Gotland and VIS Trips

Hej again,

Sorry that it's been so long since my last post.  But it just means that I have been so busy out doing things and that I have so much to write about now.  It looks like my last post was at the end of August, so here's what when on during September:

On September 3rd, we took at trip to Almhult to visit the first IKEA in the world.  It was nice to go see something that Sweden is world famous for, but it was even better to buy some cheap things to fill up our empty dorm rooms.  Not having IKEA in Vermont, I didn't realize how cheap most of the stuff was, and that there's a little restaurant in the middle of the store (that serves some pretty good Swedish meatballs).  I bought a few things, but not nearly as much as some others, so hopefully Mike and I can pick through their left behind stuff when everyone else leaves after the first semester.

Getting off the bus at the First IKEA.  In the foreground (from left
to right) are Christoph, Andre, and Simon (all from Germany)

I think the next major trip was two weeks later, when we went to Gotland for the weekend.  Gotland is Sweden's largest island, off the east coast in the Baltic Sea.  We stayed (in some surprisingly nice hostels) in Visby, the largest (and I think only) city in Gotland with about 22,000 people.  Visby was a medieval city dating back around the stone-age, so there is stone everywhere, most notably in the city wall that surrounds (now just the residential part of) the city.  But even in the countryside, you can see a lot of stone walls and buildings.

The Visby city wall

The countryside, note the windmill, use of stone, and dark rainclouds

Probably the most recognizable attractions about Gotland are the sea stacks that line some of the beaches.  Unfortunately, the time that we spent visiting them was quite rainy (the weather in Sweden can change at a moment's notice) so it was not quite as majestic as it could have been, but when the sun came out here and there it was quite a sight.  We also had planned a bbq on the beach and most of our friends had an awful time trying to get their portable barbeques lit in the wind and the rain, but luckily Mike had thought ahead and gotten us sandwich meat instead of burgers and hot dogs.

A sea stack.  Fun to climb, but it was really windy up there.

The rain didn't stop Mike from having fun with the
bubble sword he found at the grocery store
(and a nice shot of some sea stacks too)

The beach was almost all rock, but they were nice
and smooth and perfect for skipping in the water

Like I said, these things are really fun to climb

Nice shot of the sea stacks

When we were heading to the bbq it seemed like it was getting nice out...

One more wide angle shot of some sea stacks

The next day we were up early and had 6 hours of free time to walk around the city.  A lot of people were still tired and lazy, but I walked the city with Sari and Jonna (Finland) while everyone else just hung out downtown trying to recoup.

I still don't know what this building was, but it looked important
and everyone was talking pictures of it, so here it is

Nice view of the skyline overlooking the water

Wandering through the city streets

On the other side of the wall it's green and beautiful

But as much fun as that weekend was, there were a few downfalls as well.  The trip wasn't extremely well organized (we didn't have much time for things like sleep or packing up to leave, and they even forgot the ferry tickets on the way back so we had to waste another hour or two waiting for the next boat).  Given this, we decided that our trips would probably be a lot more fun if we just booked them ourself from then whenever possible instead of going through the school.  Some of the school trips are a bit cheaper since they book a hundred or two kids all at once, but with our own trips we can visit the places we want to on our own timeline.  For example, next month the VIS has a cruise in the Baltic for a few days, but instead of going on that trip we are taking a train to Gothenburg (the second largest city in Sweden) to watch the Swedish national team play the Germans in a soccer (it seems strange to call it soccer after calling it football for a few months now) match then flying to Rome for a few days, for not that much more money (once you are in a big city in Europe you can find flights to certain places on discount airlines for around $10 each way, so I think more trips like this are definitely in the works).

Another great thing about Vaxjo is that it has a very extensive set of bike paths.  I take my bike every time I head downtown, to the supermarket, or pretty much anywhere else close by.  One thing that Christoph and I have been doing lately is just biking around aimlessly trying to explore the city outside of just campus and the city center downtown, where we spend most of our time.  Yesterday we biked around for probably about two hours without any idea as to where we were or where we were going.  We found some nice bike paths, a new lake we hadn't seen yet (much like Finland, Sweden is littered with lakes everywhere).  I think this picture is from another bike trip, because the location is on the way downtown, but I thought it was a nice picture so I stopped and took it.

