Something Swedish #4

Since I was a little girl, I have been familiar with Swedish pancakes. My grandma first introduced them to me when I was very young, and my dad learned the art form of making them and would make them on special Sunday mornings when I was growing up (when we didn't have softball, of course). I copied the recipe when I was visiting Anders and I decided to make them for dinner tonight.Lina came over to help me interpret the Swedish recipe, (and join us for dinner since her family is out of town), but it was pretty simple.

2 eggs
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
200 ml milk
Whisk this all together
Slowly add 200 ml flour
Add 300 ml milk
Refrigerate for a little while

Heat and butter the pan, pour a thin layer of batter into the pan and cook until you can slip the spatula underneath and flip to cook the other side. Voila!

I usually just put butter and syrup on them like American pancakes, but Swedes put different kinds of jam on them. They turned out to be pretty tasty and Lina gave me her Swedish approval!

EMPLOYED!

Today was almost a completely normal day--breakfast, gym work out, lunch, computer time, practice, dinner, reading...

EXCEPT...I GOT A JOB OFFER AND ACCEPTED!!!!!

2 years of stress about what I'll be doing after college is over, and I am employed!!!

Come October 1, I will be the Assistant Pitching Coach at Stony Brook University in New York. It's about an hour outside of the city and 2 hours away from Meredith.

I am thrilled right now about this opportunity and I am relieved to have the next step in life figured out. I'll be able to work on a Master's Degree while I'm there, probably in Higher Education Administration or Student Affairs. But I have some time to think about that...

Now time to find an apartment. Know anyone looking for a roommate? :)

Pictures are posted

Here is the link to my pictures from the past week traveling throughout Sweden with my grandma, aunt and sister to see the country and meet relatives.I had to significantly cut down on the pictures since I average about 200-250 pictures per day with my graduation present camera. "Thank goodness for digital," my mother always says!

1-1, Once again

Talk about the definition of a slumber party. Last night there were 13 of us in one apartment with 3 beds, one pull out couch and 1 regular couch. Lots of girls brought air mattresses and sheets and the ground was covered.

We got ready in the morning for our games and headed to the field.  Yet another split for the Saints. We won the first game 3-0 in 7 innings. I went 2-3 and helped a run score in a first and third play, (I was running to 2nd). Good win for the Saints.

I played first and left field in the second game, and didn't have a stellar game at the plate, (1-4). I was very frustrated because I left lots of runners on base in the early innings. We went into the top of the 7th down 4-7, quickly scored 2 runs and had based loaded with 1 out. Unfortunately we were unable to score again and we lost the game. The game came down to one bad inning and lots of missed opportunities--I think we beat ourselves. Hopefully the other teams' games shake out in our favor and we are still in it for the play offs.

The bus ride home was very fun again. I am enthralled in the book, The Game of Thrones, so I read for a while and the last hour or so turned into a dance party. The girls were telling Diane and me some good Swedish songs to download and we decided to learn the words to some of the songs so we can sing along, even if we don't know what the songs are saying. I'm back in the Dungeon now, and I know I'll sleep well tonight after the week spent touring Sweden with relatives and playing 4 games these past two days.

Saturday-Another Split for the Saints

July 28-- Mere, Grandma, Aunt Annette and I enjoyed a leisurely morning breakfast before heading to the metro to find the softball fields since I had games against Söder and would be joining my team for the weekend games. There was construction on the line I needed, but luckily the train was still running, although a little less frequently. I wasn't positive where to go when we got to the stop, but after asking one person it seemed easy enough. We walked a few blocks and the fields appeared! I made it! The rest of my team showed up a half hour later or so and we started warming up. 

The first game went really well. We won 7-1 and I went 2-3 with a run scored and 2 RBIs. The second game did not go as well. I got to play first base and made a few plays, but I didn't do anything at the plate. Diane had a great day at the plate with two inside the park home runs and probably 4-5 other hits. We had one bad inning and lost 9-4. Unfortunately that was a really important game to win since we now have the same record as Söder but they have scored more runs than us, (that might be the tie breaker for determining who makes the play offs).

We have two more games tomorrow against Leksand and we really need to win those!  The car ride was really fun going from Söder to Leksand. We played a bunch of Would you rather? questions and stopped for a tasty Chinese dinner. We stopped again at a giant Dala horse statue, and I mean GIANT, and shopped for breakfast groceries. I really enjoy my team, and I'm having a really fun time. Hopefully we can pull out some big wins tomorrow to give ourselves a better chance to extend our season!

Friday-Bus ride and Gamla Stan

July 27-- It was our last day in Sundsvall and we started the day just as we had started all the others--with food. Same breakfast, still delicious. Around 9:30 we headed to the bus station to catch our bus headed to Stockholm. Ove slipped us each a chocolate bar for the bus, and that turned out to be our lunch along with trail mix, pretzels and soda. Needless to say, when we got to Stockholm, finding food was a top priority after finding the apartment we would be staying in.  We successfully navigated the subway and found the apartment with no problems. It was Stig's daughter's place and she was on vacation.

After we dumped our stuff, we checked the map and hopped on the metro to go to Gamla Stan, the Old Town. It is completely separated and is its own island.  We quickly found a restaurant that had some very good traditional Swedish dishes. Aunt Annette had pytt i panna, Grandma had salmon and Mere and I had Swedish meatballs with lingon berry sauce and boiled potatoes. 

After dinner we started to wander. We walked through what seemed like the restaurant area, then the handmade craft area, and then we came to the royal residence and government buildings. The buildings overlook the water, just like everything else in Stockholm basically since it is spread over 14 islands, and it was breathtaking. Mere asked me how it is different than Prague, and while I couldn't accurately describe it, it had a feeling of grandeur. The buildings were massive and the white stone streets made it seem so clean. You felt small in Stockholm. The light was also do beautiful since it was around 7:00 as we walked. We stopped in some souvenir shops and then stopped for some ice cream. I tried mjukglass dipped in chocolate which then turned into a hard shell. Two thumbs up!

We made our way back to the metro and then back home to the apartment, stopping to pick up breakfast for the next morning. I listened as the other three planned the rest of their Stockholm trip, bummed we would be separating the next day but excited that I would be back in Stockholm at the end of August. It was so amazing and I just know there is so much I have to see!

Thursday-A Day with Relatives

July 26-- After a good night's sleep, we once again had a typical Swedish breakfast. Cheeses, hard and soft breads, tea, hard boiled eggs, yogurt and various spreads. Ove and Berit met us at Barbro's apartment and we took off for the day. We weren't really sure what the day had in store.  We stopped about an hour later at a camp ground type place and saw a group of people gathered. All relatives! We spent a good deal of time figuring out how we were all related and most turned out to be cousins of my grandma or children of cousins. There were about 15 of us in total and it was wonderful to get to know everybody. We had fika around 11:30, and the camp site had a small museum and old school classroom that we walked through. The weather was nice and the company even better. 

 In 4 cars, our caravan departed for an unknown destination. We pulled up to a very cute house and saw a large chart that outlined the family tree. It was very neat to see, and the scenery around the house was beautiful. Our next stop was the area where my grandma's father grew up, although the house itself had burned down. Ove spoke to the current residents and I guess they knew a lot about the Ålund family. 

