Kanelbullar och den Dalahäst

So three Americans went to Sweden, and here is what happened:

Wednesday:
Gavin, Victoria and I left our home in Coleraine, Northern Ireland with bright eyes and bushy tails. We boarded the train to Belfast, bus to Dublin, and then tried to sleep in various places in the Dublin airport. The floor was hard and cold, and not until 3 a.m. would the sandwich shop worker let us sleep on the benches. Nevertheless, we stayed excited and ran on maybe 3 full hours of sleep until Thursday night in Stockholm. Being young is awesome. :D

Thursday: Our flight from Dublin to Stockholm, Sweden left at 6:45 a.m. and I didn’t sleep one wink sitting by the window. Gavin had no problem stretching out, however (see picture). The view outside was much too beautiful to miss as we chased the sunrise over Sweden.

Once in Sweden, we took a bus from the airport into the city center of Stockholm; talk about culture shock! Away from the bus station, signs are NOT in English. You have to pay for the use of unisex toilets in foreign currency, which makes you think you just spent 10 dollars to use the bathroom. Utfart and infart are the exits and entrances. And ‘gay-dar’ takes on a whole new meaning from the rest of Europe! Everyone was clean, and tall, and beautiful, and well dressed.

After about four hours wandering around the city, we finally found our way to the City Lodge Hostel, which included wifi, free breakfast, and a location directly in the center of the city.

Our BEST decision of the entire trip was to take a free tour of the Old Town (Gamla Stan) in Stockholm. Old Town consists of German architecture dating back to the 13^th c. We had a fantastic tour guide named Ira, who was born in Russia, raised in Israel, and now calls Stockholm her home. We saw the main square, Stortorget, where they have any political rallies, dances, and while we were there, an MTV snowboarding exhibition. We saw their parliament building, the main river Norrström, the Royal Palace and guards, a Viking stone, and all of the tourist alleyways full of wonderful Swedish food smells.

We wound up wandering the streets in the cold and the rain, but found refuge in an American style sports bar with the Irish name of O'Leary's where we had hamburgers. Can you guess how much they cost? 150 KRONA! That's really only 15 british pounds...still expensive but better than 150. The menus were also in Swedish, so those context clues and pictures came in very handy.

Interesting fact: Almost every Swedish king has been named Gustaf or Karl; the current one is actually named Karl Gustaf.

Friday:
We ate a free breakfast of bread, jam, salami, cheese, eggs and toast with the ever popular Nutella from the hostel, and ran to catch a train to Mora, Sweden at 9:30 a.m. This was only the first of three trains we sprinted to catch. On Friday it was because the ticket kiosk wasn’t working properly, and Victoria just had to buy her ticket on the train.

The trip to Mora was another good decision because it let us see the countryside of Sweden. Ireland is depressing us with its rain and lack of fall leaves, but Sweden satisfied our longings for fall more than we ever could have imagined. Every other tree had leaves of pure gold, and the houses in the countryside gave a great contrast because they are all painted red.

Interesting fact: We found out they use the rust from an old copper mine to make the paint that 90% of the population uses for their houses.

The other cool thing about the train ride was that I started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is set in Stockholm, Sweden. I had tried to read the book a few times before, but after actually being on several of the streets the author described, the story went from good, to great.

In Mora, we actually had a hostel booked ahead of time: the Prinsgården Hotel. We found it within 10 minutes of walking from the train station through the small, rural town. The owner (whose name we still aren’t sure of) welcomed us very warmly. I HIGHLY recommend the next time you visit Mora, Sweden to stay with the Prinsgården! (More on this later). But we made it to the factory and saw the symbol of Sweden: a hand carved, wooden horse, usually painted red, and illegal to manufacture outside of this one factory in Mora. TOO. COOL.

This woman has been painting for 50+ years!

After the factory, we took the bus back closer to the hotel, bought some gloves and emergency chocolate in the “Dollar Store” (even though they use Krona), and ate kebabs in a neat little diner where no one spoke English very well. We got very good at using context clues to determine what we were ordering.

We then had a strange encounter with a drunken Swedish girl who wanted us to follow her to her car. We said no, of course, and that was the end of that story. But it was still worth documenting.

So this is the part where I tell you why you should stay in the Prinsgården hotel in Mora, Sweden. When we arrived on Friday morning, we told the owner (we think his name was Erik) what our plans were. At first he offered to let us drive his car there because it was too long to bike, but he personally drove us there instead! On the way there, we were trying to describe a cinnamon bun to him, because we thought they were a traditional Swedish food, and wanted to find one. They even have a holiday for them in October. We tried saying cinnamon, but he didn’t know that word. Sweet bread for breakfast? No. Icing on top of a roll? No. Cinnamon is a spice? What else do you have it with, apples? No. It wasn’t until later that evening when we had the internet to show him a picture did he understand.

AAAHHH! Kanelbullar! Apparently it is a very popular thing and we got to have one for breakfast the next morning.

Erik exemplified the beauty of our time in Sweden. He told us he wants to treat his guests like he wants to be treated when he travels. Truly following the “do unto others” rule, he drove us to the factory in his own car. He looked up bus timetables for over an hour with us. He looked up train timetables after that. He offered us his own beer and let us sit and talk with him in his house, among his friends, for several hours that evening. Erik told us his life changed when he almost died from a motor bike accident. He spent a year in a hospital and came to realize what life truly means. Now I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s the truth! Life is so much more than materials; it is kindness to strangers and building relationships that last, and will maybe one day fix the world.

Saturday:

We got up early and headed into town for a quick hug on the dalahast, a kanelbullar breakfast, and a SPRINT to the train back to Stockholm. We needed the exercise.

On the train, we wound up in first class without knowing it. We stayed there for an hour before we had to move, but it was so worth it. ;D

4 hours later in Stockholm, we went back to the Old City and caught the last tour of the Royal Palace.

Interesting Facts:
 Until 1905, BRAND NEW, just born, still icky, crying new born royal babies were placed on a silver platter and brought out to be displayed to a crowd… No one knows why.
At one point, the palace caught on fire and the only man who died was hit in the head by the Devil’s Bible being thrown out of the library window.

We had dinner on the go (more kebabs and leftover baguette sandwiches) as we meandered around the clean streets. We also went back by the main square in town and found a huge MTV snowboarding exhibition! Don’t ask us what was going on, because we never knew, but basically they had a fake snow platform at the top, rails they would slide down, and snow to land on at the bottom. No one had on helmets. One girl busted her face while we were there. And everyone was grooving to the ever present dup step music. The Swedish know how to party, I guess!

After that, we made our way back to the hostel by the Skavsta airport we flew out of. We got back to Coleraine by 11ish Sunday night, and I’m sure we all fell asleep with smiles on our faces.

So thank you, Sweden. I will never forget you.