København

A Design Exhibition in Downtown Copenhagen

The possibility to visit a different country over the weekend and mental images of H. C. Anderson loudly singing the praises of Copenhagen led me to Denmark last weekend. Much to my delight, Copenhagen was, in fact, wonderful. I stayed in a huge (20 floor), ultra-mod hostel complete with light-colored hard-wood floors, round chairs, and avocado accents.

Much of what I did in Copenhagen was very touristy but the city is well set-up to accommodate finding and seeing the highlights so I had time to get off the strictly tourist path, too. I spent my first afternoon at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum based around the personal collection of the founder of Carlsberg Breweries. The collection includes wonderful examples of classic Egyptian, Roman, and Greek art as well as many paintings from Denmark's Golden Age.

Other highlights of my few days in Denmark included the mandatory pilgrimage to see The Little Mermaid (which is always crazily crowded but really accessible), a visit to the Museum of Danish Resistance (which documents Danish response to Nazi invasion), and a stroll down the brightly colored, cafe-lined canal Nyhavn. Luckily (because I still have money left) I walked down Strøget, Europe's largest pedestrian shopping street, on Sunday so everything was closed; I have never seen such amazing furniture and clothing design in my life and that was only the window displays.

Nyhavn

Here she is!


I was fortunate enough to actually meet some Danes while in Denmark and enjoyed the open pub style and cheap beer in Denmark (though it is a little unsettling to see 15 yr olds legally drinking beside you and I will never be able to feel legitimate walking down the street holding a beer, even if it is legal!)

Settling In

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures! I have updated my Flickr account and things are pretty well organized (click on the link on the side to go to check it out.) I will continue to update the captions and titles of the pictures and try to place many of them on the map!

I have been in Göteborg since Saturday and things are going really well. It is quite nice to actually be in the same city for a bit. Tomorrow and Friday will be my last days in th field and then I will do data analysis for the rest of the time that I work with Frank.


I spent my first day in the office today and have the beautiful office pictured above all to myself! I'm in the Zoology building at Göteborg University and at coffee breaks and lunch I got to meet some of the other students and professors who have offices in the building.

I was in a hostel in Göteborg for a few nights and got to meet some really cool people. On Sunday I took a ferry out into the archipelago near Göteborg and spent an afternoon hanging out on an island that is a nature reserve.


Now I am at Elin's (Frank's daughter) apartment for a few days. She had an open room before a new roommate moves in on Saturday and I have really enjoyed going for walks with her and her boyfriend Jonas as well as sharing music and partaking of her wonderful cooking!

This weekend I am planning to go to Copenhagen to look around. It's only 3-4 hours on the train and who could resist a city that needs not one, but two "Wonderful"s to describe it!

Above Reindeer: Where a Search for Snow Led Me

I am back in Göteborg and settled into the hostel that I will stay in for the better part of the next two weeks. The hostel is in a part of the city near tons of cafes, the university, and a great park that includes the Natural History Museum. Since this is a big city there are more young travelers here than at the other hostels I've stayed in for work so there is more going on but things are still clean and quite quiet.

I really enjoyed hiking up north and was glad that I chose to go to Norway since there was a race with over 1000 people on the section of the trail that I planned to walk. When I found that out I modified my route to include more time higher up in the mountains away from the main Kungsleden where the race was going on. I spent four days almost completely alone up in the mountains and was actually able to be a little bit introspective and start mentally processing some of the things that are happening and about to happen in my life. At one point I realized that I might not touch snow again for two years and took an extra hour to hike up into the mountains where some snow remained. As I neared the ridge top with snow I noticed that a group of about 10 reindeer were below me walking on the trail I had been following. All of the reindeer in Sweden are semi-domesticated and herded by the area's indigenous people, the Saami, so they were not particularly bothered by me and I got to watch them walk past minding their own business and feeding. I also saw lemings, visited a Saami offering place, and got a lot of reading done (including Douglas Copeland's latest Jpod which is, unsurprisingly, amazingly insightful).

The last full day I was supposed to be in the mountains it was raining in the morning and I decided to go down to Jokkmokk to see that center of the Saami economy and learn more about the culture at a museum that I had heard was quite good. I got to see a little of the town and talked with some Saami about their lifestyle and the challenges of reindeer husbandry, including difficulties maintaining their pastures when the snow melts earlier in the spring. It was another good side trip and kept me from receding to far into my own thoughts!

