Making jam...

At my grandfathers right now. Beautiful fall drive in from St. John's and arrived yesterday.


Before I came down I had asked him to keep his ear open for anyone selling partridge berry jam at the church or on the highway. Instead, when I arrived, I was presented with a gallon of partridge berries and blueberries to make my own! What a guy... I've never made jam before nor have any real idea of how to guess it.


I assumed it was similar to cranberry sauce. Pretty close - no added water and less sugar. Now I say less sugar based on granddads research; uncle David uses 2.5c sugar for four gallons, or 1c for one gallon. I chose to make mine with 2.5c with once gallon... Sweet jam and partridge berries can be tart! I spent the afternoon in the kitchen with his propane stove and jam bubbles popping everywhere and scalding my arms (oven mitts only go so far). But I managed to bottle them and they sealed, five and a half bottles!


Everyone I know is getting a bottle now cause I know dad will be rotted.

Location:Granddads - Norris Arm

Last weekend in Sweden!

Well, its my last weekend in Sweden. *tear.
Andreas came into town for it and promised to teach me how to make Swedish Meatballs. Deadly! Though sadly there isn't really a secret to them, its more so how you eat them.

We spent all afternoon making them, rolling and frying them. I'm getting really good at flipping them in the fry pan now too.
Meat balls for everyone when I get home!
Then that evening we went to see ÖSK (the football team) play against the number one ranked Helsingborg. The game was actually fantastic! Örebro destroyed them 3-0 not to mention three other goals that were not allowed cause the ref called them offside, though they definitely counted!
That night we went to a party with some of Andreas's friends, and Cailan and I spent our last Saturday partying like Swedes... not a good thing. Andreas got this crazy pizza, bacon and egg pizza. They put the weirdest stuff on their pizza here.
This morning we got to have even more Swedish food - Swedish pancakes, which are crepes, but cooked with bacon in them and then covered in blueberry sauce. So good.

I cant believe that I've been here for five months now, its gone by so quickly... oh well. Time to return home to the real world...

Goodbye Berlin

Well Joey has returned to Canada, and I to Sweden, after spending an overcast week in Berlin. It was fun! 

Joey was in his element, being a passionate World War Two geek, and I because of the delicious Weiße beers! 
We scoped out a lot of WW2 sites, saw bombed out churches, bullet riddled walls, locations of propaganda offices and the terrors of the SS and SA. We went on a specific Third Reich tour one day and went to the offices of Colonel Claus Von Stauffenber, where he planned Operation Valkyrie. That was cool cause they left the Third Reich ministry floors in, and they are decorated, inconspicuously with swastikas. 
Personally, I like the communist history; I followed the former Berlin wall, Joey got soviet stamps in his passport, laughed at the people getting their photos taken with pretend US Army guards at Check Point Charlie and observed another cloudy skyline of Berlin from the Reichstag Dome. 
The history aspect of Berlin is fascinating!

We also indulged in the south German tradition of Brauhaus and sausages! Interestingly enough when we were at one brauhaus, we stumbled upon Sony Entertainment setting up for the German premiere of the film SALT, with Angelina Jolie, and we ended up seeing her walk by!

But back to the beers! They have such in interesting concept of beers there, not only the Weiße beers which are zingy and thick. But what they combine them with! Lindenbrau, the one we frequented the most, offered their beers mixed with so many different juices! Mango, raspberry, apple, cherry and many others! And also with coke, like the Germans from our sailing trip in Croatia. My favourite was beer and grapefruit!
Then there was the currywurst! Mmm delicious, but I think just the standard brautwurst was my favourite of the sausage selection (really a southern German thing, not so popular in Berlin)


Ive now returned to Sweden for nine more days, time to pack up!

Kiel.

Well today was an interesting day... I left Joey and travelled north to Kiel, via Hamburg, on the Baltic Sea.
Why? One might ask...
An insight into some family history; I have a great-uncle who was killed in action during the Second World War and is burried there. From what I could find on the internet before this little day trip was that he was a flight engineer for the RCAF. In 1942 he was part of a fleet of 24 Halifax bombers that were attacking the Kiel-Flensbourg U-boat docks. Sadly only 12 of the 24 planes returned to the UK, my great uncle's being one of the MIA.
The trip was long and it was raining cats and dogs when I got to Hamburg, so obviously I was questioning this decision to go. And in all honesty I wasn't sure why I was going... But the skies cleared when I arrived in Kiel. Took me a while to figure out what bus to take there, but the tourist bureau was super helpful! Soo I managed to find the War Cemetery, which was actually not just the Commenwelth Cemetery like I'd thought. I actually got lost cause it is huge. The first part I walked through was German war graves from the First World War. The average age was 18. Astonishing. After I wandered that for a while, realizing I was totally in the wrong place, I walked the other direction and ended up in the German Second World War Graves, but I could see the Common Wealth ones on the otherside of a hedge... Finally I found the entrance.
Very different 'look' and smaller than I had imagined in my mind. I knew his plot number before arriving, so that made it easier than walking row by row to find it. Though it was so much smaller that I had anticipated that it wouldn't have mattered. It was a shockingly intense experience. I am so emotional. I brought flowers, but his stone was surrounded by them that you couldn't even tell I had added some! It was so... I don't know. Their ages were so young, most under 23 - younger than me, same age as Patrick. I can't imagin him doing that... I'm still shocked at how I reacted. I had absolutly no connection to him, other than he was nana's brother... Regardless I'm glad I went, regardless that I have no connection to him, unlike others who are visiting their fathers or known relatives. It feels like something I needed to do.

Location:Berlin

Berlin, baby!

Well joey and I made it to Berlin! We spent Thursday and Friday touring Stockholm, where we had fantastic weather! We checked out the Vasa Museet which was awesome; it's a salvaged and completely reconstructed boat that sank in 1628. Only minutes after setting sail cause it was top heavy. I amazed Joey by explaining that they probably used PEG to help with the preservation, after learning all about PEG from work. Then later we found a panel explaining how they used PEG! I felt like my education paid off with that one. Friday was my friend Andreas' birthday so we went out for that, super fun, ended up at one point at a makeshift bar under an overpass. Fun! Saturday we arrived in dreary Berlin and walked around all evening. Joey bursting with excitement because he's a huge WW2 geek, so is in his element here. It was kinda chilly and we were both pretty drained from the night before so returned to the hostel for weisse sausages and mustard. Today was a looong day. We did a concentration camp tour. Sachsenhausen. Though I have to admit it didn't floor me like when I visited Dachau? Am I desensitized since I already visited one? This one I felt was not a gripping either... I'm gonna go with it was the tour girls fault? I really can't explain it... Not sure what we'll get at tomorrow? See how long it takes to go to Kiel?

