The Griffins Take Stockholm!

Very very early the morning after our big 4th of July Spectacular, the Griffins (better known as Molly and Clifton and their kids, Jacob and Maddie) came to visit Blake and I in Stockholm for an extended layover on their way back to the States for vacation. We were super excited to see them (albeit a little tired) although Jacob was just excited to ride some trains. (In his defense, he is not even 4 yet.)

After some breakfast (Pork products are banned in Doha where they live, so immediate bacon was a must) we went for a walk to check the city out.

They immediately loved it (Who wouldn't?!) especially how child-friendly and walk-able the city is. After a 7 hour flight with the kids, they weren't sure how much the kids could handle on the first day, but they seemed to be doing fine so we hopped on a boat and headed over to the Vasa Museum. Jacob was pretty excited about being on the boat (not as exciting as a train though)

By the time we got inside the museum though, Jacob was just about done with the whole thing. Blake and I really thought a huge boat would be really exciting to an almost 4 year old, but we were wrong. He feigned some interest, but he was more excited to get back on the ferry boat so we got out of there quickly.

That was it for day 1, but the kids rested and rallied for day 2.

First on the agenda for day 2 was a train ride! Hooray!

Since the weather wasn't cooperating (although a break from the heat was nice for them) I took the Griffins to a butterfly house a little north of the city (Blake had to work unfortunately). It had an awesome Koi Pond:

Jacob rushed us through the other exhibits because he was really excited to see the butterflies. Unfortunately when we got there, the butterflies were a bit much for him. (Some of them were quite big, and they do fly right at you. As a little kid, I am sure that is terrifying)

Maddie (who loves everything) enjoyed being pushed around though:

That was about all the kids could handle, so after a long bus and train ride back, we just went back to my apartment to relax and let Maddie nap. Jacob had fun watching the original Tranformers cartoon movie (yes- Blake owns it) and playing with the Swedish flag:

When Blake got off work we met him at our favorite restaurant for Swedish food- Kvarnen's. Jacob was at first excited to try some Swedish meatballs, but then started complaining about being tired, and then just zonked out right at the table before his food came. That kid really can't handle his wine! (ha- jk!)

We adults had a great dinner and Molly and Clifton got to enjoy some fine Swedish cuisine (reindeer included).

The next day (and sadly the last day) Molly and Clifton had yet to see Gamla Stan (old town, and definitely the highlight of Stockholm), so we headed that way in the morning. On the way there we happened to see a Garbage Truck, which Jacob is obsessed with (he wants to be a garbage man when he grows up- how cute is that!) and it just so happened to be Blue, which is the color of his favorite toy garbage truck. This was the highlight of the trip for him:

Then we took the uunnecessary train ride to Gamla Stan (it is a 10 minute walk) just to keep Jacob happy:

Maddie was just there to look cute:

Clifton even got to experience "stroller accessible" stairs:

Gamla Stan was quite crowded but cute as ever.



After exploring around that island for a little while, we jumped on a boat to go to Skansen- the old historic village. I thought the animals would be more of a draw for Jacob (moose, bears, seals- what isn't to love?!), but again, he was more interested in the mode of transportation we were taking on the way home (a bus). While we were there, they did get to try some Mjukglas (awesome soft served ice cream) and Swedish hot dogs:


We did get to see the bears, and then ran through the rest of the park to get to the bus and to keep Jacob happy.

Later that evening we had a nice pork meal at home and then we had to bid farewell to the Griffins. It was sooo soo great to see Molly and the fam again and hopefully the rest of their trip goes well! To see all the pics, click here.

Let Freedom Ring in Stockholm!!!

Blake- the biggest patriot I know- had been planning a 4th of July celebration for months. Unfortunately, the weather did not RSVP. First off, weather forecasting apparently does not exist in Stockholm. I mean, they have it, but you can check 3 different websites and get 3 different forecasts. And all of them somehow all manage to be wrong. Anyways, back to the story- the weather had been fantastic for the past week and a half right up until the day before our big 4th of July picnic- which was planned to be outside. So Blake kept an eye on the weather (as best as he could) and sure enough- 2 hours before the big party- it started downpouring. So we made an executive decision to nix the bar-b-q part, host the party at our place, and hopefully move to a park around 10 to watch the show. That was fun, but we were all ready to watch the big show:

So we rounded everyone up and hopped on the bus to go to a park where we thought it may be possible to set off fireworks.


