Lots

So the first month I kept the posting up quite well, but by now the everyday-life is just coming along and time goes by so quickly that there is just no space left ;) But now!

 

Alright, where to start… Well, I finally made it to the castle "Drottningholm", which is acutally really pretty. Well, I was not inside because I did not want to pay just to see a castle as many others (I was told that it's not that spectacular inside) and so we rather walked through the park that belongs to it and had a picknick there :)

The castle:

A small part of the park (there was so much more, with lots of grass and trees and small mazes and so on, but I just cannot put all the pictures up here ;)

 

Another cool thing was the "Fireworks Concert". That was actually a concert with different orchestras playing different kinds of music (I liked especially the pieces from the Lion King ;) but there were also classical part or pieces from West Side Story and others. The highlight then was the fireworks music by Händel, together with a firework. Unfortunately I did not have a tripod but luckily there was a part of a wall that turned out to be quite useful ;) A few impressions:

This is the KTH-Logo (does not really belong to the Concert but I took it the same night ;)). Below the KTH it says "Vetenskap och Konst" which means Science and Arts.

This was an orchestra from the student union (I think). They were quite funny, especially the people dancing in the front ;)

People sitting in the windows to watch:

The lighting was great! :) (And yes, this is the university and yes, I actually do have classes in that building ;))

The musicians and the firework:

 

My personal highlight of my stay here in Sweden so far was probably the hiking weekend me and 4 others spent in (well, not exactly in but very close to) the National Park Tiveden. We rented a car to get there since the bus there only goes in the summer. On friday afternoon we went shopping for food and some beer – oh, good story! As I have mentioned you cannot get beer (well, at least not real beer) here in a supermarket but only in stores calle "System Bolaget". So we went to one to get some beer and cider. When we wanted to pay only Liz stayed to pay and the rest of us wanted to go and carry the stuff. So when we went by the cashier asked us for our ID. We were confused since we did not buy anything. But she insisted on us getting our IDs from the car (!!) and would not sell us our beer, even though the one who was going to pay had hers with her. That seems to be quite common here. So next time we know – those who don't have their ID with them stay outside! Alright, back to the story. So then wen headed off towards the west. The drive took about four hours, but the last half hour or so was quite adventurous! We had to go on a street in the middle of the woods, that was not too wide and went in nice curves and up and down. Which is not a problem as long as its daylight or there are streetlights! But if you have neither of them you sometimes see nothing but a small part of the road and after that trees! No idea what's behind it, a curve, or does the strees just go down? Or would there be an elk behind it? I must say I was happy I didn't have to drive ;) But finally we arrived at the camping site where we had rented a little hut for the weekend. The small one is a little washing room on the campsite, which I found really cute :)

So on friday night we of course we did not go hiking anymore but just sat in our cute little hut, played cards games, talked… But then on Saturday we planned to go a bigger tour. Not in the national park but close to it (the nature is awesome everywhere!). It started out great since it had stopped raining (which it did all night) and we got along well. Some pictures:

But after a while it started raining again… Not really bad but quite annoying. Of course we were about in the middle of the round tour at that moment, so going back would not have made much sense. So we kept going, it was not that bad after all (even though the many puddles and hidden bogs right on the way were quite annoying and some feet started getting wet). But then we came through a part with lots of blueberry bushes and ferns which were of course wet. At the latest by then our pants got wet and it got a little uncomfortable. But we kept going, I mean there was nothing we could do! And after we got lost twice and were all soaked we finally arrived back at the car… Tired and wet, but happy – no wait, not quite happy yet, since we had not eaten anything since breakfast (and an apple an/or carrot along the way). Of course we did not want to have our lunchbreak in the rain! But after we had gotten back to the hut, all taken a shower and eaten our lunch we were happy again ;) Later we had decided to have a barbecue in one of the little fire huts they had there. That was great :) (Of course I have hundreds of pictures of the fire but I'll spare you of those ;)).

This is the hut. I usually don't really use my flash but here I was amazed by it! It was pitch black dark there and my little flash made that much light! ;)

The food :)

This picture describes the weekend quite well, I think ;)

So that night we had the fire/barbecue and later sat in our hut again, playing cards and so on. But since all our wet clothes were hanging in there and for drying them we had to turn up the heating (we found out the next morning that there is a drying room on the campground ;)) we had to open the windows/door every once in a while to have some air to breathe. But then the mosquitoes/moths and what else was flying around outside would have come in, so we had to turn off the light during those short periods. And it was dark! Wow, I don't think I have ever seen such darkness! It was still raining, so there was no moon, and it as far away from any city or anything alike and it was late, so the lamps from the campground were turned off aswell. And I could literally not even see my hand in front of my eyes (I tried it!). So then on sunday morning we packed up our stuff, cleaned the hut and took off to the actual Tiveden National Park for a small hike there. It was really nice, but unfortunately it started raining after the first, really small round, so we did not start the second one.

 

The weekend after that then was a little less exciting but I finally got to see something of Lidingö, the Island I am living on :) And I'm just not going to say much about it but let the pictures speak for themselves :)

 

Last saturday then Esther and I went to the national park Tyresta again, the one we have been in the beginning and got so terribly wet. And, good news, we stayed dry all the way! Yay! It was awesome, since the leaves are starting to change their color and it was just beautiful :)

There was a lake on the path! :D

We found Nessie!!! ;)

These coming pictures are from a part of the park that burned down some time ago. So now there are no more tall trees (or if there are they are dead), but lots of smaller ones that are newly growing.

And there are so many fly agaric (german: Fliegenpilz)! I have never really seen a nice one that is really red, and here they are everywhere! And they are so pretty :) And the second picture is of the little village called "Tyresö", which is right at the park. Actually it is not even really a village, just a few houses, most of them in some way related to the tourism (selling food, offering horsebackriding for kids and so on).

 

So, those were the exciting things I did this last time. But there is, as I mentioned in the beginning, a little everyday-life aswell. University is getting serious (since one semester is split into two periods = quarters) and I have my first exam in a little over two weeks and there are assignments to turn in and so on… But I should not complain, it's by far not as bad as the last semester in Hanover ;) But still, here there are so many other cool things I'd like to do, so I really don't feel like studying ;) It still feels a little bit like a vacation, even though I'm already here more than two months! Unbelievable!

Oh, but two more exciting news! First, I booked my Lapland-Trip in january! I am so excited for that!! :) And second, I'll go to Helsinki right before Christmas! So much traveling :) But we found out here, that once you are somewhere else, the wanderlust (Fernweh) gets even worse ;-) So I guess I just cannot help it!

Aaaand now I am looking forward to Saskia arriving tomorrow afternoon!!! :) Unfortunately I'll have a class all friday, but then we will spend a great weekend! :)