It's about 4pm here in Uppsala and boy does it feel good to be back after traveling the last two weeks with my Mom and Mike! I feel somewhat of a sense of accomplishment in being able to say that Sweden has a familiarity to it that felt great to come back to! I'm getting ahead of myself here though, because the last two weeks were one AMAZING adventure!! I thought about trying to blog each trip individually, but that seems a little too ambitious haha, so I will do my best to give you a brief rundown of our travels!
My parents got to Sweden on a Friday morning and took the train into Uppsala, just as I was finishing up the last day of my third class (yes, believe it or not I do attend class over here...once in a while haha!). Anyways, I showed them around Uppsala the rest of the day, so they got a feel for my daily life in Sweden! We spent the next day in Stockholm, where we explored the city, the famous Vasa Museum, and did some shopping of course!
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| At the river in Uppsala! |
After giving them a taste of Sweden, we headed off to our first destination...Bergen, Norway! If I had to describe Norway in 3 words, it'd be money, money, and oh ya money!! I say this because it turns out that Norway is one of the most expensive countries in the world (we didn't know this ahead of time haha). To give you an example, it costs about $18 for just a coke...and like $25 for a single beer! CRAZY talk right?! So overall it's a good thing we only stayed for a day-in-a-half! But we definitely made good use of our time and took a train/bus/boat trip called 'Norway in a Nutshell' to see the fjords, which are beautiful. Norway overall actually reminded me of Colorado in someways because it's very mountainous. Not nearly as much water in Colorado though and there are waterfalls EVERYWHERE in Norway!
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| Gettin ready to get on the boat through the fjords! |
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| On the boat! |
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| One of many waterfalls... |
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| Made it all the way to the top of the mountain, only to find fog covering everything (this is my sad face). |
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| Went back up the next day, to find much clearer skies! |
After the gorgeous scenery in Bergen, we headed to Ireland and found a mixture between city-life and country-life. We flew into Dublin and spent some time there, but also rented a car and took it to the west coast for a day. To be honest, the city of Dublin is nothing special (in my opinion). Overall it's dirty and loud just like any other city; the only pretty thing about it was the Liffey river, which flows through the middle of Dublin. My favorite day in Ireland was taking the car (which I named O'Reilly the Rental haha!) to Galway. It only takes 2-3 hours to get from one side of Ireland to the other and as soon as you get out of Dublin, it's completely green on both sides with sheep, horses, and cows everywhere. Galway was a very cutesy town, with a lot of Irish character and friendly people (overall the Irish are a friendly bunch I'd say!). After exploring the smaller town, we headed an hour south to Bunratty Castle! The castle is exactly how you'd imagine it and situated in a very adorable national park...
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| The Liffey River. |
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| We also toured the Guinness Factory in Dublin, which was way cool! |
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| You get free pints of Guinness at the end of the tour in the factory's 'gravity bar,' which also gives you a great view of the city! |
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| View from the car as we headed to Galway! |
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| Galway's Spanish Arches. |
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| Bunratty Castle! |
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| The area outside Bunratty. |
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| O'Reilly! (I attempted to learn how to drive a stick-shift on the opposite side of the road!) |
Next we headed to Paris, which was round deux en Francais pour moi! (round 2 in France for me!). I must say, Paris was just as good the second time around! Our hotel was only a couple blocks away from l'arc de triumph (no big deal right?!)...actually it was a little bit of a big deal because we got to stay there for free! Since Mike has stayed in Hiltons for so many years with the military, he's earned a bunch of hotel points and we were able to take advantage of them in Paris! Anyways, we spent a longer time in Paris, truly enjoyed the high 70's weather, saw the sights, and spent a relaxing Easter weekend with the French!
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| Our first meal in Paris: fresh salad, fresh mozzarella, and wine...so french!! |
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| LOVE! |
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| Notre Dame in Good Friday! |
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| The Louvre! |
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| L'Arc de Triumph! |
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| Added our own lock to the Lover's Bridge! |
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| Got to meet up with Gabby again! We drank wine under the eiffel tower...no big deal right?! |
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| Sat outside the Sacre Coeur and enjoyed drinks on Easter Sunday, with the picture below as our view... |
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| La Sacre Coeur. |
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| After waiting in a VERY LONG line, made it up the Eiffel Tower! |
We headed further south to our final country, Italia, and spent a couple days in Venice, then ended the trip in Roma! As soon as we got to Venice, both my mom and I were in aww with how beautiful and AWESOME it is (Mike had already been there). For those of you that've seen the Italian Job, it looks just like the beginning of the movie! We visited the famous St. Marc's Square, took a gondole ride, and soaked up all the sun!! The man that "rowed" our gondole told us that 108 islands make up Venice, with a church on each island (not surprising, considering religion is EVERYWHERE in Europe!).
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| Eating lunch in Venice right along the Grand Canale! |
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| On the gondole! |
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| View of St. Marc's Square from the top of the tower! |
Once we were in Italy, we took a break from flying and made our way from Venice to Rome by train! It was an early-morning train ride that only took about 3 hours, so we made it to Rome by 10am and had the rest of the day to explore! Once you're in the heart of the city, you can pretty much just start walking and run into something historical just around the corner...so we went to the Spanish steps, hit up the Trevi fountain, saw the Pantheon, and several different piazzas before getting rained out for the day. Although it's filled with history, the city itself is a little overrated (in my opinion), but as soon as you make your way to the area of the colosseum or the Vatican, you'll find the beauty in Rome!
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| The Spanish Steps. |
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| The Trevi Fountain. |
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| Makin a wish! |
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| The Pantheon. |
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| Dome at the top of the Pantheon (which I now know is the structure's only light source and is not covered, so when it rains, there's a drain on the floor in the middle of the Pantheon.) |
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| Outside the Colosseum! |
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| Inside the Colosseum! |
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| Me and Mama! |
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| View from the Colosseum. |
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| St. Peter's Basilica, outside the Vatican! |
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| Inside St. Peter's Cathedral...next to the Parliament building in London, this is one of the most astounding buildings I've ever seen...all dedicated to Catholicism! |
Like everything else I've experienced while studying abroad, this two week adventure is one I'll never forget! Since my mom had never been to Europe, I'm so happy this is an experience we could share and appreciate together! And I'm not gonna lie, it was not only great to see and spend time with my mom and Mike in Europe, but it felt good to live off of their money for a little while: staying in hotels as opposed to hostels, taking a taxi if we didn't feel like figuring out public transportation, and sitting down at restaurants instead of opting for the cheaper take-away option are all luxuries I'd forgotten about haha!
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