Sweden report
You want to know what I've been doing today?
Sleeping, my dears, sleeping!
And that, 'cause I arrived just yesterday evening in Milano, back home, back from my trip in Sweden.
I tell you, it was a wonderful journey, but it also was bloody exhausting. And if I get to tell you about the whole trip, you will understand why.
Let's beging..from the last time I updated: I was i Uppsala, about to finish my swedish course. The best 3 weeks spent at school of my life, probbaly. People was just....adorable, and lesson were funny and useful. One day, we had to discuss, in swedish, the topic "should Sweden's Queen Silvia become President of the USA?" and we decided that half of us had to speak for, and the rest of us, against it. In the end, we had to vote for or against, the all of us. We all voted for, ROTFL.
ehr...anyway, back to a more general talking.....it was the 8th of August when my good highschool friend Cristina joyned me in Stockhom: we spent them one week in Stockholm, visiting gorgeous museums, cruising in the archipelago, and having overall a very good time. Weather was ...incredibly hot, for sweden. Very sunny! We also spent two days in uppsala: I had to show her the beautiful little town that it is. And the weather was so beautiful, we could even go to a nearby lake, and spend in the ice-cold water two whole minutes.....There also were another reason why I loved Uppsala so much: there, I found a lovely comic shop that carried some of the comics I always wanted to own: Nightmares and fairy tales, Squee, Lenore... and a lovely norwegian comic, Nemi. (pic shown below ;) I especially became obsessed with Nightmares and...., because it's just beautiful. I so want the issues I'm missing, and the annabelle doll! ;_;
After this rather....."quiet" week,the travelling began: I took a pic from the net and draw on it the places and the itinerary that we did. In gree, where we travelled, in red, the places where we actually stopped. I know it sucks, but please bare with me :P
We basically travelled by train only. We purchased this train ticket..called EuroDomino. It allows you to travel as much as you want, for five days. It's awesome.
Anyway, first stop was Ystad, the southernest town in Sweden. It is a quiet, little medieval place, very welcoming and pretty overall :) A 20 kilometers from there, there are the famous Ales Stenar, a Viking age momument, similar to stonehenge; 67 stones, placed to form the shape of a ship. Very misterious! The place was magical, they are in teh top of a very high....hill...that is just on the sea. Very windy!
After Ystad, we spent one day in Malmo, where Tornadolovesmelody and Rosse (well, Ros lives in Lund, nearby Malmo) live. We meet them for the day, (it was also the Malmo festival week, so the city was so crowded and full of life!) and had a very nice time browsing the food stalls, trading ponies (SQUUUEEEEEEEEE! I got baby liquorice!And Sunglider!and sea pony floats! and! AND!!) , talking ponies, and eating yummy things. They were both such sweeties!I was so happy to see Mel again, and meet Rosse (with who I've been trading and emailing for a while) ^_^
Just right after Malmo, it was time to leave again: and this time, it was tiem to leave for the north! Only thing you have to know about that nightmarish travel is that we travelled for exactly 24 hours by train. ANd you should also know I can't stand the sight of atrain anymore. eh.eh.ehhhhhe.
*mad laughter*
When I said we were going north, I really meant it. Kiruna, in Lapland, is about one hour by train from the ...Polar artic circle? is that the name? well, anyway, is even northern than that. so go figure :P Really close to Norway, too.
Kiruna...what can I say about this town? it's a bit creepy, very,very cold, and rainy. Nobody around, few shops, gloomy atmosphere...but the nature it's incredible up there..so much different from the woods of the south! and raindeers...raindeers everywhere!
We wnated to go to the Abisko National park from here, 'cause we heard it was gorgeous, but at the last momnet we found out there were no trains that went there that day. Big bummer! So we decided to take a guided tour to the huge LKAB Iron mine that is ..the only and main reason Kiruna exist as a town. Two mountains just outside the center of the town are really righ in Iron, and they have been excavating it from the 20s, if I am correct. It was a very interesting visit, and I learn even too much about iron, ROTFL. But nice, I swear. Nice ^_^
After a few days of freezing in Kiruna (+5 degrees....) we moved to Lulea, a much nicer town on the sea, where I've been before three years ago, 'cause a good friend of mine lives there. It's a cute place, with not much to do, but still pelasant, with nice shops and flowers everywhere. Here we did some good shopping, and I met my friend Karla for a cup of tea.
And we come at about the end of the holiday. In lulea we took a plane (at 6.30 in the morning...ok, I really have to tell this story: my dad booked for us a Luleo-Stockholm flight that left that early. We tought it wasn't a smart idea to stay at an hotel, so we were like...what the hell, we can sleep at the airport. Itìs no big deal. What we didn't know was that the airport actually closed down at 1 am...and we didn't know what to do! The airport was in the middle of a wood, 20 mins by car away from town, and it was freezing cold! So we begg....asked the guy that stayed there for the night to watch the airport if he could let us sleep there. We smiled sweetly at him, and he accepted. Ah, the power of two sweet girls! He told us to stay in a waiting area, with a toiled nearby, because if we walked around, the alarm would go off. We were just playing cards and trying to find a way to spend the night, when all the lights started slowly to swithch off...and soon we were in the darkness. I admit I am a bit paranoid, but there were starnge shadown around, and weird sounds. You may not believe it, but closed airports are freaking SCARY. ANd we started thinking the guy was a homicidal killer or something, because....because there were these strange sounds, and he knew we were alone and ....with no escape, you know? To make things short, I spent the following 5 hours with my eyes wide open and my mind thinking horrible, HORRIBLE things. Crazy :P)
....the morning after, we took this plane to Stockholm, spent a few hours in the city (there was this swedish band doing a little concert in the streets..nothing big, you know, they were self produced and all...but boy, were they good! their name is By Heart, and I even bought their self produced cd ^_^)
Then, took the plane back to Milano...and here I am.
One month away....that's a lot.
But now, on to the pictures. You will love the, promised ;)
-This is the lake we went to, nearby Uppsala.
-Me (on the right, LOL) with Lorenzo, an italian guy I meet at the course in Uppsala. One day, our group decided to do a "international evening meal" and everyone would cook something typical from their own country. Me and Lorenzo cooked pasta :P
Btw, Lorenzo is a totally sweetie, probably my soul mate ;). Too bad he has a girlfriend already :P But we are keeping in touch ;) *naughty smile*
-Stockholm archipelago: view from one tiny island we stopped at. The nature is AMAZING here
-Another view on the archipelago. There are about 40.000 little/big islands in the archipelago.
-Sandhamn, one of the most well known Archipelago islands: there is a little village there, with the typical red wooden houses
-Birka, an island that was one of the most important commercial Viking town for some time. An UNESCO world heritage place.
-My friend Cristina at Ales Stenar
-Ales Stenar, Viking monument
-me and a few friends from the swedish course
-Odinsborg, an old restaurant near the Viking tombs (see below): I loved it!
-The two main burial sites of Gamla Uppsala, near Uppsala: Viking age tombs, that looks like hills :P
-A runic stone from Uppsala
-Rosse, me (oh, the hideousness!!) and Mel: I love them :)
-Uppsala: a view of the river that goes through the middle of the town, and the beautiful cathedral (Sweden's biggest cathedral)
-awww, Ystad is so lovely!
-and that's Kiruna. Gloomy, gloomy place.