Now for my favorite part of the day--we all went to Barbro's church where she and Berit had gone a half hour earlier than us to start preparing an early dinner. The feast reminded me of a Thanksgiving dinner. We sat at a long table that was decorated with a Swedish flag and a mini American one and flowers for centerpieces. Each of the families had contributed to the dinner, making it a sort of potluck. The dinner consisted of two kinds of smoked salmon, creme fraiche with hjortron berries (cloudberries), yellow potatoes, homemade breads, salad, and local cheeses. It was all so tasty! There were Swedish sodas like pear soda and gooseberry soda, (it was green!), and fladersaft. Once we were all sitting, the Swedes all rose to sing their national anthem. It was really cool to hear the song. Then they asked for us to sing the American National Anthem. I think we sang pretty well, haha. We laughed and ate and chatted and then learned new Swedish songs. Here are the English lyrics to my favorite one: The more we are together, the happier we'll be. Because my friends are your friends and your friends are my friends. The more we are together, the happier we'll be.  Another song they sing is the Itsy Bitsy Spider and they used the same hand motions! We shared a few of our American songs, although most I had learned in girl scouts.  The second round of food consisted of korv (sausage), elk meatballs, reindeer meat, and gravy. I didn't try the reindeer but the other meats were good. Finally, we finished the meal with dessert, (chocolate cake and a pound cake with fresh whipped cream) and coffee. It felt so much like family and so natural, and I know my grandmother was so happy.  We went outside and just stood around chatting for a long time and exchanged email addresses, Facebook pages and addresses. Most people had to leave around 7:30 to make the 2 hour drive home and we returned to the apartment around 8:00, tired after the long day of socializing and full from the amazing dinner. 

My grandma seemed thrilled with the day's events and I was so grateful for the warmth and hospitality of my Swedish family. I have been in Sweden for 2 months and this was an unparalleled experience. It all felt a little unreal to be spending quality time with my sister, grandma and aunt in Sweden in the company of tons of other wonderful relatives. We went to sleep around 11 after chatting some more with Barbro. It was such a happy day.

Wednesday-Dragon Hunting and Tai Chi

July 25-- 1:10, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:15--the times I woke up on the sleeper train because I was worried my alarm wouldn't go off to wake us up for our 3:50 transfer at the Ange station. We got off our train and slept on the benches just inside the Ange station and waited for two hours for our 6:15 train to Sundsvall. I fell asleep on that train and when I woke up we were at our final destination. Grandma's cousin, Ove, (Anders's brother), was there to pick us up and he brought us to another cousin's apartment where we would be staying for the next few days while she stayed with her sister. We were greeted there by Ove's wife, Berit, and Barbro. The two of them had prepared a great breakfast for us, and the three of them were a riot together! They left us for an hour to nap and freshen up and then it was time to go.

We started off by going to downtown Sundsvall. It was so beautiful along the main road. Painted dragon statues lined the streets.  Dragons are the town mascot and companies buy the statues and paint them differently and most of them are very funny. We took pictures with a lot of them and Berit called it dragon hunting. We walked through a mall and tried to convince Ove, a 75+ year old man, to buy pants with flames on them. Pretty funny.

After walking around the town, we drove to the North Mountain and got a great view of the whole town. We ate lunch there--a great Swedish buffet consisting of potatoes, smoked salmon, herring, beef stew, salad, and other side dishes. The restaurant overlooked the view and it was a really great Swedish experience. Following lunch, we went to a church and saw the grave of J.P. Alund, my grandmother's father's dad--my great great grandfather. Weird. We piled back in the car to go to the house where my grandmother's mother grew up. Her mom's dad had built the house. It was very special for my grandma to see the house and we all met the current residents--a cute family with two sons who are restoring the house and updating it. That made my grandma very happy to see it in good hands. 

We then went to the Tuna Church. It was a very neat church and it was where my grandmother's aunts were buried. We were pretty exhausted from the lack of sleep so we all went back to the apartment where Meredith and I fell fast asleep for an hour. When we woke up, it was time for dinner. Barbro had made a salmon quiche and an anchovy/potato quiche and Berit had made a taco quiche. Quite delicious! 

Our final event of the night was going to Barbro's church's summer house for a little music concert and vintage car show. The singer and piano player were quite good although it was odd to hear only Swedish songs. The vintage cars were awesome! Barbro also bought us evening fika--tea, coffee and rhubarb cake. We went back to her apartment after the event, taking the long way so we could see the island, and we all pretty much crashed when we got back. Ove started imitating the rising of the sun and the older crew started doing "tai chi" or sun salutations--it was pretty hysterical. Amazing, action-packed, hysterical day!

Tuesday-Lacko and Varnhem

July 24-- I got to the train station to catch a 9:30 train but I quickly found out that one doesn't run in the summer. Luckily I could take a fast train at 10:15 that would go straight to Alingsas and get me there close to my original 10:30 arrival time. I got there at 10:50 and we immediately took off. Thankfully Anders had rented a 5 passenger car so no car sickness today. I told him I had to be back at 5:30 for a phone interview but he said that would not do and I needed to push it back to 6 or 6:30...just have to find Internet access to send that email though...(this would be a theme of the day). 

Our first stop turned out to be more of a hike than I anticipated. We stopped off the side of the road to see an old house that belonged to Wilma, Grandma's aunt's house. We walked through tall weeds and saw the decrepit house, and Anders said that this explains why Wilma and her husband left for the States. On our way back to the car, Anders pointed out poison ivy, and I was left hoping I didn't walk through any of it! We then went to the Lacko Slott. This is a castle built on the shores of Lake Vattern. It has water on three sides and is very interesting looking. We took a Swedish tour so we wouldn't have to wait 1 1/2 hours, and that was a weird experience having no idea what the guide was saying. Mere and I turned to look at things at appropriate times, but we almost burst out laughing a few times as well. We stopped in the garden and by a Viking boat on the way out and then drove to the town of Spiken (pronounced Spee-ken). It is a fishing village and we ate some lunch including korv, (hot dog), a burger, fries and Anders had smoked fish. For dessert we all had mjukglass cones (soft serve creamy ice cream).

I was worried about getting back in time since I hadn't had the change to email my interviewer, and Anders's solution was to find a computer. I was skeptical. We stopped at a ceramic museum/shop that had amazing vases and beautiful plates for sale. And lo and behold, there was a computer available for me to send an email. Relief rushed through me as I bought myself an extra half hour. Final stop of the day was the Varnhem Church. It was a very interesting looking church and the graves around it were so well tended to. It was beautiful inside and there were tombs that represented different kings, although they were not buried there. 

We headed back to my apartment after that, and after getting pizza for dinner, I was able to do my quick interview. (I think it went well!) Then I had just enough time to pack for the next trip and eat and the crew was out the door to head to the railway station to get on our night train to Sundsvall.  The train left at 8:30, and we were assigned four beds in a 6 bed sleeper car...and we got the middle and top beds. Kind of claustrophobic but also kind of fun. My favorite part was sitting in the dining car for a few hours before going to bed and just chatting. Then it was off to bed around 10:30 to try to get some sleep.

Monday-Gothenburg and Practice

July 23- Mere and I woke up in the cottage and headed to the main house for breakfast with Anders and Stig. Anders always provides a large and interesting spread, complete with sausages, rhubarb, toast, cheeses, caviar, and liver paste. We said goodbye to Stig and then drove to Pixbo to pick up Grandma and Aunt Annette from Lina's house. We got to see Lina's water color paintings and they were gorgeous! 

