saturday and sunday in st petersburg

we got to our hotel in st petersburg around 6 friday night... it is a marriott of course and after a yummy marriott burger and some olympics watching we planned our day for saturday and headed to bed.

we started our day on saturday at the hermitage... i am sure everyone knows this but it is HUGE i don't know how long we walked around there for, but it seemed like forever! room after room after room filled with rembrandt and davinci and all sorts of other things that i definitely remember from my college art history book, it is so big that after a while you just become desensitized to all the pretty things you are seeing... but a great and again huge museum.  i am sure that we missed many amazing things but really it was just too much to take in.

afterward we walked over toward the church on spilled blood which is probably the most famous church in st petersburg it was very pretty both inside and out, we had lunch in a cafe and went to a souvenir market.  we made the long walk back to our hotel and got ready to go to the ballet at the markiinsky theater.  we saw three one act ballets, the first one was a little modern but the second two were beautiful and it was really fun.  afterwards we had a dinner at a restaurant called sadko across the street... the waitresses there were all also actors and students at the opera so they would occasionally break into really impressive song!

today we got started a little later and it was really dark and rainy/snowy outside.  we walked over to st. andrews cathedral which had quite a few icons in it and then continued on to menshikov palace.  afterward we walked to the fortress of peter and paul where we saw the graves of both czar alexander and the remains of the last romanov family that were laid to rest in 1998.  we went to the commandents house which had a good history of the city and then after 6 hours out in the rain were definitely ready to come back to the hotel.

tomorrow we plan on going to the russian museum and st. isaac's cathedral which are nearby, and then my dad heads home, while mom and i get on a train to turku finland.

mom & dad's visit to stockholm

the rest of my parents visit to stockholm turned out a lot better than monday.  although it was VERY VERY cold the entire time that they were there.  stockholm got what i guess was a huge snowstorm for them, so all transportation was very slow and delayed which was a bit of a bummer in such cold weather but otherwise here is a run down of what we did.

tuesday - went to skansen museum which is basically the swedish equivalent of plymouth plantation or strawberry bank.  it was fun but given that it was winter not quite everything was open and the walking around outside got old fast.  after skansen we went to the blue door for lunch which is also on the island of durgarden, it was a great little restaurant and i had a yummy sandwich and some awesome carrot cake.  after that i sent my parents to the vasa and nordic museums while i went to class.  after class we met up and i took my parents out to liljeholmen, they got to see the famous lake and arrduous set of stairs for themselves.  we then went to a great traditional swedish restaurant on sodermalm called pelikan i had some very rich and very good quiche, but i don't think my parents liked their swedish fare as much as i did.

wednesday - we started out by going to the palace on gamla stan (the old town) and watching the changing of the guard - not quite as exciting as the ceremonies at other bigger european palaces but still nice.  we then toured the royal apartments and treasury which was fun.  we spent the afternoon walking around gamla stan seeing all the cute old buildings and stores, we headed back to the marriott for a rest before going to glenn miller jazz cafe for dinner i have been there before and it is just too cute, my parents agreed.  also my goat cheese salad was great.

thursday - i met my parents at radmansgatan right near school and showed them SSE and the city library we then walked around sveavagen, hotorget and stureplan over to ostermalm.  we ate lunch at the beautiful ostermalm saluhall and then unfortunately i had to leave to go take my one test of the quarter... the test was tough!!! all pure memorization which is definitely not what i am used to in the US!  after the test we went to dinner at garlic and shots in sodermalm.  it was a really fun restaurant which as the name indicates incorporates LOTS of garlic - my dad even had garlic beer which was quite potent... afterwards we made a trip to the infamous stockholm ice bar, i had heard from some friends that it was good - but in my opinion just a major tourist trap, not worth it at all... hopefully the ice hotel is much much better.

and then friday we left stockholm for st petersburg!

