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Europe » Sweden » Norrbotten County » Luleå
June 22nd 2009
Published: June 22nd 2009
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These are the places that I have spent the most amount of time

Scandinavian Adventure



So this week is our last week here in Sweden. After spending the first week in Stockholm and a week in Norway, it seems that our six week stay here has gone so fast. Sweden has been awesome though. We have met some really fun people and we have experienced so much. It is not that hard to imagine living here, as almost everything is the same as America and everyone speaks English. The one thing I wish is that there were more oppertunities to speak Swedish. Most everyone would rather just speak English instead. This makes it a very easy place to visit and I would recommend visiting Sweden to everyone.

Our week in Norway was amazing. The fjords are really spectacular. We spent our time in the Lofoton Islands off the coast of Narvick which is a small city in Norway. This area is not a huge tourist location because of the difficulty in getting there. The train in Norway doesn´t connect to Narvick so you must ride to Böda, which is about a 16 hour train ride from Oslo, then catch an 8 hour busride to Narvick. Then the Lofoton Islands, specifically where we stayed, were another three hour drive from Narvick. Point being, that our location in North Sweden is one of the easiest locations to access this area. For the outdoor types, you could spend an entire week exploring nature. We stayed in beautiful lake front cabins and canoed everyday. One day we canoed across the water, banked ourselves on a small rocky beach and hiked up a small mountain. The ground is not hard in most places. Moss has grown upon moss and has created a thick spongy surface. Protruding rocks are the only places that don´t have the moss.

The other most amazing thing we witnessed in Norway was the midnight sun. Being a hundred miles north of the Arctic circle, we had the chance to drive across the Island overlooking the Arctic Ocean to watch the sun ´´set´´. The sun never goes below the horizon and you are able to watch the suns parabolic journey down and then back up. It was very cool!

In Sweden we have done some pretty awesome things as well. We spent three days in Stockholm visiting the Vasa Museum, which is a museam that houses the Vasa ship. This ship sank on its maiden voyage because its center of gravity was too high and the wind knocked it over and it sank in the bay. It stayed there for over three hundred years before it was floated by scientists in the seventies. It is a solid wood ship, the oldest remaining, because of the brackish waters off the coast of Stockholm. Brackish means that it has some salt content but not as much as most oceans and they usually form where fresh water meets sea water. This type of water doesn´t allow the organisms that breakdown wood to survive and therefore the ship was kept preserved under water. It definitely was amazing. We also toured the main castle in the Gamlastan (old city). We saw the crown jewels and the royal apartments. We also took a boat tour of the city, which was really interesting. Unfortunately we got tickets at the second pickup point which meant that all the window seat were taken. We also went to the Scandinavian Cultural History Mueseam, which goes through the history of everything Swedish from clothing to furniture, food and holidays. It was really interesting to see how everything has changed over the years.

Since getting to Luleå and Piteå we have had a great time experiencing the culture of this region. We live with a couple Swedes and a couple grad students one from France and one from the Netherlands. We have gone to the local clubs in Luleå and danced, karaokeed, and made lots of friends. There are not many Americans that visit this far North. '

Dr. Varna, who is in charge of the program from the University here in Luleå, has a daughter who helped us move into our living arrangements (that did not work out so smoothly) and she quickly became friends with our group. She graduated from her highschool program a few weeks ago so we have enjoyed participating in the graduation activities. She also is a good source of information for fun things to do and where the best places to go each night are. She also translates for us from signs and menus.

So I work here through Wednesday, then I will go back to Luleå, a half hour drive, and we are having a going away party bbq. Then Thursday evening I will fly to Stockholm, where I will spend the night in the airport before flying to Edinborough Scotland on Friday Morning Where I will meet up with Rory and Anne Johnson our Sunday school teacher. I will post more on my research stuff at a later point in time.

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