We all left from the house and made our way to Gothenburg, with Mere and me riding in the back of Anders's truck where he has a make shift bed. Manual cars and swerve-y roads caused instant car sickness back there, (Mere would later get sick because of this). We got to Gothenburg and walked around the city.

I then had to leave the group around 12:30 to go back to Skovde for practice. My family continued the day by visiting Marstrand and the locks. Vanessa showed up early to practice again for us to work on pitching. She has really shown a lot of improvement and I'm loving working with her. In practice, we went through situations and had to do conditioning if we made mental or physical errors. We made a lot of errors but the situations were good for us to work on.  Back to the apartment after practice and asleep early to get up the next morning to go back to Alinsas.

A Feeling of Family

The crew (Mere, Grandma, Aunt Annette and me) left the Dungeon bright and early yesterday morning to make our way to Alingsas. We treated ourselves to some good Swedish pastries before hopping on the train, and we arrived at the Alingsas station at 9:30, greeted by my grandmother's cousin, Stig. Upon arrival at Anders's house, we met his daughter, Kerstin, who lives in Malmo in the south of Sweden. We all sat around looking at pictures from various family reunions, and it was very neat to hear the stories about the people and the trips. Grandma has hosted Swedish relatives quite often, and I learned this is her fourth trip to Sweden. After this, Kerstin led the girls on a walk around the lake near the house while the boys prepped lunch. The lake was so calm, and the walk was just perfect. We were lucky and it was a sunny, but cool, day. Grandma joked about buying a house by the lake and moving to Sweden, (although I think she was partially considering it...)

When we got back to the house for lunch around 12:30, Lina from Pixbo had arrived. I had met her earlier when I first spent time with Anders. Her daughter, Julia, was up north so unfortunately we were not able to see her again. About 15 minutes later, another family arrived for the family reunion. It was Hans from Boras (about 30 km away), his wife Anna-Karin and their 11 (?) year old son, Nils. Hans is the son of Anders's brother, I believe. The family was so friendly, and I greatly enjoyed talking to everyone. People were all eager to take photos of the group, and I was particularly struck when Hans took a picture of Meredith and me, saying "I'm taking a picture of my new family." Today, Anders remarked on this very awesome phenomenon in which family openly welcomes and accepts anyone who is related, no questions asked. Mere, Grandma and Aunt Annette got to experience this on their drive to Skovde when they stopped with Stig to visit other relatives, and they said that everyone was so gracious and hospitable. People are willing to do so much for strangers who are family. I responded that this feeling is one that applies to teams as well, since I feel the same way with my Harvard Softball family--if I meet an alum, I feel an instant bond. This feeling now applies to my Swedish family as well. Hans asked Meredith and me later if we feel a pull toward Sweden, and I replied that I absolutely do. I grew up learning about Swedish traditions, and I do feel a little bit at home here.

After the introductions and some talking, it was lunch time. Smoked eel, marinated pork, potatoes and veggies, cucumbers with dill, scrambled eggs (I think Anders made these for me since I said I like them), and bacon. I tried the eel--not bad. For dessert, of course we had rhubarb. What else? Anders even made me a whole bowl, (see picture below), as a "present." I had also brought chocolate balls, and those were a big hit. The time seemed to fly by but in a relaxing way as we dined out on the back patio in the pleasant weather. It was such a wonderful afternoon.

Hans and his family left around 3:00 and we all stayed a little longer outside. Grandma and Aunt Annette left to spend the night in Pixbo at Lina's house, and Meredith and I stayed with Anders and Stig. Apparently Anders is quite the dancer and dances once a week, so Grandma told him he had to teach me how to dance. He put on some music and tried teaching me some steps, but I ended up quite dizzy. He then got out the croquet set for the four of us to play a game. Grandma had mentioned that they played last time she was there to visit but that it didn't go so well. (Sounds like the Swedish version of the Croquet Incident of 2008, Mom and Dad). I had been trained in croquet in England two years before, and I had a great match, taking the gold medal. Stig finished second, Anders third, and Mere was deemed "first loser." The quartet ventured into the cottage to seek shelter from the rain, and we sat around the table just chatting. We turned on the news and watched a ceremony in commemoration of the tragedy that happened in Norway last year. After this, Anders made us all Swedish pancakes for dinner--sooooooo good! We did a jam taste test with lingonberry, blueberry, and cloudberry jams. I liked the cloud berry jam the best I think.

Mere and I called it a night after learning about the Royal Family from Stig, and we fell asleep pretty fast. It was so fun to meet the relatives and enjoy the great weather.

A Split for the Saints

I woke up excited to make a real breakfast and eat something other than my typical yogurt and granola. Mere, Grandma and I whipped together scrambled eggs, bacon and toast, and it was delicious. 

Then off to the fields! The first game was incredibly frustrating. We got on the board in the first inning with 1 run, and it was smooth sailing through four (?) innings. Tess was doing a great job behind the plate and the only runners to reach base reached on one dropped third, one walk and one error by me (oops!). Enkoping would score all they needed in the fourth inning when a girl reached first base on an error, and then with two outs and the runner on second, I made a mental error by pitching to their best hitter. I gave up a double/triple and the ball was overthrown into the infield so Enkoping's American player took home. 1-2. That turned out to be the difference in the game. I had one solid hit, but with no positive result, and struck out when I had a chance to knock in the tying run. I have forgotten what hitter's frustration feels like, but those feelings came rushing back pretty darn fast. We had to shake that game, though, and try to salvage the split.

Things weren't looking good in the second inning of the second game as we went down 1-7 during one of those innings when nothing goes right. However, the Saints didn't give up just yet, and we rallied for 11 runs in the third! 7-12! We tacked on another 5 in the fourth, but Enkoping rallied to add 4. I'm not quite sure of the scores in the innings, but I got up to bat in the bottom of the 6th with a chance to knock in the mercy rule run, and I got a base hit to end the game! I knocked in a total of 6 runs in the game which ended at 21-11, which helped to put me in a little better mood after the first game.

My fan club and I walked home from the fields after the games, stopping at the grocery store to pick up food for dinner (and we checked out some Swedish apparel--looking good Aunt Annette!). We made pasta, Swedish meatballs (we cheated--they were frozen), meatball sauce and salad, and it was a great little dinner. Now we are just hanging out for the night and taking it easy since we have to wake up somewhat early tomorrow to head to Alingsas for a mini family reunion at Anders's house. He promised rhubarb and Swedish pancakes, so of course I'm excited!

My visitors have arrived!

(This post is for yesterday)

I was ready around 11:00 after my morning work out for my grandma, aunt and sister to arrive. The grocery shopping was done--I got eggs, milk, toast and bacon for breakfast, I had made chocolate balls for dessert, and I got ice cream just in case. I tidied up the apartment, and I sat waiting for them to get to Helenius Gata, Apartment 44a. Their flight landed at 8:00 am and a relative was driving them the 4 hour drive from Stockholm to Skovde. I figured they would be here around 2:00. Well 2:00 came and went and quickly turned into 2:30, and then into 3:00. Where were they? I texted my sister through WiFi, knowing pretty positively she wouldn't be able to respond. My mind started racing. I was supposed to leave for practice around 3:30 to get to the fields at 4. I waited as long as I could, and then left a note on the door with the keys hidden and directions to a grocery store if they were hungry. They would be home when I finished practice, my inner consciousness told me.