right now our connection in st petersburg is too slow to add pictures so i will add those in later

lonnnnnngggggggg day

so today was a long day... back to that later

i had a good weekend full of olympics watching and apparently record breaking snow here in stockholm and yesterday the one and only duo of rob & bob arrived... yay! i was so excited.  we checked them into their hotel and they learned that everything i said about stockholm and snow is true... it isn't shoveled even on the stairs and the snow is white and beautiful

we went to dinner at my favorite greek restaurant and then walked over to school had some coffee and headed back to the hotel to watch some olympics.  after watching bode dominate in the men's super combined i headed home planning to meet mom and dad for some walking around monday morning...

but the small stomach ache that i had sunday night turned into terrible pains and i couldn't sleep at all, by this morning i had decided that i should probably see a dr... sadly when traveling in another country the only option for medical care is often the emergency room so to the swedish emergency room i went and there i stayed for NINE HOURS... in big time pain - argh!

luckily my parents were good sports and hung out in their hotel for most of the day... while i went through many tests and many many hours of nothingness... for all the pros of socialized medicine the endless waiting is definitely a BIG CON, anyhow they don't really know what it was potentially kidney stones who knows... but nothing a little codine wouldn't solve and then tonight we went to herman's!

ankur and i have been planning on going to herman's ever since we got here... apparently they have the best vegetarian buffet in the city - and it was great! the view was beautiful too... will definitely be going back there in the short time i have left in stockholm...

so all in all very long day - but in the end everything turned out ok and it ended with great food - what could be better than that!

go lindsey!

obviously the best part of yesterday was the gold and silver finish for the u.s. women in the downhill... but the second best part was definitely the huge crash by swede anja paerson... because just like a classier version of nascar really people watch downhill for the crashes

because of the craziness that is proprietary country-specific olympic airing rights here is a video of what was probably anja's best super-g crash before yesterday's downhill debaucle

yay bode!

well bode miller can be a bit of a jerk sometimes... but he is a great skier and he did awesome yesterday and he is from NH :) it was a super close race only 9 hundreths between gold and bronze!

simultaneously watching american and swedish coverage :)

lost children

so on my daily skate this morning i saw something hilarious... the local daycare brought all the kids down to the ice skating rink i guess just to walk around and be outside they all were wearing their snowsuits with lots and lots of reflectors and florescent vests which i am assuming said the name of their school the kids were all holding onto a rope and occasionally one would just wander away... honestly the teacher didn't seem to notice - or really care all that much.  i guess it is a testament to how safe sweden is - when the class was done with playtime one of the kids remained at the rink and i saw an old woman go up to him (or her hard to tell with the christmas story-esque snowsuit) and call the number on his vest.

my friend andrea has seen this many times in the park where she goes jogging and it is just too funny... i didn't bring my camera skating but andrea brought hers jogging and i stole this picture from her of a lone child in the park :)

yay olympics!!!

so ski racing is definitely one of my favorite sports to watch... but it isn't on tv all that often - so watching ski racing is part of the reason that the winter olympics are so great.  sadly the alpine events which usually start the first day have been delayed... but men's downhill is supposed to start tonight - 7:30pm sweden time and i will definitely be watching

for your viewing enjoyment here is a video of the best ever downhill crash - hermann maier (the herminator) at the nagano games... i totally remember watching this and wondering if he had just died - oh and btw he won two gold medals after this fall in gs and super-g... ski racing is the best

olympics, semla, shrove tuesday and valentines

this weekend has been a bit slow, originally i was planning on going to gotland an island between sweden and latvia... but it turns out that i was looking at the wrong ferry schedule and the proper ferry schedule was not so agreeable

so that left me in stockholm without too much to do... good thing the olympics are on! i love the olympics and i think unlike most people i farrrrrrrrrrr prefer the winter games over the summer ones. friday night i stayed up late to watch the opening ceremonies and then today i alternated between watching swedish coverage (online) and american coverage (on slingbox) both were very entertaining.

