Okay, I can already see that this post is going to be super long since it's all my photos from the past week and...I went to Sweden! It was an odd sort of little trip, but first I've got some other stuff to discuss.
Ready. Steady. Go!
Last Saturday I went to Carola's house and read in her beautiful garden for a bit. Her cat decided that he wanted to sit where my legs were and we fought for a bit before he realized that if he sat under my chair he'd be in the shade. I had cake while sitting there. The cat ate the last bit for me.
The garden was just so pretty! I ate an apple that I picked off the tree myself and raspberries fresh off the bush! We also went to hear the priest's band play. They played a lot of 80s and 90s tunes...I knew almost every one already! The best was when they played "Back in the USSR." I'm not sure if that was ironic or just funny since we're in a former Soviet-ish country.
The sunset was beautiful on the bus ride back into the city! I felt silly taking a picture out of the window until I noticed that the only other passenger on the bus was doing the exact same thing.
I took a picture of the moon because it looked super huge. It's the top white ball of light.
The night before I left for Sweden was the World Cup Final. I watched it in my pajamas since I had to be at the train station at 5am the next morning. It was so exciting to watch. When Germany scored I started screaming and jumping up and down and my neighbors all did the same. Some of them set off fireworks then, but after Germany won all hell broke loose. Tons of fireworks were set off and people were singing and yelling outside as well as driving around honking their horns. I'm so happy that Germany won!!!! It was an amazing experience to cap off an amazing year!
The next morning I got up at 4 am, caught the 4:48 tram to the train station, and caught the 5:11 train to Leipzig. From there I caught another train to Berlin, and from the train station I caught the bus to the airport. I stopped to take a picture of the beautiful German morning as I was waiting for the bus - you can see the TV tower over Alexanderplatz on the far left and the dome of the German Parliament building on the right.
I picked my favorite newspaper cover and bought it in the airport! I was a bit nervous because I decided to try mobile check-in since I don't have a printer and it costs to check-in at the airport, but I could only check in for the first part of my flight! Luckily, I beat the crowd to the check-in desk and the AirBaltic lady was very nice and printed me a boarding pass for free!
Thus began my epic journey with AirBaltic. My first flight (Berlin-Riga) was supposed to be at 10:45, but ended up leaving a lot closer to 11:15. I was a bit nervous since I just had an hour to transfer, but that ended up being fine. When I got to Riga I had time to eat the lunch that I had packed and use the toilet. Let me briefly sing the praises of the airport in formerly communist countries. They're gorgeous since they all seem to have been renovated in the past 23 years....except Berlin. Berlin has no excuses for their sad, gross little airports. (I don't count their excuse that they're building a new airport cause that's only several years behind schedule.)
Anyhow, back to Latvia. Isn't the sky pretty there? So we got on our plane and it was going great - no one was sitting next to me or in the row behind me so my just barely regulation size carry on fit in the bin easily. I had my book and a newspaper and I was reading up a storm, but after a few minutes I started wondering why we weren't leaving the gate. So we sat for a few more minutes before the captain told us that due to a mechanical problem we'd all have to get off the plane and wait for about 20 minutes while it was fixed. So we all got off the plane and waited at the gate, then everyone had to dig out their boarding pass stubs and IDs to get back on the plane. (The plane was one of those that had propellers instead of jet engines, so I wasn't particularly impressed with its capabilities to start with.) Eventually we took off for Stockholm and we all got a free glass of water for our inconvenience. (Worst compensation ever, am I right?)
As we were getting ready to land, the captain explained that the reason for all the delays was that the World Choir Festival was in Riga and the airport there was understaffed. At the end he said "Well, thanks for flying Air Baltic anyways."
I was finally in Stockholm! I took the bus from the airport to the train station. (Which I totally recommend cause it costs 99 SEK if you're under 25 and the train costs 226 SEK.) I really wanted to look out the window, but I could not stay awake at this point despite having slept through both flights. From the train station I took the subway to the stop closest to my hostel. My hostel was a former prison, which was kinda cool. I was in a room with 5 other girls. 2 of them were German and we had a nice conversation on my second night there!
