Polar Bears and Roland: Exploring Germany with Marion!

Hallo! :) 

It's been quite a long time since I've posted, but you gotta give me a break, things have been crazy here! Jonathon and I have been lucky enough to do lots of traveling the last few weeks. Then we've got all of our big final projects. It has been hectic, though worth every moment of working hard and staying up late so that we can go explore new places. After visiting Norway, we ventured to Tyskland (Germany in Swedish) and had the most amazing time with our wonderful friend, Marion! 

Jonathon, me and Marion! 

Now, let me brag on Marion a bit... She's pretty much the best roommate a girl could ask for. She's sweet, caring, and maybe a little bit crazy, which is great. :) Haha. She's an amazing golfer who makes SNU proud, and she's a great friend, too. I've really been blessed to have her in my life these last couple years! Anyways... On top of all of those things, she's also a fantastic tour guide. After we arrived in Bremen, (and after the hugging and squealing after not seeing her for five months), we were off to explore Germany!

She has the sweetest grandma, and she made sure we ate good while we were there. I may not be the biggest fan of Swedish food, but German food, oh goodness. It was delicious! Although we couldn't communicate that great, (we should've brushed up on our German skills before going ;) ) we definitely felt loved and cared for. We also got to visit her sister's restaurant one day, another "oh my goodness, so good" moment in our German adventure. Her whole family and friends were so great to get to hang out with, and we enjoyed getting to know them!

Then, we got to be tourists. She brought us to Bremerhaven, which is a city along the North Sea. The first thing we got to do was visit the zoo! If you know me, you know how much I LOVE zoos. They are my favorite place to go. I love zoos. 

Can you see the polar bear? :D

After some wonderful adventuring in the cute zoo, where by the way, I pet the largest rabbit I have ever seen - in my entire life, we went to this little Italy-style mall! Of course we had to check out the ice cream shop with Marion's recommendation ;) 

Aren't they wonderful? Check out Jonathon's ice cream - it was spaghetti style!

Then, she took us to the climate house. This place was so impressive! Basically, they have a selected longitude line and they bring you to a remake of people's homes along different latitudes of this line. Some rooms you're dying to take your jacket off in the heat of the desert, while other places you can't get it back on quick enough! It was incredible how they could really recreate these cultures and climates. Along with letting their guests experience these locations, they also help them to learn how to better take care of this amazing planet that we call home. 

Inside the Bremerhaven Klimahaus

Later, we got to watch Marion do what she loves - play golf! Germany is SO green, and the course was gorgeous. Plus, she's a pretty amazing golfer ;) so that was a lot of fun. We also got to meet and watch a friend of hers, who was super friendly and great at English! :D

Look at her go :D

Our last day we truly experienced Bremen as a tourist. This city was just so beautiful! The architecture was incredible; each moment I was in awe of how beautiful the buildings were. 

This is Roland, :) he protects the city's trade and liberties

We like selfies :) 

 Rubbing the donkey's feet is good luck!

The town musicians are also a big part of Bremen, at least for us tourists ;) these animals are from a Brothers Grimm tale. 

Overall, we had such a great time in Bremen, Germany! It was wonderful to get to hang out with our good friend in her hometown and country. We got to eat yummy bakery bread, learn more about the German culture, and meet new people. It was a sad day to leave, but we'll get to see you this fall! ;) Next up on my blog: Spain!

Sincerely,

Laura. 

Glaciers and Oslo: Norway

Hallo! 

How are you doing? I’m fantastic! Jonathon and I just got back from a wonderful trip in Norway. Let me tell you, it was SO beautiful. The whole trip our view out of the window was as beautiful as the picture perfect postcard, all ranging from green hills and fjords to snow-covered mountains and glaciers. 

The trip started with a bus ride to Oslo, the country’s capital. It was a bustling town with many cafes and sites to see, so we started with a tour around town. We got to see the opera house (where you can walk all the way up to the roof), the official palace for the royal family, a wonderfully architected Van Gogh Museum, and more. 

