Life as J

I think there are a lot of similarities between life in Sweden and Canada, which was pleasantly surprising. Before this trip, I had imagined a modern utopia for Sweden, based on observations that we don't see a lot of people who move away from Sweden. It wasn't much to go on, but in hindsight, the lack of information we have as Canadians about the Nordic countries invites us to think good things about them based on what little we see in the media - the Sedins, IKEA, Volvo, Olympic performance. What we've now seen a bit of is that Sweden has its share of issues (no society is perfect) but that my initial assumptions that Swedes would hesitate to move away were correct. Gothenburg is a smaller city - quieter, with less aggression than a bigger metropolis. Cyclists, pedestrians, and vehicles all seem to share the road without conflict. (Note that most cyclists seemed to be dressed normally - no helmet, no spandex.) Food and merchandise are reasonably priced, when compared with...

For our last day in Stockholm, we decided to head to Östermalm. After breakfast, we took the metro to Östermalmstorg, ending up right beside Hedvig Eleonora Church and the Saluhall. Turns out the old Saluhall building was under renovation, so all the vendors had to move to a newer building, which didn't have as much character but didn't affect the food quality - everything looked delicious, more so than the one in Gothenburg. We didn't buy anything to eat since we'd just had breakfast, so we continued wandering until we found interesting shops. The first notable stop was the local ICA (pronounced ick'-ah) where we found some food items to bring home, including the Swedish staple - O'boy chocolate milk mix. To our delight, we also found bike-related shops: a local bicycle shop called BIKEID who designed their own bikes, and an authorized Bianchi shop/restaurant. The local shop had some unique helmets and bikes, which we perused as the one person working looked on...

After bonding over dinner conversation with Ellinor yesterday, we made plans to meet up for a fika today. This meant a lighter breakfast, then a train ride over to Aspudden for a morning stroll to the coffee shop. We passed through the residential neighborhood, school, and community garden - meeting children on their break along the way. Their gardens were amazing - each person allocated a plot got a section that was about 6 times the size of what we'd get in Vancouver.  The coffee shop, Winterviken, was part of a larger building that was Alfred Nobel's old dynamite factory built in 1891. Since the factory is obviously not in use, the inside has been completely redone, and turned into a coffee shop and event space - when we peeked in, it looked like they were setting up tables and chairs for a wedding. Once we ordered and sat down, we continued our conversation from yesterday, touching on politics and education over apple pie with custard.  When Ellinor's daughter had to ge...

The sun was out today, which definitely motivated us to get outdoors sooner. Breakfast at our hotel was very similar to all the others - the difference was a selection of cookies on top of the other usual items, which was a nice touch. Once we'd finished eating, we headed out to the Skansen open-air museum near the royal gardens, beside Djurgårdsbrunnviken. We found that the museum was a collection of buildings that were moved from their original location (a lot were from Stockholm) to the heritage site, or replicas of historical buildings. It was an interesting and very tactile approach to preserving how Stockholm evolved over time, that encourages education. We saw buildings from the 15th century to the 20th century - and it was fascinating to learn about how people lived, from employees dressed up according to the time period. Some of the buildings actually remained functional - such as the glass workshop, bakery, and tavern - so you could buy souvenirs and/or snacks as you...

Ok, I should have done a bit more research before coming to Sweden. Laundry is a pain - there were no self-service laundry facilities in Gothenburg, so we just hand-washed necessities like underwear and socks (thank goodness we did laundry during our last day in Iceland, even though it was 1700 ISK). Figuring Stockholm is a larger city, with potentially more available for tourists than any other city in Sweden, we held off washing any larger items. We were wrong. Stockholm has one self-service laundry (there may be one or two others, but there is one that is widely reviewed) - otherwise you have to pay whatever the hotel wants to charge you, per item. I didn't think to ensure our hotel was close to the laundromat, so we had a choice: either try to wash our clothes and hope they air dry in time, or go shopping. We didn't have much time left in Gothenburg - basically enough for us to eat breakfast, check out, grab sandwiches/pastries for the train, then hop on the train. Hoping f...

We spent our last day in Gothenburg exploring the parks and outdoors, taking advantage of the lack of rain. Our hotel had 24-hour transit passes for sale, so we each bought one after breakfast. First stop: Slottsskogen. The park is southwest of the Innerstaden, and we took the bus instead of walking for 45 minutes. Walking around, we noticed that a lot of the paths are paved, which is nice - some parts were concrete, others were cobblestone - and a lot of the landscape seemed very familiar, almost as if we were walking through Stanley Park. Within the park, we found lakes/ponds, coffee shops, even a zoo with animals found in the region (e.g. reindeer, goats, sheep, ducks).  Most visitors seemed local - mothers pushing strollers, cyclists with panniers cutting through the park, Canadian geese(!), school kids with their teacher. When we got hungry, we sat down for an early fika and were treated to some apple cake and custard with our coffee and tea - so good!!  Across t...

