Cousin Barbara and the Swedes

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So I couchsurfed at another place, hung out with a crazy Jamaican, and woke up at 6 am all to catch a flight that was then delayed 6 hours. I now know the Hannover (Germany) aiport like the back of my hand!

The ride from Amsterdam to Hannover was nice. I first made friends with 3 Irish boys who were extremely nice and gave me a full out history of why Southern Ireland is NOT part of the UK. They were relatively easy to understand and we had some good laughs together. Then an Australian girl name Melissa got on and sat next to the boys but when the boys were kicked out of their seats by passengers with reserved seats, she came and sat next to me. We had a great conversation together, discovering how completely strange it is that while we go skiing on Christmas, she has always gone to the beach! She said that little kids have not yet put two and two together about the fact that sleighs are for snow! We exchanged emails and since this is now my second Australian buddy, I'm more and more inclined to venture over to Aussieland, preferably to experience my first sunbathing Christmas.

I finally made it to Hannover, had some trouble finding my way because of Germany's extremely English-unfriendly system (yet met a German family who helped me out) and arrived in Hannover only for my plane to be delayed 4 hours which eventually turned into 6. So what did I do? I cleaned out my backpack and organized all of my little scraps of paper with addresses and phone numbers into my address book, and stupid shit like that that surprisingly enough entertained me for a good 3 of those hours. The others I spent watching funny people around the airport. So we finally got on the plane and I made friends with the German guy next to me who was going to visit his girlfri end studying in Stockholm. I got the low down on the German education system (I tend to ask about this in all countries, this and the political structure of one's government, don't ask me why?), then we disussed stereotypes (another thing I do with most people I meet). I love hearing about stereotypes of Americans and then trying to nicely explain my stereotypes of someone else's culture (which was very difficult to do with the Germans!).

Because my flight came in so late, Barbara's son's graduation party had finished so she, her husband, and her oldest daughter Pia came to pick me up at the airport. Barbara seemed so familiar to me, probably just because she's related and all. Pia and I got along great in the car, talking the whole way. When we got home I chatted with Barbara and her husband a bit about their trip to Italy then crashed until about 1 pm the next day.

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I woke up late, had some breakfast and then Barbara, her husband, and I went bike riding into the center of town and walked around siteseeing. Uppsala is beautiful, extremely green, lush, and flowery. The weather was gorgeous, 70s and sunny, which came upon my arrival according to them. We walked up to the castle and got ice cream and watched the governor come in an out of the castle, while Barbara explained to me why everything thinks he's an asshole (of course he is he's a politician!). We then walked through gorgeous parks and looked in some beautiful churches and then looked at these stone remanents from the Viking period. They were really neat and I was surprised that these carvings with were left out in the park so vulnerable to human forces. Barbara said that Russians often come to see these (can't remember the name for them) carvings and are astonished that they are not contained and better preserved in museums like the one's in Russia. I thought it was nice to make them so public, and it shows how the Swedes respect their past and enviornment more than the Russians.

We basically just roamed around town in the gorgeous weather and then hopped back on our bikes and ventured out of the center to find the Viking mounds. Apparently when the Vikings buried someone, they create huge mounds in rememberance of the deceased; I'm sure there's some more anthropological explanation but this is all I was told. They were really cool and well preserved and fun to bike through however biking was a bit difficult for me because the bike was so HUGE. I couldn't stop without falling off the bike and had to devise a new way of getting on without tipping over. I don't think Barbara and her husband, Tobbe, realized until we stopped at a light and I fell off the bike and hit Tobbe! I became extremely worried about stopping unexpectedly and often just biked in circles waiting for the cars to pass until I could proceed. My legs were beyond straight when pedaling so my positioning started to make the rest of my body hurt, like my ass. Needless to say, I'm quite sore and thank goodness we are taking the car sightseeing today!

Then the three of us went to a Turkish restaurant near their house and had a wonderful meal while watching the Cup game between Sweden and Trinidad and Tobago. Throughout the day we saw probably hundreds of people sporting Sweden Cup jerseys so we new the majority of Uppsala was watching. We had a good time watching and discussing the players and of course I rooted for Sweden, though it ultimately was a tied game.

Tomorrow we are going to some other castle, and walking around a medieval city. Then on Monday I'm going to Stockholm to look around and visit Pia.

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