Tuesday, July 30, 2013

# Three!

After Gotland we hopped back on the ferry for another three hour trip over to the mainland, then took an hour long train ride to get to another high speed train for a five hour trip down to Copenhagen, then switched to another train for the last 45 minute leg out to Roskilde, which is where we were staying for our time in Denmark. It was a long day of traveling.

Luckily we were staying with the coolest family ever. Josh met Troels Jørgensen in the MTC on his mission and, even though they never served
 together as companions, they still became really good friends. I never even realized they
 hadn't been companions because I'd heard so much about Troels. It made a lot of sense 
when I met him and his family. It's cool to relate so well with people that live so far away 
and have so many different experiences. The first day with the Jørgensens they took us 
around Roskilde and showed us the giant church and the market place. We also went
 out to eat, and then spent the rest of the day hanging out at home playing with the kids...
as best we could with the language barrier.

Anna and Adrien


Some impressive caskets. 

The cool cafe where we ate lunch.

We also had fun with Ninja, their cat. Absolutely the craziest cat I've ever come in contact with. Josh even said that we could get one if it was like Ninja. ;)

Troels works for a company doing the sound effects for the Lego cartoons, like Ninjago, so Legos were a major factor in our playtime.


Adrien also liked making me bounce on their bouncy cows with him. The picture is terrible, but we were having a blast and couldn't pass up the opportunity to document Adrien wearing his cow-boy hat. (a fabric basket) So stinking cute.


Denmark has been rated the happiest country in the World, evidence by their outlets. 


The second day in Denmark we spent the morning wandering the main square in Roskilde sampling fish and ice cream, picking up some flowers for Anna who spent the morning home with a sick Adrien, and doing a bit of grocery shopping. Rewarding ourselves with some more sugar before heading home.


Later that night we doubled with Anna and Troels and headed into Copenhagen while Troels' parents babysat the kids. It was SO much fun! We wandered the city, checked out the home of the original Christus statue, ate out, shopped for clothes, checked out all the modern furniture and home decor, and went to a movie in a really old movie theater. 

The Christus statue happens to be in, what we felt to be, the only church that looked like it was centered around Christ...instead of death, the devil, and art. VERY pretty church.


Just a sign on the side of a building.

Sorry for the lack of pictures in Copenahagen. By this point Josh and I were feeling very at home with Troels and Anna and thus forgot to be more touristy...which was actually our goal so...mission accomplished! :)

The next day we went to church with Troels while Anna stayed home with sick Adrien again. (He has a really weak immune system so is sick a lot, poor kid.) We were lucky enough to be there for the baby blessing of Troels' nephew and as such we were invited to the celebrations afterward. We went out to the country where we spent the rest of the day eating delicious food and chatting with Troels and his extended family. They were all SO nice and a ton of fun to be around.

Now my memory is failing me. I can't remember if we left Monday or Tuesday. Thinking Tuesday, but either way, we spent the last little bit just hanging out at home with Anna and the kiddos since Troels had to go back to work. It was such a fun and unique part of our trip. 
Adrien aka The Monkey Doctor watching Ponyo. (They have no idea why Gabriel nicknamed him The Monkey Doctor, but it's quite possibly the best nickname ever, and this picture is quite fitting.)

Gabriel frozen by the back tickles.

 Josh and Adrien having fun taking pictures of themselves on the iphone. I had to add this in so you could see the longest eyelashes in human existence. I'm just a tad bit jealous. Plus Josh's face is ama-za-zing.

 Not sure if the Jørgensens ever get to read our blog, but if so, props for being the best hosts ever! We loved getting to just live life in Denmark and feel so comfortable so far from home. Who knew we could make such good friends so fast. We hope we get to see you guys soon!


Thursday, July 25, 2013

Country #2

And we're off to Sweden! The first stop in Sweden was to downtown Stockholm. We stayed for two nights in a hostel-type hotel. It was awesome. The rooms were divided by glass walls that you could pull curtains across for privacy, but they didn't reach the ceiling so the rooms were open at the top. A little noisy one of the nights but still fun and definitely worth the experience.


