Family Weekend: “Helg med Familjen”

Time flies! Hubby and I went to visit his family for the first time since Christmas to celebrate his nephews 12th birthday and to have some family time. It was nice to be with family since I am so far away from my own, it reminded me of home. Laughing around the dinner table, playing games and watching t.v. together, going for walks, just talking and hanging out. We are looking forward to going there more often from now on now that we are more settled. I was pretty nervous about the visit because I thought I would be further along in Swedish by now, a few months ago I thought I would be showing off my progress when we visited, but even without understanding most of the conversations I still had a great time and felt included.

Whenever we go to his family’s place I experience a different side of Sweden. I think I experience more “Country-side shock” than “Culture shock,” being from a city and not really familiar with a lot of things out there. Take my amazement over cows and horses for example. His mother points out flowers and asks what they are called in English, or if we have them, and I have no idea. I get excited when we spot a rabbit or a deer when we are driving along winding dirt paths – which scare me a bit with a side effect of motion sickness. I love going for walks and just soaking in the nature:

Yesterday I went for a walk to the water with my mother-in-law and stumbled upon this little  fellow:

When I say stumbled upon him, I mean I literately almost stepped on him on the side of the road when he jumped out from under my foot, scaring me quite a bit. Hubby’s mom says he is unusually colored and a lot larger than ones you normally see around this time of year. We moved on and a few steps later I nearly stepped on another one. Then I was on the look out for frogs/toads in the forest.

We celebrated his nephews birthday with a smörgåstårta, which means “Sandwich cake.” A full post about the Swedish treat later this week- today is my first day of SFI and I don’t want to be late!!

Destination Denmark: Day One

Even though we arrived in Copenhagen yesterday, I’m still counting today as day one since the only thing we did was eat a quick dinner. I will however recap my solo train experience, since I was a bit nervous about it.

I managed to get everything done on time, cleaned the apartment, packed my bags, packed a snack, cleared out the fridge and got out the door within five minutes of my target time- go me! Arriving at the train station I found the track number and waited, I was 15 minutes early and confident .Having said that I  STILL somehow almost missed my train. Being used to taking the LIRR trains in NY that are in and out of the station within two minutes I didn’t realize that I was sitting next to my train for ten minutes while passengers were loading. When I looked at the clock and saw that MY train should be arriving in  FOUR minutes I wondered why THIS train was still on the track. Thankfully I put two and two together and found my seat a minute or two before the train left the station.

I’ve always enjoyed taking photos from cars or trains- capturing a moment as it flies by.

Bye Sweden, See you on Friday!!

And so DAY ONE started with a breakfast at a bakery we have been to before, it was 8 am so hubby could make it to his course by 9. Our “deluxe” meal was coffee/tea, a roll (Better selection of rolls than if you choose a regular breakfast) with cheese, butter and marmalade, fresh fruit, and juice. We also split a danish. It was a nice breakfast, but too early to start my day of sight seeing, especially since there was a big gloomy cloud covering the city so I went back to bed.

At 10:30 I started my day, the sun was shining and the weather was nice – perfect day for taking photos and walking. And WALKING I DID. I wish I had a pedometer to see how far I walked, since I felt like my legs, ankles and feet were all falling apart even though I was only out and about for about 4-5 hours. I covered more ground than I had anticipated, which means I will certainly be able to see everything I planned on and the distances aren’t as far as they seemed.

As nervous as I was about traveling and being a tourist alone I quickly realized how not so scary it is. You can stop to take photos of anything, anyone, at any time. You can go at your own pace and follow which ever route calls to you. I was tempted to join a tour guide group but quickly realized that I’d rather be exploring on my own. The drawbacks are that it does get a  little lonely and it is nice to have someone to talk to, and also as much as I love taking photos of places I love being IN the photos even more. No one to take photos with is a pretty big draw back. I did end up taking to one woman along the way who was very helpful and kind. She took a few photos of me in front of a castle I accidentally ended up at (That story coming up).

My plan for Copenhagen was simple, I just wanted to walk around and take photos. There was only about six places I had picked as definite destinations. I looked at the map last night and believe it or not that was the only time. Not once did I have to look, I never got lost, and gave someone else directions! The best thing you can have when traveling is a good sense of direction – it gives you freedom. I did not stick to the main street and was not afraid to walk down side streets, when a building captured my attention I went to it. I ended up being about 15 minutes off course and still knew where I was. I wandered from building to building instead of following the traveled path from street to street. If I didn’t do that I would have missed A LOT. As I was having this very thought I was off track and heading towards a huge statue of a horse that I spotted from a distance. It was about half a block away when all of a sudden I hear an ERUPTION of music coming from where the statue is. I walk faster, not wanting to miss a thing – next thing I know the Royal Guards are parading towards me!!

They marched throughout the streets with trombones, drums, and flutes proudly leading the way. Stopping traffic, most on lookers seemed nonchalant, some smiled and took photos, I saw a small girl whistling along to the tune, a few danced, and then there were a couple aside from me that was walking along side, occasionally running to keep up while recording and taking photos.

Little did I know that the horse statue that caught my eye is dead center in the middle of the Royal palace (which was one of my destinations for another day) and so, while I did not see the changing of the guard (and didn’t know it was happening), I did walk besides them the whole march back to their barracks. I only took a few photos because I video recorded most of it (Have to find a way to post it). And so, by following my curiosity from one beautiful side street to another I ended up across town at another castle (Which was also on the list for another day, but there I was!)

Rosenborg Castle:

So to not overload you with photos, I’ll save some for this weekend and post a few highlights each day!

A Trip Across the Bridge: “En resa över bron”

This week hubby and I are going to Copenhagen, Denmark. Actually he is already there, my train leaves in about 5 hours. It’s a work trip for him, filled with workshops, lectures and seminars – I’m just kind of tagging along. Even though I’ve taken the train many times into Denmark to get to the airport I am still a little nervous about the two and a half hour trip. I know its not so bad- I have my ticket with car number and seat number as well as what time the train arrives at Copenhagen so it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll miss my stop. I’ve just never done it alone, and suddenly I’m reminded that I’m in a different country. Aside from the actual trip I will be spending most of the time flying solo while he is working 9-4. Thankfully we have been to Copenhagen before and I understand where the hotel is and remember some of the close by area. We went for two days last summer but it was raining the entire time (we went through two umbrellas), so I’m really  looking forward to getting some nice photos this time. Even if I’m a bit nervous about spending so much tourist time alone I know it will help me – at least I won’t feel the need to fit in and understand the language, I can be a real ignorance-is-bliss-tourist for a few days.

My photo obsession last year in Denmark was to get a photo of all the elephant on parade statues that I could find:

Found 16 elephants but only posed with a few. I just read up on the Elephant Parade and found out that there were 100 statues and only in town for two months- I had no idea! I’m glad we got to stumble upon some of them!

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do or see in Copenhagen? I have a small list that I’ll work on along the way. Time to get ready to go go go!

Yogurt Surprise - berries, bananas, and grapes inside - topped with a chocolate heart!