Turns out the world's oldest open-air museum (Skansen) is the answer.
Fortunately I've found some cover (and a beer) and it gives me some time to put up a new posting.
So this past weekend I headed to Lake Vänern in Sweden along with Kristina and five of her friends for a getaway they'd planned for nearly a year. I went with much trepidation as I completely was imposing AND I didn't feel as though I'd exactly fit into the demographic. How's that for a euphemism?
But....it really ended up being a fantastic weekend. The iffy weather held off fortunately.
Friday night after a three-hour drive to the lake, we took a boat onto an uninhabited island about 45 minutes out. The island had a dock, two small houses, a boat house, a lighthouse...and that was it! Great scenery everywhere. We basically filled our time in between tasty (smoked sik and smoked lamb) meals with hikes around the island.
On Saturday we were picked up by a small boat and taken to another island that had a few more people staying on it than just us, but still was awfully quiet. This time we slept on an refurbished sailing ship that was moored to the dock. More hiking...more eating and drinking. All these folks I was with know each other from a Scandinavian travel club they're in. Sitting on the boat the final evening, drinking wine and listening to these well-traveled folks give me advice was really a highlight of the trip so far. That all these Swedish speakers would use English even when not talking directly to me, so as not to make me feel uncomfortable, was remarkably sweet.
After one more evening back in Gothenburg with Kristina, I ventured off on my own to Stockholm. I would definitely put this city right near the top of the list of my favorite world cities.
Yesterday I did the requisite tourist boat tour to get a sense of the city...which sits upon 14 islands by the way. In the evening I had a nice dinner (yes, Swedish meatballs) and a few drinks at a cool spot near the hotel.
Today, prior to this rainstorm, I hit some of the old town sites like the Royal Palace, where I saw what was DEFINITELY the most unusual Changing of the Guard I've ever seen.
Once a day they change ALL the guards surrounding the Palace and the new crew is accompanied into the main court by a 30-piece military marching band. At one point the band played, "Age of Aquarius"....I have no clue why, but it was great.
Prior to this, I hit the Nobel Museum and took a guided tour from a cute engineer/tour guide with a lisp who seemed to love all things Nobel Prize-related. Learned:
-Two people have rejected their Nobel Prizes...Jean-Paul Sartre and Lu Duc Tho
-American Linus Pauling has a Nobel both in the Chemistry and Peace fields...not bad
Prior to this rainstorm (that has just ended) I visited the Vasamuseet; a museum completely dedicated to a warship (the Vasa) that sank on it's maiden voyage in 1628. About 50 years ago they began bringing it up from the bottom of the harbor where it sat for 300 years and the restoration is honestly incredible. I'm not normally someone who's into these types of museums, but it was really cool to see this ENORMOUS wooden ship inside it's own museum.
Well, the sun is back shining, so I'm off to do some looking around.
Tomorrow morning I'm heading to Oslo, Norway (country #39) for a couple nights. I'm slated to stay with the two film students I met and wrote about two months ago in Croatia. Who knows what tomorrow brings....
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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