better late then never, right? haha
so much happens in one day. Let alone a day in a new beautiful place!
so, to write a little bit about my two day stay in Sweden.. I shall write only in highlights. that may, or may not, be in order. haha :)
When first arriving in Sweden my bank account looked like a barren wasteland.. which resulted in my decision to only eat one meal a day, to save the money that was already gone. Areil, my head teacher, was raised in Turkey and so when we found a little Armenian buffet we just had to stop. The food was good, the desert was even better, but the biggest miracle? That food kept me 100% satisfied for the whole rest of the day. Even with all the walking! It was great! :)
Sweden is where I stayed in my first Hostel ever. For those of you who are unaware of what a Hostel is, its a cheap place to spend the night, when your out and about. However, its cheap for a good reason. for instance, we shared our room with eight other travelers; a group of friends from some part of Russia. As cool as it was to hear them speak their native language to each other, their stay with us can be summed up in a quote from Janelle the following morning, "I woke up at like..four in the morning and my first thought was.. what are all these men doing in their underwear..and it wasn't like, boxers. It was girly underwear!" haha, I guess thats what you get when you combine Europeans and a hostel. ;)
When we first arrived in Sweden, I was feeling a little "under the weather" both in spirit, and in health. So my first destination was the temple. After Janelle and I figured out where it was, we started our journey. Which consisted of a small walk around a beautiful part of town, a train ride, and then a walk through another little town center. The temple was beautiful. Unlike the Finland the temple, we were able to go inside. Janelle did baptisms, and I did confirmations. It was such a neat experience! When they were about to begin the blessings, they asked if I would like them in English or Norwegian.. Of course I said Norwegian! and because they were saying them so fast, all in one breath, they sounded like some sort of ancient chant. It was very neat. :)
After we did our ordinances, one of the missionaries told us about an ancient Viking cemetery just down the street.. Of course, we had to go. :) We walked a dirt path through the country of Sweden.. passing red houses, old farms, and TONS of yellow trees. In fact, the tree's were actually a canopy to our little dirt path. It was beautiful! Once we got there it was interesting.. the grave sights were discovered by the formation of rocks. They place one large rock, standing up, in the center. and then from each side they create a row of little-er rocks resembling an inside out arrow. Although we couldn't understand the signs and it was still a cool experiences.
On the way back from the temple, we zoomed by a beautiful lake, where I was able to see the "classic Sweden picture" It was a tiny red cottage placed near the waters edge, surrounded by little dirt paths and, again, tons of yellow tree's. Seeing the beauty of that was enough to make my day perfect. :)
Every time Janelle and I were trying to find a temple, or place to eat, I was always the one to ask for directions from the locals.. this is because both times Janelle tried.. One was a blind women, and the other was a Scandinavian who's only English word in his vocab was "no." haha :)
Once we returned back from the countryside, the day was dimming, but we had a little bit of time to walk down to Old Towne Sweden, and check out the bay. ...I know I over use the word beautiful.. but there really is no other word to describe these places. Again, the streets were paved with old cobble stone, the buildings were all coloured in yellows and reds, with a few pastel ones thrown in.. but the most impressive heart stopping beauty? The tiny alley ways in between each set of buildings. I felt like I was walking on a movie set, or in a story book, or better yet, in one of my dream locations, Italy. It was fantastic! and sadly, none of the pictures i took, could ever do the place justice.
:)
