Into the low-lying countries...

We left Malmö for the Danish capital of Copenhagen. We only had about five hours to explore the city before heading to the airport. We used the city’s free bike rental system and saw a good part of the city. It was a cold and windy day, so we headed to the airport a little early to relax before our departure. It was amazing how much the language changed just by going over the bridge that connects Sweden to Denmark. Emelie could understand some of what the Danes were saying, due to the slight similarities in the language, but had a rather tough time; imagine trying to understand what a very drunk Scotsman sounds like and you’d just as soon think he doesn’t speak the same language as you. The flight was effortless and we landed in Amsterdam, Netherlands in the late evening, finally saying goodbye to Scandinavia after two weeks.

After getting a bit lost after reaching the city proper, we took a cab to the part of town where our friend from Wheaton and hostess lived. Shoshana, a native of Amsterdam but now a resident of San Francisco, is here for half a year serving an internship in the fashion industry, which was great timing for us, as it provided us a stunning old house to stay in a quiet neighborhood. Sadly though, our time in the city fell in the middle of the week, and Shoshana was busy working ten-hour days so we didn’t get to spend as much time with her as we would have liked.

The first day was very typical Dutch weather. The country on the whole usually gets rain about 180 days per year, so there’s generally a 50/50 chance you’ll see some precipitation on any given day. We did not let this deter us though, and we walked around the city for around 8 hours, marveling at the beauty in the old streets before us. Most around the world (myself included before our arrival) think of Amsterdam as a party city with the prevalence of coffeeshops (where little coffee is served) and the infamous Red Light District. However, there is so much beauty to be found outside of those two main draws. The city is built around five semi-circular canals that all originate in the harbor and radiate outward from there, much like a radar showing distances from a central point. Along the water are old, cobblestone streets with century-old buildings with stunning architecture. Some buildings are so old they are leaning quite noticeably, though this only adds to the charm. Though the day was raining off and on from the time we left Shoshana’s place, this did not stop us at all. Rather, it was beautiful. The streets were far less crowded than we would see on subsequent days, and in a way it added to the allure to be gazing upward at the old houses from under the hood of my jacket. We got lost more times than we could count, mostly because a city that is built around semi-circles tends to not have a grid-like appearance that is more common in our younger, more planned out American cities. Getting lost when roaming a new place can be a blessing though, for you never know what lurks on the next street with a Dutch name we have no chance at pronouncing properly.

Over the next few days our legs got an amazing workout. We walked numerous times through the city’s main park, Vondelpark. Our third day we met up with Oliver again, this time joined by his Australian friend he came to town from Jonköping with. We visited the Van Gogh museum, got lost, and reveled in the sun that finally decided to emerge from the grey sky. Our last full day was the anniversary of the day we met five years ago at Wheaton, so we took it easy and rested up quite a bit, as we realized we had been going non-stop without much relaxation since we arrived in Stockholm more than two weeks ago. We had a nice picnic together along the canal that was outside our home, cooked a meal in, then had a few drinks with Shoshana when she got home. It was a nice, simple day. Hard to believe it’s been half a decade…

We rose very early the next day to catch a bus down to Bruges, Belgium. It has recently become quite the touristy place, but for good reason as we soon found out. Bruges is a Unesco World Heritage city due to its age and medieval beauty. Coincidentally, it also has some small canals that meander though the city that add to its beauty. There are also churches everywhere you look, including the 350 foot beast that lies in the center of town around the central square. Neither of us knew too much about Belgium before coming here other than it is a great place to treat yourself to the tasty things that make them so popular: chocolate, beer, and waffles. We spent two laid-back days enjoying the small-town feel of the place and left with the feelings of early cavities forming from all the sweets we ingested.

