Gott nytt år - Hej då Umeå

Update: I am now in Toronto airport and have located free wireless - so finally able to post my last Swedish blog!  Had a great visit with Stefanie in Frankfurt - will add another blog with those photos ;)  and just saw my wonderful dear old roommate from Ridley high school days, Amber, and her cute baby Jordan - thanks for coming to the airport Ambie - KC Club Founding Co-Prez!

And now here is my blog wrapping up my time in Sweden....

Well I am on the plane to Frankfurt – so have officially left Sweden now.  I think though I may add another blog post or two with some reflections on my time and thoughts on Sweden – but we shall see how that goes once I am back home and busy with life there!  I definitely found out that blogs are a lot of fun to write and it’s nice to be able to tell a story and share thoughts along with pictures!  I’m a fan – so I encourage you to start a blog so I can follow  you and your adventures!  I’ve been lax with the updates in the last couple of weeks b/c I have been knocked out by what Vickie not so affectionately has dubbed the Tri-Nation-Cold – compliments of Ireland, Russia, and Sweden.  I am also not so fond of it – as I have now had it for over two weeks!   Who knew that a simple head cold could be so brutal – and also uncooperative for travel!  Luckily my sinuses are tolerating the pressure changes of flying – but they are by no means happy!  Hopefully it doesn’t become a four or five nation cold and it is gone by the time I land in Canada!

So where to begin….. well I guess I could begin with my experience of being sick in Sweden and how it turns out things aren’t so easy here in terms of medicating yourself! But boy did I try every possible way to get healthy! When I travel to a 3^rd world country I always go prepared with all sorts of medicines to cover my bases – but when I get there I realize they have everything I need and more – and it costs less than at home.  Not the case in Sweden I can now tell you – bring your own drugs (Sudafed, Theraflu, neo-citran, et al.)!!!  When I was sick with my last cold (The Spanish one) I had visited the pharmacy to get some cold medicine – b/c you have to buy it from a drug store.  Anyhow, I got something called Sinova Forte – sounds like it is something strong for your sinuses right?  Yeah not so much – after taking that to no avail during the tri-nation cold I ran the ever faithful google translator only to discover that it is all herbs… such things as ?cowslip?  All I know is that it was giving me the slip in terms of making me feel at all human!  So luckily Vickie had reserves from her extended bout with the sickness  and left me with some Sudafed she acquired problem free in Estonia.  I asked about getting ‘cold medicine’ and in the end the consensus was that  you need to see a dr for that.  Given that I knew that my ear drums and sinuses in their current state would not survive 4 flights to get back home I decided it was time to get serious.  So began my foray into “Vard” (health) in Sweden.  I called the local VardCentral – the catch here is that you don’t get to speak to a human being – the message just tells you that they will call you back – in my case it was going to be 4 hours before they called back.  Then in the end they said – yes you should come in but we have no more spots today, so you must call back and try again tomorrow!  Or go to the IKSU drop-in center instead during their hours.  Oh and they said it would cost 1800 Swedish Kronor (~300 CAD).   Here’s hoping my Canadian Emergency Travel insurance covers that – I figure they should given that if I couldn’t fly they’d be paying a lot more for hotels and what not for the delay of my trip home… In the end a nurse saw me and that only cost 800 SEK – but was not what I call helpful.  She could only prescribe me nasal spray – had to go see a dr dr for the decongestant – which she confirmed was nothing stronger than the Sudafed I was rationing from Vickie.  And I liked that she asked if I had a fever – uhm – aren’t you the one with the thermometer – oh right – so she checked and at least no fever.  The saga continued when I took my prescription to the pharmacy and the pharmacist looked trouble and after consulting with the other pharmacist told me - this is slow to act – you should take for 14 days rather than just 10 (I had only 4 before flying!) and you should take higher dose with more sprays than was recommended in the rx.  When I googled my spray (?nasonex)  I was dismayed to see that it is more for people with chronic sinusitis than for someone with a bad cold… what’s a girl to do?!   Happily Stefanie bought me some stronger drugs in Germany so I could be less conservative with my Sudafed consumption in the interim and am now feeling at least somewhat human!  But I tell you when this cold is finished I am not going to want to drink anymore hot tea with lemon and honey for a long time!!!