The Opera House

Van Gogh Museum

Royal Palace

One thing we learned here was how expensive Norway is! Apparently, it is the most expensive country in the world. :O Whoa. One of the times Jonathon and I bought a fast-food gas station burger and fries each with one water and a bag of chips and it cost us about $35 USD. 

More Oslo pictures

After Oslo we ventured Northwest to Jostedal, which was covered in deep snow, even during the start of May. We stayed at these cute little cabins alongside a river, and we all cooked our meals together. We went on this trip with VIS, or the Vaxjo International Students, with a group of fifty people. We got to meet new people and they helped make our time in Norway so great!

Jostedal cabin

Our big adventure was a hike up one “arm”, which was called the 9 farms glacier. Our guide explained to us that the glacier is built like an octopus with one large head and 27 arms. This glacier, Jostedalsbreen, is the largest in continental Europe, and the small section that we saw of it was stunning. It was a beautiful blue, and crawled down the valley just like an octopus.

To get to this amazing hunk of ice, though, we had to hike through knee-deep snow for a long ways. If you left the guide’s path by even one foot you sometimes fell through to snow as deep as your waist! Once on the glacier we all put on cramp-ons, which are spikes for your shoes, as well as harnesses. We hooked together and climbed up to a high point with a view of the valley that was amazing. 

Then, we rappelled into a cave within the glacier for lunch! We got to sip on hot chocolate in the drippy ice cave on continental Europe’s largest glacier – wow. 


Finally it was time to go back, but not without a few ambush snowball attacks on the other groups. Then, we made our way to a lake below created from glacial runoff. We then kayaked back (as far as we could) and hiked to the vans! My jacket pocket with my phone in it was hanging out of the kayak for a good five minutes before I realized, but luckily I have a handy fiancé and it now works. We may have gotten ourselves stuck in the snowy lake a few times. Then, the hike back was much more difficult, because we were all so tired, but we made it! 

Sadly, our trip was about over. The next day we spent in the bus, from 7 am to 12 am! Finally, Monday we went to class and then packed for an early morning on Tuesday – GERMANY! Yes, there will be a blog post on that trip too ;) It’s extra special because we will be visiting our wonderful friend, Marion, in her hometown! 
See you then,
-Laura. 

Nature Walks and Fireworks

Hej hej! Today marks exactly one month until we come home! We’re definitely excited to get back home, but we still have so much exploring and adventuring to do here. We’ve made some great friends and I know that it will be a bit difficult to leave. 


These last two weeks have been kind of a blur, because we've had so much going on! This blog post will be a short one about our week in Sweden before going to Norway, then I will post another for Norway shortly after, and yet another for Germany by next week. Ready for this? :D


On Thursday night, April 30th, we celebrated the start of spring with the Swedish holiday Walpurgis. There was a gathering in town where choir groups sang and ceremonies took place, though I’m not quite sure what they said – sorry, not fluent in Swedish yet ;) ha, not even close. We then followed a bunch of children holding a fire :O towards the lake and lit the bonfire! There were beautiful fireworks on the lake, and so many people came to view them. It kind of reminded me of a mini version of the Fourth of July at home.

Photo Credits: Jonathon Orwig

The next morning, Jonathon, Sinead, Greig and I all ran our first half-marathon! Whoa! It was about 35 degrees Fahrenheit with rain and wind the whole way, but we all finished in under two hours, woo! It was a difficult race though, and I’m not sure I want to do that for “fun” again xD

Photo Credits: Sinead Broderick

Even though our hardcore run left us sore the next few days, we went with a friend of ours and her friend family to a nature walk with some of the other families. (Insert fact about Smaland being the rocky place of Sweden) I guess Swedes love their quiz walks, because we did another one while on this nature trip. Then, of course, we had to finish with fika! Mmmm. 

Exploring the Swedish countryside

May 5th was my sweet Jonathon’s 21st birthday! Sadly, it rained all day, so we got some Chinese takeout and celebrated inside.  

Sweden has been fun, but the past and next couple weeks we have been/will be traveling around Europe; we are SO excited to see all that it has in store for us! Next up, a post on Norway!
-Laura.