I realized at practice that the keys I had left for them had the key to the shed, so Lina drove me back around 4:45. The note had been taken off the door, so I busted through the door to find three sleeping women on the couches in our living room. Relief flooded through me that they were safe and here. Their relative chauffeur had made several stops along the way to visit with other relatives, and it sounds like they had a wonderful time! I headed back to practice feeling much better and practice was great. I got back home around 7:00, quickly changed, and then we wandered into downtown Skovde for dinner. We found a great, cozy restaurant and we had a delicious dinner just chatting and enjoying the company. I had missed my family, and it was so comforting to be spending time with them. We headed back to the apartment after that to indulge in the chocolate balls, (and ice cream), and we sat around talking until about midnight. Jet lag definitely was doing weird things to their internal clocks, but I think they slept pretty soundly after the long day of traveling. Did I mention I'm happy they are here? :) 

Also, thanks Mom for the great care package sent via Mere. 3 bags of my favorite trail mix and an amazing stash of scrapbooking supplies!!

Chokladbollar

First, slight correction to my Something Swedish #3 post...I told Lina about the post and about the Smaka, and she looked at me very confused. Apparently "smaka" is the Ikea name for the utensil, but the real name is 'Osthyvel,' which I guess makes sense since 'ost' means cheese in Swedish. Still a super cool utensil, whatever its name may be!

Now for today's activity! I have been really missing baking these past two months since the Dungeon lacks an oven, but I have seen Chocolate Balls (Chokladbollar) everywhere and Lina told me I could easily make these no-bake treats. I enlisted her help yesterday at practice and did some grocery shopping this morning to get the ingredients (not easy considering the recipe is in Swedish!).

Recipe
3 dl Rolled oats
100 g Margarine
1 tsp Vanilla sugar
1 dl Sugar
2 tbsp Cocoa
2 tbsp water
Pearl Sugar (for rolling)

Lina and I had to do some conversions since the recipe was in deciliters and our measuring cup was milliliters, (although that was easy--gotta love the metric system), and we were quadrupling the recipe. All the ingredients are added above and we were ready to mix!

Thankfully Lina brought her hand mixer because otherwise it would have gotten very messy mixing by hand.This is the mixture before the magic.

I rolled three plates worth of chocolate balls while Lina kept me company, (she didn't want to get her hands dirty, haha). Final opinion: DELICIOUS!! Like I said, I have been wanting to make these all summer, and now that my grandmother, aunt and sister are coming to visit, I finally had an occasion to do so! I plan on bringing a plate of them to the games on Saturday for my team as well. Check that off the Swedish bucket list!

Best practice yet!

Second post of the day, but today's practice put me in a really great mood! I went one hour early, and I was overjoyed that 6 people showed up for the extra work! One great thing about Harvard Softball is that people play because they want to, and that sentiment seems to ring true here as well. It is so great! I worked with three pitchers during that hour and the other girls worked on some defense.

When everyone else arrived, we ran, did some fun base-running races and then went into defense. I whipped out some old school drills from my travel ball days including relay drills where the end players throw the ball over their heads, simulating balls hit to the fence, and the girls really seemed to like the drills. After that we did short line-long line defensive drills in the outfield. We then moved to positions and did some reps before playing 21 outs. We concluded practice with a run around the lake.

The girls really liked today's practice and I felt great about it. One said to me "You're a good coach." I started to beam. Later this evening, I got two text messages that made me so happy. One said "Just had to write and tell you that practice today was so much fun! Really good job girl!" and the other said "You did a really good job today!!! Be proud of yourself!! It was really fun. :)" How could I NOT be happy after those messages?!

Today was a really rewarding day, and it definitely encourages me to keep doing what I'm doing. I'll be back at it again on Friday, working with the pitchers and running practice again. I'm loving it!

Something Swedish #3

Today is a somewhat slow day since Diane, her mother and her sister left to go to Gothenburg for today and tomorrow. I've worked on job apps, my senior scrapbook, and I'm just about ready to go to practice. I'm going an hour early again today to work with some of the players who want to pitch.

For the third installment of Something Swedish, I will be writing about the SMAKA! It is a silver spatula-like tool with a slit at its base. I first saw it when I went to Leksand my second weekend here and it was on top of a block of cheese. I held it, having no idea how to use it. Do I use it like a knife and slice the cheese? I mused to myself. I backed away from it, allowing someone else to go in front of me so I could sneakily observe. The picture below is a perfect demo of the handy tool as it slices perfect strips of cheese to lay flat on bread.

GENIUS! I must say. Why do we not use these in America!? I always have marveled at my mother's ability to slice perfect slices of cheese for sandwiches, and often fail to do so myself, either cutting myself or ending up with a pile of cheese scraps pathetically piled on the bread. I am definitely getting one of these when I return stateside and have a place to call my own.

For those interested, check it out here: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40082367/

Karlsborg and the Göta Canal

Anders and I made plans last week to spend today together, so I met him at the softball fields this morning at 10:00, not really sure what he had in mind for the day. First stop: the fortress city of Karlsborg!

In 1819, King Karl XIV Johan decided that a fortress should be built on Vanas on the shore of Lake Vattern. He named it Karlsborg and it was to be used as an emergency capital in the event of war and a place of safety for the royal family, the national bank and the government. It took 90 years to complete, and so it was out of date when it was finally finished and never held any real significance as a result. It is now a major tourist attraction and people come to see the town that is enclosed in a 2 mile long wall.

This is a picture of the bayonet chandelier in the Garrison Church inside of the Karlsborg military base. The church is used by the regiment as an assembly hall for feasts, for regimental prayers and memorial services and also for traditional services. The bayonet chandelier has 276 bayonets, and the symbolism in the design can be interpreted so that the gold crown on the top symbolizes the royal power, the bayonets represent the military power and the chains represent the prisoners. Cool, huh?

Anders and I also went to the museum in Karlsborg which featured the special unit forces of the military, but my favorite space was the wall of the kids' area, pictured above.

I just liked this picture, taken in Karlsborg. :)

On our way to the next town over, Forsviks Bruk, we had to wait because a ship was passing on the Gota Canal. The bridge was raised, and Anders told me to get out and walk ahead to take a picture. I didn't really understand what was going on, but once I got out, I figured out I had some time to look at the boat before Anders would be able to drive again once the bridge was lowered. The boat was the Wilhelm Tham, which I later learned was built in 1912 and cruises the entire length of the Gota Canal, (118 miles), takes a week to do so and costs passengers roughly $4,500!

Our next stop was Forsviks Bruk, a factory town. There was a museum which offered an interesting look into Sweden's industrial history. This picture above is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a museum--they replicated the picture on the wall on the left in the room behind it! I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at in the museum because the captions were all in Swedish, but it was kind of cool.

One of my favorite pictures from the day. Anders and I were wandering around the town of Forsviks Bruk.

Anders was like a little boy on Christmas morning when we saw this ship. It is named the Eric Nordevall II because the original one sank in the Lake Vattern 20 years after being built in 1836 and still rests on the bottom of the lake. The Eric Nordevall was part of the first generation of steamships designed to operate on the Gota Canal. It revolutionized Swedish transport, making it possible to travel from Stockholm to Gothenburg. Great efforts were made to construct Eric Nordevall II as closely to the original as possible, even using techniques characteristics of the time. Anders worked on ships for his career, traveling all over the world for 50 years, so he definitely has an avid interest in ships. It is interesting to hear him talk about ships and he is very knowledgeable. I was happy to accompany him on this trip to see the ship.