Sidebar – the pilot just announced +10 C in Frankfurt – woo woo!!!  I am spending the night with my dear friend Stefanie (she was doing a post-doc in Edmonton but came back to her homeland to be a professor in Freiberg :)   And also – thank-you Lufthansa for actually giving us lunch and not charging for drinks – but holy turbulence on this flight!  Those wings are a flapping!!!  Yikes!  Makes me a tad bit nervous and I’m not one to feel nervous on flights!  150 km/hr jet stream currents according to the pilot.  With 10-15 minutes more of this still to come – oh my! 

Despite my health woes I still tried my darndest to make the most of my last few weeks in Sweden!  After our arrival back from Tallinn, Vickie stayed for another week+ (and happily she started to feel better – well really just in time to go home and back to work?!).  I had a wee bit of an adjustment in remembering what it’s like sharing my space, but Vickie was a good sport (however will I cope being back in Edmonton living with the two bachelor brothers – perhaps Molly and I will escape to Tylers ;)!  Vickie and I had some great adventures exploring Umea together – and we rang in the New Year with a lovely dinner with Laura and walked downtown and enjoyed the midnight fireworks!  We also had some other dinner parties and I loved when Vickie got creative and used her bottle of Irish Whiskey to mash our blue potatoes – brilliant!  We managed to get out once cross-country skiing together so that was good, and also enjoyed a movie at the cinema Easy A – cute movie – recommended for grown-up mom’s and their girls – very civilized this lack of dubbed movies at the theater here and instead the use of subtitles – very friendly to us English native speakers!  We’ll have to go skating next time!  We are already planning our next adventure – which is likely to be a UBC reunion in Ireland in 2012 – as I am hoping to go to a big biodiversity conference there! Great ‘Craic’ as Vickie would say!


Enjoying New Years Eve Dinner and Champagne



Laura and I enjoying the New Years fireworks with Vickie

 

Sick ?Sjuk Vickie had to resort to hot water bottle for muscle spasms compliments of tri-nation cold!



Vickie finishes up a cross-country ski loop at Gammlia


Now that's how you mash potatoes!!!



Last princess cake in Sweden!  Tack Vickie - you take good care of me!


My last week - when I wasn’t in bed ;) I got in all of my good-bye dinners with friends and of course – a last going away Fika at Goteberg Café.  So good!  I also tried spinning class one last time at IKSU – but it didn’t really agree with me – so my IKSU run shut down early and I didn’t get to enjoy a last hard core week with Kelley.  I will SO miss our workout adventures together.  You are such an inspiration Kelley!  Tack!  Etsuko and Petter took me to Nydalla cross-country ski trails so I finally got to see the lake and enjoy the trails that I have heard so much about!  Tack se mycket everyone!  I have said good-bye to friends new and old – and to my favourite piece of lab equipment – the dishwasher – which Kelley affectionately joked that they might have to name Annie.  Ha ha!   And also returned the faithful bike that I loved riding around town – will have to see about resurrecting one of my cruiser bikes for biking around Edmonton now that I’ve returned to being a bike commuter – reminded me how much I miss it! 


Etsuko and Petter at Nyddala ski trail - Petter looks very slick in his ski suit!



Etsuko and I skiing at Nydalla


Kelley and milk-loving Stellan



 

Stellan is super cute - and loved sitting on my lap - eating lots of bread!

 

Brule decided to be a duck - full of clever ideas she is!

 

Going Away Fika at Goteberg Cafe of Course!



Nathalie, Aida, Natcho, Etsuko, Laura, Katie, and I outside Goteberg Cafe



Yesterday I gave a talk on my PhD research at the first SLU departmental seminar of the year.  Nothing like giving yourself a talk to prepare as you pack up your apartment and say hej da!  But it was well received (the Swedes are always so gracious and friendly!) and I didn’t even cough much! 


Anna, Maja, and I - my last day at SLU after my seminar



Saying goodbye to Kelley in the lab - already missing her!!!



Oh yes - the dishwasher - aka Annie?!