Leisurely would be a good way to describe how we approached today. We had breakfast at the hotel, now accustomed to the continental spread that has been a staple throughout this trip. Then we had an appointment at a local sauna - the Jubileumsparken. The park, located in the Frihamnen area, is supposed to be part of the upcoming celebrations of Göteborg's 400th anniversary in 2021. For the sauna and pool, admission is free, but there are limited spots every day, so reservations are required - which we had made online. To get there, we walked across the Götaälvbron bridge which was north of the Innerstaden. It was a pretty quiet area - far enough from the city center that tourists don't usually end up there. We arrived a few minutes ahead of our appointment and waited in line with the rest of the locals that also booked reservations. Once it was time, people came out to check us against their list, then gave us bracelets and instructions on how to use the facilities: chang...

We woke up early enough to take advantage of the free breakfast at the hotel - hard boiled eggs, breads, jams, crepes, bacon, oatmeal, fruits, and veggies. It was a decent selection, with coffee and tea as well. In fact, it reminded me of what we experienced last week - I guess it's not crazy that Icelandic breakfasts would be similar to Nordic/Scandinavian ones. After we finished eating, we headed out across the Vallgraven towards Liseberg, which was southeast of where we were. As we walked around, I couldn't help noticing the classic architecture everywhere, and also the lack of people wandering the streets on a Saturday. It was a rainy day, but it was almost as if we had the whole city to ourselves.  As we got closer to Götaplatsen, we saw a few more people - but those were probably other tourists. Outside Göteborgs Stadsteater, a theater for performing arts, we noticed some posters that seemed to feature a person dressed up like Trump - it turns out Swedes aren...

Sleep was so good after having to wake up at 3:00am yesterday for our flight and late nights chasing the northern lights. We ended up just staying in bed and catching up on rest until it was time for lunch. It felt amazing to enjoy the much-needed snooze. Once we got outside, it was a short walk to Steinbrenner & Nyberg - a fancy cafeteria with a variety of sandwiches and salads, as well as pastries, coffee, and teas. We had a healthy lunch (tea and coffee were complimentary) then headed to Haga to explore the old town. Along the way, we saw the Saluhallen (a building with a fresh food market and food vendors/restaurants), lots of grandly-architected buildings, chocolate shops, clothing stores, coffee shops (including Da Matteo, a coffee roaster), and Gothenburg University. The city wasn't quiet, but it also wasn't overcrowded - there was enough space to feel relaxed and comfortable. All the European architecture and cobblestone streets gave a certain established, ...

What are the differences between life in Iceland and life in Canada? Let's see... When we landed in Iceland, I think the first thing I noticed at the airport was their washrooms. A lot of their public washrooms are really well equipped - sometimes individual stalls will be almost like a mini bathroom, with not just the toilet but also a sink. It's quite handy if you prefer to have your own privacy - for those cases where you need to do a more thorough washing up (e.g. after an ice caving adventure). Also, because of the natural geothermal heating, all the hot water smells of sulphur. Cold tap water is safe to drink - Iceland is one of the best countries in the world for drinking tap water. More about the bathrooms - a lot of the showers don't have doors. Curtains are used sometimes, but other times there isn't a barrier to prevent water from just spilling out everywhere. Kind of annoying, so we just ended up using one of the towels to clean up the excess water,...

After a couple of hours of sleep, we got up, packed our things, and drove to Keflavik. Along the way, I saw the northern lights again - that faint grey light brushed across the night sky. It was a nice parting sight - especially since it was a full moon (which makes it more difficult to see the aurora borealis). Dropping off the car was painless, though they only had one person working in the wee hours of the morning, so we had to wait until he was free to shuttle us to the airport.  At the airport, we used the self-serve kiosks to print our boarding passes and baggage tags, then dropped off our checked luggage before heading to security. There, we ran into trouble - Jeff's contact solution was in a 120mL bottle, and they refused to make an exception even for medical supplies, so he had to leave it behind. I also forgot to take a souvenir jar of jam out of our carry-on bag, so we lost that as well. Annoying, but not the end of the world. We used our remaining time...

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the northern lights last night - we stayed up until almost 1:00am but the clouds just kept getting in the way. This meant a later start today - but not so late that we missed breakfast! We still got to enjoy the wonderful buffet, filling up for our last full day in Iceland. From Geysir, we went to Friðheimar - a farm that produces almost 20% of Iceland's tomatoes. It wasn't supposed to be open, but we inadvertently tagged onto the end of a private tour. We saw people admiring the horses outside and the doors of the gift shop were open, so we went inside to join the crowd and sample the various jams and products they were selling. Lucky for us, they didn't realize we weren't part of the group until they had already started introducing us to the samples.  After saying goodbye to the horses, we continued on our journey to Sólheimar Ecovillage. I didn't realize the incredible history and significance of the village until w...

We headed downtown first thing in the morning to grab donuts and bagels for breakfast from Dieg Workshop. Unfortunately for them, their point-of-sale system was down and they didn't have any cash on hand (we've noticed everyone pays by credit card) so they could only accept exact cash payments. Lucky for us, we had cash for this very reason! (Well, this wasn't the emergency I had imagined, but the important thing is that we had the cash.) We each got a breakfast bagel sandwich and donut, which were delicious, and affordable - probably the best "cheap" meal we've had so far. Jeff even went so far as to suggest we come back for lunch and dinner! Too bad we were leaving Reykjavik. With a packed bagel to go, and half of our bagel sandwiches, we headed on the road again, this time towards Þingvellir National Park. We stopped a few times before actually getting to the park, just to appreciate the beautiful serene mountains surrounded by fields. It was a coin to...