We were a little worried that it wouldnt be dark enough since this is what the sky looked like at 10:30:

Luckily it was dark-ish by the time we got to the park:

We had asked around and tried to look online to see if setting off fireworks in the middle of the city was actually legal. We still arent exactly sure what the ruling is. Some people said no- it is only legal on New Year's Eve. Some would say no- because it is a fire hazard. Some would say no- since it was in the city. Hmmm... I just now realized that most people said no- it was not legal.

Well Swedish laws were not about to stop us, but we were a little worried when someone informed us that the Police station was 2 block away, and then even more so when a fire truck drove by:

But the show must go on!

Well, that is until the police did actually show up. They drove by once, slowed down, but didnt stop. Then drove back past us, then finally backed up and got out of the car. We charmed them over though and it was cool. Ha- actually we just said we were Americans and that it was the 4th of July. He said, "Well, I'm not going to tell you to set them off, but, um, just think about the fire-hazard." To which I replied, "Well it just rained a few hours ago, so we are good! Thanks!" But we did promise that it was the last one. So here is our last one (well last big one):

After the show, we were just standing around in the park when some random drunk guy came up and started chatting with Blake and Henning. He was weird. And racist.

And then the rave started. Well actually, Oskar (now known as the Firestarter) was lighting some mini-fireworks that were very strobe-lightish, and it got funnier and funnier:

So the moral of the story is- Dont mess with America! Take that Sweden! Courtney out.

A Weekend in Berlin

With things winding down in Europe for not just me, but Blake's sister, Giselle, who is finishing up her dance career in Dresden- Blake and Giselle's mom, Priscilla, flew over to help Giselle move and to visit Blake. Priscilla was flying into Berlin, which I had been wanting to check out, so we decided to meet her there for a couple of days.

Blake and I flew down on late Friday night and were ready to explore Berlin the next morning. We started off at the Brandenburg Gate to catch a free 3 1/2 hour walking tour of the city.

The tour was great- there is a lot to take in and see. After the wall was torn down, they marked its location with bricks all across the city:

Next on the tour we stopped by the Holocaust Memorial, which was really interesting. It is hard to describe, and the pictures only partly capture the atmosphere:

The tour then stopped at the place where Hitler’s bunker was, but there is obviously no memorial. In fact, besides a small bulletin board, they built some apartment complexes on top of it and now there is a little piece of grass where the residents take their dogs to do their business. Our tour guide pointed out that this probably was the most appropriate memorial to him.

After that we walked (we did a lot of walking) to a place where they left a large chunk of the wall standing. As with most things in this city- you feel weird being a tourist. I mean, on one hand- there a lot of really cool things to see, and some really well done memorials. On the other hand- a lot of shit went down in this city to say the least and it doesn’t seem right to be happy about them. So here I am in front of the old wall with my most normal seeming expression:

We passed Checkpoint Charlie, and the Deutscher Dom (German Cathedral) and the Französischer Dom (French Cathedral) which are identical churches because they didn’t want to offend anyone, which I find amusing and think they should do more of in this world. Seriously… it is like Berlin had a little French kid who wanted a red hot wheel, so they got him one, and then his little German brother started to whimper and to shut him up they bought him a red hot wheel too. Exactly like that.

Next we went to the book-burning memorial in Bebelplatz. Again, another cool memorial- there were empty bookcases that you looked down at through a small Plexiglas window.

The tour ended at the Berliner Dome where we heard the great story of how the wall finally fell, which turns out was sort of accidental. Wiki it.. it’s good.