My trusty borrowed bike amid the snow

Yesterday Etsuko came and picked up me and my bags from my apartment as I moved out and Bright – a new student from Ghana - moved in (I drove her car from the parking lot and I realized that it was the first time in 3 months that I have driven – felt strange to be behind the wheel!!!).  I love Bright’s description of Umea’s sun and I have been using it a lot since he referred to the Swedish sun as LAZY!  I think that is a great way to describe the sun here this time of year!  It is funny to think that back in Edmonton the days are going to seem so long in comparison!  I enjoyed my last night in Umea visiting with Etsuko and Petter – including making yummy pastries and a last trip to ICA to stock up on Marabou chocolate to take home (based on issues with my checked bags this morning and having to do some rearranging it turns out that I am bringing home 4 kilos of chocolate!!!  Reminds me of when Rob and I were in Switzerland and I loaded up my snowboard bag with at least that much chocolate and cheese ;)  Everyone loves chocolate!  I love that at the Umea airport you only have to be there about 30 minutes ahead of time - so civilized to not have to be there two hours early (which is how early I should have been at the Frankfurt airport to avoid the hectic chaos of nearly missing my flight to Toronto - whoops!).



Etsuko was a dear and drove me and my heavy bags to the airport - I miss you Etsuko!



What can I say in closing, except that it has been an incredible three months – filled with so many special memories and cool experiences and new and continuing friendships.  And also added unexpected benefits back home too!  Thank-you Skype!  Gives me a new focus and something to look forward to – my arrival back home at the Edmonton airport and Tyler picking me up and seeing what adventures are in store for us!  Will be so good to see Molly again too and settle back in with the family and catch up with friends and see how much the kids back home have changed in the few months I’ve been gone!  Hej da and Tack se mycket – see you again Sweden – you have been so good to me and for me! 

Tere (hello!) Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn by Night - the magic of evening views - just like Egypt ruins!

After enjoying Christmas in Stockholm, it was off to Tallinn, Estonia via overnight ferry for Vickie and I!  (a side bar for a moment to go back to Stockholm – it seemed much less of a bike culture down south in Sweden – but maybe it’s b/c it’s winter and a bit more of an extreme/WHITE one than normal?).  Anyhow, my friend,  Christopher, had been through Tallinn before and said it was one of the most beautiful old cities of Europe and so with that glowing recommendation away we went (And we now agree!).  We took an overnight ferry – The Baltic Queen – to Tallinn – a 15 hour ferry ride.  It’s really more of a cruise boat than a ferry – and it had activities scheduled from the time of arrival until sun-up and then some (disco until 5 am anyone – had a bit of a party boat vibe to it for those into that)!  It was a bit of a time warp – reminiscent of the 70’s moreso than the 2010’s!  We were amused by the ‘supermarket’ – where the primary goods for sale were BOOZE and CANDY (bad idea to buy the Swedish berries – should have read the fine print – licorice flavoured :(!  I saw one lady who literally had her whole grocery cart full of cigarettes – seemed like that was going to be a lot of cancer sticks to inhale!  To save money (cost us 50 euro each for the ferry), we bunked in a cabin for four.  For four LITTLE people that is – was very cramped quarters to say the least – especially with poor sick Vickie snoring, and so poor US too! listening to her snore all night long (I was trapped on a top bunk in the dark so couldn’t get down to get tissue for my ears or my mp3 player)!   But we roomed with two lovely Russian gals from Moscow- Svetlana (which means light in Russian we learned) and Paulina.  They are both architects and were on a Christmas holiday with some colleagues – having left their husbands at home.  We had a lot of fun with them!  And we were also delighted with the concept of an onboard spa – Vickie enjoyed some hand and foot treatments while I enjoyed a full body massage!  Our tight quarters did have a bathroom with shower and also a tv so it was amusing to be able to turn on the tv to the channel that had a video camera out the front of the ferry – no need to be on the cold deck to check our progress :)   I imagine the ferry is very beautiful to take during the longer days of summer when the views are no doubt stunning – we basically saw darkness on our trip!

The Baltic Queen - our ferry

Paulina & I were both reading 3 men in a boat!

Tight quarters to say the least!

