Finally, some photos!

This past weekend I finally sat down and went through the digital mountain of photos I've taken since I got here, and I picked out some highlights to comment on and share. While they will make a lot more sense if you read through this post in its entirety, I know from experience that people don't always read and may miss the link if it's at the bottom. First, I'll subject you to a one-sentence summary of my picture- and note-worthy happenings since I arrived: I went on a short road trip to a couple places north of Gothenburg, visited some islands on the coast of Gothenburg, took a "work" trip to Jönköping, visited Stockholm, went to Budapest, celebrated the fourth of July in Gothenburg, visited Belgium, went to London for the Olympics, took a side trip to Paris, had a conference in Chicago with a side trip to Michigan for a wedding, went to Copenhagen, ran a half marathon in Stockholm, went to Stockholm and Copenhagen again, checked out some things in Gothenburg, and celebrated Festivus with some friends from work. So without further ado, you can find my 2012 photos here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115872916923607849736/SwedenEurope2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCOyTyr6lsN_vMg

With further ado, I'll start from the top and go through some of the more significant trips. To explain a few of the sequences of pictures, I should mention that the geography around the west coast of Sweden includes a lot of rocky islands, and Gothenburg itself has two archipelagos of rocky islands that can be reached via a system of trams and ferries. Apparently, visiting these islands in the summer is the big thing to do. There are some cool towns and islands outside of Gothenburg as well, but to get to those it's much easier to drive (assuming you have access to a car).

Early in my Swedish studies, I met a bunch of foreigners who were also taking the beginner's Swedish course, and we started going out for drinks after class. A few of them I still keep in touch with, which is nice. One of those that I don't still keep in touch with (I think he moved back to Germany) rented a car and invited some of us on a road trip to see some of the places north of Gothenburg. This was less than three weeks after I moved here and I hadn't seen much yet, and so I went along to check it out. We drove north to a fortress called Kungälv, then farther north to an island called Marstrand (which also had a fortress), and we ended by "making barbecue" (that's what the German guy called it) on some rocks by the water. There were some nice sites and some interesting history at the forts, but I think the views (check the panorama from Marstrand) were more fun for me than climbing around the forts themselves.

A couple of days later the weather was really nice, and so one of my colleagues invited me to leave work early and check out the Gothenburg islands. We took a ferry from the mainland to an island and started walking, and we soon came to another ferry dock and saw a ferry that was about to leave for a second island. We had no idea to which other island it was going, but of course we were curious, so we ran and hopped on. This took us to Kalvstad, which is a small residential island with not much to see, but we walked a lap around it, climbed to the top of the hill that was the island, took some pictures, and relaxed and enjoyed the sun. After around an hour on the island, we went back to the dock to take the next boat back, and we discovered that we had just missed a boat, and the next one wasn't for another 45 minutes. There wasn't anything left to see on Kalvstad, so we had to wait. Eventually, it came, and we went back to the first island to catch the original ferry back to the mainland. While we were waiting, the sky turned dark and it started to rain. We met a local who said that it only rains on the islands like twice a year, so lucky us, we got to experience it! Unlucky me, I didn't have a jacket, and with the rain came wind and chilly air, which made for an unexpectedly unpleasant afternoon!

The first major trip I took was when Jenn, one of my friends from Michigan, came to visit for a week and a half in June and July. She had spent a few months in Budapest during college and wanted to go back, and we found a really cheap flight there (thanks, Ryanair!). So, we went for five days. It was ridiculously hot while we were there, and unfortunately our hostel didn't have air conditioning. Regardless, we took three walking tours, hiked up a mountain, ate some delicious food and drank cheap beer, went to two different "baths" (basically these are complexes with several swimming pools, and one of them had some saunas and different types of therapeutic baths), and spent a solid chunk of a day in a mall (one of the few places with air conditioning). It's a beautiful city with a lot of interesting history, and I'm really glad we went. We returned to Gothenburg on the fourth of July, and we celebrated in style by making barbecue on my side-lawn. This was actually one of the more American fourths that I've celebrated - we made delicious hamburgers and (I) drank American whiskey and played American music loudly out the window while sporting American flags. U-S-A! The next day, Jenn and I took another economically-responsible Ryanair flight to Brussels, where we spent a day before taking a train to Leuven to meet up with our mutual friend and former Michigander, Eric. There, we enjoyed some food, drink, and music, and spent an epic travel day taking trains and boats to Mechelin, Dordrecht, Rotterdam, Antwerp, and back to Leuven. Those were all really cool cities, and I probably could have spent a couple of weeks in Belgium and the Netherlands just exploring and enjoying the architecture and sites, but alas, we had to make do with a couple of days.

Back in February, I was in Chicago and met up with my friend Natalie from college and her then-fiancee/now-husband Ryan. They mentioned that they were going to London for the Olympics with Natalie's brother and his friend, and I could join them if I wanted. Well, I took this more seriously than they probably intended, and I found yet another Ryanair flight and some available Olympic event tickets that matched theirs, so I flew over there and joined the party. Unfortunately, for most of the events I wasn't able to sit with the others from the group, but with them having the hotels and the scheduling already planned, it turned out to be a great time. On the first day, we saw archery and judo events, on the fourth day water polo, the fifth day beach volleyball, and the sixth day football (soccer). Days two and three we didn't have any events, so we went over to Paris to be tourists. I discovered that I'm not a huge fan of Paris with its snooty people/attitude, but I did get some awesome crepes on the last night, which made it worthwhile. Anyway, most of the trip was in London, and the Olympic atmosphere was just awesome with lots of friendly patriotism throughout the city.

Shortly after returning from London, I went to Chicago for a conference, followed by Ann Arbor for a couple of nights and my friend Kraig's wedding in Farmington Hills (Michigan). The day after I got back to Sweden, I left for Denmark for another conference. I came back from that, and a week later my friend Dan from Michigan came to visit. We spent a couple of days in Gothenburg and a couple of days in Copenhagen to experience the Scandinavian scene. A week later, I went to Stockholm for the Stockholm half marathon, where I obliterated my personal best (whoo!). Two weeks after that, my friend Tom from Maryland came to visit, and we met up in Stockholm, spent a few days being tourists there, came back to Gothenburg while I worked for a couple of days and Tom went to Oslo, and then we spent the last weekend in Copenhagen. Since then, things have settled down a bit, and after a couple of months of mostly uninterrupted work and Swedish classes, I'm looking forward to my next trip to Atlanta for two weeks covering Christmas and New Years.

When I told my parents over the summer about all of these travel plans, they asked: "Don't you have to work at some point?" The answer is, yes, at some point. But not during the summer. Literally, my 60-person floor had an average of 3 people present per day in the month of July. Also, I have 5 weeks vacation per year, and somehow I didn't use it all yet, so I don't think I've overstepped my bounds with travel. Next summer I already have some conference plans and family visiting, and I hope to see more of you over here as well!

Thanks for reading, and again, the photos are here.

Enjoy!
Steven