After the tour, Blake, Priscilla and I went back to the Holocaust memorial to explore it some more and we were greeted by thousands of gay men and woman at the gay pride festival. It definitely added a fun spirit to the normally sobering holocaust memorial. There is something about shirtless men with pink feather boas in a party bus that can always make me smile.
After wandering around the city on our own some more, we met up for ice cream with mine and Blake’s friend from Lund- Raphael, who lives in Berlin. We must have been pictured out, because no pictures were taken here, which is weird since the 3 of us are pretty camera-happy.

I was pretty tuckered out at this point, so I went back to take a nap, while Blake and Priscilla met up for dinner with Blake’s old roommate from Lund- Ralf, who also lives in Berlin. Their dinner went a little late, so I met up with Kelly Clark- a fellow Valle fellow who just finished up her fellowship in Copenhagen. Kelly visited us in Stockholm this winter, and it was great to see her again. She was traveling with some friends she met through couch surfing- Oskar (a Dane) and Sara (a Swede living in Denmark). Both of them were also a lot of fun, and Oskar knew about a cool bar in East Berlin that served some excellent beer.

Blake eventually met up with us, but unluckily for him it was after we ate our Kinder Surprises (delish chocolate candies with toys in them… and yes- I am 26 years old).

The next day we started out at the Reichstag- the German Parliament Building. They recently added a really cool glass dome to the top. The idea of the glass dome is that any citizen can look down on the parliament which symbolizes Berlin's attempt to move away from a past of Nazism and Communism and instead towards a future with a heavier emphasis on a united, democratic Germany.




After the Reichstag, we meandered our way over to the Berlin Zoo, which I was super-duper excited to see. We stopped at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church:

And last but not least- we finally made it to the zoo! I have wanted to go to the Berlin Zoo ever since learning about it in my Zoo and Aquarium Science class- yes I am a dork like that. It was awesome.


The funniest part was the Sea Lions. There was this obnoxious huge male who would not stop barking, and who was extremely territorial over his ladies and his rock. Check out the videos:




Unfortunately, we started to run out of time, so we had to run through a lot of it, but we did get to see Knut! (The famous Polar Bear)

That was the end of Berlin, but all of my pics (as well as some of Blake’s and Priscilla’s pics) can be found here. After that the 3 of us headed to the airport to catch a lovely Ryanair flight (ha- for those of you following along, Ryanair flights are never lovely) back to Stockholm.

Priscilla hung out with us the next couple of days before making her way to Paris and the to Dresden to see Giselle. We did some Stockholm touristy things and relaxed and enjoyed the wonderful weather. Here are a few highlights, but all of the pics can be found here.

Midsommar!!!

Midsommar (Midsummer), for those of you who have never celebrated it before (dont worry, this was my first time too) is like the superbowl of Swedish holidays- except less greasy food and beer and more pickled herring and snaps. Our friends Pär and Ylva invited us (ok, there was some begging on our part) to spend midsommar with Ylva's family (The Schnürer's) at her family's adorable summer cabin in Åskersund (a few hours outside of Stockholm).

Midsommar is an old pagan holiday and is celebrated as a sacrifice time in the sign of the fertility. Nowadays, little kids sing and dance around a midsommar pole and then there is a traditional dinner with pickled herring, snaps and new potatoes. We went to a small village near their cabin, Lerbäck to check out the traditional festivities:



It started to thunderstorm half-way through, so we took a break:

You can see Ylva and I made the traditional head wreaths too. Normally only the little kids make the head wreaths and dance around the maypole, but I figured as a tourist, I could get away with it. After the rain stopped, we went back to dancing:


After taking in all of the traditional celebrations, we headed back to the Schnürer's to hang out in the sun and play some kubb:


One of the funniest things was that they had this cat who was enourmous- I dubbed him Fat Cat:

Later that evening we settled in for a traditional dinner with Ylva, Pär, Ylva's brother, Björn, and Ylva's parents- Sonja and Leif.

Dinner was great- lots of singing and snaps. I still think we need tradtional drinking songs in America! They are so fun!

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, playing board games (particulary Robo Rally- best game ever- even though Pär always wins) and kubb, enjoying the sun when it wasnt raining and eating a lot of really really good food.

Check out the slideshow of the weekend here.