Stockholm, Sweden

Four days after an impulsive moment in the CBS library, we flew out of Copenhagen bright and early this past Monday morning.  Destination: Stockholm, Sweden.

Upon arriving, we immediately liked the city as it was about 5 degrees hotter than any day we’ve seen so far in Copenhagen.  We grabbed a bus to the city center station, which was conveniently located literally across the street from our hotel.  Since it was such a gorgeous day, we headed straight back out again and headed towards the canals.  We quickly discovered that Stockholm is a gorgeous city – every building looks like a national monument and the city is made up of a series of islands connected by bridges.  (To be specific, the city is 14 islands connected by 57 bridges).  

historical boats on the canal

We went on a tour of the Archipelago, which took about an hour and a half.  The tour guide was great, as he pointed out all the sights along the canals as we went along.  The area is made up of over 30,000 small islands, which are typically inhabited by summer residents.  Plus we finally got a little sun (we even wore shorts for the first time this July!).  Once we arrived at the turnaround point in the town of Vaxholm, we discovered that we were able to get off the boat for a few hours and then catch a later ride back to Stockholm.  This worked out perfectly – we spent the afternoon browsing through cute boutiques and had a great lunch on the seawall.  

having a good hair day..

the town of Vaxholm

Once we arrived back in Stockholm, we headed out for dinner.  We were originally searching for a bar/restaurant that was recommended to us (and was coincidentally famous from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books), but never quite made it there.  Instead we passed through a trendy area of the city, called ‘SoFo’, and found an cozy and busy outdoor restaurant.  We ended up having the best dinner since we left Vancouver at this restaurant (Café Babylon for anyone who is thinking of visiting).

exploring the city

The next day, the weather was forecasted to rain (back to reality), so we decided to hit up a few museums.  We went to the National Museum, where there were several interesting and diverse exhibits being shown.  When we decided to leave, we discovered that the weather had not only turned to rain, but to absolute torrential downpour accompanied by thunder and lightning.  We observed the storm for about 10 minutes, hopeful that it would pass, but of course it didn’t.  The next museum, the Moderna Museet, was only a few minutes away so we decided to make a run for it.  This museum had an exhibit based on the work of Yoko Ono, and featured several works by Warhol, Pollock and other modern artists.  When we finished at this museum, the rain had finally slowed down.  We wondered to another area of town for some delicious dinner (and a little shopping).  

exhibit in the hall at the Moderna Museet

piece from the Yoko Ono exhibit

On our last day, we took a boat tour to Drottingholm Palace, a castle built in the 17^thC, and today still inhabited by the King and Queen of Sweden.  It’s often referred to as the Versaille of the North, and is designed in the Baroque style and is surrounded by beautiful gardens. 

Drottingholm Palace from the boat

After, we toured around Gamla Stan, or the Old Town, which is Europe’s largest and most well preserved medieval city center.  It was founded back in the 12^th C as a fortification, and today the old cobblestone streets are filled with cafes, restaurants, and shops.  After yet another beautiful and sightseeing filled day, we regretfully headed back to the airport.  A balmy 15 degrees in Copenhagen and early class tomorrow….Home Sweet Home!

entrance to Gamla Stan

                          

Wish you were here,

Rose and Sydney.

Copenhagen Update

We know its been awhile since our last update, but we’ve been so busy having a blast here in Copenhagen!

On the school front, we have finished our intensive 3-week marketing models course and are now working on the final project for this class. This final project involves running software analysis for marketing problems (cases) and then making managerial decisions about the outcomes of the analysis. We still have another 2 weeks left of our cross-cultural management course, which to say the least has been very interesting. Last week, our Mexican-German professor started off the 8:00AM class with some vibrant salsa music in an effort to wake up his students and encourage some participation. In the class previous to this one, we spent the first 45 minutes, with all the 35 students standing at the front of the classroom… “not leaning on furniture, walls or the board… but just to move freely and discuss…” a case we had read on an English manufacturing company that was attempting to move its operations to China. A riveting class it was INDEED. 

