We are now in Karlskoga and our vacation has taken a turn for the better. We have our luggage, Henry is feeling better, and we have met with our family here and had a very nice dinner at their house the night we arrived. Our hotel is a renovated farm house that is now a bed and breakfast. It is 150 years old and very cozy. There are only four rooms and our party takes up three of them. Yesterday we visited a real Swedish IKEA! I wish we had one near us in Arkansas. We also visited Alfred Nobel´s, (Nobel Prize) home yesterday. They have converted it to a museum. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite among other things.
(Now that I´m feeling better I realize that my comment about the Swedish keyboard was ethnocentric and not very anthropoligical. Please excuse my frustration. That´s what lack of sleep and suitcases will do to a person.)
Friday, January 4, 2008
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Land of the Midnight Sun
Wait, there´s no midnight sun in January in Sweden...what are we doing here? Help!
It´s pretty much dark, cold, and snowy here. Yes, we are in Stockholm, Sweden now. It is 3:00 a.m. right now and I am not sleeping. I haven´t exactly adjusted to the time change yet. It has been a pretty difficult trip so far. I am hoping that the next leg of the trip will be better. We are headed to Karlskoga tomorrow for my cousin Louise's wedding.
Here are some of the things that have gone wrong so far:
1. The day before we "left" (more on that later) I took Henry to the doctor because he has been sick and we found out that he has an ear infection. He also has a pretty bad cough and runny nose. He was put on antibiotics. Great timing.
2. The day of our departure we spend 8 hours at XNA trying to get out. We were delayed leaving XNA, which caused us to miss connecting flights without ever leaving the ground. We never left XNA! We rebooked everything for the following day.
3. Riding on a plane with a 1 and a half year old is not highly recommended. I don´t think I have ever heard Henry scream that loud. (On the up-side, his lungs are fine!) He especially didn´t like landing. I think his ears were hurting pretty bad.
4. We arrived in Stockholm a day late, but our luggage did not follow. Luckily I had packed one change of clothes for all of us in our carry-on. We thought our luggage would arrive on the next plane, but we did not see it for 3 days. We finally got it yesterday. (A new definition of clean: if it doesn't have baby poop on it, it´s clean.)
5. By the time we realized that we needed to buy some clothes all the stores were closed for the New Year holiday. That´s where our new definition of clean came in.
6. We can´t watch or listen to the Cotton Bowl while we are here. In fact, I don´t know who won yet. I could check the score from here if I wanted to, but I think I will try to watch it when we get home. It will be better viewing if I pretend like it is live.
I don´t want to sound overly-negative and unappreciative of this opportunity, so here are some good things that I can think of:
1. We got to visit my favorite museum in the world yesterday--the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a ship that sank in Stockholm harbor in 1628. It was preserved because of the cold, brackish water. Most shipwreks of that era have deteriorated long ago. In fact, it is the oldest shipwreck in the world that has been fully recovered and restored. The ship is amazing. It is huge and very ornately carved.
2. We vistied with some very nice cousins of my mother´s last night. Chad and I had to cut the night short, because Henry was not very cooperative. It was nice to see family that we hardly ever get to see.
3. This stupid keyboard is driving me crazy--everying is in the wrong place and it is taking me forever...hold on...this is the "positive" list: There are all these cool new symbols all over the keyboard. See: ääööååååå¤.
It´s pretty much dark, cold, and snowy here. Yes, we are in Stockholm, Sweden now. It is 3:00 a.m. right now and I am not sleeping. I haven´t exactly adjusted to the time change yet. It has been a pretty difficult trip so far. I am hoping that the next leg of the trip will be better. We are headed to Karlskoga tomorrow for my cousin Louise's wedding.
Here are some of the things that have gone wrong so far:
1. The day before we "left" (more on that later) I took Henry to the doctor because he has been sick and we found out that he has an ear infection. He also has a pretty bad cough and runny nose. He was put on antibiotics. Great timing.
2. The day of our departure we spend 8 hours at XNA trying to get out. We were delayed leaving XNA, which caused us to miss connecting flights without ever leaving the ground. We never left XNA! We rebooked everything for the following day.
3. Riding on a plane with a 1 and a half year old is not highly recommended. I don´t think I have ever heard Henry scream that loud. (On the up-side, his lungs are fine!) He especially didn´t like landing. I think his ears were hurting pretty bad.
4. We arrived in Stockholm a day late, but our luggage did not follow. Luckily I had packed one change of clothes for all of us in our carry-on. We thought our luggage would arrive on the next plane, but we did not see it for 3 days. We finally got it yesterday. (A new definition of clean: if it doesn't have baby poop on it, it´s clean.)
5. By the time we realized that we needed to buy some clothes all the stores were closed for the New Year holiday. That´s where our new definition of clean came in.
6. We can´t watch or listen to the Cotton Bowl while we are here. In fact, I don´t know who won yet. I could check the score from here if I wanted to, but I think I will try to watch it when we get home. It will be better viewing if I pretend like it is live.
I don´t want to sound overly-negative and unappreciative of this opportunity, so here are some good things that I can think of:
1. We got to visit my favorite museum in the world yesterday--the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a ship that sank in Stockholm harbor in 1628. It was preserved because of the cold, brackish water. Most shipwreks of that era have deteriorated long ago. In fact, it is the oldest shipwreck in the world that has been fully recovered and restored. The ship is amazing. It is huge and very ornately carved.
2. We vistied with some very nice cousins of my mother´s last night. Chad and I had to cut the night short, because Henry was not very cooperative. It was nice to see family that we hardly ever get to see.
3. This stupid keyboard is driving me crazy--everying is in the wrong place and it is taking me forever...hold on...this is the "positive" list: There are all these cool new symbols all over the keyboard. See: ääööååååå¤.
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