Well, I haven't posted a blog in a long time, so there's a bit to catch up on, mostly with Fall Break- here we go!
We started off the break by going to the infamous Swedish store, Gekås, in Ullared, a town about two hours away from Mullsjö. When we talked to people about Gekås before we left, it seemed like some mysterious, evil, but amazing place, where huge herds of people go every day to shop for anything a person could possibly want- except shoes (the shoe store was nearby though). It's such a popular place that it's Sweden's #1 tourist attraction. It also has its own reality TV show. Needless to say, we were pretty anxious (and somewhat terrified) to see what all the fuss was about. When we arrived in the parking lot, it didn't seem like much, not too crowded, maybe like a Walmart on a Saturday. As we walked to the entrance, more and more people were coming together to form this huge mass that made it difficult to enter the store. When we got inside Gekås, it was even worse. Imagine the most crowded, awful Black Friday in a Walmart combined with Ikea, Sam's Club, Best Buy, and any other large department stores you can think of. It was a sea of humans any way you looked, which made it really overwhelming, but also awesome. They had everything, and everything was really cheap! Ridiculous amounts of people were buying what looked like numerous body bags worth of stuff, but I guess it makes sense to stock up on things once a year for super cheap . . . if you're brave enough to enter the store and encounter the 4.8 million people who go there every year.
After a day of recooperating from the craziness of Ullared, we left for Gothenburg! We didn't have much of a plan on what to do when we got there, so we searched around for thrift stores until we made it to our hostel. Later we walked to Slottsskogen Park to observe the beauty of Fall and see animals in the zoo! There were geese, seals, and deer, but the best part was getting to see a moose. It's been one of my goals to see a moose in Sweden, and even though it wasn't out in the wild, it was still awesome just to see one at all. We made our way to Gothenburg's Natural History Museum, where we saw amazing creatures, from hundreds of different insects to the world's only stuffed blue whale. The rest of the trip was spent in Gothenburg's shopping district, which included visiting an American candy shop. I was pretty happy to get some Mike & Ike's and the purple package Skittles. :)
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| MOOSE! |
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| Gothenburg Natural History Museum |
A couple days later, we headed to Stockholm. Immediately, you could see the differences between Sweden's two biggest cities. Gothenburg was spread out, with a more industrial look, and Stockholm was busy, dense, and filled with historic architecture with some modern buildings. As a person who loves bigger cities, I was ready to explore. The day we got there, we went on a city tour to see the sights. We saw Stockholm's narrowest street (35 inches wide!), the smallest sculpture in Sweden, the Royal Palace where the king and queen work, and a Ben and Jerry's shop that we stopped in later that night. After the tour, we hopped on a ferry to Stockholm's Modern Museum, and I was totally floored by their amazing collection. Things I had read about in books were right in front of me, like Andy Warhol's Brillo Soap Pads Box, Robert Rauschenberg's Monogram, Marcel Duchamp's Founatin, and my favorite, Salvador Dali's The Engima of Wilhelm Tell. I've never such famous pieces of artwork in person before. Pretty awesome experience.
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| Left to Right: Fountain, Brillo Soap Pads Box, Monogram. Bottom: The Enigma of Wilhelm Tell |
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| Old Town Stockholm |
The next day was HALLOWEEN! My favorite holiday. It's definitely not as big a deal here in Sweden as it is in the US, but it was fun to see the decorations here and there. Luke and I started off the day by going to Comic Con, a weird Halloween activity, I know. But it seemed oddly fitting seeing as there were so many people dressed up! We mostly went out of curiosity since we had never been to a Comic Con, and it was an interesting experience to say the least. What struck me was people's dedication to their favorite tv shows, movies, comics, games, etc. It was weird/cool thinking that this whole huge convention was set up just because people love these things so much.
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| Comic Con |
Later that evening, we went to our second art museum of the trip, Fotografiska. Their main exhibit, Up Close, featured photographer Martin Schoeller, whose work you've probably seen in magazines. He's got a very distinct photographic style of taking portraits of (mainly famous) people up close with a bright plain background. The exhibit also had his photos of more exciting celebrity portraits, female body builders, and twins. The next exhibit was of Magnus Wennman, who photographed sleeping places of Syrian refugee children. Really heartbreaking to see. The last exhibit consisted of 24 panel-chosen Swedish photographers, whose work was all very different. Two of my favorites were Julian Birbrajer and Elsa Gregersdotter. Check 'em out!
After the museum, we walked around the cobblestone streets of Old Town Stockholm, occasionally seeing someone in a Halloween costume. We ended up at Sweden's only traditional viking bar, Aifur, but unfortunately they were filled up. It was neat just to go in though! The whole place had a really amazing, old timey atmosphere. Once you walked under the large Nordic sign lit with torches, you had to go down stairs into an alley and open a large wooden door. Inside, the whole place was dimly lit with candles, and you could see the wooden interior with traditional Nordic symbols and stereotypical viking decorations. There was a burly, bearded viking man standing at the top of the stairs above the dining room, blowing some type of horn and calling out the names of everyone who entered, like "Ladies and gentleman, presenting (insert name here)!!" I didn't get any pictures or videos, but I found this video on YouTube that shows how cool this place is. Once we left Aifur, we went straight for ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. It was a really good Halloween. :)
Thanks for reading!