Location:Berlin

Joeys here

Well Joey's come to visit! 

We didnt make it to Gotland after all. Instead we came back to Orebro. Hung out here for the weekend around the castle. On monday Joe and I headed west to Gothenburg for a couple days. Hit up an amusement park and are bound for Stockholm tomorrow!

Always on the go

Well I returned to Örebro for two days so I could do laundry (washing your clothes in the sink gets old fast), drop off everything that Cailan and I accumulated during our past month and so I could meet Joey in Stockholm today!
Sweden is so cold compared to where we've been, and overcast and just generally unpleasant. Blah. I' heading into Stockholm after lunch to meet Cailan and then go for supper with a couple of our friends who live there. Joey gets in later tonight and after he gets in we'll probably go out...
Then tomorrow we're going to Gotland for a few days. Haha this is where everything gets hazy. Cailan dosen't like to plan a head, and well, I'm anal and need to be super organized, at least organized in my head. So, we're heading there with no where to stay. In our past experiences, that generally means we pay more than expected... I guess we'll figure it out when we get there, and then we don't know when we are leaving yet either. Cailan has to be back here in Örebro for the 10th. I really hope going there isn't a bust. I wish we had planned something, even if it was just renting bikes. Oh well.
After Gotland Im not sure what Joey and I will get at. Örebro seems to lame to bring him here, but the idea of three days in Stockholm isn't appealing either. Silly Sweden.
Then it's off to Berlin! Joey was in charge of planning that... but I dont think he did either. ugh. All I know is that I am going to Kiel at some point, whether it be after he leaves or with him I'm not sure. My nana's brother is burried there from the war and I want to go check it out.

Hopefully these next two weeks are fun!

Photo time

http://picasaweb.google.com/Sarahpeyt/TravelPhotos?feat=directlink

I've added a few photos from Croatia. Ill get the rest up when I return from Götland and Berlin - Cailan has quite a few on her camera that I want.

Heading home

Well I relunctantly left Budapest and made my way to Bratislava all by my alone - cailan stayed in Budapest with Ellie. It's sad to think my hot summer vacation is over! I scoped out the weather in Sweden and it's in the low 20's and raining all week. Noooo! We've only had rain once and nothing below 25! I'm gonna freeze. And my tan will be gone before I make it back to Canada. On a plus, my friend Joey's coming to visit us on Thursday (why cailan and I are leaving the hot south). Should be fun, were going to the island of götland for a few days and then dick around Sweden. Fingers crossed that the swelling in my foot goes so I can wear shoes and not these aweful flipflops that have ripped my toes. Bye bye southern Europe :(

Location:Bratislava

Chess!

So, Im not sure about the history of chess, but it's all the rage here in Budapest. Did it originate around here?
We went to the thermal baths yesterday and there were old men playing chess everywhere... on tables by the bar, on tables by the pools and on the ledges of the pool while floating in the water.
Then at the train station today there were men lined up along the banisters and railings playing chess. If they weren't actually playing, then a guy would just be standing/leaning against the rail with his chess board (checkered cardboard or a flat laminate paper rather than an actual 'board') set up waiting for someone to come over and challenge them?
I wonder if they play for money, or simply just to play... I cant really picture them as chess hustlers, but maybe they are!
I should have challenged someone!

Ah Budapest!

Well we made it to Budapest, and I think I have permenantly damaged my foot... We travelled from Zagreb with two girls we met in the hostel. 7 hours on a train, blah, but I got two new stamps in my passport! Coming back here reaffirmed my adoration for this city. Its beautiful ! I could just walk around for hours here (cept for my stupid foot). It's so... I can't even describe it, but I could definitly live here. We spent the morning at a huge market, which was divided into meats, veggies, home made linnens and embroidered things and the eating places. Very intriguing. We met up with our two new friends Cathy and Ellie and made our way to the National History Museum. I really wanted to go, and warned the girls in advance that they probably wouldn't be interested with it... But they all said they were. They ended up staying only to the iron age of Hungary's history then left. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the Pest side of town. Sadly my foot is in agony and I came home, whereas they all went to see Inception tonight. Hopefully my foot will heal!!!!

Location:Budapest, Hungary

Good bye tan

Well it's finally time to leave the beach... After pretty much an entire month on the coast, we're heading north. Sad day.
We're making our way to Zagreb today where we'll spend the night and then mosey on to Budapest tomorrow for the weekend.
I'm excited to go back to Budapest, that was one of my favourite cities last time, and I feel like I missed a lot.
The only bad thing is my foot. Still kills and I wish I could find a tensor somewhere - no luck. So Budapest and Zagreb will be fustraiting with this stupid limp. I'm sorta worried that because I'm walking so much on it that it will actually never heal! Eep!
It's also supposed to rain all weekend in Budapest. Ugh. Fingers crossed for not.

Happy Birthday Mother!

Happy birthday mother! 

Back in Croatia

Well, we just can't seem to get enough of this country!
We've returned again after leaving Bosnia.
We spent the past couple days in the Plitvice Lakes National Park where I got hit hard with karma :( Last time I was here Kelty and I missed going through a slight misunderstanding... and I guess I wasnt supposed to return with out her.  As we were boarding the bus to go to the park from Bihać, I rolled my ankle off the curb of the side walk. Frick. Then when we arrived at the bus stop I had to limp the 8km walk along the side of the highway to the little village we were staying in. Upon arrival my foot was all green and swollen! Gross.  Then that night we decided to bike to this look out point which we had been told about. Awesom! Cept the bike I was on's chain broke and we had to walk part of the way, or should I say limp?
The next day I was determined to make it to the park, we managed to get a ride to the entrance and as we entered and made it to the first lookout.... I realized I forgot my camera! SERIOUSLY!
The hike was nice and pretty and spectacular and I limped like an old lady the whole way.
Then yesterday as we were planning on heading north to Budapest and Poland... we at the last minute decided to come back to the shore to revive our tans and we are now in Zadar until the end of next week until we fly out of Bratislava back to Sweden.

