Sweden

Brant and I went to Sweden for a week to visit my parents while they are on their mission. Our trip started at 9:30 pm on Aug. 6. We flew to New York (red-eye) and got in at 7:45 am. We checked in to our next flight and then headed in to the city for breakfast at one of my favorite places to eat breakfast/brunch... Sarabeth's!

On the way...Brant left his phone in the cab. After a million calls to his phone, the cabbie finally called back and said he'd drive back and return Brant's phone. We were both excited to get it back!

The plan was to do a little site seeing of the city during our 11 hour layover, but we were too tired (and grumpy). So we headed back to the airport to try and get a little nap in. It was a headache, but I will spare you all the details. We didn't get much of a nap in, but we boarded our plane to Sweden at 5:00 pm (NY time). Again, we flew all night and arrived in Sweden at 8:00 am (Sweden time - 12 midnight UT time). From there we got on a bus to the train station to meet my parents.

Once we met up with my parents we hit the road running. Literally. We only had a day in Stockholm so we packed in as much as we could. Here are some pictures from our day in Stockholm:

 My parents walking under the arch to enter the old city.

 Vikings!

 The Royal Cathedral. Royals still attend church, have baptisms, and get married in this building

 Stairs to the pulpit

 Where the Royals sit

 Some saint slaying a dragon. Good vs. Evil

 The pulpit

 The Old City. This is where we ate lunch.

 The Royal Palace

 The Vasa. This is a ship that sank before it could sail out of the harbor. Read about it here. It's pretty cool!

 What the back would have looked like:

After falling asleep while walking around Stockholm, we boarded a train for our 3.5 hour ride to my parents' home in Vaxjo (pronounced vehkshua).

In Vaxjo, we sure did a LOT! We went to a glass blowing place. 2 actually. At the first one, we watched two girls make a glass blown vase. At the second place (Costa Boda - a famous glass/crystal outlet), we saw some AMAZING blown glass pieces and my mom bought us a cute orange candy dish!

We went to a moose park. That's right...MOOSE! Apparently moose hunting is a BIG sport in Sweden. Throughout the country you can see stands for the moose hunts. This moose park has fenced off areas where you can see moose up close and personal. And let me tell you...we were UP CLOSE!

There were chickens at the moose park

 And goats

 On one of the moose hunting stands

 I told you we got close...

We ate godies (Swedish gummy & chocolate candies). One of the treats the Swedes love is this salted black licorice. Some of it isn't too bad, but some pieces are COVERED in salt. Brant loved the black licorice without the salt, but the salted kind was a bit strong...

One of the missionaries' favorite thing to eat in Vaxjo is Kebab (kay-bob). It is a pizza with kebab meat (the stuff you find in Greek food...YUM!), cheese, french fries, and a fry sauce. It might not sound (or look) very appetizing, but it was DELICIOUS!! We loved it!

We had a picnic and a BBQ next to two lakes. Sweden is covered in lakes. There are more than 50 lakes in my parents' small area alone!!

The water in Sweden in BLACK! It's very clean water, but has a high concentration of iron which leaves it a black/brown color.

Skipping rocks

We saw a super old church where I actually rang the bell in the tower. My parents were a little upset, but I thought it was cool! Brant was jealous :)

The door dates back to the time of the Vikings.

We went to Kalmar to see the castle there.

We got to pretend we were jousting.

The Queen's bed.

The King's room.

He had a hidden escape route. When the door is closed you cannot tell there is anything there but a wall.

The King's waiting room.

The church

The castle was built to protect Sweden from the Danish.

Brant ran into this post while he was looking at a giant anchor (see the next picture)

The cemetery next to the castle.

Then we went to the island across the sea from Kalmar, Oland, to have a picnic, see Borgholms Slott (an old castle), and the Royal Family's summer home. And my parents also took us on this awesome dirt road surrounded by trees.

A field full of poppies and daisies.

The first turnstile. (not really...but it was a surprise to see one at the old castle)

This castle was once used as a stable for livestock and later as a dump.

The entrance to the Royal summer home. We didn't go in to see the grounds.

A random ram we found by the Royal summer home.

Eating Magnums!

We toured the city of Vaxjo for one day. We saw Vaxjo Lake, shopped on the shopping street (no cars allowed), toured the Vaxjo Cathedral, sang in the echo water tower, and another run-down castle.

Inside the cathedral

The awesome candle tree. It depicted Adam and Eve.

It looked like the Tree of Life

Viking ruins could be found throughout Sweden. This is one behind the cathedral.

The domkyrka (pronounced dom sheerka). Also known as the cathedral.

Vaxjo Lake

Teleborg Castle. The prince had this built for his new bride as a wedding gift. She didn't like it so it was sold and turned into a hotel. She must have been crazy to not love this castle. It overlooks a beautiful lake and it so awesome!

Exploring and old castle that is now a ruin (I don't remember the name of this castle).

The old banquet hall at the castle.

The last day we were there we visited a couple in my parents' branch where we had lunch and were able to take their rowboat out on the lake across from their house.

We also went swimming in the lake. It was quite cold, but still fun!

We had such a great time in Sweden! It was hard to say goodbye to the country and my parents. It was so fun to see where my parents have been living and meet some of the people that my parents have told us about. I can't wait until we can go back! Neither can Brant. He's hoping next time he can shoot himself a moose!