Random Sweden Pics

I promise I'll do your 100 things for my next post, Ashley, but tonight I don't have a lot of time. But I wanted to finish off my Sweden adventure with a few more pictures that I hadn't gotten to yet. :)

First up - I was lucky enough to be exploring Gamla Stan (check another one off THE List) when the Changing of the Guards took place at the Royal Palace. It was pretty cool.


35. Spend an afternoon exploring Gamla Stan in Stockholm, Sweden

This was how bright the sky was at 11:00pm! It was really amazing how long it stayed light there!
And finally, a really goofy picture of me modeling the new hat that the guys from our Stockholm office gave me....somehow I didn't end up making it home with it though! I think I left it in my hotel room. If you can't tell, I was laughing pretty hard when they gave it to me. :)
Up next on Emily's World Tour....not too far from home in oh-so-classy Las Vegas, Nevada! My work is sending me to a conference there to do basically the same stuff I did in Sweden. But this time, my best friend at work, Lauren, gets to go too! Traveling is much more fun when you have a friend.

Vasamuseat

Sorry for the lack of posting. A lot has been going on, but I promised pictures of the Vasamuseat and they were on my work computer so I've been hesitating to post anything else!

To answer Bekah's comment from my last post, my favorite thing in Sweden and the thing that I would say is the biggest "must-see" in Stockholm is the Vasa. The Vasa is a really old ship that sank in the 1600s. It was at the bottom of the ocean for about 300 years and in the 1970's they were finally able to find it, raise it, and restore it! It is straight up Pirates of the Caribbean style and is just awesome to look at. And the museum that it is in is quite possibly the most well done museum I've ever been in. Everything was really interesting and I could've spent an entire day in there! It gave the backstories about the wars going on that the ship was built for, life aboard the ship, life in Sweden during that time period, information about the inquisition that investigated the sinking, videos about how they raised it, etc. So with no further ado, here is the Vasa:


The carvings on the back were really cool, but hard to get a picture of.
Yet another awkward picture that I had to have a total stranger take of me. :)
In this part they showed you how small the spaces inside of the ship were. The ceilings were really low, but I guess that was okay since most of the people were about 5 ft tall! This wooden guy kept staring at me...it was creepy! :)
Well thats all from the big old ship. Now that I've gotten the pictures off of my work computer, we can now return to our regularly scheduled bloggings.

Absolut Ice Bar

As promised, the next stop on Emily's tour through Sweden is the Absolut Ice Bar!

I got off of the train that goes from the airport to the city and the first thing that I see as I'm walking to my hotel is the Absolut Ice Bar...next door to my hotel! Going to an Ice Bar is number 66 on THE List, so I had to make a reservation.

66. Go to an Ice Bar

If you don't know what an Ice Bar is, it is exactly like it sounds. Everything is made of ice: The tables, chairs, bar, glasses, walls...everything. I saw it on The Bachelor a few years ago and have always wanted to go. It really is just a novelty attraction. They do appointments in 45 minute increments, let 30 people in at a time, you get one small drink and then spend the next 43 minutes taking pictures. It was still really cool though!

And of course, I couldn't go to a cool place without making a scene....I set my ice glass on the bar at one point and it slipped right off and broke. Ha!
The last cool thing about this is that not only do I get to cross an item off THE List, I am going to be in a documentary! There was a German documentary crew there during my time slot making a travel guide film about Stockholm and since I was there by myself, the host of it talked to me a lot so that the camera could get film of him looking like he was there with people. Not that I'll ever see this video, but at least I'll know it exists. :)

Up next: The Vasamuseat AKA a really big old ship

Midsummer!

Here are a few pics from the Swedish Midsummer Celebration I attended in Skansen.

First up - me in my flower wreath thingy that everyone makes for themselves out there. If this were in America, I would have been arrested for picking daisies in a public park, but luckily for the thousands of people there...its not America! (Our Bluebonnet Advocates could learn a thing or two from the Swedes about actually enjoying your flowers rather than roping them off and forbidding people to do anything except admire from afar...)

Right at 3:00pm, the Swedish Minstrels came parading down the road, leading everyone to the place where the Maypole would be raised.

Raising the Maypole (yes, I know its June....)

After it was up, everyone sang songs with the band and danced around the Maypole. I took this while we were hopping in a circle singing a song about a frog (or at least thats what they translated in English)

On the Midsummer Eve, single girls are supposed to put 7 flowers under their pillow and they dream of their future husband. So of course, I had to try it.

Did I dream of my future husband? Not unless my future husband is Nigel Barker, because I dreamed of So You Think You Can Dance that night. Oh well....I gave it a shot! :)

Up next on the Tour of Sweden - The Absolut Ice Bar! Stay tuned....

The thing I DID buy Trey (because it was really cheap....)

After all of the things I didn't buy Trey, I finally found something that fit my budget. At first Trey was really excited about it...

Then he realized there was better stuff that I didn't get him.... But finally decided that it was better than nothing....
Hope you enjoy it, Viking Trey!