tomorrow i am going to have a fun little valentines day celebration by myself... one of the great things about sweden is that everyone here speaks english - mostly from watching american tv and movies... so i am going to see valentines day (yes i can hear half of you groaning) and then am going to have a late lunch at one of the great saluhalls and i might even try a semla.

i have seen these in bakeries in sweden since arriving and it turns out that they are a seasonal food, meant to be eaten on shrove tuesday.  i am guessing i won't like them too much since i hear the cream tastes similar to marzipan but i will give it a shot - at least they look really pretty!

happy valentines day!

great skating day

i waited a little later today to go skating... and as a result i really lucked out, it was sunny and beautiful! honestly i was a little shocked at how sunny it was it was kinda disorienting.  skating was great although i did have fall #2 but it was amazing i only was lapped by a v. pro looking skater guy 2 times in 4 laps :)

here are some pictures from my balcony (which i never thought i would actually go out on) taken at 3:15!!! and its SUNNY!!! and i swear i didn't edit any of these at all - no blue added to these skies!

ostermalm saluhall

today i met andrea for lunch at the ostermalm saluhall  the place is so old timey and beautiful, it makes all the food in there just look that much better!  after doing a couple of laps of all the gorgeous food we sat down for lunch.  i had a big beer and some gorgonzola ravoli - YUM... andrea had a proscuitto and melon sandwich and a glass of wine.  the food was really excellent, although i do think that i have to go back there sometime and have a little bit of a reindeer lunch :)

after the saluhall i walked through ostermalm and stureplan over toward hotorget.  it was a nice day to walk around and see more of the city going into lots of cute little shops etc. it was nice to have a day of not doing too much after such a busy weekend in copenhagen.  tomorrow i have class and then friday i leave for gotland, which might be an adventure given that i don't know how much is open on the relatively small island during winter.

lots to look forward to!

i have now officially been in stockholm for a month! WOW time flies! i can't believe that i am so far into my swedish experience.... it actually makes me kinda sad - sometimes i wish that like the non-US exchange students i was staying until june, so that i could see stockholm in all its summertime glory :)

but here are the things i have to look forward to in:
-2 days trip to gotland an island half way between sweden and latvia
-12 days my parents arrive in stockholm
-17 days trip to st. petersburg and finland with my parents
-23 days trip to lappland with other exchange students
-36 days trip to oslo
-38 days trip to vienna, prague and budapest with carol, alexis and mia

and then sadly only 49 days until i head back to the states for my final quarter at booth :(

malmo & copenhagen!

ankur and i took a trip to malmo and copenhagen this weekend and it was quite fun - although also fairly exhausting... we started with a 5 hour train ride south to malmo.  this train ride was way better than the one to uppsala.  we got all the way out of the city and got to see some really pretty countryside even though we didn't have a window we meet due.

it was a beautiful ride although we were delayed by about 2 hours we ended up getting in around 2.

malmo is the third largest city in sweden after stockholm and gothenberg. we started our visit at a restaurant called cafe siesta which naturally we thought might be mexican food, but instead we both had really yummy coconut curry pasta.  after that we walked over to the kings garden (one of the many kings gardens we have been to) and went to the slott (aka scandinavian word for castle) i just love saying slot! it sounds funny!

but this wasn't just any slott this one housed six museums: art, city history, war, acquarium, royal, and special exhibitions and all it cost us with our mecenat cards was 20 sek - basically the best deal in all of sweden.  but we were quite surprised with what we saw inside.  the acquarium was probably the best part and the other parts were all just plain old ODD! there was a random fake security guard and all sorts of other stuff you can see in the slide show below.

malmo was also home to some frozen fountains and the twisting torso which are the first of which was just kinda funny and the second is the only tall building in the entire city and although architecturally interesting mostly just seemed out of place.

after we had our afternoon in malmo we took the half hour train over a BIG suspension bridge to copenhagen.  we made our way over to the hostel which was actually quite nice and met our roommates some israeli dancers who were in town to try out for a modern dance group.  we had a great vegetarian buffet in slottsholmen at a mediterean restaurant and then lucked out big time.  we found a jazz club in the lp called lafontaine we went in and although the atmosphere was SMOKEY there were 2 for 1 beers and we met some friends of the band who were playing which were GREAT and generally had an awesome time.

