Vasa and the Swedes

Since my last post, I have travelled to Brighton, met up with Monna and flown to Stockholm.

My only comment in regards to my time in between Hatfield and Stockholm is that the English have really done well at creating their own little hell-on-earth in the form of Londons Heathrow airport. I know this is somewhat of a nearsighted comment, however, when you are sitting on the tarmac for an extra hour and a half in the smallest, most uncomfortable seats on the face-of-the-planet and have "missed your window" to fly over Denmark and now need to re-queue for take off, you really dont care much about any of it. All you know is... Heathrow = hell!!!!!

Okay alright. Enough negativity. Its all over. Somehow I got to Sweden and it is wonderful!

For all you Seattleites, Stockholm truly is a home away from home. It is green and clean. The people are friendly and very active. The food is healthy and delicious.

I was very lucky because I got the opportunity to stay with Mikki (pronounced like Mickey), Monnas cousin. Not only is she a lovely woman but she has kindly opened up her home to us and also helped us understand a little about the world of Stockholm (like how to pay for the metro and buses).

Today was a lovely day, although it started out pouring cats and dogs!

This morning we made our way, successfully, on the metro to Gamla Stan, the old city and went on a short self-guilded tour. Then, we headed over to the Vasa Museum, opposite of the the Museum of Modern Art. Vasa has got to be one of the most interesting museums I have ever been to. This museum is dedicated to the Swedish warship, Vasa. Built in only two years, the ship sank twenty minutes into her 1628 maiden voyage! After 333 years at the bottom of Stockholms harbor, she was raised and perserved for all to see! Yippie!



***I will be using stock images until I can replace them with my actual pictures!

Believe it or not by the time we were finished at the museum it was nearly five oclock. We hopped on the metro and headed back to Mikkis. But not before stopping at the grocery store to pick up dinner. What a trip! All I can say is if youre in a foreign country make sure to stop at a place that sells food because it is so weird to see new labels and brands as well as food that you dont even recognize!

After that experience, Monna and I made dinner. And then we sat on the terrace and had dinner until about eleven oclock. Did I mention it was still light out? Gosh, I love Sweden!

In Hatfield, UK

Hi all,

I made it to the UK in one piece! It was a long flight but I kept reminding myself that it was not as long as it would be if I had immediately gone on a second plane to South Africa. That would have been a long flight!

I am now at Sven´s house in Hatfield. It is a very nice two bedroom flat, with a very comfy couch that is great for watching Euro cup games.

It is currently 12:56 am. I woke up this morning at nine and have been up ever since. Needless to say, I am pretty impressed with my current state. I visited Sven´s Uni this morning where he is currently working on his PhD. One note, when Sven said he worked with Lego robots, he was not kidding.



After that we took the train into London. Man, it has been a long time since I was in that city. It is fast and full of pollen! I forget how much I react to it. We picked up Sven´s Russian visa, went to Harrod´s and then attended a volleyball training session. By the time I was playing on the court, Sven could tell that I had no energy.





I slept crunched in the fetal position on the train back to Hartford. However, somehow I seemed to tap into the last bit of energy I had left and the night ended in a heated discussion about the supreme courts ruling on individual gun rights. Intense. Difficult. But always fun.

I promise not all my post will be a play-by-play of my day but given it is now 1:08am I don´t think I could have come up with anything better!

Cheers! And good nighiitttttttttttttttttttttttttttsssssssssssssssssssssss... whoops just fell asleep on the keyboard. :) Goodnight!

My Upcoming Trip

I leave this Tuesday on my next adventure and before I go I thought it might be beneficial for my friends and family to know where I am going and who I will be traveling with.

For those of you who don’t know, I studied abroad my junior year in college at the University of Sussex. The Uni is located in Brighton, an hour south of London. While I was there I ended up playing volleyball for the school team, which is where I meet the three people who will be accompanying me on this trip.

Sven, Claudio and Monna all joined the team at roughly the same time I did.


Sven (above) is from Germany and does something with robots. It is too complicated for me to explain but perhaps he can add a comment at the end of this post to clarify! :) He is currently living a bit north of London and finishing his PhD.



Claudio (on the right) is Italian. (p.s. sorry for your loss today, Claudio!) He is living in Rome and since I have not had a full update yet I can't really say what he is up to.



Monna (the one on the right) is Finnish and she is the reason for this whole trip. See we have all traveled to each others respective homelands. Sven and Monna visited me here is Seattle. Monna and I went to see Claudio in Italy. And I went to Sven’s hometown in Germany. However, as you can tell we have not been anywhere near Finland yet. Monna = not happy about this. Thus the trip was born.

Since crossing the pond is not only expensive but creates on awful lot of pollution, I decided to add a few other destinations to the itinerary while I was over there.

Here is my plan: I fly into Heathrow. Spend a couple days in Brighton catching up with old friends (and adjusting to the time change). Then Monna and I will fly to Stockholm for a couple days. I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that Claudio meets us in Stockholm and then the three of us take the night ferry over to the capital of Estonia, Tallinn. Sven meets up with us there, where we assume we will take advantage of the sights as well as the quick hour ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki. After a day or two in Helsinki, we are planning to venture into the crazy Finish wilderness and hang out with Monna’s parents for a week. From the parent’s house, we plan to train to St. Petersburg then to Moscow and finally to the capital of Latvia, Riga. It is at this point that we all must return to reality. We fly back to the UK from Riga and then two days later I fly home to lovely Seattle, where July 4th will have passed and the weather will be wonderful for the rest of the summer. Yes, I have already knocked on wood. Don't worry.

So there you have it folks! Obviously, there is more to come but for now that is all she wrote!