Vasamuseet

Today we headed out to the Vasamuseet (or Vasa museum).  The Vasa is a war ship completed in 1628.  It sank on its maiden voyage and spent 333 years underwater. The Vasa is the only almost fully intact 17^th century ship that has been salvaged. At the time it was salvaged, it was the largest object ever preserved.  The ship is on display along with many artifacts found in the ship.  There are a variety of exhibits ranging from life in Sweden during the 1620’s, how the preservation was done, the current work they are doing on the ship and found objects, and sketches of the life of the people on board.  There were 3 floors that we did not get to see because we ran out of time.  I can’t wait to go back and see more.  This site has better pictures.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_Museum.  The light is kept really low to help preserve the ship so we had trouble getting good shots.

We also explored a new means of transportation in the city – trams.  The trams are a cross between a street car and commuter train.  There is an engineer who pilots the tram and a conductor who handles customer service and takes up tickets.  Ellie liked the underground trains much better because they are faster.

We finished the day off with tacos and football.  I love that combination, it reminds me of tailgating.  The Clemson tigers won easily and we stayed up way to late watching the Auburn Tigers basketball, I mean football win.



Ellie loves the statues found in and around Stockholm.



Dava and Ellie on the tram.



The tram




David with the Vasa.




David and Ellie look at a scale model of the Vasa in full color.



The small girl with the smallest of the three anchors.

View from outside the museum.

Are we done yet?

Parks and Unpacking

The temperature just keeps getting lower and lower.  There is snow in the forecast for next week – burr. We had a laidback morning, mainly spent organizing Ellie’s room.  She was so excited it was all nice and neat.  She made up a dance in honor of the occasion and taught it to her “students”.

We followed an early lunch with a trip back to the park with the cool slide.  Angie met us there.  We had a lot of fun being able to do the seesaw.  Ellie had never really been on one before.  Ellie also had her first tire swing experience.  She decided they were awesome.  Her favorite part was the bikes that the park supplies.  They have all kinds of neat play equipment that is provided.  It is just amazing because in the US it would be gone in no time flat.  Here everyone uses it at the park and then leaves it for others. 

David made us chicken fried chicken for supper and we did another unpacking push.  Now we are down to less than 10 boxes. 

Shopping and Landlords

I finally have an appointment!  Thanks to David.  He had a Swedish speaking friend get him through the phone system to a human.  After that he had no problem, making the appointment.  I am so excited to know that I will be in the system soon.  The appointment  is Monday October 18^th. 

Today Ellie and I met up with Angie.  Her husband will be working at Electrolux also and today was his first day.  We decided we would go exploring.  We found the mall at T-Centralen.  We had a fun time browsing the stores.  In one of the shops, we met a puppy that Ellie really liked.  She wanted to know if the puppy’s name was Maggie.  I think she is really missing the animals.  We stopped for lunch at McDonalds.

After McDonalds, we decided to wander through Gamla Stan, the historic part of town but the water.  Not the best plan ever.  It was so windy and cold.  We did find some neat buildings and doorways.  Since it was time for Ellie’s nap we all headed back to our apartment to rest.  Angie hung out until David arrived home. 

Our landlord, who we had not yet met, called in the afternoon and wanted to stop by for a visit.  He and his wife stopped by about 5:30.  They were the neatest couple.  We really enjoyed talking with them.  They are both retired but have renovated a windmill site to be a location for weddings.  She coordinates all the weddings and he helps with the set-up and maintenance among other business interests.  David enjoyed talking to him about the history of the building.  She made the comment that she loves looking at American furniture because it is so different than Swedish furniture.  Ellie, of course, charmed them.  They also brought us a thoughtful gift of two orchids for our windows.  They are beautiful. 

Oh if I only knew Swedish!

After two days of spending Ellie’s nap attempting to contact a doctor’s office to make an appointment,  I finally gave up and sent David to work with the phone number.  I was able to do some online research to find potential doctors and also got some suggestions from the newcomers group.  Making the call was the difficult part. Like in the US, when phoning an office you first receive a prerecorded message and all of the phone messages are in Swedish.  I attempted to use Google translator to work my way through the system with very little success.  David got some help from one of the Swedish Electrolux employees to get through the system.  The first place on my list only answers calls between 8:15 and 9:30am Monday through Thursday.  Great, explains why I never was able to get anywhere with that call. 

Ellie and I had a lazy morning and early lunch followed by a trip to the park.  We found a really neat park over by Fridemsplan.  Ellie, who normal doesn’t like to slide, had a great time sliding down a large, fast slide.  She had taken Hair baby and had fun letting hair baby slide and the “catch” Ellie when she followed.  On our walk back to the train station we found the Swedish version of the dollar store.  They had all the cheap plastic kids’ toys, candles, dusters etc.

We used the oven for the first time tonight.  Again, no manual and for me it is not intuitive.  I was able to get the temp set correctly…thank goodness for Google but had no idea what picture equaled bake.  I finally took a guess and found the one that seemed to produce the right heat.  There was no rack in site except one that sat on the bottom.  We baked potatoes and salmon and steamed an artichoke.  I had really bad timing and the artichoke became an appetizer.  Over all the meal was yummy. 