 Taken below the deck--very cool to see!

The picture above is one of the warehouse near the harbor. Anders isn't one to follow rules, so we climbed up the ladder and peeked around the gray ship.

Our next stop was the Gota Canal locks at Hajstorp. (Don't even ask me how to pronounce that!). People were lounging by the canal and eating ice cream, enjoying the nice Swedish weather. It was a beautiful day outside, and we only had 1 brief rain shower. Anders told me this is the rainiest summer since 1901! Of course...

The sky in Sweden never ceases to amaze me. I apologize for how many sky pictures I post, but it is truly incredible. I've said it before and I'll say it again--the sky is just different here. Maybe it's bluer, maybe the clouds are whiter, I don't know, but it is just amazing.

I love the Gota Canal logo on the flag above. Now for more info on the canal, (called Sweden's Greatest Wonder)...It was opened in 1832 and provided a vital link for transporting timber and iron between Stockholm and Gothenburg. It took another 100 years for leisure traffic to hit the water, but now many boats will travel either short stretches or the entire length, stopping at restaurants or cafes along the way, or stopping for the passengers to rent bikes and ride along the paths that follow the canal. Many of the lock gates along the canal are worked by hand by the lock-keepers and I even got to see one guy in action! A fun fact: It is nicknamed the "divorce ditch" because couples spend a lot of time together traveling along the canal, running into trouble when they have to navigate the locks by themselves. Haha.

Our final stop for the day was at the Lyrestad locks. We saw the locks and then went down to the marina. We ended up sitting for 20 minutes or so and the sun felt so nice. It made me miss the beach back home. It was lively and there were a lot of people around, but the cool breeze and beautiful scenery made for a very relaxing break. Another fun day with Anders!

A good day at practice

Today's practice seemed to go really well and we worked on several things that didn't work so well in the games vs. Sundsvall including running first and thirds, cut plays and hitting. I went an hour early to work with two pitchers, Alexandra and Lisa. Alex is a handball convert, having only started playing softball this past February. She is a natural athlete, and so it was fun to work with her. Lisa also recently started playing softball, but she had great spin and a knack for the mechanics. Since our team is lacking pitching, the coach suggested I work with anyone who wants to learn. One of my favorite quotes of the day came from Lisa when she said after a good pitch, "It's fun when you get it right!" I enjoyed watching the two pitchers get better, even in just one practice session.

Another good quote for the day came from one of the workers at Prima: "I love Mondays, so many open possibilities!" It was a great perspective, and I just had to share.

Other good news is that the coach brought up the idea of me returning next summer. Obviously this would depend on where I am and what I'm doing next year, but I think this means they like me. :)

Rough Day for the Saints

After a 7 hour drive to Sundsvall, we arrived Friday night at one of our teammate's house around midnight. We were exhausted, and we all quickly fell right asleep, despite the barking of the dog for the majority of the night, (we think the Sundsvall players planted it!).

In the morning, we donned our uniforms, ate breakfast and headed to the field for warm ups. Just before the first game started, an older couple peeked into the dugout and said "Rakel!" (My Swedish name, given to me by Anders). The two people were Anders's brother, Ove, and his wife, Berit. They were so jolly, and it was so awesome to meet them.

Now for the first game...it's kind of a logic puzzle with multiple parts. How can a pitcher strike out 19 batters in 6 innings? How can a pitcher give up 1 hit, but also give up 2 runs? The answer to both of these questions is dropped third strikes. The first run scored when a girl got on base on a dropped third and then advanced to third on a bunt and then home on an overthrow at third, all in the same play. The second run scored when another runner got on base because of a dropped third, got to second and third on passed balls and scored on a fly ball to right field. Needless to say, our team didn't hit very well, and the game was pretty frustrating. It was our first loss since I arrived, and my competitive side was not very happy.

In the second game, we struggled to figure out the starting lineup since we had only 11 players. We figured something out and took the field. We jumped on top early by scoring 1 run in the first, but that was soon matched. We put three more on the board (I hit a ball to the fence!), but the Sundsvall Mosquitos closed the gap with two more runs. We would be held scoreless for the rest of the game, and a grandslam by one of the Sundsvall American players put the game out of our reach. It was definitely a disappointing day for our team.

Because Gefle dropped out of the league, those wins got canceled, making our record a sad 2-6. Hopefully the games in the future go must better because we have to be one of the top four teams (out of 5) to make the play-offs. Skovde has been much stronger in past years, but I guess 3-4 regular long-time players quit this year, so our team is very inexperienced now. Hopefully this will be a great underdog story at the end of the summer.

The ride home was long, but pretty fun despite the losses. We played 20 questions, listened to music and just chatted most of the way. We stopped for dinner at a pizzeria/grill, making me realize that pizza, kebab, and other meats are the standard Swedish foods. I kind of thought Sweden would have lighter food, more seafood and meatballs, so this surprised me. Looks like Prima fits right in.  We got home around 11:00 and had to unload the van at the field. Diane and I got dropped off at the Dungeon around 11:30 and I crashed after an episode of my most recent obsession: Mad Men!

Here are some pictures from the day, including one of me pitching to Frida (my grandma's cousin's daughter's neice) and one with Berit and Ove!

Road Trip to Sundsvall!

The team leaves today around 5:00 to drive half way to Sundsvall (a 7 hour total trip) for our games tomorrow, and will stay at a girl's house for the night and drive the rest of the way tomorrow morning. Some of the girls requested a morning practice since we won't have one in the afternoon, so I got up early to run around the lake (only twice today, haha), and then Diane and I ran a practice for about five girls. We got interrupted about 45 minutes into the practice by a rain shower, but it passed after about 10 minutes and we were able to work out for another 45 minutes. I still cannot get used to this weather--sunny one minute and torrential downpour the next! The girls keep telling me that it's a particularly bad weather summer but they keep reassuring me it will get better. Fingers crossed.

I'm excited to get to Sundsvall because I have quite a few relatives who live there. I don't think I posted about this already, but the pitcher for Sundsvall, named Frida, is actually very distantly related to me! She played for the National Team so I have already met her and her family. The easiest way to describe the relation is that she is my grandma's cousin's daughter's niece. Like I said, it's a very distant relation, but it's still pretty cool! Here is a picture of us from the national tournament. We look a little related, right?

Gotta pack now for the overnight trip. This is our sweet ride for the road trip--it will definitely be cozy as we fit nine people in here. Got my snacks, music (new Carrie Underwood CD!), and a book, but hopefully I can sleep some of the way.

Running and Dancing

I went for a nice long run yesterday which felt great after a span of about 2 weeks of minimal physical activity (besides walking). I made it around the lake by the fields three times! I had read a good quote that went something like "Don't let your mind give up before your body," and that pushed me to run the last lap. I also just really enjoyed getting lost in music and thoughts. My friend, Eve, introduced me to something called the listserv where you subscribe to an email list and one person is randomly assigned to email the group each day. When I signed up there were 20,000 people subscribed, so today's thoughts while running were about what I would say to those 20,000 people if/when I am chosen. Kind of intimidating! So far the emails I have received have been mostly hit or miss, but I have really enjoyed a few of of them. I'll withhold my ideas until I am actually chosen, but that inner dialogue kept me preoccupied during the full second lap. 

