‘Blogs from abroad’ Category
Journey to Växjö, Kalmar and Öland
On the morning of April 15th, we departed from our hotel in Uppsala for a relaxing morning train ride to Växjö. That afternoon, we congregated at the main square before meeting our families, while some of us had fika at a nearby cafe. Matt and I would be spending the next five days with Stefan [...]
Our first week on the hill – Jönköping
We arrived in Jönköping after a short train ride from Växjö. The first thing we saw through the train windows as we pulled up was the enormous (2nd largest in Sweden) Lake Vättern. Jönköping is situated at the southern tip of the lake, with large hills on each side of the city. It’s actually quite similar to [...]
Spring in Paris and Berlin
Over spring break I decided I would hop over to continental Europe to see Paris and Berlin. After spending 12 days in Stockholm, I thought it would give me a great opportunity to compare 3 very different cities. It’s interesting how cities have a character. Each city certainly feels different, but it’s sort of hard [...]
A week with my family in Småland
Over spring break, some of us took the opportunity to reconnect with home again, through a trip back home or spending the week with family and friends. I chose to spend my spring break with my cousins here. My cousin Ingela and her husband Lars live on a farm near the small town Ljungby in [...]
In Europe’s Greenest City
We arrived in Växjö on Tuesday, April 16th. For the next five days we all got to live with Swedish host families; some of us in the group were in pairs and others were alone. Kallie and I stayed with Magnus and Katarina and their four children, Aaron, Salomon, Miriam, and Efraim. (They also have [...]
A Bit More of Stockholm
Stockholm is one of those cities with a name that makes you think of certain images or ideas. Beautiful people. Waterways and islands. Old pastel-colored buildings. Often, visiting an actual city shows you that the idea you have of it is actually inaccurate. In Stockholm, the stereotypes are true. The level of fashion here is [...]
My Fairy Tale Week in Visby
When most people think about college kids on spring break, they think about warm destination spots, beach side resorts, youthful excess, and incessant noise. Besides the beach part my spring break could not be further from Hollywood’s gaudy stereotype of spring break. I spent most of my spring break in Visby, the best preserved medieval town in Sweden, [...]
London Adventures and back to Stockholm!
Well another spring break has come and gone. I spent the first four days of my break in London with Erik. We have both always wanted to go to London and this was the perfect opportunity since we are already in Sweden. Travel within Europe is pretty easy and fairly cheap. We jumped on the [...]
Spring is Here?
Last week was our Spring break. Instead of going utomlands, I spent the time exploring Sweden. It began in splendid Stockholm. My parents had come to meet me there the week before and we got to know the city together. We walked for days on end before we started taking the bus. Yet, walking was a [...]
Medieval Memories in Modern Stockholm
While my friends will be giving you superb coverage of our day to day travels in Stockholm, I wanted to craft a different narrative for you, one near and dear to my heart. As you may or may not know, I am an avid medievalist, so Stockholm’s dreamy old buildings and exciting museums have been [...]