Upon arrival in Tallinn it was off to our hotel – Meriton Old Town Hotel – a lovely hotel on the edge of Old Town – which is a historic part of Tallinn – that is old – much older than Canada!  As I kept saying to people in Estonia – the time frames they are talking about are difficult to conceive for those of us from Canada.  The Old Town – where we spent most of our time in Tallin truly is magical – it feels straight out of olden times and fairy tales!  Beautiful!  I can totally understand why it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it is the European Capital of Culture for 2011 (will be Umea in 2014)!  And there is a lot of history here of course (and some not so happy) – from the Swedes to the Danes and the Russians, - there have been a variety of presence of other nations in this country, but they are now happily and hopefully permanently independent (although they are part of the EU but this is more of a positive democratic union!)– they even have an independence clock that counts up the months, days, hours, and seconds that they have been independent!   A google search revealed more info on the history of Tallinn here.   

Our lovely old hotel!

The inside reception area of our hotel - love the exposed stone walls!

Our first day while Vickie was recuperating at the hotel I went out exploring.  I was delighted to run into our new Russian friends just a block from our hotel and they invited me to join them for a day of exploring with their colleagues and students.  Their colleague Gustav is originally from Tallinn and now lives in Moscow – he was very spirited and a delight to talk with too.  I had a giggle when I asked whether Tallinn or Moscow was better – his safe reply was that Russia is better for work, and Tallinn is better for everything else :)  I got lots of different architectural perspectives of Tallinn (I particularly love all the amazing doors they have and the churches are amazing to look at too – well it’s all amazingly beautiful!) during my day with the Moscowites and picked up a few Russian words (Dos vedanya my new Russian friends (good-bye) – has such a lovely ring to it!  We had lunch at Olde Hansa – a medieval restaurant near the center square of Old Hanse – lit by candlelight and only serving food that they would have eaten back in the 14^th Century.  It was delicious (I had boar & elk).  Everyone else (except fellow beer unappreciator Svetlana) was a huge fan of the warm honey beer!  Vickie started to feel more human and by the evening she was ready for an outing to a sister hotel of ours outside Old Town that had the fancy amenities – pool and hot tub and sauna – sweat out that sickness!  So we enjoyed that two days in a row :)

Svetlana and I by the Christmas market in Old Town Center

The Swedish Embassy!

So many cool doors!

Russian church behind Paulina, Svetlana, and I

Gustav - sitting on a bench he approved of architecturally - form and function!

Independence monument on edge of Old Town

They have left history everywhere - even in the parkades!

A building built on 'trees' - cool!

14th Century Dinner with the Russian Contingent!

Our second day in Tallinn I connected with Toomas – who runs City Bike in the Old City – on Uus street (apparently this means ‘new’ street in Tallinn – but new is relative – as it has been around still for hundreds of years – but it is a road I think he explained that used to be water when Old Town was surrounded by a moat.  Toomas started his biking company back in 2003 – when he joked he only had mountain bikes despite it being called City Bike and had to remedy the situation– and it has grown a lot since then.  He was so generous in offering to take me out on a personal tour of Tallinn, despite all of the snow (there was a LOT of snow – the theme of this winter for everyone I would say is SNOW – they were loading up dumpsters of SNOW in Old Town – gotta get rid of it somehow!!!!).  So we went on a winter adventure (I told him having come from northern Sweden I was a-okay with riding in the snow) – 90% riding (even had spiked tires – which is more than I can say for my cruiser city bike in Umea) and only about 10% bike pushing through the deep snow!  Sometimes Toomas would say – that is a path there and we would go another direction b/c while it might be a path when there is no snow, with the snow the path was not passable!  A super friendly Estonian – thanks so much for taking me out in the SNOW Toomas!  And if anyone is coming to Tallinn – you must go for a ride with City Bike :)  We visited the Tallinn palaces (Tallinn is the capital and the Prime Minster lives in the palace), a war monument to WWII, and rode along the Baltic Coast.  A fun adventure indeed!  And was delighted to be able to experience a bike tour here to add to my past bike adventures in Paris, Berlin, and Bangkok.

Old and New Town off in the distance - obstructed by snow!

We had to push our bikes in some places!