After the run, I was stretching in the grass and just laid down for a few minutes. The grass was so soft and the sun even peeked out for a little bit. It was a great feeling. 

After the run I ate lunch and got some things checked off my to do list. Later that night, Angelica invited us to a party at her place and it turned into a typical Swedish night out filled with games, wobbling (of course), learning Swedish words, and dancing to our favorite Swedish songs at one of the bars downtown before calling it a night. Here is a link to one of my favorite songs called "Dansa, Pausa." You dance when the song says "Dansa," and freeze when it says "Pausa." Pretty fun!

Pastries, Practice and Pictures

First, I added some more details to previous posts, so it may be interesting to check those out again!

Now for today...We started with a trip to Lagkagehuset, a chain bakery that a friend of mine had recommended to me. We had Danish money to spend, and we really went to town. We ended up with about 15 bags of treats between the 4 of us and we managed to spend the rest of the money. For breakfast I tried a rhubarb muffin, and I got a chocolate muffin, two other pastries and a pepperoni focaccia for lunch.

We hit the road after that and only stopped once for a bathroom break. The lunch was so good, and I may have also indulged in the world's greatest chocolate muffin ever.

We got back to Skovde just in time to quickly change and then head to the softball fields. Today I went an hour early to work with Ida, a 16 year old on the team, on pitching. Diane volunteered to catch, and it was a great session. I had kind of forgotten how much I enjoy giving one-on-one pitching lessons, and so this was really fun. It was a slightly weaker showing at practice (6 people), so we worked some first and third plays and then did some hitting.

Back to the Dungeon after that, and I have spent the past several hours catching up on emails and also uploading Denmark pictures HERE! Enjoy!

Denmark Day 3: Dozens of Sites!

The gang got going around 11:00 this morning, determined to see the city. We hopped off the metro at Norreport and found a cute Danish pastry place for a late breakfast. YUM! I had a cinnamon twisted bread with almond and icing. We ate in beautiful botanic gardens. For the rest of the post, I am going to highlight some of the main sites. After breakfast, we walked to the..

• Rosenborg Castle. This was built by Christian IV as a summer house but later became the main residence. It was really picturesque and stood alone, surrounded by the King's Gardens.

We then made our way to the...

• Round Tower (Rundetarn): Here, we ascended the spiral ramp to the top for a good view of the city. This is Europe's oldest astronomical observatory, built by Christian IV and opened in 1642.

I was the navigator for the trip, so we were following a walking tour that was shown on my map. We followed different streets and made our way to the...

• Copenhagen Citadel, a military fortress. Nearby is the Gefion Statue which has a cool story. According to Norse mythology, the Kind of Sweden offered the goddess Gefion as much land as she could plough in one night, so she changed her four sons into oxen and used them to plough all of Zealand, thus removing the island from Swedish rule.

The next destination was the famous...

• Little Mermaid statue. There were tons of tourists, and after hearing that it was pretty underwhelming, I thought it was pretty cool--much bigger and closer than I expected it to be. I learned later that the Little Mermaid had her head removed in the 1960s and an arm sawn off in the 1980s, requiring a recasting and grafting. Yikes! It was super touristy and tough to get a picture, but it was a must-see.

Next stops included the...

• Marble Church: (Marmorkirken), which was begun in 1749 but halted for a century when expenditures were too expensive because of all the marble, and it was finished later wiht Danish limestone.It is modeled after St. Peter's in the Vatican.
• Amalienborg Slot: (where we saw the changing of the guard!), the home of the Danish royal family since 1794 when a fire destroyed Christiansborg (another palace we saw)
• the Opera House and Playhouse, 
• and the walking tour ended at Nyhavn, the gorgeous harbor of the city. The buildings were all painted different colors and it was so very picturesque. The area had been the red-light district in the 1800s, but Hans Christian Andersen lived there for 20 years after it had transformed itself into the heart of Copenhagen's social scene.

We followed the walkway to...

• Stroget: a 1 mile road with tons and tons of stores for both high and low end shopping. 

 I found a cute sandwich place to get a quiche for lunch and then we headed to the...

• National Museum: Inside the museum, (a former royal palace built in the 1740s) were lots of old relics of early stone age history. The museum concentrates on Danish history. There were also a lot of skeletons of bodies that had been preserved in bogs. Kinda creepy but cool stuff. It was interesting to read some of the stories. The crew took a 20 minute break after the museum because our feet were hurting from walking the city! 

After this, we did some souvenir shopping and then around 6:00, we headed back to our place since we were exhausted. At 7:30, we took off in the car to find some dinner, but we must have chosen the worst part of town to find a restaurant because there was NOTHING for us to find. Either the places had nowhere to sit, they were closed or they were take away only. We drove farther down the road and thankfully stumbled upon a cute and cozy cafe around 9:15. The food was delicious, especially because we were hungry, and it turned out to be a great ending to the day. Tomorrow we hope to hit up a pastry place before leaving and then we make the long drive back to Sweden so Diane and I can go to practice at 4:00. I've loved my time in Copenhagen!

Denmark Day 2: 2 very different amusement parks

After getting ready for the day in our cabin, the gang left the campsite to head toward Copenhagen. We stopped in an antique store and looked around town before driving the distance to the city. Around 1:30, we made it to the apartment that we would be staying in for the next two nights. Not quite what we were expecting, (more of a dorm) but at least it was a roof over our heads in the misty rain. Around 2:30, we took off for the city and went to two very different places.

1. Christiania-our first stop in Copenhagen. Christiania is a free state outside of the city center in the community of Christianshavn. Christianshavn was invaded in 1971 by hippies who were protesting capitalism and the arms race. The government allowed them to set up the "Free Christiania," a self-governing enclave. The population of this state is around 1000, and it has outlawed hard drugs so police turn a blind eye to the open sale of marijuana. It definitely was not my type of place and attracted a very eclectic group of people, all with one thing on their mind...if they were in the right state of mind that is. (google it maybe for a better idea of it.)  It was definitely an experience to walk around, making me question how any of the stores were legal. No photos allowed, so I won't have any to post, but it was a very "chill" environment with some gardens placed throughout the area. Needless to say, I was happy when we decided to leave.

2. Tivoli Gardens-this is a family friendly amusement park that opened in 1843 and has changed very little since then. It is a national monument and was designed by Georg Carstensen. There was a $15 entrance fee that was totally worth it. We walked in and immediately saw a ballet performance on the main Peacock Theater stage. We wandered around and there were so many attractions and things to see. The rides looked fun, although some looked nauseating, and the entire atmosphere was just joyful. Diane and I had ice cream for dinner (surprise), and I really enjoyed some live Danish music on one of the stages, the Chinese Pagoda.

After several hours at Tivoli, we got pretty tired and decided to walk to a nearby metro station to head home. It was fun to see some parts of the city.  We walked along the main shopping road, Stroget, and looked at some souvenirs, knowing we would go back tomorrow. Once we successfully navigated the subway, we made it back to our dorm but then went on a wild goose chase to find a grocery store. Seems like everything here closes at 10! Back to the dorm to go to bed so we can wake up early tomorrow for some more site seeing!

Denmark Day 1: Mons Klint

My alarm clock seemed to ring impossibly early this morning, but I was up and ready to go because Diane, her mother and sister and I were going to Denmark! We piled in the car and got an early start at 7:30 and we three girls were all asleep within the first half hour. Several hours later we made a quick stop at a flea market--pretty much all people's old junk. Good to stretch the legs though.