It was also an amazing location and great for the price. We were in "old town" which is so cool and historic, but super close to downtown so we were able to walk to the train station as well as shopping, which we did paaalenty of. (I never ever imagined seeing so many H&M stores.) The picture below is of the original city wall, that is now part of the hotel we stayed in. History is neat.

Besides shopping we also did some walking around the city, took pictures of teeny tiny streets, watched the changing of the guard,

and climbed some tall towers. The bells!




 There's our hotel! ...somewhere near there anyway.

After Stockholm we hopped on a quick three hour ferry to the magical island of Gotland.

We stayed in the most amazing place. A tiny little guest house tucked in a fairy tale forest. I fell in love.

We spent an entire week here exploring the island and the major city Visby, still protected by an ancient castle wall, and trying our best to live like the locals.

There were hikes along the coast line. Josh was a little upset that I made him stand on the cracked rock for this picture, especially when we made the hike to the bottom and realized just how precarious the cliff actually was.


 Our hosts gave us two brand new bicycles to use that they had just one in a "zip code lottery" so we took several trips on them, seeing the sites, and feeding some sheep.



There was, of course, meals to be had. Some better than others.

And others more homemade.

There was ancient church exploring.


Lots of church exploring.


I think this one was my favorite. Picture perfect with a blossoming tree planted right in the middle of what once was a church, and framed by the arch on the last remaining wall. 



I found my gotland animal friend.

And we discovered some pretty cool trees.
 

Including a "rock tree." Look at that thing! It looks just like a pine tree!


And this other one looks like a giant sat on it.

We took funny sign pictures.

Found some awesome sheep hats. So tempting...

We explored more of the coast, including two drives up to "sheep island," once to say we did it, and again to attend a concert we were invited to. There were tons of rapeseed fields and windmills along the way, but not as many sheep as one would expect for "sheep island."


A fishing village on sheep island.


 And the goblin valley-like rocks just a little further up the road.

 

 We spent a full day in Visby, just riding our bikes around, exploring the ins and outs of the city. It was a gorgeous day and the city was AMAZING. I think I said "holy cow" every few minutes the whole day. The castle/city wall was the most amazing thing. So cool and old. We probably took 50 pictures of just the wall, so sorry if you're overloaded. :)

Just someone's yard, backed up against the wall. Cool.

There are those eyes again.

Who would not want to live in this place?!

Have fun stormin' the castle!


They have giant cement sheep blocking off places where cars are not allowed. Can we do this in the US?
 

 If you look closely at the below pic you'll notice my fancy necklace. 

In the main square of Visby a street vendor (Christer, pronounced like Chris, but with an added ter) was selling super cool antique things he'd spent years collecting from different places throughout Europe. Josh and I loved looking through all of his fun trinkets, but even more entertaining was talking with him and his friend. They were highly entertaining, wanting to talk with us about anything and everything. Eventually we got on the topic of our religion, and Christer got so excited when he realized we were Mormon. He immediately told Josh he was going to call his Mormon friends and wanted Josh to talk to them. His friends turned out to be a missionary couple who were actually trying to teach him the gospel. They were so friendly and insisted we come visit them later that afternoon.We couldn't pass up the opportunity, and swung by their home for a few hours before ending our day in Visby, but not before buying me two necklaces from our new friend. :) They were awesome! Brother and Sister Herrey are native born Swedes and parents to the famous Herrey brothers who won Eurovision back in '84. If you don't know what that is you can look it up. It's a big deal in Europe. They had served several different missions on Visby, totaling 6 years I believe, and were just the nicest people ever. Sister Herrey tried her best to make us put on a few extra pounds in the few short hours we were there. And Brother Herrey took us to his basement to show us his seashell/fossil/rock collection, and sent us home with a sweet sculpture he makes out of them. (Josh and I both agree that Bro. Herrey looks just like Bilbo Baggins.) The following night they invited us to a concert that one of their famous sons was going to be singing at, hence that second trip to sheep island. Such a fun experience.


 The last few days on Gotland we spent seeking out some old Viking graveyards, relaxing in our little Stuga, 


and knocking on tiny doors. ;)


And thus ends an epically long blog post. Thanks for reading! Future countries still to come.