Although I really wanted to explore the city, I was too tired to do anything besides go and grab some dinner and then walk around the island that my hostel was on for a bit. I ended up reading in my room until 10, when I deemed it socially acceptable to go to sleep.
Bunny!! The island had several rabbits on it and they weren't terribly afraid of people. (I feel like I should explain that Stockholm is partly mainland and partly islands since it's near the Baltic Sea.)
View from the far side of the island.
Pretty flowers with rose-shaped leaves.
On Tuesday morning I went on a free walking tour of Stockholm. I got really turned around so I was a few minutes late, but I didn't really mind that. I mostly took a picture of this building because I thought the clock was cool, but it used to be a bank where people were taken hostage. Those people ended up liking their captors and Stockholm Syndrome was born!
One of the King Gustavs of Sweden. They're pretty proud of their monarchy.
I saw the parade leading to the changing of the guard! Check out this marching bassoon player. The band sounded amazing.
Machine guns with bayonets. I think I'm going to try to stay in the Swedish Guard's good graces. Also, the Swedish palace guards aren't like the British ones in that it's fine for them to move and talk to people.
This guy is pointing to the left. I don't know why.
The Swedish sky matches the flag! This flag tells us that the king of Sweden is at work in the palace.
A really gorgeous church.
The foyer to the Royal Palace.
Front of the palace.
Since this is my final solo vacation for the foreseeable future, I did exactly what I wanted to do. "What I wanted to do" was apparently go into Sephora and smell all the Marc Jacobs perfumes followed by a trip the H&M located below H&M's main office, where I purchased yet another cardigan. After that I went to a Mexican place and had my first queso since August. It tasted so amazing!!!! Swedish people seem to love tacos. I haven't seen that many Mexican restaurants since I was in America.
Earlier in the day I saw a small Swedish folk concert taking place - later in the afternoon there was free Zumba in the park.
I just took a photo of this because the second word of the first line in a rather strong curse word in German and I thought it was funny that it was engraved in the wall of the Swedish parliament.
Me with the Royal Palace.
Parliament!
Guys, I did it! After almost 11 months, I have perfected the German smile!!!!!
That evening I decided to take it easy. I found an empty rock on the island near my hostel where I ate my picnic dinner and read for a few hours.
On my last morning I got two cinnamon rolls for breakfast and sat on a bench across from the Royal Palace to eat and people watch. It was quite interesting watching people run to catch their boats and such, so I stayed there for quite a while. Unfortunately, I had a migraine, so I didn't linger in the city. I actually ended up leaving for the airport at 2 although my flight wasn't until 7:15 since I knew the only thing that could make me feel better was to sleep and I figured that the 45 minute ride to the airport would fix me up!
Once I got to the airport, it took another hour or two before the ibuprofen kicked in. In the meantime, I found a great seat where you could watch planes take off! Eventually my headache went away, and I wandered the airport.
My flight ended up leaving a bit late, which made me nervous since I had checked my backpack and knew I'd have to pick it up before I caught the bus to the train station. Luckily, I made it just in time to catch the right bus!
However, when I got to the train station, my train was delayed by 40 minutes! I decided to walk over to see the Bundestag lit up at night since it's really close and I had nothing else to do.
Eventually my train arrived! It was an IC, which I don't like since they're kinda old fashioned and set up so you have to awkwardly stare at strangers. I kinda slept for most of the way home, which turned out to be a great thing since it gave me strength for the journey ahead.
Remember how the train was 40 minutes delayed? This means that I missed the last tram and had to walk home, which takes over an hour. At least it was the best kind of summer night - breezy and only a touch chilly. After my nice night tour of Erfurt Southeast, I finally ended up back at home!
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