So that last I checked in I had just gotten back from a great weekend in Italy/Switzerland. That following week was business as usual here in Glasgow, had some homework, went on a couple runs, nothing out of the ordinary. The following weekend was also pretty mundane, I had my second politics paper due Monday the 9th about American foreign policy which took up most of my time, but I got it in and am confident I did well. That week was the kick off of March birthdays in Glasgow, with birthdays on the 9th and 11th, and then my big 21st on the the 15th. We had a fun week celebrating, and on Thursday afternoon it was off to Stockholm to celebrate mine!
We arrived late Thursday night to Stockholm and didn't really see much in the dark. We quickly found our hostel and went to bed so we could be up early Friday morning to explore the city. Our hostel was fairly large, located right in the center of the city, surrounded by restaurants, stores and bars, ideal for travelers like us.
We spent most of Friday wandering around "Galma Stan" (the Old Town) which is a perfectly preserved Viking neighborhood. What's cool about Stockholm is that it's situated in the middle of an archipelago, with the city center spread out between about 5 or 6 islands. On Friday we got a chance to see much of the old town, the Royal Palace, the Parliament, the National Museum and the Nobel Museum (every year Stockholm is the host of the Nobel Prize presentations). Later in the afternoon our group split up, with some of us wondering to another island which housed the Museum of Architecture and Modern Art. Here are some pictures I took on Friday:
On Saturday we got another early start to the day and headed across the archipelago to "Sodermalm" which I think means "South of Town", although I'm not sure since I don't speak Swedish. Sodermalm is a really cool section of town with cobblestone streets weaving up and down steep hills, and great views of the city from high up on cliffs at the water's edge. We spent a majority of the day exploring this section of the city, and headed back later in the evening to get ready for a nice Swedish birthday-dinner for yours truly. Here are some pictures I took during our day in Sodermalm:
Since my birthday was on a Sunday, and we would be flying back to Glasgow that night, we decided to celebrate on Saturday going into Sunday. We had a nice dinner (I had a huge plate of salmon and mashed potatoes) followed by some Swedish dessert. Afterwards, we didn't really have a plan for where to go or what to do to ring in my 21st year. We had seen some flyers for the "Absolut Icebar Stockholm" which happened to be right around the corner from our hostel, so we decided to check that out. It was by far the coolest bar I have been to so far in Europe (no pun intended). First you're outfitted in massive blue ponchos with fur inside them to keep you warm, and gloves on either side to hold your drinks. Then you enter a chamber where the door closes, and cold air is blasted in, followed by the other set of doors opening so you can enter the Icebar. Literaly every single thing in the Icebar was made of ice (the bar, tables, stools, chandalier, glasses). We ordered drinks at the bar, and without me knowing my friend told the bartender that it was my 21st and we were from America, so at midnight he paused the music and the entire place sang happy birthday... As embarassing as it was I have to admit I enjoyed being sung to by a bunch of well to do Swedes. The singing was followed up with a "Happy Birthday To You" by Stevie Wonder, and then what proved to be too many drinks on the house. Here are some pictures I got of us at the Icebar:
Sunday we had to check out by 10, so we were up early and out to take in our last day in Sweden. Our main priority was to get to the "Djurgarden" to see the famous "Vasamuseet", of Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a warship built in the 1600's which sunk Stockholm's harbor upon completion. After 333 years sitting at the bottom of the bay, the ship was surfaced and restored. It was probably my favorite thing in Stockholm. After the museum we headed to the train station and were on our way back to Glasgow.....
Since returning from Stockholm two Monday's ago, I've had a lot of work which is something I haven't had to deal with yet abroad. My classes wrapped up for the semester last Thursday (SO EARLY!) and this week I had two final papers to hand in. One was addressing the main cultural effects of the Scottish Enlightenment for my class on Exploring Scottish Culture, which was challenging but actually quite interesting. The other was a critique essay on the process in the UK of drafting an Environmental Impact Assessment for developments. This was more up my alley, and I had a much easier time completing that. I was able to wrap both of those up by this afternoon, a day ahead of schedule, and since have been relaxing and preparing myself for the three weeks of travel ahead of me....
This Saturday at 6:45am I will be heading off to Budapest and Vienna until next Thursday, visiting my friends Casey and Brett in Budapest, and my friend Emily in Vienna. It will be really nice to finally see some faces from home, and I'm really looking forward to it! From Vienna I fly to Rome where I will be meeting my friend Kerrianne from BC. We are there from April 2-6, and on the 6th will be taking a train to Florence and visiting my friend Hope until the 9th. I would have to say that coming abroad, these two cities are on my top 5 list of places to go, so I can't wait to get there! As if I haven't been traveling enough up to this point, on the 9th I'm meeting some friends from Glasgow in the port town of Ancona where we will be catching a ferry to Croatia. We will be there for Easter weekend to hopefully a relaxing time (and no worries I already have figured out where a church is and when they will be holding Easter mass). On the 14th it's back to Italy by ferry, and then a train to Milan airport to catch a flight to my final destination... Barcelona! I am meeting my friends Ben and Sal in Barcelona, and we will be there until the 18th of April....
All in all I have a crazy 3 weeks ahead of me, but I can't wait to get them started and I will definitely be updating you all once I get back at the end of April!
As always, I hope everyone is doing well and that I hear from you all soon. Crazy to think but as of today I've been in Scotland for 80 days, and will be leaving in 60... time really does fly by.
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