In the mail today, came a letter from the tax authority.  David and I spent about 3 hours trying to translate it and answer the questions.  It appears that Sweden is not quite sure why they let me in the country.  Let’s hope I answered all the questions right.  I would hate not to be let back in after Christmas.

Ellie and Hair Baby have fun on the slide!



I made it to the top!



Making Plans and Getting Lost!

On Tuesday, on David’s lunch break, we met at the travel agency downtown to book our first trip out of Sweden.  We are going to Helsinki, Finland.  Jason and his family are going on the same trip.  We will leave one evening on a boat and cruise over during the night.  We well have the next day to explore Helsinki and then cruise back that night.  We will be docked by 9 am.  

Ellie and I were then on to our next goal….find the big store.  Once again we started out on bikes.  Once again, I got us turned around.  After dropping off my bike, Ellie and I took of the most direct way – which due to construction is currently not safe to bike.  I let Ellie ride her bike because I could carry it when needed.   Finally, the store was in sight.  I was impressed by the quantity and variety of items they stocked.  It will most likely become our main shopping location.  We were able to buy two meals worth of groceries in under an hour!  Sad what I currently consider victories. 

After a dinner of brats, we went on a bike ride.  Ellie rode in the bike trailer.  David showed me the way to the store.  It is very easy to find (once you know where you are going), but I am not sure that Ellie can ride her bike there.  There are two good size hills that I don’t think she can quite climb yet.  Since the store was fairly close, we then rode to the bridge, following the path David takes to work. 

Libraries and Ice Cream

Ellie and I woke up with no particular plan, other than Ellie’s desire to go to the train station.  She nixed the idea of going to a park. So we decided to ride the train down a stop and just explore.  We exited the train at Odenplan and decided to find the main library located there.  We found it with ease less than two blocks for the subway exit.  The library has a wonderful children’s section.  One room in the children’s library has only books in other languages:  English, Danish, Japanese, and Arabic just to name a few.  We pulled a few books of the shelf and sat down to read.  Ellie wanted to take some home but first we have to get a library card.  We stopped on the way out and spoke with the librarian.  Next time we will come prepared with the proper documentation. 

After the library we stopped at the vegetable stand next door.  They had some wonderful fruits and veggies at great prices.  We will be back there again soon.  Next door was yet another chain of grocery store that we had not visited.  This store was a little on the pricey side but we found Ellie’s favorite: Hummus.   A perfect complement to the red pepper and cucumber we bought at the veggie stand.  We also picked up the ingredients for dinner: tortellini, ham, sugar snaps and mushrooms.  We sautéed the veggies and threw it all together in a basil white sauce.  David and Ellie both liked it.  Add it to the repeat column. 

We had planned to meet David downtown on his lunch break to book our first trip but due to some meeting issues we were unable to go.  He did come home for lunch to surprise Ellie.  Ellie was so happy to see her Daddy.  She declared that he could come home for lunch every day. 

We also received our bank cards in the mail today.  Checking the mail is no longer something that takes under 3 minutes.  Now checking the mail involves Google translator and lots of typing.  The good news is I am starting to recognize more and more Swedish words.  I write the translation on the letter so that David can then read the mail when he gets home.  By the end of our time here I hope to be able to read Swedish fairly well although I would love to also be able to speak the language. 

We took Ellie for her first Swedish “ice cream” it is really gelato.   She and I had strawberry and David…you guessed it …chocolate.  We sat at the bar overlooking the street.  I think Ellie enjoyed sitting in the shop watching the people and busses as much as she enjoyed the “ice cream”.  I really like it.  It is more icy and not as milky as what you find in the US. 

Main Library

Goodbye Hotel Living!

It was so great to wake up in our own bed this morning and not to be sharing a room with Ellie.  We got a pretty early start because we had to head over to the hotel to pick up the last of our belongings: check out was at noon.  We stopped by the “handy bar” as Ellie has named the breakfast bar for a quick breakfast.  While at breakfast, we saw John and Angie.  They are the last of the ex-pats moving from Kinston.  They had arrived on Wednesday.  We were able to get the rest of our things in three suitcases and a loaded down stroller.  Ellie was not sad at all to say goodbye to the hotel room. 

One last train ride with luggage and we were officially moved in.   Brain, Joannah and their children Logan and Landon stopped by about 1pm to pick up a few boxes that their family had put on our shipment.  They showed us a neat website called Blocket.  It is the Swedish version of Craigslist.  It will be interesting to browse the site and see what deals we can find. 

The rest of the afternoon was pretty laid back.  We are all a little worn out from the events of the weekend.  Ellie and I took naps, while David met some friends on Gamla Stan to watch the Formula One race.  After naps, Ellie and I went bike riding.  We were trying to find the “big” store that David had gone too.  Basically I have no sense of direction and we rode around in circles.  We ended up just stopping at the neighborhood ICA for a few staples that we needed.  Ellie is doing great riding her bike.  David or I ride in the bike path and she rides beside me on the sidewalk.  It is just a little safer that way because they ride pretty fast here.  She is getting good at knowing what side of the pole the ramp is on and listens well on stopping for lights.


Ellie watching out the window for Daddy to come home from the grocery store.