saturday we got up and we walked - A LOT... seriously all day.  we didn't plan our day very well and although we saw a lot we ended up criss-crossing the city many many many times.  a few of the things we visited: a wonderful coffee shop, another kings garden, another slott with a great museum and the crown jewels of denmark, the national museum, the cristiann commune... phew it was a long day.  we had a beer on christianhaven or something spelled similarly and then trekked all the way across the city again in search of a tapas restaurant we had read about... however that tapas restaurant did not exist - but it lead to us finding an amazing indian restaurant where we sat at a communal table with a french girl working for the OECD and 4 american college students studying abroad.

sunday we had to get up early to check out of the hostel.  we again walked VERY far to see the little mermaid statue as well as views of the kastellett and the opera house all of which were beautiful.  everything is closed on sundays except for museums so we had a rough time finding someplace to eat but eventually we managed and this was the view out of the restaurant.

after our long walk we went to a statue museum which had palm trees inside (amazing for this cold climate) and then made our way to the louisiana museum which was about a half hour north of the city by train.  it was a very modern but beautiful museum right along the coast.  i wasn't so into a lot of the art but it was great nonetheless.  we ended the weekend with a trip back to malmo, dinner at a chinese restaurant and another long ride back to stockholm this morning - all in all a wonderful weekend!

copenhagen this weekend

today was a great day it was beautiful in stockholm - 34 degrees which is definitely the warmest its been since i have been here, and the first time it has been warmer here than in chicago!

tomorrow ankur and i are taking the train to malmo (one of the southern-most cities in sweden) and then spending a couple of nights in copenhagen which i am really excited about.  my college roommate elizabeth studied abroad there during our senior year of college and i have always wanted to go.  there is a jazz festival so hopefully we will hear some good jazz and see some fun stuff :) mostly i am really excited to take the train and see more of the swedish country-side (if the sun comes up)

funny swedish lesson

so someone sent me this swedish lesson today and it is too funny... i feel like it is pretty representative of the way i feel about swedish - it is really confusing, the swedes speak amazing english which makes you feel dumb and the word slut is written everywhere

drottingham palace

today ankur and i took a little day-trip to drottingham palace... both of our guide books said it was can't miss and we could get there by taking a subway and a bus seems simple enough

but no it is winter in sweden - we got there and it didn't seem terribly crowded or populated - because it wasn't open... every guide book for this country is written for summer ONLY... we need a special winter sweden guidebook telling us about things that we can do instead of all of the fabulous things that you can do in sweden that aren't open!

anyhow, we took a few pictures and stood around outside for 20 minutes to wait to watch the changing of the guard... then we got back on a bus and back on the subway and went to a great saluhall in sodermalm, we had a wonderful vegetarian lunch... i had lasagne and ankur had these really yummy veggie burger patty type things.  we walked around and bought some yummy cheese and bread.

now i am sitting in my apartment - watching the view (yay!) and eating my yummy cheese and bread while i do my laundry - great if not entirely successful day

skating day 2

no falls - 3 laps around - yay!

in the infamous words of kate moseley...

TOEPICK!

in case you aren't as big a cutting edge fan as i am - this means i went skating this morning.  it was great my goal was to make it around the lake once... i think the track on the lake is about 2 km and i made it around twice which i thought was pretty impressive.  the not so great thing is that even though the track is plowed there was about 2-3 in of snow and because it is a frozen lake there are lots of bumps and divets that you can't see because of that snow... about halfway through the second lap i hit one of those bumps and went flying forward belly-flopping on the ice.  it didn't really hurt, but i was wearing my fleece and when i stood up i was covered in snow - it was quite exceptional.  so besides that and the 70 year old man that probably lapped me 4 times it was great... i am going to try to add a lap each day so hopefully by next week i will be skating 10 km a day!