Thursday 3/21
Jann and Julie arrived at Stockholm Arlanda and I went to collect them! We dropped off their luggage and I brought them to my place so they could see where I live and so we could enjoy an awkward late lunch/early dinner. they were obviously exhausted from travelling and jet lagged but I did my very best to keep them up.
Friday 3/22
Friday was a fairly uneventful day. We picked up the car from the rental place, visited IKEA (Aunt Julie had NEVER been to one before!), I had class, did some light grocery shopping, and hit the road for Mariestad. We made one stop so I could show them the glorious magic that is Max. It was a hugely successful day.
Saturday 3/23
Saturday got really exciting! We met up with my super distant relatives Karl-Erik and Johan Brink. They showed us my family tree and where my Great Great Grandma Alma was born and baptized before she immigrated to the US. They live just outside Göteborg, or Gothenburg, which is Sweden's second largest city behind Stockholm. I think my mom took the copy of my family tree that Karl-Erik made for me but it was really interesting. It went back about 200-ish years. Karl-Erik worked a lot with his Uncle Nils, who was Alma's nephew, on genealogy and family history. Wow, that would be a lot easier if I to understand if I had that family tree. Nils passed away in 2010 but Karl-Erik has been continuing work on family history. He literally had binders on binders on binders full of tables of family genealogy things. It was so interesting! You could tell that a lot of time and effort was put into compiling each of the binders.
Karl-Erik and his wife Ann-Marie invited us to dinner at their house that night for a feast with their two children and their families. The dinner was simply fantastic. There was salmon and shrimp for a starter. Chicken, pork, and potatoes for the main course. And a raspberry dessert. Oh my goodness. It was heavenly. It was so great to have a home cooked meal that I didn't have to prepare! I also got the chance to use my limited Swedish skills. Karl-Erik and Ann-Marie have three grandkids, oldest age 8. Theodor was 8 and just started learning English in school. I seized the opportunity to speak two languages with him. In English, I asked him his name and how old he was. Then in Swedish I told him that my name is Siana and I come from the US. For some reason that I have since forgotten we were looking at an atlas so I pointed out the great state of Minnesota to him, ALL IN SWEDISH. It was slightly nerve-racking but super awesome. I was scared to talk to an 8 year old. My life. I didn't even try and communicate with the smaller two kids. Talking with Theodor was hard enough. All in all, a good dinner party. We stayed in a Scandic hotel in Mondal that is accommodating when you leave forget things in your room. But more on that later.
Sunday 3/24
We drove to Småland which a region in southern Sweden known for blown glass. We visited the oldest blown glass museum in the province. It was only mediocre. It was less enjoyable because all the signs were in Swedish therefore mostly pointless to me and completely meaningless to my mom and aunt. We worked our way through the museum quickly. Then the two middle aged women went a little crazy with the glass shops. My goodness, they purchased so many fragile things. If you would like to have fancy water from a Swedish glass carafe, stop by the Adrian household anytime. Heaven knows it won't get use more than Christmas and Thanksgiving. So feel free to stop by for a refreshing beverage so my mom can justify her purchase to my ridiculously judgmental brother who does not believe in buying more things for our house.
After closing down the stores, we returned to the car to make our way back toward Uppsala buuuuuut I realized that I forgot my computer at the hotel in Mölndal. Luckily we could cancel our reservations at the prison hostel and return to our hotel to get my computer. Looking back, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Maybe the description as a "ex-prison hostel" should've been warning to not stay there. We did A LOT of driving that day. Like I said, the hotel was great about it and had kept my computer for me. I was extremely careful with it for the rest of the trip.
Monday 3/25
Wake up at the crack of dawn. Check. Drive five hours back to Uppsala. Check. Go to class. Check. Not the most awesome Monday morning I've ever had but I got to spend good QT (quality time) with Aunt Julie and Mom so it's all good. That night we did stop at the most awesome roadside diner. It was a little sketchy when you walk in but the cashier was extremely helpful since I struggled to read the menu and it had a lot of variety. I did not have high expectations but my kebab was fantastic. And it was SO MUCH FOOD. I loved it. Aunt Julie got schnitzel which was tempting but I just couldn't resist the kebab. We drove to Mora to get us closer to our destinations for Tuesday. The guy who owned the house/apartment thing we stayed at that was the chattiest Cathy. He could not take a hint that we were exhausted and wanted to go to bed. But I had a double bed all to myself! It was magical.
Tuesday 3/26
Now Mora is super close to Nusnäs which is where the Dala horse shop is! This is a Dala horse:
Still don't know what a Dala horse is? Educate yourself: Wikipedia: Dalecarlian Horse
Now this place is cool. We visited Nils Olsson Hemslöjd AB. We saw where they cut the horses. Then they're sent out to people who whittle the horse. It comes back to the shop, is cleaned up, and is dipped to coat the horse in the base color. They're then sanded and sent over to the painting room. Finally they're dipped in a coating to make it shiny and are ready to be sold. SO MUCH WORK. And they literally have rows of rows on shelves and shelves of horses. They've even expanded to making Dala roosters and pigs.
We then traveled to Falun which is apparently super well known for copper mines, or something. We did go on a tour of the copper mine. However, it was completely in Swedish. I picked up a few things here and there on the tour such as dates and random words but my poor mom and Aunt. Just tagging along. We did get a paper of the tour in English but reading a tour just isn't the same especially when you're in a poorly lit mine. I did learn that the copper byproducts from Falun are used to produce Falu Red. Don't know the color? It's really Swedish. Basically every wooden house here is this particular red.
The tour would've been cool but the whole language thing made it hard to enjoy it. Next time we'll get it right and go on a day that they'll have the tour in English. Finally after a long day of two really Swedish things, home to Uppsala!
Wednesday 3/27
Now we did something in the morning but I can't seem to remember what. Maybe it will come to me. But I did have class; I started my third subject! Swedish Art and Music. Not really my thing but it fills my Art general education credit so I'm taking it. After class, I met up with my mom and Aunt again and brought them to William's Pub which is a fantastic little British pub in town that does burger nights every Wednesday with beer and cider specials. It's a little more than the nations but worth it because it's a buffet! I also showed them our University building which is somewhat old and cool. It was built in the 1800's and as with most projects, took much longer to complete than planned. The interior is really similar to the MN Capitol, so naturally, I love it. After the sunset, Aunt Julie relaxed at the hotel while my mom and I went down to the river to see the lights on the trees and I gave her a little mini tour of the student life i.e. the nations around town.
Thursday 3/28
Literally the fastest week of my life. I collected them in the morning and gave them a hand with luggage to catch the bus down to their airport hotel. Even though their flight wasn't until the next day, it was a very early flight so we said goodbye.
They scooted down to Stockholm for the day while I frantically ran around trying to pay rent and prepare for my trip to Copenhagen. Note to self: never leave rent until the last day, especially if you have other plans and such. Too stressful.
Anyway, there is a brief-ish, mostly pictureless run down of my week during the visit of my mom and aunt. If you don't want to read all that, here's a quick summary. Lots of driving. Lots of Swedish things. Brink family visit. Delicious food. Lots of shopping. I paid for nothing. It was marvelous!
Love you Mamma and Aunt Julie! Thank you so much for visiting; I had a really great time! See you stateside soon.
Coming soon: Copenhagen and Paris blogposts!
I'm off to Scotland tomorrow and my birthday is on Monday. WHY IS THIS SEMESTER GOING SO FAST?
I'm almost 21! Later, gators!
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