Part of the bike path by the lake near the city center

The next major event was finally meeting my friend family.  Before I came to Vaxjo, I signed up to get another student to be my Swedish buddy and a family from the city to be my Swedish friend family.  Now I had met my buddy, Aline, a couple weeks before hand and seen her a few times, but I had yet to meet my friend family.  It turned out they they were some of the nicest, most generous, friendliest people ever.  The couple was Vicki and Jan-Olof Swanteson.  Vicki is originally from Oregon, and and Jan is from Sweden, but he spent a year studying in Oregon where he met Vicki and they got married.  They have two kids, 22 and 26, who are in Florida studying.  They were very picky about who they got as a student placed with them, and I'm glad they were because we are a perfect match.  They are huge sports fans, and have season tickets to the Vaxjo Lakers hockey team, along with being friends with many of the players.  I have the sense that they are very well connected in a lot of aspects too, Jan was telling stories about going hunting with the king, and about how they know some famous Swedish tennis players (Vaxjo is especially famous for it's tennis players) and rock stars.  Jan and his family (I've also met his sister, and actually set them us as Mike's friend family since they were also looking for an American student and hadn't gotten one yet) own a outdoor sports store (Jan is a huge hunter) and Vicki just recently started running a RedGreen store downtown.  I've only known them for about a week now, and we've already been out through a school event touring the city (afterwards we got lunch and coffee, in Swedish sitting down for coffee is called fika, and it's a hugely popular things to do, especially after meals) and over to their house for dinner.  They have a very nice house downtown, part of the old downtown that was part of the original city limits of Vaxjo before it started expanding, with a very nice sized backyard for a house in the city.  They are such wonderful people, and we have so much in common that I think they are as happy to have me (and often Mike) around as I am to have them.  Of course, nothing can replace the family back home, but it's nice to be a part of one here too.

Jan in front of a coffee house (that happened to be closed) by the lake

The view walking down the lake to the other coffee house

The next trip, the following weekend, was to the moose park and a glass-works factory.  The state of Smaland is famous for both it's glass products and elk, as Sweden is in general.  First we headed to the glass factory to see glass being made and stopped by a few showrooms and clothing outlets.  Then we visited the moose park, where we walked around for about an hour looking at the moose, then grilled some delicious moose burgers before heading back home.  

Shaping a vase

One of the many fires around the factory

Some of the more abstract art in the factory showroom

Another piece of glass in the gallery nextdoor

A piece of art outside with the factory in the background

Our guide at the moose park.  He spoke only Swedish and German,
but his moose impression is among the funniest things I've ever seen

Feeding a moose (yes, I got a haircut)

Hanging out with my moose buddy

Up close and personal with some moose

A shot of the majestic beast

And there weren't just moose (although sometimes I wish the goats would be a bit quieter)

And pigs too (and rabbits, and turkeys, and...)

It seemed a bit ironic to be eating moose burgers and sausage right
 after spending an hour looking at moose, but it was delicious!

My latest trip wasn't through the VIS, but was for one of my classes, Swedish Leisure, Culture, and Sports.  We often take trips, but they are usually just to a gym or a sports club.  This one was to a nature reserve and historical site on the other side of town where one of the teachers in the same department as our teachers had a boat and I guess was in some way associated with the museum.  We took the boat around for about an hour, seeing the lake, then had a walking tour for about an hour before heading back home.

A view of the lake from the boat

The fisherman (and their comically large poles) were out in force

For some reason I really like this photo

I really like this one too

One of the more interesting things there.  The giant corkscrew
was used to bring up water in an attempt to lower the water
 level of the marshland so it could be used for farming

Since I'm out of photos, I guess this ends this installment, but I hope to have some more to tell about soon (hopefully you won't have to wait another month like this time).  I am sure that as the leaves change color there will be some pictures taken that are worthy of a spot here, and hopefully there will be some more exciting trips to tell about as well.  But until next time regards from Sweden.

Hej da