P.S. Do you like the empty shelves of my new apartment in the background? Its kind of sad...

The Worst Feeling In The World:

Standing at baggage claim and all of a sudden realizing you are the only person left waiting for their luggage and there are no bags coming up the belt anymore. And then realizing that you're in Zurich and this is only your connecting flight....there is no way you're getting home with your stuff.

On another subject, have you ever been in a hotel where the shower is in the middle of the room and not in the bathroom? Well as of today, I have!

Also, I think this hotel might be owned by McDonalds. There is a McDonalds in the lobby and I think they're trying to send subliminal messages through the headboards.

Assuming everything goes well (which hasn't been my luck on the logistics side of things this trip), I will be home at 3:00pm tomorrow! Pray for a smooth and safe trip for me.

Things I Would Have Bought Trey (if I wasn't so cheap...)

Land of Vikings...any wonder that half the things I see make me say "That's something Trey needs"?

Here are a couple of things I would have bought Trey if I wasn't so cheap. :)

1. Viking Masks

2. Lots of little trolls
3. One GIANT troll (Thats right, this guy was for sale!)

Also, here is a picture of the variety show people that I said is Maggie's dream job. They performed again the second night of the conference. :)

Tonight is the Swedish Midsummer, the celebration of the Summer Solstice. It is apparently a bigger holiday here than Christmas is! The city is pretty much deserted because everyone goes out to the country for Midsommer, but there is a traditional festival going on at the Open Air Museum Skansen, so I think I'll head down there pretty soon.

Tomorrow evening I am leaving Stockholm. Its been fun, but I am definitely ready to be home!

Toto, I don't think we're in Texas anymore...

I left Stockholm Monday evening to come out to Tammsvik, the conference center about 30 minutes outside of the city. Things have been very...interesting since I got here.

Maggie's Dream Job
I went to dinner on Monday night and found two people who have Maggie's dream job. By day, they run this place, which is very similar to a bed and breakfast. At night, they do a two person variety show - one man and one woman. In between courses of the meal, they did a medley of songs from different decades: 60's before the first course, an Abba medley before the main course, 80's before dessert, and I ended up leaving before the last act. They had a stage and microphones and lights and everything and sang and danced to songs (90% were Swedish, so I didn't know any of it!) All I could think of the whole time was "Maggie would LOVE this!"

Norwegians, Icelandics, and Danes
After I left dinner, I met up with three Britons who where here with Sabre as well. Two have been to this conference every year and warned me "Stay away from the Norwegian, stay away from the Danes, and REALLY stay away from the Icelandics!" Apparently their drinking makes the Irish look like the picture of sobriety. They also gave me a tip - get a Coke, tell the Scandinavians it was Rum and Coke, and don't really drink it, because if you have an empty glass, it WILL be refilled for you. I took their advice and was extremely glad I did. Those people were partying all night long and when we got up the next morning, they started off the day with another beer! It is crazy!

Caution: Men in Underwear
Bet that headline got your attention! Yesterday was a networking day with different contests for the clients. One was to build a raft that they would row around a course in the lake out of barrells, wood, and rope. They had about an hour to do it, and about halfway through, all of the European men started taking off their clothes, and most ended up in just their underwear! And we're not talking Boxers here, or even Boxer-Briefs. We'll just leave it at that. Can you imagine going to a conference with your coworkers and a bunch of people you don't know and stripping down to basically nothing? I am definitely not in Texas anymore!!

Well, its lunch time, so I'm going to go get something to eat. Tonight there is a boat outing after the conference, so I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories there. Stay tuned!

Blogging From Sweden

As with most of my traveling posts, I was going to start this one out saying "Hello" in the native language....until I realized that I still haven't figured that out here! I have learned not a single word of Swedish so far, which is really unusual for me. I vaguely remember Ryan telling me about calling his friend Jonas and saying "He San" or something like that, but I certainly haven't tried it to confirm it.

This trip has been my most stressful trip ever. I had some extremely close calls on the way over here that almost caused me to miss my connecting flights and almost lost my luggage. Once I got here, I was so exhausted from the past couple weeks and jet lag that I slept from 5:00pm until 6:00am the next morning. But that got me nice and rested for a great day yesterday when I saw most of the good stuff in Stockholm!

I'll make my next post about the actual things I saw, but for now, I'll just leave you with a few observations:

1. I have never seen as many natural blondes in one place in my life. That being said, there are more brunettes than I expected from stereotypes (including the Royal Family here), but there are still a lot of blondes


2. This is the first country I've been in besides America where there is a lot of variety in types of restaurants. It is just like the USA from that aspect - any type of food you crave, there is a restaurant nearby.


3. If you didn't know where IKEA was from, you would know it as soon as you got here! Everything looks like it came straight out of an IKEA catalog. Even the McDonalds is decorated in those distinctive straight lines and bright colors. Here is a picture of the McDonalds I went in while I was waiting for the Stockholm Tourist Center to open

Well, I'm off. I've got one more major attraction I want to see before I head out to Tammsvik for the conference this evening.