Cruising along the Baltic - even hints of the sun!

My bike's version of a snow angel!

Back at base camp - City Bikes

Toomas - the man behind City Bike!

Kumu Art Museum

Even the bikes need warmers ;)

Vickie and Ispent the last day puttering around Tallinn and finishing up our shopping and enjoying the Kohvik (coffee) and chocolate shops, galleries, and the Christmas markets.  I prefer the Swedish gingerbread, but the chocolate is just as good and the siroop waffle cookies were delightful!  There are such lovely cafes and lots of handicrafts as well.  In particular they love the hand-made wool hats and mittens here – including funny ones with super duper long pom pom tails that function as both a hat and a scarf – fun and utilitarian!  It was hard to not buy lots!   Tallinn goes to the Euro on January 1^st, so while we were still spending Estonia krooni, I thought it was funny that the bank machines all said they would be ‘resting’ on December 30-31^st, in preparation for the arrival of the Euro (and some scepticism that being on the euro is such a great idea).  We did our fair share (or more?) of shopping and in the end this meant we had a situation with our baggage at the airport – it weighed too much for Air Baltic’s liking– so after some attempts at getting creative at the Tallinn airport, in the end I checked a bag and all was good (my additional bag was 20 Euro – vs 15 Euro for EVERY kilo that Vickie was over 20kg with her one bag).  The strictness of weight restrictions is a bit obscene in Europe.  I personally think they should factor in how much one weighs – little people perhaps they could give a little more lee-way in terms of how many kilos they can bring?  Yeah I know –wishful thinking – but maybe an incentive for more time at IKSU ;)  

Svetlana, Vickie, Me, and Paulina reunited under the Christmas Tree

One of the many bastions surrounding Old Town

The Christmas Markets continue into the New Year in Tallin

Well I think  my Mini might like it here too ;)

They have to put the snow somewhere - take it away!!!

Amusing kohvik 'coffee' shop sign - would you want to drink coffee from here though?! 

Nägemist (good-bye) Tallinn – aitäh (thank-you!)  for all!  I think it would be great to come back someday – in the summer maybe- and go mountain biking outside the city – apparently there are lots of great trails to be enjoyed and the landscape is very heavily treed – so my kind of country! INDEED!

We stopped in Riga, Latvia for a couple of hours.  So can’t really offer up much insight into Latvia except that it seems like it is expensive – but then again – most likely that is just the usual AIRPORT pricing!!!   One thing I did learn compliments of the Air Baltic magazine (sitting on the tarmac with nothing better to do why not read ;) – is that apparently Riga is the site of the original decorated Christmas tree.  So we have them to thank for the tradition of Christmas trees – tres cool (well it appears that a google search suggests that perhaps there are many places laying claim to the first Christmas tree!)!  Oh and it turns out our travels also took us through Finland - our plane dropped some folks off in Vaasa - to be honest, I had to ask where Vaasa was - they spell it Vasa in Sweden - so that will be my excuse.  But yeah - in the end we traveled to 4 countries in an evening - not every day you can say that eh!  

Good thing Vickie is as in love with her laptop as I am with mine ;)

 p.s. All pictures (I take way too many I KNOW) can be found on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/annabob/sets/72157625594308527/ .

God Jul from Stockholm

After 11 days straight in the lab (and only 9 working out – Tyler and I compromised and quit at 9 thank goodness - considering that on day 10 I showed up at work with my pygama top still on and inside out no less I think it was definitely time to stop!), I made it to Stockholm safe and sound on time on the 23rd.  Wish I could say the same for Vickie!  As I was happily riding on the bus – equipped with wifi no less! –(I had to giggle when the bus driver thought I was a forest PSYCHOLOGIST ;) - into Stockholm from Arlanda airport, Vickie was still in Dublin.  And there she remained until 26.5 hours after her original intended departure.  With tales of the pilot getting out on the wing of the plane to sweep the snow with – yes  a BROOM, stranded Swedes just wanted to get home in time for Christmas Eve (which is when Swedes traditionally celebrate Christmas here)!  She had a great attitude throughout it all – and I was delighted when she finally made it and we have gotten to spend Christmas together – us and our travel adventures!!  We’ve had our fill of drama thank-you very much!  No more!



