Emily O

Hola! Bonjour! Thanks to Ryan Air's awesome flight prices, I traveled to Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo in Spain and Paris, France last week. I chose to visit Spain because they have great weather this time of year compared to Sweden and my close friend Jordan lives in Madrid. Paris was tacked on to the end of the trip because it was cheaper to take a flight there instead of directly to Stockholm. I left Växjö on a Thursday afternoon. I took a 5 hour bus ride to Nyköping, Sweden. I took a short bus ride out to the Skavsta airport. This is small airport mainly for Ryan Air flights, only three gates. I met my friends Eric, Dave, and Brittany at the hotel across the street. Dave and Brittany flew out the next morning to Ireland while ... read more

After Venice, Kai and I took a train to Bologna. We ate a delicious lunch - I had pasta with ham and asparagus, one of the best meals of the trip. We were only there for an hour waiting for our next train. We arrived in Parma a few hours later. We were visiting Kai's friend Gabe. Gabe was an exchange student in Kai's high school 4 years ago. He was home with his family in Parma for the holidays. He picked us up at the train station and brought us to his house. He and his family are really nice and gave us a free place to stay. After getting settled, we walked downtown through the outdoor Christmas market. It was really crowded because it was a few days before Christmas. We met up with ... read more

I know I'm a month late, but I had such a great Thanksgiving this year! I flew up to Lulea to visit Kai for the weekend. I got there on Tuesday evening and there was so much snow! I don't know how much exactly, but check out the pictures. It was a beautiful winter wonderland! On Thursday, we started cooking at 1pm. We started by peeling potatoes and cutting bread into cubes for the stuffing. Kai worked on the coconut cream pie while I started the stuffing. I mixed olives, apples, and onions with the bread and chicken stock for my first attempt at making stuffing. I made three pans and got them in the oven an hour before meal time at 6:30. While I did that, Kai prepared the four little chickens and got them ... read more

I am sitting in the library of Lulea Tekniska Universitet, where Kai takes engineering classes. The town of Lulea is in Northern Sweden, only a two hour drive from the Arctic Circle. It looks just like Northern Minnesota with an array of coniferous trees, birch, and lakes. I had a week off from classes so I came up here to spend time with Kai. On Sunday, I reserved three trains from Vaxjo to Lulea (totaling 20 hours of travel). On the second train bound for Stockholm, there was some delay and we waited at a stop outside the city for an extra hour. I asked around to figure out what was going on since the speaker on the intercom was addressing the passengers in Swedish. One guy was trying to catch the same train out of ... read more

Hej! I went to Stockholm for the first time last weekend. My friend from Duluth, Cassy, came to visit me Wednesday night and we left on Thursday afternoon. We took a 4 hour train there and found our hostel without a problem. We got some dinner and went bar hopping. Kai met us a few hours later when he got to town. The next day we went to Skansen, the only outdoor museum with a zoo! It was really fun. We went to dinner and went out bar hopping again around the city. Cassy left for her airport at three in the morning and we saw her off. On Saturday, Kai and I went to Gamla Stan, the oldest part of the city. It was definitely the most beautiful part. We went to a pub called ... read more