Planes, Trains and Automobiles

        Apologies to my loyal blog followers… I have been slacking on my blog posts big time, but I have a good excuse! These past few weeks have flown by and have been full of European adventures involving planes, trains and automobiles... 

         Two weekends ago, Kika and I decided to travel to Copenhagen on our weekend off.  We took a flawless 5 hour train ride south to Denmark through the Swedish countryside.  It really amazes me how simple and CHEAP it is to travel through Europe compared to the US.  Upon arrival in the beautiful city, we explored Christiania which is a community where the rules are there are no rules (as Kpope would say), except no 'hard' drugs. It is basically a self-governed part of the city that was formed back in the seventies.  You could say we were blatantly out of our element with our backpacks still on, but it was definitely worth seeing.  

Nyhavn

        In the course of the weekend, I think we checked off just about everything on the Copenhagen Top 10 list, including Strøget, a street with fantastic street squares and awesome shopping and Nyhavn, the street with colorful houses along the water full of sailboats.  We toured the historic sites as well such as Rosenborg Caste and Christiansborg Palace.  A highlight of our trip was definitely the splendid canal tour that meandered through the city and under low and narrow bridges that we had to duck under to avoid hitting our heads while seeing the enchanting views from the water.  Copenhagen is a charming city, surrounded by water, much like Stockholm, with a rich history and an eclectic feel.  Definitely glad we made the trip!! 

Carlsberg Beer with Liz!

      The best part of the past few weeks  since I wrote last was my Dad and brother came to Sweden!! Their visit came at the perfect time.   It marked 2 months since I left home, and about 2 months until I go back home.   I had gotten past the “honeymoon” stage of Stockholm and was ready for some visitors to enliven the spirit of touring and experiencing what Stockholm has to offer and it was especially good timing with football, because they got to take in two games. Even though the week went by way to fast and the Scandinavian sun barely came out for the Americans, we still had an exciting fun-filled week and they got a glimpse of my life here in Stockholm.  They were exposed to the land of fika, kanelbull (a very tasty pastry), high European fashion (men wearing skinny jeans and "elf shoes" as Ben called them) and the Swedish currency "krona" (or Coronas as my Dad called them) which you have to divide by 6.7 to equal US dollars.  

Gould Family Reunited 

The first full day they were here they got to see an exciting win at Hasatra IP for Ragsveds IF.  I scored the winning goal with minutes remaining, which was a goal none of us will forget and I am so glad that we got to share the moment together.  Here is a part of the write up I found online from a newspaper: "Efter 77 spelade minuter jämnade gästerna ut ställningen till 2-2 efter mål av Elin Hammar. Det såg sedan ut som det också skulle bli slutresultatet, men med bara dryga 4 minuterna kvar att spela avgjorde Rågsved genom mål av Ellery Gould. 3-2 blev slutresultatet."   Pretty Cool, huh?!

 http://lokalanyheter.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/ragsved-avgjorde-i-slutminuterna/

Game vs. Sirius

Over the course of the week we did soooo much...    I'll highlight some of our favorite events with pictures to spare you a lot of reading: 

- Walking around Gamla Stan or the Old Town, which has small narrow cobble stone roads, cafes, shopping, restaurants, and the Royal Palace.

Ben and Bill in the location of "The Stockholm Bloodbath" from the 16th Century

-The Vasa Museum contains a boat that looks a lot better than it functioned... It sunk 15 minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628 when a gust of win blew over the top heavy ship and wasn't salvaged until 1961, but was still well-preserved, and you can see the intricate designs of the self-centered King Gustaf. 

-The National History Museum which contains the largest display of Viking artifacts in Scandinavia , and of course the Viking Restaurant where the waiters dressed as Vikings and the people in the dining hall cheered whenever a new group entered. Great atmosphere! 

-Drottingholm Palace- a ferry ride to the home of the current King and Queen of Sweden, surrounded by beautiful gardens, fountains and statues. 

  

-Touring the City Hall which has an awesome gold room and is where the Nobel Prize reception dinner is held and they serve dinner to 1200 people in 3 minutes!

-The Stockholm Beer and Whiskey Festival, with thousands of types of Beers, Ciders, Wine and Whiskey from all over Europe with bands and entertainment. Kind of like a mini-Octoberfest, maybe?

-And I cannot forget to mention our "Journey of Discovery".  Midway through the week, I had a day off from football, so we decided sort of on a whim to travel to Finland, only an hour by plane away. Why you ask? Well my dad's grandmother was born in Parkano, Finland in 1903 and immigrated to the US in 1920, but left behind three sisters, and possibly other family.  So we figured when else would we travel to Finland and since we are so close, we mine as well make the trip.  As some of you know, we are usually go with the flow type of people, and this trip brought that meaning to a whole new level since we did not have too much planned.  We were basically hoping we could just show up in the town and find my dad's grandmother  (who's been deceased for quite awhile).... But anyways we took the flight to Helsinki, then had to take a train about 2.5 hours north to the little town of Parkano. But it turns out what we did plan (the train ride) did not go as planned.  As the train got to our stop, we made our way to the door, but the doors wouldn't open. There was no one around us and we couldn't do anything about it. Then all of a sudden, the train started moving again.  Bye Parkano. We couldn't believe we had just missed our stop and we had no idea where the train was headed, for all we knew we were heading to Russia. Thankfully the next stop was only a half an hour away and we were able to get a train right away back to Parkano.  This time the doors opened and we were able to get off, however the station was 8km from the center of town. With only a few hours to explore, there was no way we could walk it and catch our train back. Our phones didn't work and there wasn't really anyone in sight.  Luckily, a man showed up named Josef who was able to get us a cab and paid for it as we all made our way into town.  Once we got there, again we had no set plan, so we went to the City Hall, the Library, the Church, the cemetery and asked anyone if they knew the family name, trying to find out any information or maybe even some distant relatives.  Everyone was very nice while trying to help out, but it seems as though all of the Sulins moved out of town because we had no luck.  Although we did not find what we came for, we still had an opportunity to see where "we come from" and where my great-grandmother spent her childhood and young adult life, the church she prayed at and the streets she walked.  I don't think many people would do something like we did, and not many can say they have done something so crazy and spontaneous, but we are glad we decided to venture to our 'homeland' and it was truly a family-bonding experience, with some great laughs and something we will look back on and smile. 

I already miss my roomies, but I am so lucky that my favorite fans got to come visit me in Sweden!!