Bosne Hercegovine

Well time for a more detailed update...
Cailan and I left Dubrovnik on Friday, bound for Mostar in Hercegovina. What an amazing drive. So mountainous! And arid. I need to find out what the mountain range through here is.
Anyways Mostar was intriguing. It was the front line between Bosnian and Croatian armies. There are destroyed buildings all throughout Mostar, acording to the owner of where we stayed, there isn't enough money to tear them down and rebuild so they are just everywhere. Except in the old town. Which was completely reconstructed. It was super pretty, and it blows my mind how similar it is to Turkey! The bazars and markets sell all the same things!!
Then we bused on up to Sarajevo.
Holy crap, did I feel ignorant. I really have no grasp of world history after 1990....
My only image of Sarajevo in my mind was from a documentary-tv special I saw of all the figure skaters who medaled at the 84 olympics returning in 1995 to see their arena. Other than that, and sending winter clothes to children I had no real idea what was on the go during the Balkan war... Just that afterwards there were new countries.
We stayed in the old town and admired mosques... But being around +32 I had no desire to cover myself up. We saw buildings riddled with bullet holes and 'sarajevo roses' which are the mortar shell impacts on the roads and sidewalks, which apparently resemble roses.
Being so similar to Turkey, we went to a hookah bar or narghile bar. Ate traditional BiH food which is delicious! Listened to the imams call to prayers from all the mosques, and had our spirits read and decifered by this creeper retaurent owner who informed Cailan she had a nose like barabra strisand, to beware of my eyes and that we are both extremly unlucky...
Yesterday we went on a war tour and saw the tunnel they had dug under the aeroport to get supplies, where the Serbian army set up the snipers to fire on 'sniper alley' and so much more. Our guide had been 11 when it started and so interesting to hear first hand accounts. Unlike when I hear about WW1/WW2 where I can't put their face to events.

Sailing

Well Cailan and I just finished a week long sailing trip through the southern Dalmation Islands. Heaven.
I am black, my hair is bleaching from the sun and I am covered head to toe in freckles. Thank you dad.
It was great and I tried the most amazing things... octopus salad, SHARK! Oh my gracious.
Ive run out of time on the internet, so hopefully I can get some tonight if I make it to Mostar and find a place to sleep....

Waterfalls

Well this morning we went to Krka National Park. Its a bunch of waterfalls where you can swim. Its comprised of seven traventine (Limestone) cascades. The falls are formed by limestone particles-traventine flowing through water attaching itself to moss and algae and then acumalating into mass amounts.

Putting the epic geological aspect aside, it was super pretty. The water was soo blue. Especially when compared to all the vivid greens from the trees and mosses. There are over 860 plant species and sub-species of plants, and tons of wildlife... Cailan and I were estactic. Unfortunatly, we didnt see any! Just a water snake, a crap ton of trout and a frog. Oh plus these amazingly florecent blue damsel fly type thingers. 

The falls were super pretty and at the bottom you could go swimming! Except, we were not informed that you could go swimming... so we missed out on that :(

After the hike we dined on the most filling lunch I've ever had. Anf guess what it was, fried calamari! Haha. This isnt a big deal to most people, but for me, its huge! They werent bad, kinda chewy, but much better than the dried stuff... and much more fun than the forkfull of the rosotto calamari I had in Rab. Why? Because they were like, entirely fried whole! I could pick it up and walk it around the plate. There were other pieces which were the suction cups and oh man, it was so gross to see the little tenitcals and all... But so much fun!

After that we went to another town called Trogir, where it was built on an island by the Romans. Funny thing in Croatia. Not sure if its the same at home... but if an bridge connects an island to the mainland, then it becomes part of the mainland and is no longer considered and island. Legally. So it is then refered to as a peninsual. I say this because Trogir is and island, but not considered one because it is attached by a bridge. It is then attatched to another island on the other side and that one is considered a penisula.

Crazy....

Tonight is watching the last semi finals of the world cup.

Croatia still

Well, Rab was a bust, in a good sort of way. Celebrated my birthday on the 1st, a little too hard, and I payed dearly for it on the next day. But we did spend the whole day on this fantastic beach, where... they put kids in inflatable hamster-balls for them to roll around in on top of the water. It was extremely funny to watch, especially when they tried to walk down the ramp that they had just been blown up in. What was more perplexing than the children playing in it, was how are they breathing in a plastic ball? Initially we went to see this beach volleyball tourniment, but yours truly apparently read the year wrong and it was last year... whoops.
Regardless the beach was awesom. I thought that it was gonna be all rocky like in Rijeka, but this beach in Lopar was like a gianormous  sand bar! It was shallow forever! Cailan and I would read until we got too hot then go lie in the shallow water, which was as warm as a bath! I didnt believe it when I read that the water got up to +28, but this was definitely hot water! Which was also full of fish and snails... I manned up and stayed in the water even when the fish passed me by. Hola.
We went out to dinner for my birthday at this place which served smallpox. No joke. What does it translate from?! I should have ordered it... but I never got the vaccination so was a little scared.
Spent my birthday dead in bed. Good thing we were only on a resort island and I could stay in bed. And I dont feel bad about it at all! I had an absolutly fantastic day before. After the beach and supper we hit up a Corona party at our hotel and I partied like I was turning a quarter of a century. I got a straw Corona fedora and I was quite pleased with myself. I dont think I would have changed any of it, even though I sacrificed the next day...
The two friends we made left us on the 3rd, so Cailan and I officially became beach bums, and yes, stayed at the beach/pool for the next few days. I am proud to say I am DARK and not RED.

