Sweden Photos

By special request (from Tony), here are some pics of our trip. We're starting with some Sweden pics, and these should give you an idea of how beautiful Gothenburg is. Wow...


Below: The special dinner for the conference I attended started with a 45-minute boat ride to the restaurant. It was a beautiful sunny day, and our ferry crossed the path of a bunch of racing sailboats at one point. Below are the sailboats as we all crossed paths.


Below: Here is a ship that we saw on the boat ride. I think it looks so old fashioned and pretty.

Below: A hill and some houses we passed.

Below: Me, smiling with the champagne we drank on the boat.

Below: This is a pic I shot on a walk to the bus stop. Such an incredible view for a casual walk.

Below: Many of the buildings in Gothenburg are ornate and elegant like this one.

Below: This is just a typical scene in a shopping area of the city: people milling around and enjoying the sun, a fountain, and shops nearby.

Below: We took the tram when we weren't walking, and this is what they look like.

Below: Me, waiting for the tram.

Below: Heidi, waiting for the tram.

Below: We posed on a sculpture down by the water, but--oof!--it was not particularly comfortable.

Below: Heidi looking pensive and gazing at the ocean.

Below: A lovely little waterfall at the entry to the Lisberg amusement park.

Below: Heidi and me with the waterfall.

Below: Me posing with a tulip inside the Liseberg park. It was a lovely park with flowers just all over the place.

Below: Heidi, looking beautiful and grinning happily by the flowers.

Below: Lovely tulips...


Below: The two of us, smiling in front of the flowers.

Below: Here Heidi is posing with some flowers near the Gothenburg town hall.

Below: Me with those same flowers.
Below: The two of us on some steps by a clear pool. You can see the buildings and clouds reflected in the water behind us.

Our first day in Denmark!

Today was AWESOME! Copenhagen is really neat.
We started the day with a complementary breakfast then we went off to the National Museum. We saw real mummies and skeletons and Nordic war relics and clay pots and a whole bunch of other stuff that was made before Jesus was born! Then we went shopping! We hadn't been shopping more than an hour before all of the shops started closing down and we were like, "What's going on?! It's 4pm!" Evidently Copenhagen closes down at 4pm on Sundays...whatever... Then we ate and went to Tivoli theme park! Fun fact: The Disney Corporation and Michael Jackson have tried to buy Tivoli, but Denmark is really proud of it and won't sell. We didn't have nearly the luck/skill that we had at the theme park in Sweden :( But we had a lot of fun anyway :)
Tomorrow we are going to hit the shops early so as not to be caught with our wallets out with no where to spend! Getting up early tomorrow means that I need to sign off now because it is technically tomorrow right now! **yawn**

On to Denmark!

The train ride through the Danish countryside was absolutely breath taking. There were miles of yellow fields of flowers, green pastures with sheep, cows and horses and old red barns and small villages with wooden signs that said Hotel and post office in Danish.

Philip and Anne, the owners of the bed and breakfast that we are staying at, are so nice. Normally you have to pay for breakfast if you want them to serve it, but we had a note in our room when we came in from dinner last night saying that they would like to make us breakfast "on house" if we wanted it. It was very good. This morning we had hot coffee, rolls with butter and jam, sausage, cheese, mango juice & cucumber--it was delicious! I miss Starbucks something fierce, though...

Today Bec and I are going to some viking and ice age relic museums and another theme park tonight! We ate Indian food last night and we are having mediteranean tonight!

At the park...

Today Bec and I went to Liseberg, the largest theme park in Scandinavia! We got there and decided that playing games like whack the mole and skee-ball sounded more fun than riding rides.
We each bought game passes that were good for 3 games of chance and 5 games of skill. Evidently Bec and I are extremely lucky and skilled :)
The games of chance paid out in candy, and we played exclusively at the Toblerone chocolate booth. We won 58--count them--58 Toblerone chocolate bars! We have stocking stuffers for both sides of the family! Bec is scary good at skee-ball! She scored three 50 point holes in a row and won a stuffed dog! I won a stuffed dog at the whack the mole game. We tag-teamed at a game where you shoot corks at stuffed and weighted figures to try and knock them over and won a stuffed bumble bee. It was so much fun!
Then we went to a German restaurant and ordered food that bared no resemblance to what was described in the menu, promptly pushed our plates aside, and drank our beer while listening to the band play Mama Mia songs in German!
Whew! It was an exciting day! Tomorrow we take a train ride through Denmark to Copenhagen. I'm gonna sign off now...