For our last meal at the Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon, we had the best of the breakfast buffet: waffles, eggs, fruit, bacon, and lots of beverages to fuel us for the drive back to Reykjavik. As we drove away from the hotel, we caught a glimpse of Norafoss (kind of forgettable), then we were on our way! We stopped at Skaftafell to see Svartifoss - it was about a 1.6km hike to the waterfall, and it was a beautiful route, passing other waterfalls and a variety of terrain. Some parts of the trail were a bit muddy, but it was very well maintained for the most part. The only downside was the constant rain, after which I realized my hiking boots were most certainly not waterproof - I should have known anything with mesh couldn't be fully waterproof! After we swapped wet clothes for dry, we headed to Kirkjubæjarklaustur for lunch. There was a nice restaurant where we had a late bite to eat, then went to check out Kirkjugólf - a really cool natural formation of columnar basal...

Another early start today. This time, we had a large buffet breakfast spread out at the Fosshotel Glacier Lagoon, complete with bacon. Compared to the spotty wifi, disappointing dinner, broken trash can, and steep prices for just about everything - getting the breakfast included with our stay was the best part. Once we had filled up our tummies, we headed out to Skaftafell, the start of our next tour. I had to rent a pair of hiking boots with proper ankle support (the guide will make you rent proper footwear for safety if yours are found to be insufficient), then we got much heavier duty crampons than yesterday, along with an ice pick and helmet. Our vehicle was also more sturdy and bigger than yesterday's "super Jeep", accompanied by a guide who had more than 6 years of mountaineering experience. Oh boy, this was going to be an adventure! We were taken pretty far into the park, with some sections requiring the vehicle to tackle serious inclines. I had no idea th...

We started off strong with a wonderful breakfast at our hotel - smoked salmon, eggs, toast, fruits, and veggies. We had to get up early in order to accommodate lots of sight seeing along our drive towards Vik. Good thing we brought waterproof clothing because the rain was fierce! Our first stop was the geothermal park Hverasvæðið. I had planned to get there just as the park opened at 9 a.m. but unfortunately didn't realise that the park was closed from October to April. It was still neat seeing the steam rise from the various hot springs in the park (through the gate) but we couldn't go inside, so we continued along our drive. The second stop we made was in Selfoss, a small town with a grocery store that caught our eye, as well as a coffee shop. We picked up some supplies, then continued along our way. Before lunch, we stopped at two different waterfalls: Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss. The first waterfall was really tall and had a walking path where visitors could ...

Today was pretty crazy - we started off with a surprisingly satisfying breakfast at the hotel. It was included in the price of the room and was advertised as continental, but had really nice touches like freshly cut vegetables, hard boiled eggs, smoked salmon, fruits, breads, and even cheeses (obviously not for me). We'd originally planned to go out for breakfast, but ended up with a full tummy before leaving the hotel, so we were able to head out along our scenic route to Blue Lagoon. We headed south towards route 42 and were treated to ever-changing landscapes as soon as we got out of the city. It turned from moss-covered rocks, to colourful marsh, to golden grasses, to snowy mountains within minutes. The roads were paved 99% of the time, so the drive was smooth except for the wind. There was a warning of gale force winds today in the region we were exploring and we noticed the howling getting stronger throughout the day.  Our first stop was Seltún, an active geothermal ...

I forgot to mention in my last post that the check in process at the hotel we were staying at was really warm and inviting. The lady at the hotel told us her personal favorite spots in the city and really sought to understand how to recommend things that would interest us without overselling anything. (It was a stark contrast to the guy we met at the Tourist Information center downtown who couldn't have been bothered whether we enjoyed our stay or not.) Following her advice, we snagged a reservation for the Blue Lagoon tomorrow afternoon and have already planned a scenic road trip to get there. After a shower and a nap, we were much happier and excited to hit the night scene. We found a craft bar (Skúli) which was homey and lively with locals, surrounding us with Icelandic chatter. Food was obviously part of the evening as well - with a stop at Icelandic Street Food to grab lamb soup and fisherman's fare (fish and potatoes).  After the dinner and drinks, we took a walk...

This trip has been different right from the beginning. Iceland wasn't a destination due to food or history, but because of my desire to see the northern lights. On top of that, due to Icelandair's deal of a free stopover in Iceland if you book a flight anywhere else, we decided to include Sweden in our itinerary, mainly based on the fact that it has a similar climate. Winter vacation! When planning a trip around a weather phenomenon which may or may not occur, and adding another country on a whim, I didn't really have the same approach to ensuring everything aligned. There had to be more leeway in the schedule to catch the aurora and then I didn't really have anything in particular I wanted to do in Sweden. So the vacation could end up with a lot of downtime to relax or time where we're bored. I guess we'll see! Today, we caught our flight out from Vancouver in the afternoon, then landed in Reykjavik at 6:00am local time. We chose the flight because it ...