How Swede It Was...

From the (watch your head) canals of Goteborg to the (not quite as cold as I thought it would be) Arctic Circle, our time in Sweden was a highlight of our trip. As with most of our stops, we learned some things about the local culture and even ourselves.

1) Don't Panic Shop

The words "Arctic Circle" invoke a certain frigidity that I felt my wardrobe would not be able to handle. In Stockholm I debated emergency purchases of long underwear, a sweater, gloves, and even socks that would go past my ankles. I did all this with full knowledge that each item would be almost immediately handed over to Lulea charity since the rest of the trip would be somewhat further south. Thankfully I decided to resist that urge and go with what I had. And as it turned out all I needed was shorts, a t-shirt, and of course cool sunglasses

2) Eat Local

While not as out there as guinea pig, we had the chance to sample some local dishes. Swedish meatballs, caviar, and Swedish Pult (potato dumplings) were all on the menu. I even had the opportunity to sample reindeer, which was quite delicious. Hopefully this doesn't get held against me next Christmas

3) Try to Stick to Your Philosophy

Throughout this trip I have been trying to stick to a philosophy of "just say yes" when I have a unique travel opportunity. Sadly this trip I lost sight of that mantra for a moment, and deprived myself (and probably my companions) of pigging out on the most gargantuan Toblerone bar I have ever seen.

It was so big we could have used it for weight training for Chloe

While we may have missed out there, we did embrace the Eurovision 2012 song contest. For those who don't know (like me a few days ago), this is a contest where 42 European countries vie to see who has the best song. We watched with Helena, who gave us the background on what we were seeing, and cheered on the Swedish singer to a euphoric victory !

4) Remember that Things Won't Always Work As They Should

In Goteborg I was responsible for making Canadian pancakes for my daughter's birthday breakfast. After working for a couple of hours I proudly unveiled the stack of pancakes and we all dug in. Pretty quickly it became apparent that I had made a fundamental error......what I thought was the household sugar container unfortunately was the container for salt. Yuk. Thankfully Mats quickly sprung to action and rescued the breakfast with a variety of items he liberated from his kitchen

Mats turning away in disgust

Chloe just saying "NO"

Thankfully in Lulea I had a chance to redeem my reputation (at least with Helena - I think Mats still has his doubts)

5) Planning is a Good Thing

On our canal tour of Goteborg we came across a house with a street address of 17 1/2. This is because apparently there was a planing disconnect between the people building the houses and the people issuing the numbers. So at crunch time there were two houses left that needed numbers but only one number available.

At the famous (and well recommended) Vasa museum in Stockholm we saw the salvaged swedish ship that sank shortly after being launched. Some sort of ballast problem apparently.

We also came across this majestic vessel that was built in the local shipyard. Unfortunately there was a local bridge also being built around the same time. The bridge finished first, and was lower than the boat, which meant the boat never saw the sea.

6) Follow Instructions

The guide wasn't kidding when he said duck

7) Art comes in Many Forms (even in a vodka museum)

Yes - I did take my child to a art exhibit based on a vodka brand.

7) Stretching Before Exercise is a Good Thing

8) And Most Important....Remember to Relax and Enjoy the Moment

Mats and Ebba showing us how its done at their wedding

Sweden Plans - How it all Came Together

People we meet along the way often ask us how we planned our trip and how we decided where to go.  Although we had a rough idea of where we wanted to go before we left (see The Route page), we didn't actually do much pre-planning.  Here's a little window into how our planning goes:

Our trip started out with a lot of support.  Canada was easy: find the relatives and stay for a few days and then move along to the next (except Ontario as it took so long to drive through that we had to stay 2 nights in roadside motels before reaching the next relative, who was also in Ontario).  South America also started out simply as we caught a plane from Paul's sister Karen's to Lima and then were taken care of for the next 4 weeks by Peru's Challenge.  It wasn't until we left Peru that we had to start booking our own transportation, accommodation and activities.  It was a little daunting at first but we soon got in the groove and enjoyed the process of picking our next destination.  We tend to pick a place that we want to go based on reputation, location, climate or a particular activity that stands out and then we start figuring out how to make it happen.

Sweden was different!  For the first time since Canada, we did not chose Sweden based on location (it takes an effort to get to Sweden, not just a short train ride over from Italy), climate (it was cold, windy and wet when we arrived - not the weather that matched our 'all summer, all the time' theme for the year) or activity (we knew very little about Sweden so were not sure what adventures we could have).

We came to Sweden for one thing - Friendship!

With Helena, Mats, Ebba and Mans .

Let me back up about 8 months: when we worked at Pumamarca with Peru's Challenge we were lucky enough to be thrown together with a wonderful group of volunteers from different parts of the world (none of which were from Australia which was a first for the organization).  Two women from the U.S. (SanDiego and NYC), a man from Cape Town, South Africa, a family from Gothenburg, Sweden, a woman from Lulea, Sweden and our little family from Canada.  For whatever reasons we all got along really well and the mood in the house was relaxed and cheerful.  We knew then that we had come across some great people!

Jump to March when we started thinking ahead to May and Chloe's birthday.  We asked her what she thought would be fun to do for her birthday.  Knowing that we would be in Europe and fully aware that any material presents were pretty much out, she suggested that a visit with our friends in Sweden would be the best birthday present she could get.  We e-mailed Mats and Ebba and immediately got a reply suggesting that we would certainly be welcome and if we arrived 2 days earlier, we would be able to attend their wedding.  As we had celebrated their engagement in Cusco with them we thought it was only fitting that we be there for their wedding as well.  Flight to Gothenburg - booked!

We then e-mailed Helena to see if she would be in Lulea around that time - although we had NO IDEA where Lulea was, besides in Sweden.  She was going to the wedding as well so we would see her there and then also in Lulea a few days later.  Flight to Lulea - booked!

We had a few days in between and we decided to fit in a visit to Stockholm.  Train to Stockholm - booked!

And that's the secret to our successful planning of Sweden - Friendship!!

and cake!

By the way, Sweden has turned out to be awesome!!  More to come in future posts,..