Back in Sweden

We made it! We're now back in Sweden after our three week journey around Europe. Before we got back to Stockholm for good we headed out to an Island off the coast, Gotland, where Clara's family has their small summer house. While there we celebrated Clara's mother, Gabriella's 50th Birthday on the 22 of July as well as Clara's 20th Birthday on the 29th. 

Since it's been so long since I've posted anything I want to do a little bit of catch-up, so let me start with some photos and highlights from our Inter-rail traveling. 

Our trip started in Copenhagen where we met our dear friend Joy. She was kind enough to pick us up at the train station and host us at her appartment in Helsingor (about 40 minute outside of Copenhagen) for two nights. We arrived late in the evening so we took it easy at Joy's. In the morning we headed to Copenhagen on the bus and took the day to tour the city. 

Here is a view of Nyhavn, a harbor built in 1673 as a gateway from the old city to the sea. 

The Colorful buildings now serve as cafe's, bars, restaurants, etc. We ended our first evening of our journey having a nice pasta dinner back at Joy's place. 

In the morning Clara and I headed back into Copenhagen to Meet my long time friend, Matt, who happened to also be in Copenhagen Visiting his girlfriend, Chelsea. We decided to speed our day visiting Freetown Christiania.

 

Above is the Mural upon entering. Here's the part of the description from Copenhagen.com-

"The famous Danish freetown Christiania was founded in 1971 when a group of hippies took over abandoned military barracks and their surrounding along the Christianshavn canals, and developed it to an alternative society with own set of rules, independent of the government. This social experiment that included collective ownership has over the years developed and established its semi-legal status. Today the enclave's user rights have been terminated by Danish state."

Here's a group shot of us with Matt and Chelsea before Clara and I headed off to catch the night Train to Amsterdam. 

I loved the architecture in Amsterdam.

Clara and I found a great bagel shop down the street from our hostel where we could put a deposit on a picnic basket and place our order or what we would like for our picnic. We went by later, picked it up and had a lovely picnic in Vondel park. 

On our last day in Amsterdam we stopped by the Van Gogh Museum. 

Here's some roses, and most doorways around the city were framed by flowers in a similar manor. So beautiful!

My belongings strewn across the floor. I decided I need to pack my bag a little better so things were easier to access. (and I somehow I seemed to make myself quite comfortable at the first hostel)

Clara, on the train to Prague. The night trains were not very pleasant trying to sleep on them, especially when we ended up in a full cart. With our inter-rail we couldn't book a sleeping cart useless we wanted to pay. The way the inter-rail pass worked, it was good for 22 days, unlimited travel. We paid one time to buy the pass and from there we can hop on whatever train to whichever city we plan on headed to next. We did have some what of a plan and had a date that we had to be back in sweden by, but if we had the time and money we could have been quite the travelers. 

This is the Astronomical Clock in Prague. It displays the time of day along with the location of the sun and moon in the sky, the phase of the moon and the current zodiac sign. It also has four characters that are set in motion at each hour and one of the twelve Apostles is also presented in a doorway at each hour. 

We took a free tour of the city which was great. Our guide was from New Mexico, but was quite a traveler. He worked the summer as a city tour guide in Prague and is an english teacher during the school year. He really gave us a thurough history of the city. We were honored to be apart of his last tour group of the summer. I suggest to any of you visiting cities, if there is a Free tour offered, do it!

 

Some Czech money, otherwise refered to as Koruna.

Here we are in front of the John Lennon Wall. After we took a walk across the St. Charles Bridge we made our way to the Petrin Tower and made this one of our stops on the way. Lots of inspiring quotes, drawings, etc. and I can only image the layers upon layers. It's been a graffiti wall since the 1980's and is always being added to. 

Here's the Petrin Tower. Standing 60 Meters tall on the top of a hill, it offers an amazing view of the city. 

 

View of Prague from the top of the tower. 

 

And Now here we are in Berlin! There was so much street art. We planned to go to Berlin on the way back from Croatia, but while on our trip we changed plans. Clara had some friends of hers that were in Berlin for two weeks renting an appartment so we decided we would go stay with them. Even though we always met many travelers on the train, at the hostels, etc. it was nice to enjoy cities with some friends. 

 

We spent a day at the Berlin Botanical Gardens. It's ranked the 3rd best in the world, and I don't doubt that one bit. 

Clara making friends with the fish.

Germany is well known for good beer. We spent our nights enjoying quality beverages along with good company.

 The nightlife in Berlin is great. Unfortunatly for me, one night at a Dance club I managed to loose my Wallet. Everything worked out in the end, I only lost 10 Euro, my drivers license and my debit card. It could have been worse. So for the rest of the trip Clara and I had sort of a shared economy. So now I'm awaiting for my New Debit card to arrive in the mail. 

During the trip I was reading I left my Tent in San Fransico by Emma Kennedy. It's a story about Emma and her friend, Dee, traveling to America in the 80's after graduating from College to have a final Hoorah before starting their lives after studying. The book follows them to America where they hope to get jobs in San Fran then make their way back to New York at the end of the summer after loading their wallets. Things don't work out as they hope and they end up in all the worst situations. I really enjoyed the book, Kennedy is so whitty in her story, and when things seemed like they were looking down for Clara and I, Emma and Dee made our trip look like a piece of cake. 

Here's a shot from the train on our way down to Croatia.

Here we are After our Night train from Berlin to Zagreb, the Capital of Croatia. We had a relaxed day walking around the city then spent the evening in our air conditioned hostel having dinner and doing some planning. Something we didn't realize before we started our journey was how much of our time we would be spending planning our next moves. We tried to take each day as it came, but in order to make sure we enjoyed the short stay in each location we wanted to make sure we knew what we wanted to do and see. 

It was so warm in Croatia (35-40 degrees celcius) it was hard to enjoy the city, so we decided it was time to get near some water so the next day we got a bus early in the morning to Plitvice Lakes National Park. It is the Oldest National Park in Southeast Europe. It was incredible. Many trails to walk all around the waters to different cascading waterfalls.

A view of Split, on the coast of Croatia

from the bell Tower during our self guided city tour day

Clara, taking siesta.

Sunset on Hvar

Bay in Hvar

Arriving at the Budapest Station

Some of our Roommates for the weekend from Germany, Estonia, Australia, Sweden and USA!

We spent one of the very hot days at the Zoo.

Hero's Square in Budapest

Thermal Baths

At central Market

Having lunch waiting for our train in Copenhagen back to Stockholm at the end of our long journey

And we made it!

 

As soon as we got home we had to leave again to go out to Gotland, and Island off the coast of Sweden, to met clara's Parents and stay for the week. There we celebrated Gabriella's 50th Birthday and Clara's 20th. It was very lovely to be able to enjoy the island and not have to be a tourist, and I really enjoyed spending time in nature. The beaches were lovely and we spent lots of time picnicing and biking around the island. 

Now I'm headed off to another Island to Join Lotta and her Family at their summer house. Remember them? The Family farm I stayed at in may. I'll be there for a week with them then come back to join Clara for four days, then head off to another farm.

The last three days Our friend Louise has been here visiting with Clara and I. She was on exchange at during the same year as Clara in Randolph. It's been great to be able to meet up with so many old friend in New places. 

P.S. This post will be reviewed and changed again, but I don't have time because I have to leave the catch the bus to the Summer house in ten minutes. !!!!!