Our last day in Belgium was spent in the capital of Brussels. At first, when we got off the train at North Station, we exited to find a rather shady part of town that had a way more run-down red light district than Amsterdam. Once we got away from that street to our hotel for the night, it was much better. We ambled down to the central part of town and were amazed at what we saw--a huge central square with towering, ancient buildings, with churches and royal homes among them. We settled at a small café that served Belgium’s finest beer and enjoyed the people watching in the heavily-trafficked area. Eventually some Quebecois sat next to us and we chatted between English and French for a few hours, talking about many things, the cold Northeast weather being one of the many topics. We walked home, grabbed dinner at a small market (where Emelie ate her favorite thing in Belgium, even though it was not even close to the country’s own cuisine). We rose early, did some preparing for the coming week with some online bookings, and made our way to the bus terminal to head to the City of Lights, the one and only Paris.

Skåne, Skåne, Skåne

After a few days in Göteborg we made our way to Skåne, the southernmost part of Sweden. We met up with one of Emelie’s old friends from her high school days in Malmö, Malin, and her boyfriend Tobias. They would host us for the next four days at their apartment. The first day, while those two were at work, Emelie and I set off to explore Malmö on bikes. Despite a little rain, we saw a vast majority of the city after three hours of cycling.

The next day began Malin and Tobias’ three-day weekend, and we set off up the coast toward a small town called Kulleberg. On the way up the coast (a remarkably scenic drive with the sea at our side the entire time), we stopped in Viken for fika. We called uncle Johan out of the blue, knowing he resides there part of the year, and met him for five brief minutes before grabbing a bite to eat. We then headed back up the coast toward our destination. Kulleberg is a tiny town that doesn’t offer too much, but within one nature preserve lies a very unique (and controversial) piece of art. A local artist named Lars started building his own world within the nature preserve completely out of fallen trees and limbs, held together only by their unique structure and hundreds of thousands of nails. The world, called Nimis, has small tunnels of wood and massive structures that stand about fifty feet from the ground. We have a few pictures here, but they don’t entirely do justice to his creation, so I encourage you to seek out some more to appreciate what he’s done. Some people do not like what he did in this nature preserve—it is slightly akin to building within a state or national park back home—but it’s hard to overlook how cool it is. Lars is also notorious from upsetting the Muslim world a few years back with some art that portrayed Mohammed in a negative light, adding to the hostility some felt toward him. Like him or not, we were lucky enough to have him there at the very time we visited. We were slowly and carefully walking down the hill toward Nimis when a gray-haired man at least twice our age came running down the hill with four large trees under his arm. Tobias noted it was him, perhaps from seeing him before, but also because he was trailed by his two bodyguards that are always at his side. As I said, the Muslims don’t really care for this guy. Regardless, he was nice enough to talk to us (Emelie, Tobias, and Malin, that is, for he didn’t speak too much English). It was the nicest weather we’d seen so far in Sweden, which made the trip up to this part of Skåne that much better. Fatigued from the hike, we grabbed an awesomely-cliché meal at Ikea on the ride back to end the day.

In front of Johan's beautiful house in Viken.

Malin and Emelie at the harbor in Viken. 

This is the descent down towards Nimis 

 This is the artist himself carrying some tree logs to do some repairs with his body guard following him everywhere he went. 

We met Johan and his wife Maria the following day to start things off. After seeing a little more of Malmö, we went to see a hockey game played between the Malmö Redhawks and Borås. Things started with me, being the mature young man I am, getting some face time with Hawken, their beloved mascot. Being removed from my Portland Pirates, it was nice to see some puck again. Thanks to a hat-trick by the Malmö captain they won the game. Had I been wearing a hat, I probably would have thrown it on the ice, but was told by Tobias this is uniquely American and that was why all the Swedes left on their caps despite Linus Klasen’s third goal. I felt he deserved a little more respect…

The day not yet being done we went to a house party for Emelie’s old housemate/sister-of-sorts Matilda who was turning 23. It was a fun party that lasted late in the night and left us bakis the next morning.

This is was the sunset after the game as we walked toward the subway. 