Yesterday we left Rab and minus a few glitches with catamaran tickets, made it in time back to Rijeka to catch a ferry down the coast to Split.
Once again being cheap... we opted for deck seats, not beds. Which meant sleeping on the floor, out side on the deck, unless you could find floor space inside. Thankfully when we left last night at 8pm it was still +31 out. Soo it wasnt nearly as cold as our adventure sleeping outside in Germany.
Now that were in Split we've got to figure out what to get at. I know for sure we going to check out some cool waterfalls tomorrow. And puttering around the islands next week...
Anyways. Good times!

Happy Canada Day!

Or Dominion Day, Memorial Day or Beaumont-Hammel Day.

Cailan and I are now on the Island of Rab, in the Istrian area of Croatia. Beautiful, and hot!
We invited two guys we met the other day in Rijeka to come with us to checkout the beach volleyball championships that we are going to watch this afternoon and they agreed to come with us for the day and so now we have some company. Though Cailan and I are staying here all weekend. We found this swank hotel at sell off last room prices. Same price as a hostel, with breakfast, but like a 4 star hotel. Awesom.
Were pretty much just sunbathing here on the rocky beaches. And attempting to eat the sea food delicasies they have here... last night it was squid rosotto! Ahh! Much better than the dried squid I had in Korea though.
From here we are taking a boat down to Split on Monday... then... who knows!

Venice

It's been a while... what have I been at? Cailan, I and a girl we met from Saskatoon hiked Cinque Terre, breath takingly hard work.

Went to Tuoro sul Trasimeno on Wednesday to check out an archaeology dig which actually ended up being an ethnography class. Regardless it was good fun. I learnt how to congugate verbes in Italian and that made me feel good. I love languages.
Now we are in Venice! Spent the morning sunbathing at the pool at our campgrounds. Bad idea. Now I am solid red with blisters on my back. Damn.

Headed into town today, and I must say I am blow away! I really wasnt expecting too much. But I have been in awe all day. Pretty cool. It doesnt smelt like I had been warned and the water was a nice bluey green, compared to the water in Umbria which was dingey brown. We took a boat bus through the Grand Canal of town to St. Mark's square, drank the most expensive belinnis of my life and gazed through the Bascilica, which was beautiful. I love the gold mosaics of the East.
After we walked through a palace and dreamed of what it would have been like to have lived there and been so rich that we could have gold gilded and stucco ceilings in our own stairwells. Far from ever being proabable.
The rest of the day we spent walking over little bridges, admiring all the beautiful glass jewerly, and once again imagining that we could afford anything we wanted. The night ended with delicious wine, and of course, pasta. That is all I have lived on here.
I would move to Italy in a heart beat - fantastic food, great weather and wine all the time.

Que Bella

Soo I have arrived in Italy!
We had a fantastic time at the West Coast Riot, partied hard to Flogging Molly and froze ourselves with the lack of sun and heat which had been forecasted.

On Friday, the guy who let us have his extra appartment toured us around Gothenburg with a couple of his friends.... which consisted of talking at a cafe for an hour, going to an amusement park and then eating at a bar which was supposed to have this amazing all you can eat buffet, but it was cancelled because of the world cup. Regardless the day was lots of fun. Apparently his father owns a fishing camp and has offered to take us crayfishing in August. Fun!

Friday night we trained to Copenhagen, it was a neat town, but we litterly spent 24hrs there. We actually went on this huge adventure to find the Little Mermaid (Our favourite Disney character, though Danish) but when we eventually found where she was supposed to be... we were informed that she is on load to Shainghai for the Expo 2010. Bummer! So instead we observed some swans attacking some mallards because they were too close to thier ducklings, or are they swanlings? Either way, their babies.

We trained down to Lubeck Germany from Copenhagen and the train went on to the ferry. I know this is a common occurance, but had never experianced it! On the ferry we indulged in some duty free wine. That is six individual portions of wine which came in the juice box foils! Ha, they we fun, and saved us in Lubeck when we had to sleep outside of the aeroport. All of our informants had told us we could sleep inside, European aeroports were 24hrs. Apparently not in Lubeck though!

Saturday we arrived in Pisa, Italy. Warm Weather! Watched the Italia vs. New Zealand football match with our housemates and had a bbq. Seriously a blast. There is nothing to do here except enjoy the company of italians and drink vino. Que bene!

Today we biked down to the Leaning tower of Pisa, and then enjoyed some fabulous pasta we found on this sketchy back road with a Swede and Frenchman from our hostel. Fantastic pasta... and olives! I forgot how much I enjoyed fresh olives!

Tomorrow Cailan and I are heading to Cinque Terre for the day and then down to Tuoro sul Trasemino so I can check out an archaeology dig I was invited to.

After that... I think its Venice? Crotia by the 2nd!! Yay beaches and birthdays!

Hej då Sweden!

Well today begins our continental adventure... though we don't actually make it to the continent until Saturday/Sunday.
Tonight we head to Gothenburg for a punk/rock festival... I dont really know how to describe the bands playing... I know the ones I want to see are like celtic punk bands like Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly, but then there are other bands like Rise Against that I'm stoked to see. I hope it's nice out and not raining! Nor any bugs! Cailan met this random guy over the weekend who has an un-used apartment from when he was studying in Gothenburg and has offered to let us crash there for free! Super nice of him, and very trust worthy of us too... but we dont have to pay for the ridiculously expensive hostels!
From there we are heading to Copenhagen on Friday. Another place with wicked expensive hostels (stupid Scandinavia) so we are only staying one night, two days. Hopefully we'll get on a night ferry/train to Germany on Saturday night. We have to be in Lubeck to fly to Pisa. That should be an interesting journey... we dont know how we're getting to Lubeck yet. It's either a 4hr train ride and sleep in the train station/aeroport or take a 9hr overnight train. Blah.
I'm excited for Italy, not just because of the food that I looove, but because a friend of Cailan's is running an archaeology excavation at Tuoro sul Trasimeno for Grant MacEwan. Cool!! I'm stoked for that! It probably trumps all the pasta and pesto I'm gonna eat.
Not sure when my next entry will be so I figured I'd summarize what I know we are doing this far.... I think we anticipate to be in Croatia for July. My birthday present from Cailan is to spend my birthday on a beach. That equals Croatia.