Back on the road headed south to Malmo. We took the Sweden-Denmark bridge under water to Denmark and were there in a short amount of time. Our next stop was in a cute town on a body of water (water is seriously everywhere!), and we picnicked for a little while. Back in the car again. I alternated between napping and looking at the scenery.

We stopped once again in a town called Stege to look at a really old church. The town was really cute! Next stop--the Liselund Slot (a castle). It was so green and beautiful in the surrounding park with lots of trees and ponds and the lesser houses had thatched roofs, reminding me of hobbit houses. The main building was more of a manor than a castle, but it was still neat to see.

Finally we arrived at our main destination for the day: the Mons Klimt (Chalk Mountains). We walked down what seemed like a million steps (we decided to count on our way up) and got down to a pebble beach with a great view of the white cliffs. A few photos and a short walk around and we were ready to climb back up. 475 stairs...whew!

We knew we would be staying at a campsite tonight, so we kept joking about what it would be like all day long. We got to the place around 8:30 and it turned out to be quite lovely. We were in a cabin with two sets of bunk beds, a table and chairs and a kitchen area. There were communal bathrooms and showers. Other people were camping in tents, reminding me of family trips from when I was younger at Doheny Beach. We walked around the site and I took some beautiful pictures of the sunset. We plan to sleep in tomorrow and then make our way to Copenhagen!

Trip Photos and Trip Plans

Here are the links to my photo albums:

Prague Photos
Munich Photos

And, because Diane's mother and sister are visiting, we are going to Copenhagen tomorrow morning and staying until Wednesday! We are going to the Chalk Hills tomorrow and then spending the next few days in the city. I'm really excited!

"Have fun, but more importantly, WIN!"

This was the quote from our coach, Anzo. She obviously said it jokingly, but we did just that and took 2 games from our opponent, Soder, today. That brings our team to 4-4 and probably moves us to the middle of the conference. Good news is that we are on the steady incline! 

We all put up the home run fence at 10:00 this morning and started warm ups a half hour later. I was the starting pitcher and batting 6th. Soder managed to get two runners on in the first inning, but a K looking got us out of the inning. I could definitely tell that this team was better than Gefle, and they were much stronger batters 1 through 9. We scored 1 run in our half of the inning, but it would take a few innings for us to really break it open. Lina hit a 3 run home run and that really seemed to open the flood gates. We won 10-0 after 5 innings, although the game was much tougher than the score would indicate. I went 1 for 3 at the plate--not too great. Tess, (the half Swedish girl who played college softball at UCSD), was my catcher today and she did a great job! (Tess and I pictured below)

I was the DH in the second game, although I had another rough game at the plate. 0 for 2 with a walk. I get so anxious up there and the slow speed doesn't help at all. We scored 3 runs in our first inning, but we wouldn't score again until the 6th inning. Soder closed the gap to make it 3-2 in the third inning, but we tacked on another 4 runs in the 6th. I asked Anzo about the limitations on American pitchers since I had only pitched 5 innings, but the rule is that American pitchers can ONLY pitch in the first game of the day, regardless of the inning count. Soder scored 1 run in the 7th, but we pulled out the 7-3 win. Wahoo!

I'm catching up on everything now, making for a relaxing Saturday evening. I'll probably post links to albums of my Prague and Munich photos in a little bit!

A Swedish Summer

Back to Sweden means back to Swedish weather. Turns out I was spoiled in the heat of Prague and Munich where I actually managed to add some pigment to my ghostly white Boston complexion. I made it back to Skovde around 1:00, grabbed lunch and did some grocery shopping and then began unwinding from the trip. Diane, her mother, and her sister got back from a day trip around 3:30 just about when it started raining. And then pouring. And then thundering and lightning-ing. We thought there was no way we would have practice, but Priya confirmed that we would be hitting. We showed up at the field around 4:45 and Priya told us it would probably just be her and the two women who drive 2 hours to practice hitting. We opted to stay, along with the other 10 girls who showed up! Lina's first words to me were "This is a Swedish summer!" We did hitting stations with front toss on the field, and no amount of downpour kept us from playing. The rain was warm so it wasn't so bad...until it was my turn to hit. It was hard to hold onto the bat! It was fun to see my teammates again--it had felt like forever that I had been gone. We just messed around in the rain and had a good time. Hopefully our field can dry by tomorrow so we can play our two games against Soder! 

Singing in the rain

Practicing sliding!

I came, I saw, I think I conquered...

I had one mission for the day--to take on the Deutsches Museum. My dad had told me it was an awesome science and technology museum, and I am a total nerd for those types, (hello San Diego, Boston, Seattle and OKC science museums)! The weather forecast told me there would be thunderstorms, (although it must have been an old forecast since it was gorgeous, sunny and hot all day long) but I was inspired to walk to the museum since it was nice early and I thought it would rain later. I went through the downtown area of Munich and got to the museum around 9:45. Only 3 euros with a student discount! The first room had hundreds of ship models and some real life size ones. I took lots of photos, and when I consulted my museum map, I saw that there were 6 floors and dozens of rooms to get to, so I was going to have to pick up my pace. On to heavy machinery, aeronautics, musical instruments, atomic physics, (this one was all in German, the only reason I couldn't understand it, haha), textile manufacturing, photography and film, paper, printing technology, glass technology, technical toys, ceramics, astronomy, mapping and navigation, math and computer stuff (over my head), time keeping, weights and measures, and after all of this I was exhausted. I made it to the sun dial garden on the roof for a good view of the city, and by then it was already 12:30. I thought I had seen it all but turns out I had missed a lot of the rooms on the first floor! I blitzed these rooms because they weren't really my thing, and I left feeling like I got the full experience.

There were several places on the perimeter of the city I wanted to see so I started to walk. There were so many pleasant surprises along the way! My stomach was rumbling, but I wasn't going to let my hunger distract from site seeing. I walked along the river where people were lounging in the sun, (some naked!), and emerged at a huge building called the Maximilianeum--very impressive. I continued my walk and stumbled across another gorgeous fountain and statue. After this, I decided to head into town to find food. I passed by the entrance to the Englischer Garten, and a bunch of people were crowded around. This is where the water starts and so surfers line up and take turns to ride the waves in place. It was awesome! When one wipes out, the next person jumps out to give it a go. I passed by some beautiful museums but I was museum'ed out for the day.

I decided to head to the market where I knew I could find food, and I got the same thing as yesterday, figuring I have to eat German food while I have the chance. Walking back through the main square, I saw people on the deck of one of the churches. A chance at the view of the city! I felt bad for having led my friends astray yesterday and not climbing the tower with them, but I was excited to get the chance to do it now. 1.50 euros, 1 smashed euro souvenir penny, (I collect them!), and 300 steps later and I was on top of the world...or Munich at least. It was around 3:00 at this point, so I had ~3 hours to spare. I did what any girl would do...a little bit of shopping! No purchases, but still fun. For my afternoon snack, I followed Aubri's advice and went to McDonalds...but for something uniquely European! A Magnum Mcflurry! And oh my goodness, it was so delicious!! Glad we don't have these at home because they would be hard to resist.