Our last day in Skåne was spent in the old town Emelie lived while going to high school, Skanör. We had a great lunch with her old family friends, Hans and Marie, who hosted Emelie the entire year she studied here. Marie was Tina’s best friend and many a story were told over lunch that brought back loads of memories. I learned that Emelie used to be a cannibal and that she once bit their son Viktor’s finger while the parents were away. He rebutted with a Tyson-like chomp to her ear to get even. Great thing to learn about my lady friend. Following lunch we walked around the beautiful small town on the sea. I was jonesing hard at the sight of a beautiful links golf course, but alas, my sticks are across the Atlantic getting colder with each passing Maine day. Emelie and Malin enjoyed walking around and talking, reminiscing about days gone by in their school days. We trekked over to the neighboring town of Falstebo to see another world-class links course, then got dinner with Malin’s mom at her home. Exhausted by a packed weekend we went back to their place for our last night in Sweden.

Mike with a huge smile on his face, I think the only way he would have been happier is if he had a club in his hands.  

Emelie, Hans, Marie after our lovely lunch

Matilda and I :) 

Though it was tiring and hard to remember the names of all the people I’d met in this new country, it was a great start for this trip. I learned quite a bit new Swedish and feel way more comfortable with the language. But it was nice to have my beautiful translator by my side when I ran into the rare person who couldn’t speak my tongue. Off to Copenhagen for the day, then down to Amsterdam to meet up with our Dutch Wheaton friend. Hey då, Sverige!

Go west, young man...

Saturday, October 15th was our last full day in Stockholm. We went to Ostermalmstorg to a market that Emelie used to frequent with her family when visiting Stockholm. They have everything from all varieties of cheeses to any meat or fish you could ask for.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to get the fish soup that Pappa swears by, but it was cool to see the market for a brief time before heading to Mormor's for our last dinner in town. It was a lovely meal that started with probably the best soup I've ever had, Mormor's chanterelle (wild mushroom) soup. Not usually one for fungus, I couldn't stop until my bowl was as dry as a bone. Steak and potatoes followed, and Oliver and I, being the only men present, were not allowed to stop eating until the food was gone. We played a game of hearts after dinner, thanked them for their hospitality over the week and were on our way.

The next morning we met with Oliver to take a bus to his university town of Jönköping for the night. It is a rather large town on the south shore of the third largest lake in all of Sweden. We got a quick bite to eat after the long bus ride then took the local bus to his dorm building. After a busy week in the capital it was nice to be in a slightly more slow-paced environment. We laid low for the night and took advantage of his fast internet connection and wide-screen laptop and watched some good old American football all night. That is to say, Oliver and I watched football while Em played Fruit Ninja on her brother's Ipad. Emelie and Oliver retired somewhat early, but I stayed up til 1:30am to watch the entire Patriots game (which was well worth the loss of sleep to watch Brady drive the field at the end for yet another late win). All night we stared at the large map in his room to see how even though we're doing quite a bit of travel on this trip, there's still a large world out there and we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg (see picture below). We slept in, caught a bus to town to see where he was taking his classes, then hopped on yet another Swebus to move on to our next destination, the west coast town of Göteborg

We had made plans to meet up with an old friend from Wheaton, Owen, who had met a Swede abroad in South America while traveling. Being a native Mainer himself, he now found himself a new father and resident of two years of Göteborg. Getting a few hours away from his newborn son, Leopold, he met us and showed us around a little. He had to get back to tend to his fatherly duties, so we grabbed a bite and headed to our first hostel of the journey. We had been pampered in Stockholm with our own pad, but it was nice to be in a new place in a comfortable room to call home for a few days. We met up again today with Owen, his wife-to-be (sambo) Jenny, and the little man himself. We had a lengthy fika, or coffee and snack, then walked around the area for a while before the normal Swedish weather greeted us with some rain and wind. We returned to the hostel and opted to get dinner at a local grocery store and cook here in the kitchen. We made pytti-panna, a simple Swedish dish Em thought I might like--she knows me rather well... It was a simple yet tasty meal to wrap up what was a simple yet enjoyable day. Tomorrow we depart for Malmö where I can finally see where Emelie gets her strange Swedish accent.