Week 7 – Cultural Development : (Stockholm Adventures!) 25/02/12 - 02/-02/12

My best effort to smile for the camera in freezing water

We had an early rise after a late night to embrace the wonderful opportunity of going on the Viking Shauna Tour organized by the hostel City backpackers along with a group of international students. We travelled to a lake with a Swedish tour guide giving us lots of information about the town. I noticed how the tour guide started running to make the train; Swedish people do not like to wait the extra five minutes until the next train arrives, so we all ran after her.  When we arrived I was amazed by the beautiful scenery and the wooden Shauna platform floating on the freezing lake which we eventually jumped into. We used the ladder to carefully enter the water as it was freezing but by the end, after several dips and running in and out of the Shauna I got the courage to jump. She told us that this is a very popular activity in Sweden and now I can understand why as it is very addictive. However, usually people rent the saunas and take it out into the lake and drink champagne. To rent this it is extremely expensive so we were lucky to experience this trip especially with a group of International students including some Irish, American, Canadian and Australian from Umea University a partner of Stranmillis.

'Gamla Stan'

We visited some lovely places in Stockholm on Saturday including the most charming part the Old Town (Gamla Stan.) It reminded me of the Haga District in Goteburg. The old town is the original Stockholm and was set up during the 1300 century. Most buildings are from the 1700 and 1800 century. There were lots of lovely cafes and souvenir shops where I bought some postcards. The buildings here were in perfect condition. The tour guide informed us that  you would never  see a building in Stockholm with a patch of paint falling off, which I found very true. We also experienced the changing of the guard an extremely popular event at the Royal Palace as well as visiting Stockholms Stadshus (City Hall.) Later, we went to the Ice bar hotel. I had never been to one before so it was lots of fun and we received a lovely cocktail called a snowflake served  in an ice glass. I have decided that I love Stockholm and the city’s great buzz but it’s time to catch the 8 am train to return to our new home in Trollhattan.

Changing of the guard at the Royal Palace.

This week the Sun has been blinding me every morning.  While it lasted we decided to take full advantage of  this nice weather and  we went to watch the sunset with the Erasmus group here at University West. We went to the waterfalls area which is very beautiful and climbed to the top to get the best view we possibly could.

Trollhättan's Waterfalls.

We also attended a conference this week on Dating Violence; the conference was based on changing attitudes to dating violence in adolescents which relates alot to teaching children. It was very interesting.  We attended the CAVA conference dinner in the Kung Oscar Hotel where we had access to unlimited food and hot chocolate and it was a great opportunity to talk with the other lectures and discuss some issues related to teaching. During the conference we were privileged to watch the opening of the waterfall (vattenfall) in Trollhättan.



 On Thursday evening, we enjoyed a full course meal and had the opportunity to meet the Mayor of Trollhättan. I tasted herring pâté and wild hog for the first time and it was delicious. The weeks keep getting more exciting and busier as Megan and I will set off on a Road trip to Malmo and Copenhagen this weekend.