July 15-16, Thursday-Friday

On day one of my trip, Katey met me at the airport with a smile and we rode back to her dorm/apartment on the train (about 30 min commute). We had the morning to ourselves because Katey and her group mates had done some extra work on an assignment the night before so that she would be free to hang out when I arrived. Having some downtime to start the trip was great, and then we made our way to her school, had lunch, and then went to school for the afternoon.

The former was more stimulating for me than the latter because not only are you enjoying a nice meal but you are eating outside on a hot day in a really cool new city. Our sandwiches were good, and I was super excited when I found out that the cabbage salad-looking dish by the water dispenser was free to all restaurant patrons. It was this refreshing white cabbage dish with olive oil and vinegar and that’s about it.

The scholastic part of the first day was a bit of a challenge for me. Katey and her classmates gave 45 min presentations to the rest of the group (6 total presentations) about walks they did in the section of Stockholm that they had been assigned. The lecture room was probably 85 degrees, the lights were turned down, and I was working with about 8 hours of sleep over the past 48 hours. Furthermore, Katey’s classmates were all in agreement that the presentations were a little on the dull side. I stuck it out, and didn’t fall asleep (completely) at all. Her teachers were impressed.

One of her teachers, Peter, had a potlatch at his apartment Thursday night, and that was a blast. There was good grub all around, and it was also a good way we for me to meet the folks I didn’t already know.

The next day was Uppsala day. The class took a 30 min train ride to Uppsala, a college town outside of Stockholm with some tourist sites that some would call significant. The town was cute, and I had a really good time walking the streets, and strolling alongside one of the town’s rivers. The sites were a little blah for me on the other hand. We were encouraged to take what her teachers advertised as a couple mile walk (turned out to be 3.7 miles) to this Viking burial ground. It sounded pretty sweet, but I was a little disappointed when I arrived at 3 relatively large mounds of dirt, where 3 vikings had been buried (one man per dirt mound).

Before I go on I should also point out that we had to have a quick breakfast at the train station that morning and we had an awesome McDonald’s breakfast. The highlight was the frukostmackan, which is a Swedish breakfast item that’s made its way onto the McD’s menu. It’s basically chibatta bread with some fresh tomato, lettuce, swiss cheese and ham. It was a very nice way to start the day off, Katey and I both agreed though some of her hipster peers didn’t necessarily approve.

I'm taking over now!!! This was our favorite little rest spot of the morning in Uppsala. A great place to lay/sit when it's so hot.  Greg and I may want to build one of these when we get home.

After the long day of walking, I thought it would be nice to show Greg some of actual Stockholm (he hadn't even seen the water yet). We started by walking more through the central part of the city and finding our way to a nice little patio bar where we had a glass of wine, and stared out at Gamla Stan.

Then, in search of dinner, we walked on to Gamla Stan (the oldest part of the city). It has a lot of charm, but is very turisty. We found a nice little place and got a great little meal, ate some ice cream, and then made our way back home.

We're on our way to see more of the city today!! It's so much fun to have Greg here