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Hej! I am from Vancouver, Canada and currently working in Aarhus, Denmark. I have travelled all over Europe and I hope to find the time to write about it all! 
Mar 30, 2006 02:00 PM It's been a while! [Luleå, Copenhagen, Malmö]
Well, yes it has been a while since I last wrote an update, so here it is for all of March!
At the beginning of March I had the pleasure of accompanying a friend to their home town of Luleå, Sweden which is on the east coast right before the arctic circle. So I was pretty far north compared to where I am here! Luleå is a town of approx 100,000 and is located on an archipelago, so when we were approaching by plain I thought there were alot of fields, but no, all the ocean surrounding the town was frozen a few feet thick (I can only imagine how beatiful it would be in the summer with all the water!). So we were able to walk, run, and jump as much as we wanted while walking across the ocean into town - pretty cool! There were even cars and plows that drove on it. Additionally, sinking in snow upto my thighs scared me at first! until I realized I could roll and crawl without sinking too much! I plan to go back up north in the summer so I can see it without all the snow!
Two days after I got back from Luleå I was off again, this time I travelled on my own by train to Copenhagen, Denmark. The train trip was about 6 hours total, but it wasnt so bad since I can sleep really well on trains, plus I talked to everyone around me and made some friends (2 musicians more specifically). So Lexy, who is studying in Copenhagen at the moment, met me at the train station and we made our way to her place. We were laughing because I had a huge bag for 4 days! As a matter of fact I had more things with me that someone who is backpacking across Europe would bring with them. But really, I was just very excited to not have a weight and size limit on my baggage (like it would be travelling by plane). Over the next 3 days Lexy showed me all around Copenhagen, it is a really neat city and I would love to go back one day. I was able to borrow one of her friends bikes, which was difficult at first because I have never ridden a road bike! During my time there we went to 2 concerts, had salsa lessons, sightsaw everything! I especially liked the Strøget where there were many many tall old buildings and pedestrian streets winding all over the place. This was also the area with many of the shops, but since I went on a sunday there was not much to shop which was probably a good thing! We also climbed to the top of the Rundetaarn where we saw a great view of Copenhagen and it was so clear that you could see the Oresund bridge, and Sweden. We also went to Christiania one afternoon. I had never really thought of what I would expect there, but it was really interesting to see. For those of you who dont know the history, Christiania is an area of Copenhagen where you dont have to pay to live (no taxes,etc), they can do whatever to their houses so it is really colourful. I dont think you can just move to Christiania if you wanted to either, so I guess it is a place where you live if you parents lived there. The controversy is that other people in Copenhagen dont think a certain group should not live for free. Hearing Danish was different, but surprisingly I could understand a little from knowing some Swedish. It was easier to read it then understand it spoken because alot of the words are the same, but spokse VERY strangely. For example, Lexy lived in an areas that was spelt Amager, but you only say Ama, and the word University is universitet in Swedish and spelt pretty much the same in Danish, in Swedish it is said like you see it, in Danish you say universitagel (I hope this is right lexy!). So they add and take away certain endings...strange form of Swedish hehehe or it could be the other way around.
On my way back to Uppsala, I stopped in Malmö, Sweden for a day. It is a really pretty city, but I didnt wander too far from the main shopping street. I saw the main square and from a distance I saw the "Turning Torso", which many people from Malmö are very proud of. I could also tell the difference between here and Malmö in the language. When you go in a store in Malmö they say what the Danes say, hi hi, and in Uppsala, they say hey or hey hey.
Now two weeks later, Lexy and Megan came to visit me and I got the opportunity to show them around Uppsala and Stockholm! In Uppsala we visited Gamla uppsala's viking burial mounds, the cathedral, my school, the uppsala castle, the carolina rediviva library, and the center of town (where we got distracted with shopping a few times). In stockholm I toured them around Gamla Stan to see the old squares and streets of Stockholm and the Palace, we went to Södermalm to check out some of the shops, and we saw the big shopping streets, and last of all we went to the Absolut Ice Bar. The Ice bar is exactly what it says it is. They throw big snow capes on you and you go into a bar where the bar counter is ice, the tables are ice, the glasses are ice, and the walls, and there are even ice sculptures around! It was the next best thing to going up north again! During the week after Lexy left megan and I went to an art gallery in Uppsala in the castle, and we went to the Nobel Museum and the Modern Art Museum. The beginning of the week when Lexy and Megan were here it was beautiful sunny weather and it was looking as if the snow was melting away quite fast, but as the week progressed and Lexy left, Megan and I were left to experience fog and mist for the whole week and on Friday we woke up to half a foot of new snow! sheesh..and I thought spring was coming! So Megan got to experience really every weather condition in Sweden! We even biked everywhere and on sunday night the three of us biked to the train station on 2 bikes (I sat on the back of the bike while lexy rode and Megan took pictures).
I hope I have not forgotten too much!
Anyways, all my photos are posted www.flickr.com/photos/lafalott Check them out! Make sure to look at the 4 most recent sets from Luleå, Copenhagen, Malmö, and Megan and Lexy's visit. I still have much more to do before I leave so I better get to it!
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