A couple weeks ago I and what seems like half of the international students from the university took a cruise to Tallinn, Estonia. It's a well known cruise that happens every year called the "sea battle" and over 2,000 students from universities all over Europe, mostly Scandinavia, drink themselves silly and buy cheap alcohol. The first night the waves and white wine did mix well so I was sick and missed out on most of the fun. Then for some unknown reason security banged on our door around 4:00 in the morning with an extremely drunk person from our university and asked us to take care of this person. Apparently they couldn't find the correct room. This person got sick and made a terrible mess that forced us move rooms. While we were dealing with the mess and switching cabins we missed the window of opportunity to disembark and didn't get to see Tallinn. It must be a busy port because the ship was at dock for less than an hour each in the morning and afternoon. After the previous night and missing out on touring the city I was in the mood to join the party the second night. The trip was basically a 1150 kronor bust.
I also went on a much more successful and exciting day trip to see moose in the forests of Småland. It was a two hour bus ride deep into the countryside on which we took a moose quiz and watched a movie. Upon arrival half the group went on the 'safari' and the rest of us walked around and looked at the caged moose and gift shop. The animals are somewhat docile and let us pet them through the fence. Despite their friendliness they kick with the front feet so we had to stay behind a fence. When it was our turn we clambered into old military wagons and entered the fenced-off field. The very nice moose farmer gave all a lot of apples and potatoes to feed to the animals. Moose are so gentle you can put food between you teeth and one will come and eat it and not hurt you. I tried which was very fun and sticky. After the short ride around the farm we had a fika outside with cheese sandwiches, cookies, and coffee or tea; a typical fika. After the moose and snack we watched another movie and announced the winner of the moose quiz. I apparently don't know much about Swedish moose. It was a fun trip although a little far for how brief the safari part was
I hadn't scheduled any travel during the whole volcanic ash disruption but several people I know were stranded or had to cancel their trips. One friend was stuck in London for 7 or 8 days! Luckily she had a place to stay. Flights in Sweden were canceled for a while but not as long as mainland Europe. There was and is a little part of me that wanted to get stuck here in Sweden which is still possible because another volcano on Iceland usually follows the first. On the other hand it didn't stop my family from coming to visit which was lovely. My local contact family had us over for a nice and took us too the small mountain that overlooks the city and lake. It was a fun time and I'm glad they were able meet over their short visit. My mother and brother are visiting Denmark now before they head back to the states.
HV71, the city's hockey team, beat Stockholm for the national championship on Saturday and was it an exciting game and night! HV won in overtime at the opponents rink in the 6th of 7 scheduled matches. The championship is done like the baseball world series. Downtown was a mad house, cars horns, singing, dancing, hugging, and drinking of course. There was another big party downtown last night to congratulate the team. The weather has greatly improved lately so it was a pleasant evening.
I leave for Norway on Saturday and I'll write a post dedicated to when I get back!
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