Weekend getaway

One cool thing about living in a small country is that you can go away for just a weekend.
Cailan and I went to Stockholm on Saturday for a party. Just for a party, no big deal.
A friend of ours just graduated from his masters and he had a graduation party. So we hopped on the train, enjoyed some wine on our way there. Arrived in Stockholm and met a bunch of people.
Woke up Sunday morning and went to the National Natural History Museum with four others then we were going to check out an Annie Leibovitz photography exhibit and catch the train back home.
I wish I could do that from home, I guess you can fly to Edmonton or Calgary... but that's such a hassle! Having to check in at the aeroport and get to and from the areoport.... train travel is where it's at.

The Natural history place was actually pretty lame... even when you're punch drunk and everything is amusing, it managed to be a buzz kill. The human evolution section, I expect to interest me no matter where I am, was really bad. Everything else was just all jumbled together, like someone's cluttered shelves at home. And it was all pretty random... ammonites, humming birds and some bird wings all bunched together. With no little information thingers. Ha, it was actually fustraiting being there because it was such a mess. Mind you they did have some cool things, like a wall that was covered with mounted flutter-bys. We also stayed to watch a National Geographic 3D IMAX film Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure. Very brutal. I don't know why, but we were all anticipating it to be intense and thrilling and interesting and everything that the film wasn't.
We went to Gamla Stan, the old city for lunch at this amazing Italian restaurant. It reminded me a lot of the RichTree Market restaurant in Toronto... you have a card and walk up to different stations where they cook pasta or pizza for you right in front of you. Swipe your card and then pay for whatever you got at the end. It made me very excited to go to Italy cause my ravioli di carne was sooo good and I dont think I ever had a bad meal when I was in italy last time. Mmm good food!
We never made it to the the Annie Leibovitz exhibit, we took too long at the restaurant and we needed to get home at a decent time because Cailan needed to go to work this morning.
We're leaving Sweden this week, heading to Gothenburg on Wednesday for a music festival the West Coast Riot. Then to Copenhagen and we'll be in Pisa on the 21st, where it is currently 27c!

Archaeology day

On Monday I headed down to the southern coast of Sweden to a town called Ystad. It's a typical beach town, and I was really looking forward to enjoying the sun, the sand and the sea!
I chose Ystad because it is the closest descent size city to this Stone Ship that I wanted to see, the fact that it is a beach town was surprisingly secondary.
Ystad, when I left that morning had a weather forecast of being in the high teens, slightly cloudy and 10% chance of rain. But when I arrived it was pouring rain. Ahhh! Ok, no big deal, the man at the hostel said that Tuesday was supposed to be much better weather. The hostel I stayed at was on the beach, a few km out of town, so I rented a bike and cruised the beach! My plan was on Tuesday to bike to Ales Stenar, about 20km away along the coast.

Wake up Tuesday morning to even more rain! Seriously! Well, I was pretty rotted at first and contemplated just coming back home. But, I was there and I was't sure if I'd get another chance to get down there... so I packed a lunch, pulled on my rain coat, hopped on my bike and started peddling in the rain. Ha, and all I could think about was that I better not get sick from this.
The bike was actually quite pleasant, and the rain let up after about a half hour. The scenery was all fields and farms, or rolling hills. It was really pretty.
Anyways, so Ales Stenar, is a large stone ship up on a high cliff in the middle of fields and cows. I arrived there expecting to be the only one, alas, no. It was full of little school kids. I guess I believed that because the weather was so crappy, and it's very isolated that it would be deserted. I was wrong.  The stones were very short. Nothing like the stones at Stonehenge. I was taller than all of them, except the two stones at the edges.
Ales Stenar is sort of in a league of it's own, a mystery to scholars. Generally stone ships are burials, but there have been no bodies found there, or evidence that there might have been a burial. The two other theories are that it was built as a memorial for a lost or sunken ship (the coastal area is a notorious ship graveyard) or some sort of astronomical calender - during the solstices the sun shines on one or the other of the two end stones. Regardless it was neat, and I enjoyed my little picnic amongst the stones.

On Wednesday I woke up to blistering heat and sun. Just my luck. It pours rain on the day that I went on my 40km bike trip, then the day that I'm travelling via bus, it's rediculously nice out! I took advantage of what little time I had left there - enjoyed breakfast on the beach. I then bussed to another town called Kivik.
Kivik is home to the largest bronze age burial mound in northern Europe - Kungagraven. Though it's extremely flawed... probably not the right word, but I cant think of what else I could use to describe it? According to it's history, it was used a stone quarry by famers until the mid 18thC when some historical people stepped in and intervened its destruction when some petroglyphs were reported to be found inside the mound of stones.
They tried to restore it, but failed miserably. The petroglyphs inside look extremely retouched, so much so that they dont look real. They reconstructed it based on 18thC sketches of other mounds and it is now assumed that it should be about 3m taller than it actually is now. All the archaeological research at the time stated that because of it's size, it was obviously a Kings burial, but recently the bodies exhumed were restudied and at least one of them is actually a women. Aw yeah for armchair archaeologists!
The setting was nice, next to a large apple orchard in a quaint little beach town. I really liked the town, sadly I couldn't stay, so I hung out on the beach waiting for my bus to return back home to Örebro. I would have gone swimming, but considering it was the Baltic Sea, I refrained on the of chance that it would be fricken freezing. Despite my regular dips in Great Slave, I didnt think I could handle the Baltic.

Örebro wildlife

I feel somewhat sheltered from living in Yellowknife. There are no really typical animals-insects-whatevers that live there. We have the animals that are uncommon to the vast majority.
Örebro on the other hand has everything that I shouldn't be enthralled with, but I am!

First specimen: Snakes.
See older post.... there are zero snakes in the NWT, yet balls of them here.

Second specimen: Slugs.
There are no slugs in Yellowknife. Or well, none that I have ever seen... Anyways, while raining and right after, the side walks are covered with slugs! They just sloowly move around. I think they are scavenging for other slugs that have been stepped on. Apparently some slugs eat their dead slug companions, they suck up the juices from them, and earthworms. I hardly notice as many earthworms as I do slugs, have they all been eaten by slugs? I remember when we would go to Brantford and there were always dead worms on the driveway at Nana and Papa's after it rained... but I have no recollection of slugs? They thoroughly intrigue us, and every encounter brings up new questions! Being the nerds knowledge seekers that we are, we go home and research them. Our latest quest informed us that slugs are asexual and lay eggs larger than themselves. (Slight exaggeration).