Thank-you to the determined staff of SAS for getting Vickie to Stockholm through snow and Ryan Air bumping them!



So with Vickie not coming anytime soon I made the most of a solo Christmas Eve and ventured out into the streets of Stockholm.  Stockholm, as you likely know, is surrounded by water – well this time of year it’s a mix of ice and water!  So I ventured on to some of the other islands – including going to Djurgården where I visited Skansen – which is an open-air museum that has brought in buildings from around Sweden and is meant to be a miniature version of Sweden.  It was SO cold – I was thinking that an outdoor museum perhaps was not the wisest choice for a -15C day!  But I did enjoy seeing some of the wildlife they had – and enjoying the views.  But I think next time I will go back when it is WARM out – as I felt like I was going to freeze to death and a place to get a varm choklad to drink was hard to come by!

Getting near Skansa and already feeling COLD!



Map of Skansen



Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree!



Swedish Christmas Decorations For Sale



Come and get your marsipan pigs - I prefer bacon myself!



Gray Wolf hunkering down - I don't blame him!



A very cool (cold?) lynx



Cutest Fox!

I did a bit of shopping and made sure to get the last of the groceries – all the shops were closing for 2 pm.  I was on the hunt for princesstorta to share with Vickie for Christmas dinner and was so happy to spot just a block from our home a bakery Annika – that had lovely princess cake (with red marzipan for Xmas in lieu of the traditional green) and yummy pepparkakor (gingerbread) cookies.

I love Swedish bakeries! 

I made sure to be back at our lovely rental apt (I found it online through www.airbnb.com) by 3:00 so I could watch Kalle Anka – that is Swedish for Donald Duck.  Indeed for whatever reason, the Swedes love to watch cartoons on Christmas Eve – it’s all about Donald Duck – which is dubbed into Swedish (my tv also offered up subtitles).   You can read more about the typical Swedish Christmas in the English newspaper for Sweden HERE. 

Kalle Anka! ?translation = I'm going to get you for that?

Vickie finally arrived on Christmas Eve at 8 pm and we stayed up catching up until the wee hours of the morning – and then I woke up again at 5 am and couldn’t fall back to asleep for a while.  I’m convinced that Santa and his reindeer were in the neighbourhood ;)  This is after all the land of domestic ated reindeer!  Santa did in fact stop by and leave gifts by the fireplace for me - thanks to Santa's elve Vickie :)

Thanks Santa's little helper Vickie!

This morning I made Christmas crepes with Swedish berries and of course grädde (whipping cream) – breakfast was brunch at 11 am – we slept in!!  Then today while Vickie followed her vow to stay in her pygamas all day until Christmas supper, I decided that with the sun shining and the temperatures closer to zero (-5C),  I would venture outside and play tourist some more.  So I wandered down to the shopping district – including the Macy’s type Christmas windows of NK and then went to yet another island which houses Gamla Stan (the old town of Stockholm).   Such a beautiful city for wandering around – and all the better when you don’t feelearly onset of hypothermia!!!

Streets of Gamla Stan - Many people out on Christmas Day and some shops open

NK Christmas Window

The sun was out!!!



The ice breaking up in the harbour





Surrounded by water water everywhere!

Tonight we enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner that Vickie cooked up for us – including turkey breast roast that she muled over from Ireland!  Delicious J  And I liked that we decided to reverse order and have our dessert first.  Gotta love being a grown up and doing what you want eh!

Master Cully & Sully Chef Vickie in our super cool apt



Course 1 = pink Christmas princess torta!



Course 2 = turkey with the trimmings :)

Was happy to skype with family and friends over the holidays – thank goodness for technology eh – helps with missing of home this time year – as I am definitely missing home right now!  But LIFE IS GOOD!  Wishing you and yours a happy healthy holiday season and 2011!  Talk to you from Tallinn, Estonia – where we’re off to tomorrow.  Vickie was joking that they better not need an ice breaker for our ferry – you know, with our luck and all ;)

Skyping with Tyler and family back home :)

You know me and pictures -so you can find all the more that I took of Stockholm HERE!