Heidi unt (and) zi (the) "American"

This is Heidi--Bec's sister :)
I got landed in Sweden yesterday afternoon to meet Bec for a sister trip!
The air plane trip here was awesome! I sat next to a lady who turned 83 today :) Krystyna was her name and she is from Poland although she has an American passport. Krystyna told me when I first sat down next to her, "I do not speak English." I said that that was 'totally cool' and sat down. A short time later I realized that " I do not speak English" was the only phrase she knew in English...
The Flight Attendant was coming down the aisle when we had been in the air for about 30min and Krystyna leaned over to me and said...well, she said something in Polish. I then let her know that I only speak English and she and I were at a stand still, or were we?! She managed to communicate to me through a series of gestures and broken [spanish?] that she wanted to know what the attendant was serving. I busted out my trusty pad of paper and pen and drew a picture of a a keg with XXX on the label. She blushed and ordered wine. We were fast friends from that moment
***Some time later***
I was watching Marley and Me, a new release movie that was an option on the in flight Lufthansa Airlines movie options page, when I rocketed Krystyna's and my relationship to a different level. In the movie Marley, the dog, gets old and sick. I happen to have a HUGE soft spot in my heart for canines. I start to get teary eyed. Then I start to cry. Then I start to all out boo-hoo. Krystyna thinks that I am having a serious problem--stroke, seizure, diabetic fit, something--and presses the button for the attendant to come over. I see her press the button and think, 'geeze! She's already had one drink and now needs assistance to the bathroom?!' She was calling the attendant over for me. The attendant and I managed to put Krystyna's mind at ease and the flight went smoother from then on...
The rest of the flight was fine and then I got to see Bec! Wait around for more details on The Adventures of Bec and Heidi!...

First few days in Sweden

Well, I'm here in Sweden and finally blogging. I arrived on Saturday around 5 p.m. after nice, uneventful flights. At the airport, I met up with two men who were also attending the ISCRAM conference, one of whom will be the program chair next year when Mark, my adviser, will be conference chair. We had originally planned to meet the conference planners and chairs for this year's conference for dinner, but we had arrived too late to get out there in time. And I was jetlagged and hoping to turn in early if possible. So the three of us checked into our separate hotels and then met at a particular tram stop to go for dinner. We walked to a pub that had a proper restaurant upstairs. The restaurant served several types of salads and some sides and sauces buffet style, and you chose which type of grilled meat you wanted from the menu, and the meat was brought out, and you could add salads and sides from the buffet. I ordered salmon, and it was amazing. I think that was probably the best salmon I've ever had.

After dinner I took the tram back to the hotel....where I dropped off to sleep only to wake at 3 a.m. and stay awake until time to leave for the PhD colloquium the next day. Blergh. That's a pattern I followed last night as well, so now it's Monday, and I've had about 8 hours of sleep total since Friday. I am far too old to be so sleep deprived. But I shouldn't complain b/c the conference has been fascinating and the people friendly and kind and interesting, and it's not a high-pressure situation to attend a conference versus something like conducting interviews or other research. So I can listen and think and take notes even in my sleep-deprived state. :-)

I have spent almost all my daylight hours at the conference, so I don't have pics or fascinating "experiencing Sweden" stories yet. If the pattern continues, that will be fine b/c Heidi and I can explore and experience the city when she gets here. (Wheeee!) But here are some quick thoughts on Sweden so far: it's clean and cold and everyone speaks English and it's easy to get around and the buildings are lovely and old-looking for the most part and food is delicious. How's that for quick impressions? :-) I've seen a little graffitti when walking the streets but not much, and the public spaces seem very clean with no litter or standing trash. The weather is much chillier than I expected. The temp forecasts were similar to Seattle, but the sky is clear here and there is a brisk breeze. It must be the breeze that makes such a difference. But my coat is plenty sufficient, and it's comfortable to walk around if I bring my coat. The sidewalks are old-looking cobblestone that is worn pretty smooth, and many of the buildings are multi-story and slightly ornate and old fashioned-looking. Really pretty. I'll try to get out and take some pics, but the conference schedule is pretty solid all day long until dinner and then with dinner activities as well, so we'll see. It may be that you are stuck with text-heavy entries until the conference is over, but--hey, then we'll all look forward to Heidi's arrival: me for the company, her for the adventure, you for the pics. It's a win, win, win.

My hotel is nice and clean; the room itself is very small but looks cool. It has 2 twin beds that are made up separately but are pushed close together. There is no closet or wardrobe but a little hanging area with some hangers and a padded ottoman/bench with a drawer in it. There is a flat screen TV on the wall, but I haven't turned it on, so I don't know what the English-language selections are. I would assume there are plenty... The bath is small but so bright and clean. There is a pedestal sink and a shower but no tub. The bathroom is all tiled and bright, and the bedroom is carpeted with clean-lined furniture and white comforters on the bed. Okay, now I'm blathering on. Time to get to the next conference session. More from me later!