Third specimen: Snails.

I have had some experience with snails before. They lived in our fish tank and we used to collect them from Rat Lake as kids. Up until field school I had only ever seen them as water animals. When I lived in Newfoundland, they covered the fields, which was very unpleasant for myself to walk through. Every morning on my way to the site I had to plug my ears and run through the fields so to lessen the amounts of crack crunch crack that I heard as I crushed poor little snails. Slugs have no shell, I cant hear or feel them dying below my shoes. Snails hold less of my attention, girls at field school cooked up periwinkles for lunch, and I quite enjoy escargot. Mind you I didnt know that escargot were the same snails I see puttering around on the side walks. I thought they were water ones. I digress.
During our first few encounters with slugs here, there were no snails. I honestly thought they travelled hand in hand, but there were never any snails. Well, not until last weekend! The snails came out in full force, and it was Cailan's first time seeing a snail! She had slugs all over when she lived in BC, but I guess not snails.
Now we make quite the pair. Walking to the store or bus after it's rained is like going on a safari... We slowly walk to make sure we dont step on any, and every few feet we stop to examine them. We look like fools.

Fourth species: Hedgehogs
So, hedgehogs are wild here! They do not live in Canada, so I have an excuse for never running into one before.
Cailan had informed me when I first arrived that hedgehogs lived around here, but she had yet to see one. I just assumed that they lived in the forest, and I knew they were nocturnal from when Erin had pet one and it was so boring during the day. The nocturnal factor would lessen our probability of seeing any.
Anyways, on Saturday we were walking to the centrum with our friend Sophie and one ran across the side walk! Holy! I was so excited, hoping it would run and morph into a ball and roll across the street like in Alice in Wonderland when the queen is playing croquet! But it didnt. It just scurried into a fenced flower garden. Haha, needles to say, Cailan and I were thrilled! Sophie just thought we were idiots, and informed us there are tons that live in Brickebaken (our ghetto). I guess they are a lot more common in town than I believed. Picture someone in Yellowknife going ecstatic after seeing a squirrel... that's what we came off like here. THEN when we got home later that night there was one just hanging out next to the sandbox in front of our building! Eep! Obviously, we tried to follow it around but it outsmarted us in the dark. I kept wondering why they made Sonic roll everywhere if the two that we have seen never rolled. Is it like lemmings walking off cliffs? Disney and then Sega skewed my perception of hedgehogs and they dont really roll everywhere?

I wonder what other animals I'll encounter here, that my life in the North has eluded me from.

Sarah vs. Thor

Today was an exciting day! Summer has arrived, above 20 and sunnnny!
Happy anniversary to my parents!

Besides that I went on a little day trip to a town called Eskilstuna to search for some Norse rune stones. Word on the street is that it is super easy to get to, so I figured, I have nothing to do today, I'll go hunt for some Vikings!

I took the train to Eskilstuna, it's an hour away from Örebro. Then took a bus 12km down a rural road towards a small rural town, hopped off at a small dirt road and walked through some very green trees. Past a vegetable garden, some orchards and crossed a small wooden bridge over a creek. Where I came across this view to the right. The bedrock out crop behind the trees is where the infamous rune stone that I was hunting lay.

Sigurdsristning!

This rune is next to an old bridge. That small creek that I had previously crossed used to be a much larger river and there was bridge erected over it. The rune is there to explain why the bridge is there - it was built to commemorate the dead soul of a rich man. Apparently this was all the rage in the 11thC. You know, build a bridge in honour of the dead. That explains the runic writing at the bottom of the image.
What makes this rune special is that there are drawings as well as the runic message! The drawings depict a well known saga from the time, Sigurd Fafnisbane (Sigurd the Dragonslayer).
The gist of the saga is that: Fafnir was a otter who at some gold and turned into a snake. Sigurd stabs the stomach of the snake Fafnir, to get the gold treasure in there. Sigurd roasts Fafnir's heart, but burns his finger and gets Fafnirs blood on it. Sigurd puts his finger in his mouth and tastes the blood then can suddenly understand birdsong. The end.

Kind of an odd story to draw with the bridge? Oh well. What was cool was that as I was there admiring the drawings, and trying to figure out how the drawings have stayed red over time thunder started ... thundering ... in the distance. Oooo! Norse god Thor was pleased (or not) that I was checking out Norse sagas! Or as my brother put it, I got to feel the wrath of Thor in a meaningful place!

So after my spiritual moment with Thor and the rune stone, I decided it would smart to walk back to town instead of waiting for the bus back. Yes, the 12km walk in my sandals (ugh), along the curb of the rural highway. All along being accompanied by thunder ... thundering ... It was a long, hot, sticky walk along side farm fields and horses back to town, but I got to watch a thunder-head form, cool, and I made it to the train station about 20min before the rain came!
Hooray for my day!

Sun makes it alll better

What can I say about this past weekend? Fun. Higher expectations and some irresponsibility. Fun.
After arriving late in Stockholm on Wednesday we went and met up with Terry and a friend of Cailan's at a bar named after the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds. The bar was decorated with all sorts of 60's surfer records and posters. Kinda odd, but it was a good time. The place was really small, from what I can tell, bars are cafés by day and around 1930 split to be half bar half café and slowly rid themselves of food patrons by 2230.

Thursday and Friday we spent aimlessly wandering the streets of Stockholm. Stockholm is comprised of 14 islands, each island having its own draw. We spent our time on only two and a section of mainland. Our hostel was on a small island, Gamla Stan, which is the oldest part of Stockholm. Where the royal palace and parliament are. It was nice, narrow cobbled streets - very "European". The palace was nothing to gawk at, really, I couldn't tell it apart from other buildings, cept there were a whole bunch of blue clad guards out front. We surprisingly arrived right at the changing of the guards, which made me wonder, do palaces actually do that, or is it a tourist thing that palaces have all adopted and modified to be theatrical and draw crowds? I think yes.
We continued to walk around and made our way to the mainland which is the commercial district/area of Stockholm. The highlight of that was seeing cherry blossoms! In the midst of the cherry blossoms were a bunch of people meditating. Turns out it was a Falun Gong silent protest, for what? We couldn't figure that out, but we got a pamphlet of the meditation steps, but no answer as to why they were there.