The train ride back down south was quite long today but I found an open sleeper cabin after Stockholm and got at least a little rest. Pictures to follow once I get my laptop and there is wireless here so I will be able to be in pretty regular contact via e-mail, Skype/phone, and blogging.

Detour to Norway

Somehow after 24 hours on the train I convinced myself to spend another two hours and see Norway before heading back to Abisko to hike ... and I am SO glad that I did!! I am in Narvik, Norway now (and will be for about another hour) and have really enjoyed seeing the snow capped mountains and fjords here. The Swedish mountains that I passed through and will be hiking in starting this afternoon were beautiful, but the Norwegian ones are more majestic.

The 26 hour train ride up here went fine. I met some really nice people right away in Gothenburg (a Swedish mother and daughter and a Danish guy) and talked with them for much of that first night, until they got off.

The vegetation up here isn't as dramaticly stunted as I would have guessed (I'll upload pictures later) and it's almost 80 degrees here in Narvik today! So much for the drastic northern trip!

Last night when I showed up without a reservation they apologized for not having any hostel beds left but gave me a hotel room for the same price! It was wonerful to have my own bathroom and not sleep in a bunkbed! Breakfast was also included in the price so I am carbo-loaded for backpacking after sandwiches and eggs for breakfast.

Another highlight was talking to an old Norwegian guy sitting down by the harbor. I could actually understand most of his Norwegian and my Swedish was passable enough that we could actually converse! Good thing I spent time in Alaska so I could talk a little about salmon!

Off to catch the train back to Abisko National Park. Later!

Back to Civilization for a Limited Time Only

I am now in Gothenburg/Göteborg and enjoying having a room to myself, a washing machine, and wireless Internet at Frank's house. After spending four weeks on the road in hostels even someone else's house I've only been to once feels a lot more like home.

But... since Frank is taking next week to plan classes for the upcoming semester I am taking off again. I am leaving tomorrow on an overnight train to Abisko National Park and am really excited to backpack along a section of the Kungsleden (King's Trail) that starts there. The trail is well marked, well used, and even has cabins along it that you can pay to stay and cook in! I'm bringing my tent and plan to camp, but Sweden's rain may get the best of me a night or two! Frank's oldest daughter, Elin, has been up to that area several times (including just a few weeks ago) and helped me plan my route and what to pack. I will be up in the mountains, so bears aren't a problem, making packing a bit easier.

I promise some more insightful, less here-is-where-I-am posts when I get back to Gothenburg and have a place to stay for more than 2 nights and that has Internet. Ok, I don't promise, but I will try.

Pictures!?!?

OK, I've uploaded some stuff onto Flickr under the user name kaitlinschott. I think the following link will let you look at them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10636715@N03/

Other than that, last weekend was great. I was on Öland and rented a bike to check out the southern part of the island. The southern most tip (starting just south of the hostel I stayed at) is a nature reserve for all of the birds that hang out on Öland. I took my time biking around there until I got to the southern tip where I got to watch researchers band geese and swans and saw about a hundred swans swimming in the Baltic Sea.

On Sunday I went to Eketorp, a restored Viking fort. As soon as I walked in I donned Viking clothing and got to do things like bake flat bread over an open fire, make a ceramic pot (which of course I already broke), and hear stories about the old Norse gods (in Swedish, some of which I actually understood!)

7 min left of free internet

Ok, the hostel I was at for the past 5 days didn't have internet but I am at a library now on Öland with free access. So, Öland rocks. Yesterday I went to an old viking fort where I got to dress up in clothes from 800 AD and make bread and hear viking sagas. AWESOME!!! Pictures when I can get my own computer online. I spent Saturday biking around a nature reserve and saw about 100 swans chilling in the Baltic Sea, weird! Other news, I was able to book a train reservation up to northern Sweden (Abisko nat'l park specifically) and will be above the arctic circle in less than a week. Work is going well and I am trying to figure out where I will be staying when we aren't on the road anymore in about 2 weeks. Thinking about crashing with Frank's daughter Elin who is doing a PhD at Göteborg University, we'll see. Gotta go, all is well here other than extremely limited Internet access!!! Miss you all, keep the e-mails coming!