Put on by the International Social University Program (ISUP) coordinators, we got to learn some authentic Danish folk dancin’ (dumbed down of course) with a live orchestra and instructors (in COSTUME)! It was really hilarious and everyone there had a really great time attempting to learn the traditional dance moves. After this dancing lesson there was a mid-summer night party hosted at a near by CBS bar, which had a great outdoor patio. It’s hard to believe that the summer is more than halfway finished. Time is just flying by!

folk dancing at the hall

group picture 

getting schooled at folk dancing

The Copenhagen Jazz festival was going on all of last week all over the city as well, and one afternoon after doing some homework, we stumbled upon a lovely square filled with beautiful jazz music. It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon and the outdoor Jazz concert was a perfect way to spend the rest of the 
day.

concert near Stroget

lots of Jazz shows happening at Nyhavn

We managed to cross the Copenhagen Museum off of our list of “things to do.” We were hoping to learn more about the city of Copenhagen and its history, but the museum instead focused on the city’s specific history of immigration, along with a special exhibit on waste produced by city dwellers in Copenhagen. The museum was a beautiful old building (its original purpose we are still unaware) but the exhibits within it were modern, interesting and presented their content in a non-conventional manner through different mediums (film, photography, props, music, interactive boards people could write and contribute to, etc.)

exhibit on urban culture in Copenhagen

past posters about urban filth and the RATS!

On this past Sunday, the ISUP organized a day trip out to the nearby area of Helsingor (on the sound between Denmark and Sweden) to visit the historical royal castle of Krongborg. The castle is world renowned as the setting of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. We had a great guided tour of the castle and its grounds and then were given the afternoon to explore the cute town of Helsingor that surrounded it. It was a great trip, where me met some new friends and enjoyed seeing a new part of Denmark we had not yet experienced. We are starting to think it might be a great idea to explore more of Denmark once we are done school and have a bit more free time.

outside the castle

waiting for the bus with our new friend Alex

Sorry for the delayed post, but wish you were here!

Sydney and Rose

Hille Island, Mandal, Norway

This past weekend we traveled to meet our UBC friend Petter in his hometown of Stavanger, Norway. We flew there on thursday evening on a comfortable yet sassy airline, SAS... the Scandinavian airline with great youth ticket deals (which we figured out courtesy of Petter!)

downtown Stavanger

We toured around Stavanger on friday morning and met his wonderful and hospitable family. We felt really comfortable and right at home here and loved the local prawns that are caught over night and then cooked in fresh sea salt water the next morning. The port was bustling with a lot of tourists because of the HUGE cruise ship that was docked right in the tiny harbour on friday. There were many cute little cafes and shops we saw as well, and Sydney picked up an authentic norwegian wool sweater. We were also really surprised to find a country in Europe more expensive than Denmark...

Stavanger Harbour

Petter being an excellent tour guide around town!

Petter of course had a busy itinerary planned for our weekend, so after a full tour of Stavanger we packed up and drove south to his summer house on Hille Island near the small coastal town of Mandal. Once we arrived in Mandal, we loaded everything up onto their motorboat and took a lovely scenic 20 minute ride to the island where their house was.

the Sorli's house from the water

rocky shore line reminded us of the westcoast and gulf islands

Petter and his brother Jorgen had some Norwegian friends that arrived later that evening to take part in the weekend festivities. All their names were difficult for us to pronounce, so they kindly created North-American friendly nicknames for us to call them by all weekend. This was embarrassing because they could all switch so easily between English and Norwegian, and we could barely pronounce any of their names in their native language. If you Canadians are looking for a challenge, try pronouncing: Asbjorn,  Jan Egil, Kjetil, Aleksander and Jorgen. (hint kj- sounds like shhhhh...)

arrival time at the summer house

Rose getting a cooking lesson from Jorgen on Norwegian tacos

The weekend weather was mostly overcast (to Petter's dismay) but warm enough to relax and explore outside. The festivities included: croquet, cards, boating, late night fishing, swimming, wake boarding (not us obviously), eating and helping the boys grocery shop. On the first day we were brave enough to go for a morning swim, but after seeing all the jellyfish and massive swans, we decided we'd had enough swimming for one weekend.

treacherous orange jellyfish

demon "big-ass" swan...

We made some really nice dinners out on the bbq and drove into Mandal for the Euro Cup final game between Spain and Italy on our last night.

gourmet meal of (big-ass) steaks and salad

beautiful harbour of Mandal

on a boat!

Staying up late in Norway is easy when it's only dark a couple hours a night! Good thing we had multiple decks of cards and an endless supply of Norwegian drinking games.

late night festivities

what time do you think it is?

It was an amazing weekend and we were so happy to have made so many new, interesting and entertaining Norwegian friends. We hope we can celebrate every Canada Day long weekend like this. Thanks again to the Sorli family for everything!

the gang!

Wish you were here,
Sydney and Rose