Stockholm I found to be very bland. It was just a lot of big concrete buildings that all looked the same. Nothing had character. Mind you the fact that it was overcast and intermittently spitting throughout the days might have had some negative impact on my opinion of the city. Regardless, I still was not as impressed with Stockholm as I was anticipating I would be. Though we did find a fantastic restaurant, it was a traditional beer hall from the 19th C where they served Swedish meals. Oh my goodness was it good. I got Swedish meatballs and lingonberries, forget pickled herring, this is now my idea of Swedish food. Mmmm. Cailan got salmon, and when it came out, that was exactly what it was, nothing else. Raw salmon at that, though Terry is certain it was soaked overtime in lemon juice. Jumping back to the lingonberries, I am certain they are partridge berries. They are delicious and Swedes eat them on everything. They look just like cranberries but are sweeter, hence my speculation they are partridge berries.

Friday night we boarded our ferry trip to Helsinki, advertised as a booze cruise. We had heard many horror stories about how intoxicated the Finns get on this trip. That was total bullsh*t, everyone on the boat was ridiculously intoxicated, be it Finns or Swedes, or the super nice Italians, or Iranians. Everyone we met, young and seniors, were indulging heavily, it was pretty unreal. Thinking we should differentiate ourselves from the others, we classed it up and went for a nice meal of reindeer and wine, followed by some karaoke (not sure if this fits into classy or not?) One of the advertised highlights of the trip was an ABBA tribute band. They were terrible, and sang only 5 songs. We were severely disappointed. To make up for this we befriended Italians from Brescia and danced the night away.
The next morning however was not as much fun.
We docked in Helsinki at 930, ugh. But it was already +18 out! The nicest weather since I've been in Europe! Sooo we pushed through our tiredness and walked into town. Already, I was enjoying Helsinki ten times more than Stockholm. We walked through a huge open market where they sold everything! I bought an amber ring there, sadly there are no flies in it. There was loads of fresh fruit and veggies, hand knit and felted clothing, furs and wood crafts galore, it was a super neat market. There was a large park through the centre of town where I'm pretty sure half the town was basking in the sun. We walked around for about 15min and decided we should do this as well. Who needs to see more churches (though they were neat ones). That's what we did allll day, well, until our boat returned back to Stockholm that evening. As we were sailing away, we passed by an old fort which covers six islands. I am kicking myself now for not going there and basking in the sun. It looked so nice and was full of picnickers. Suomenlinna was built in the 18thC to keep out Russian expansion, but wasn't really effective.
Anyways, we decided the return trip would be low key, we would hang out in the sauna and then go to bed. Unfortunately we missed arriving at the sauna by 10 min and they closed. Argh! So we checked out duty free, where the Swedes were buying multiple shopping carts full of cases of beer (because of how expensive it is in Sweden) and Toblerone, ate some more Swedish meatballs, and woke up back in dreary Stockhom, where Cailan and I proceeded back home to Örebro :(

Check out photos if you want.

Stockholm!

Well, after our snapps night, Cailan and I scored free tickets to another Örebro SK football game. This time it was super fun. We were no longer sick and we sat in the section with all the hardcore fans. They had a drum and tons of flags, they never sat and were constantly chanting and cheering. It was fun! 
We learned some cheers and some new Swedish words. ÖSK was playing Djurgårdens IF, an apparently goo team from Stockholm, nick named Stockholms Stolthet (Pride of Stockholm). The teams fan groupies came with them, and unlike the last game we saw where there was maybe 25 fans, Djurgårdens had hundreds. Impressive. The game was good, and close! Örebro choked on about five goal possibilities, but surprisingly managed to pull out a win. The fans section was thrilled.  After the game the team came over to thank the fans for being so supportive and then did a cheer for the fans. It was pretty cool. Nice to see how they appreciate their fans. They might have done that too at the last game, but we skipped out early.
After the game we went with a friend of Cailan's to grab some food and drinks. They don't serve alcohol at the football matches. Its funny considering all sporting matches in Canada serve alcohol. By all I mean professional.  I can't imagine what these guys would have been like under the influence. They were so exuberant to begin with. 
Today is the beginning of a new adventure: Stockholm and Helsinki!
Cailan and I are training out to Stockholm after her work tonight. She has a long weekend because here in Sweden they celebrate The Ascension or Krisit Himmelsfärdsdag. Mind you that is only tomorrow, I have yet to figure out why she has Friday off as well, but I'm not complaining, we get to go on an adventure! The basic plan is that we're heading to Stockholm tonight, staying until Friday afternoon, jumping on a boat to sail across the Baltic to Helsinki. Spend Saturday there, sail back Sunday so that Cailan can make it back to schoolio. 
Hopefully it won't really rain in Stockholm like the forecast is predicting, and that it will be +20 in Helsinki as predicted!

Happy Mother's Day Anaana

Snapps! Skål!

Last night was the heavily anticipated schnapps night. Cailan and I made maple syrup schnapps and brought spinach-artichoke dip to add to our North American theme. Everything else was going to be extremely Swedish, so we wanted to bring our own thing. The Maple Snapps was a hit, the spinach dip I think not so much.
There were lots of flavours, lemon and vanilla, blackberry, rhubarb and aniseed, cobra and ginseng, ginger and lime, cinnamon, pomegranate - that's all I can really remember. There were a few more...
So, with our shots of snapps, we also indulged in Swedish snacks. The foods that all the people brought were based around fish, caviare and dairy. I must admit though it was all super good! I am thoroughly amazed at what I ate last night, considering how unadventurous I am when it comes to food. I figured that I might as well take part none the less, I didnt want to offend anyone by being picky, plus I would have otherwise starved and not eating whilst consuming large amounts of snapps didn't seem too smart.

