Sweden #1

First off, getting to Uppsala, where I was meeting up with Emily, was an adventure. I flew in to Vasteras, where from there I had to take a bus for 1.5 hours. Lucky for me, everyone in Sweden speaks almost perfect english. Their education system really is something. While I was waiting for the bus from Vasteras to Uppsala, a guy from Spain was desperatly trying to speak in English and ask for the bus station. I instantly thought Hey! I can help this dude! And so I became the translator for José, an engineering student from Valencia. We were both going to the same place so we spent the 1.5 hours in rapid conversation about water pumps and bridges. You can imagine how much I talked...but...he was a really cool guy, we both got to Uppsala safe and sound, and I got to speak in Spanish, wish is so much better than english. :-)

When I finally met up with Emily we went to a bar to watch some good blues and relax with her friends. Unfortunately we missed the last bus to Wik, the little town where she lives, so we had to stay the night at her friend's house, Joel. Boy do we (not) know how to be on time to things...

whoa, countryside, farms, heck yes! I felt right at home

Wik

The next day we met up with Bobby Long, Emily's dad, at Wik. It was a wonderful coincidence that both Bob and I were visiting Emily on the same week. The three of us made a good pair. Wik is the hippy art school Emily is studying at this year. It's tucked back in the middle of nowhere (so we feel right at home, coming from Radnor), surrounded by fields, cows, and a HUGE lake that goes all the way to Stockholm. We trekked back in Uppsala (so I could see it in the daytime) and did some sight seeing. It was really interesting for me to see a different European country and compare and contrast. Everything was, of course, completely different: how the streets were laid out, the architecture of the buildings, the general feel of the city.

what luck: Swedes love sweets>I love sweets= I love Swedes

the river crossing through town

We went and checked out the largest cathedral in the Nordic countries, and I couldn't believe it was from the 15th century. 15th century architecture in Spain is gothic, ornamental, loads of details, and grand. This cathedral was TALL and looked almost like modern american churchs.

biggest cathedral in the northern European countries

look! Spain!

After the cathedral we headed to the castle, also from the 15th century, and the ugliest thing I have ever seen. It's a huge, bland, straight building that looks like a square salmon. Whew. I'm sorry if I'm offending swedish architecture right now, but that is one ugly castle.

ugliest castle EVER

they sure can do gardens well, though. Linnaea, the guy who created the categorizing system for plants and trees was from Uppsala