I sauntered back to the hostel to take advantage of the wifi one last time and then began my trip to the airport early. I'm sitting here now ready to begin a long ~20 hour journey home, (the result of buying the cheapest ticket that got me the most time in Munich). 2 hour flight to Riga, 7 hour layover over night (ouch), 2 hour flight to Stockholm, tram to the train station and 4 hour train to Skovde. I think the worst part will be the 25 minute walk back to my apartment. Oh well, the amazing 10 days were totally worth it. I am leaving Munich feeling that I got the full experience and I am very happy. Boarding now! Got some milka chocolate for a snack. Love European chocolate. :)

One more side note--I got my seat assigned when I checked in and I got exit row window, which means no seat in front of me so miles of leg room. Everyone who walks by seems jealous. Things are looking good, (knock on wood)!

Happy 4th at the Olympic Center

I woke up at 7 and couldn't fall back asleep (the downside to hostels) so I showered and got some breakfast. I had made plans to meet my new friends from the pub crawl last night at 10 this morning, but a Facebook message from one of them pushed our time back to 11:30. Time for a few excursions on my own! I walked over to botanical gardens I saw on my map and saw the gorgeous facade of a beautiful building from the park. A recurring theme I've noticed in Munich is that there are hidden green oases scattered throughout the city. After that excursion,  I walked to a church, yet another beautiful building. 

I met Julien and Aubri at the train station at 11:30 and we took off for town. I had heard that you could climb a tower to see the city, but the church tower was closed for reconstruction. Bummer--I do love getting good views! We were pretty hungry at this point so we hit up the market I went to the day before and I tried a sausage with bread and ketchup. Don't ask me the German name for it, but it was tasty! 

After this, we decided to go see the Olympic training center--kind of fitting for the 4th of July in a way. It was a gorgeous day and the park was beautiful. Unfortunately the stadium was closed for an event, but just taking in the cool architecture was enough for me. There is also a lake nearby and the breeze was so nice.  We hopped back on the subway and got off at the Englisher Garten and treated ourselves to beers. I felt so lucky to have found some great company and loved just hanging out in the beer garden on the great afternoon. We walked back through the main part of the town to meet their other friend and host, Marcus. He knew of a good beer garden nearby so we walked there for dinner. I had a pork dish with a potato dumpling and kraut salad. Again, I don't remember the name but it was all really good! This beer garden was HUGE with so many people just hanging out and eating with friends. Such a cool culture.

I split from my new friends after dinner and headed back to my hostel.  After cleaning up a little, I went down to the bar, hoping to run into some Americans to celebrate the 4th of July. It didn't take long. 2 girls decked out in RW and B came to the bar and immediately invited me to celebrate with them. More people decided to join us including an Aussie, a Chilean, a few more Americans, 3 Norwegians and 1 German. Quite an eclectic group. We went to a beer garden and it was fun to just hang out. I love the traveling mentality and atmosphere--people are so friendly. I headed home after this since I was tired from a lack of sleep the night before. I had new roommates again, (honeymooners from the States), so we chatted for a little and then it was bed time for me. Another fun day!

And I would walk 500 miles...

I am wearing the soles off my shoes...seriously. Today my feet starting hurting after the many hours of walking in the past several days.

At 10:00, I went to the pick up point for the free tour and then followed the leader to the starting point. At 11:00, the tour group witnessed the Glockenspiel, and learned that it was voted the #2 most overrated European tourist attraction, beat out only by the Prague Glockenspiel. Haha, seen 'em both in the past few days. The tour guides were funny, reenacting the dance of the puppets for us. The top scene depicts a wedding and an Austrian knight jousting a Bavarian knight, and the lower scene shows beer barrel makers dancing around to celebrate the end of the Plague and the restoration of their profession, something that has become a Munich tradition to reenact every 7 years. I learned that the statue of Mary is the very center of the town, and she is guarded both by modern day security measures and by 4 fighting baby statues, haha.  We then went to the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). It was left mostly intact in the war because the Allied bombers used it as a landmark to recognize Munch since many other buildings had been destroyed. Legend has it that the devil helped build the church, explaining why it was built in a record breaking 20 years. The devil thought there were no windows in the building and offered his services to the architect on the condition that no windows would  ever be added. The work was completed, and when the devil checked on the building, there were windows! The architect responded that those had been there when the deal was made. Angry at being tricked, the devil stomped his foot, giving rise to the footprint in the church, (another story says it is the architect's foot print).

Another thing I learned was that the city has two symbols: a cute monk (how Munich got its name, Munchen) and a lion after Henry the lion who built a bridge to charge taxes and thus was responsible for the growth of the city. Other stops on the tour included the Michael Jackson memorial, (dozens of pictures and offerings placed on a statue of a German composer), the Royal Residence, the Opera House and the world famous Hofbrahaus. There, I learned that back in the 16th century, men would go to drink regularly. There were no bathrooms in the building so men often lost their seats to go outside. To get around this, they put gutters UNDER THE TABLES, and when you consider that lederhosen unbutton and flap down, you can put 2 and 2 together. Gross! They had to wash the place down every morning. On a more somber note, the tour involved a lot of sobering history of Nazi Germany including Hitler's revolution. During his rule there was a street where people passing by had to do the salute, although resistors found a detour to avoid it. However, an officer would be camped out near the detour and if the person was seen walking there often, he/she was questioned and then sent to Dachau, the concentration camp. There is a sliver of gold bricks in the ground to memorialize those who experienced this. Munich has many memorials, but I learned that many are very subtle with no signs or explanations which is the city's way to get people curious and want to learn about the history.

There were several more stops on the tour, and we finished at the Viktualienmarkt, a teeming market with booths offering fresh fruits and veggies, olives and hummus spreads, meats and cheeses, etc. I opted for a caprese mix and a German pretzel. Another fun story I learned at the market was that German cities put up Maypoles in the spring and summer, and neighboring towns try to steal each other's poles before they are put up. They hold them for ransom which typically involves free beer and food. In 1996, several guys stole the Munich pole which had never been done, and for ransom they asked for a free table and free beer at Oktoberfest. The people of Munich initially refused but as spring was approaching, they needed the pole so they conceded and the guys got prime seats and drinks. Another story was that the maypole was stolen from the Munich airport, and when it was reported to the police, the officers laughed because THEY had stolen it. Pretty funny. It was an awesome tour with lots of good info and stories. 

At this point I had no plans so I started to walk. I got a little lost, but that's kind of the fun of traveling. I made it to a beautiful garden, the Hofgarten. It was just off the main road, and then I made my way to the Englischer Garten, Munich's own Central Park. It was giant! So peaceful and serene, and I see myself going back there at some point.  I made my way back to my hostel, taking in the views and people watching along the way. I felt that everyone else knew where to find ice cream except me! Oh well.  Around 5:30, I was debating about doing a pub crawl. I was nervous to do it alone because I didn't know if the other people would be receptive to a stranger, but I decided to go for it. And good thing I did because I had so much fun! There was a group of three college grads who were incredibly welcoming, and as the drinks kept flowing, everyone in the group got friendlier and started chatting. We met 2 Dubliners, 2 Canadians, an American couple on a honeymoon, and 2 Australians. The group went to three different places including the Hofbrahaus where I drank a full liter! Woo! We finished the night at a hostel next door to mine, (very convenient), and said our goodbyes. The night was so much fun and I enjoyed the various German beers. It was an action packed day to say the least, and I can't wait to see more of the city.