Soo... this was my plate! Clockwise from the red stuff on the side - home made Basque salsa, delicious. At the bottom is a slice of pickled herring and onion on dried flat-bread. The most typical Swedish snack, and it wasn't gross. I was super nervous as I bit into it that I might up-chuck on the plate (I am not a fan of fish) but it was surprisingly sweet and did not have the fish texture that I despise! I was pleasantly impressed by it. Don't go jumping to any conclusions though, I will not be purchasing pickled herring in the stores anytime soon, but should I be in another social gathering and that is there, I would not hesitate to give it another go.
The next one, I am not sure was exactly it was. I would describe it as an onion quiche, but I'm certain it wasn't. I asked the girl who made it what was in it... all she told me was onions and cumin. Sooo I have no clue what it was, but it was good. Above that, in the centre was a spanish omelet. It was wicked thick and had chucks of potatoes in it. Next to that was my favourite of the night! An interesting pastry - the centre was filled with this creamy cheese and sour cream concoction which was very sweet, topped with a layer of red onions and a big blob of caviare. I don't know how common this kind of snack was, but if I see anything that resembles it in any bakeries, I will be ordering it. Mmm.  The little circular thing at the top was also good, it was some sort of a little pastry shell filled with a cream of some sorts, topped with a piece of salmon and a green onion. It was sweet, like possibly a dessert?
All in all it was a night of good food, and strong drinks. I has assumed that we would casually sip the snapps and take in the flavours, comment about the different tastes etc. like we did at the wine tasting, but I was more than wrong. You just down the drink, glass after flavour after glass. Some were strong, like the lemon and vanilla one. Hola! I'd say that my favourites were the blackberry and this other one, but I cannot recall what the flavouring was...  the worst was the beetroot and the cobra/ginseng.
Yes, cobra. One of the girls there is Vietnamese and her dad brought back this medicinal alcohol which has a little cobra in it. I can't think what magical powers cobras posses, but I can believe that drinking it might scorch any bacterium in your throat. Or  cure any other ailments that you might have because it tastes like mould, and possibly act like a liquid penicillin? I really have no idea, but it tasted like dirt. Yech.
Along with drinking these snapps, everyone sang as well. There are hundreds of little Swedish drinking songs, that people know all the words to. They generally appeared to be traditional songs. I tried reading some of the words to increase my Swedish capabilities, when I would ask what some words were, they had no translations or any idea what some words were because they were 'old Swedish' and no longer used. The songs were fun, but there is a rule that one cannot have an empty glass if there is going to be a song sung. Regardless if you just had one, its like a national offence to sing a Snaps Vise and not have a snaps in your glass. After the little jingle, everyone says SKÅL and has their drink.
Last night was great and I stepped up my Swedish by learning the songs and trying to follow everyone's conversations. I managed to follow the gist of some conversations. Swedish is still a wicked hard language and I will be lucky to have a full conversation with people by the time I leave. I am at the point now that I can ask basic questions, but when they answer me, it is just waaay over my head... I need to learn to understand. I can order a drink or food, then they say something else and I just lose my grasp of the language. Drat.

Örebro SK vs BK Häcken

Yesterday, Cailan and I dragged ourselves, along with a roll of tp each for our noses, off to see our first football match in Europe. Örebro has a football team in the Swedish Allsvenskan, and a teacher at Cailan's school works at the pitch and gets free tickets for the students and teachers. So off we went, kleenex, cough candies and all!
They played a team from Gothenburg, who had some pretty amazing shoes, every florescent colour imaginable. Anyways, not only was it our first European match, but it was actually my first outdoor football match, other than watching Team NWT at Canada Games. I know I might offend some people, but... I found it kinda boring. Well, maybe not, just a lot of passing and not a lot of shooting at the net. There were a lot of head shots, I think the most was four head passes to another. I found that surprisingly cool.

The game went on... numerous yellow cards, no red cards, only four substitutions and after 90minutes of passing, Örebro won. 2-0.
The stands were actually pretty empty, and the Örebro 'cheer section' was protesting the owners decision to schedule the games at bad times. Kinda like how the NHL schedules games which it thinks are good but none of the fans agree - like a game in the middle of the afternoon rather than on Saturday night. So, they protested by staying out in the parking lot tailgating for the first 20min. When they returned they were so loud! They had a drum and flags and a chant for every player on the field and they just never were quite. Compared to the 17 fans that the Gothenburg team had it was impressive.
That sums up my first football match. Next weekend they are playing a team from Stockholm, who is being accompanied by a minimum of 2500 fans. Were trying to get tickets for that, the match up is supposed to be quite good.
Cold be gone by then!

White Rabbit!

Well last night, April 30th, was Valborgsmässoafton / Walpurgis Night / Valborg in Sweden. The "Welcome back Spring!" party, which also seems to have something to do with witches, but we couldnt figure out what that was... it's not like at Midsummer's when they burn a fake witch. 
Anywyas, Cailan and I walked down to to the Castle and met up with some of her co-workers to watch archers shoot arrows of flames from the castle walls into a big floating raft of tree branches. After a choir that was also standing on the castle sang traditional spring songs for about an hour which was followed by tons of fireworks. It was cold out and started to ran. Cailan and I hoped that we could go to one of the surrounding cafes to watch the fireworks, but we were slapped on the wrist for suggesting something so preposterous, we needed to follow tradition and watch them in the rain. Ugh. They were super impressive though. Directly above us, the ash from them ended up in our hair. 
After standing in the rain, oooing and awing at the light show we headed off for a drink of pear ciders and then home. Standing in the cold rain was not doing wonders for the cold that I have contracted. Unsurprisingly enough, I woke up this morning to discover that I thus passed my congestion on to Cailan. Awesome times. Now we are both hanging out in our one room apartment drowning in kleenx. Ugh.

The science fair went well on Thursday, I toughed it out, despite how sick I was, as you can tell by my extremely unflattering picture to the right. 
The projects varied in talent, like always. I was a judge for the grade nines and the winning project blew me away. They designed and built an iBike. Seriously, they took a bike, wired a generator to the back wheel, which when the wheel was turning generated power to a small battery which thus charged the ipod which was attached to the handle bars. They made two different generations, one with a diode to save energy and one with out. They made commercials for it and have them on youtube, unfortunately I couldnt find it or I would have posted it. These kids were so smart! Of course I gave them all Excellent's. Not only was their project smart (they wired a bicycle!) but they were also excellent presenters and had terrific English.