layover for one of them, but it will be so worth it to get this chance to go to the Arctic circle.  I just wish I didn't have to write a paper when I got back :(.