I hate flying, so I didn't sleep on the plane. Liv's plane arrived a few hours after mine, so after chatting and eating with my aunt and grandma at the airport, I took a well-deserved nap on one of the airport benches. Our first real, non-airport meal was spent with my cousins, pictured here:
As you can tell, height only runs on the Swedish side of the family, not the New Mexican side.
My grandma and aunt live in Ytterby, which is outside of Goteborg. Much of our time was spent in the city. It is beautiful, and I appreciate it as an adult much more than I did as a kid. This picture was taken at the Goteborg Art Museum on one of the few days of rain. I almost felt like I was back in Portland, but the lack of Starbucks made that pass.
One of the most fascinating things to me is the fact that Europeans cherish their old buildings, as opposed to tearing them down. I don't remember which building this was, but it's old...and Swedish. We managed to get a decent amount of sightseeing done, since most of my previous trips were spent with a native Swede (my dad) or a bratty child (wait, that was me...).
Here is a picture of a Viking ship:
The most fascinating thing about Viking ship displays in Sweden is their lack of stability. This ship sank before it made its maiden voyage because it was too heavy. Here is a link to another ill-fated ship that sank because it was too heavy: The Vasa Museum.
Here are some other pictures from our tour of the Goteborg canals:
Now who is the king of the jungle, Simba?
Another ship that is a museum and restaurant, (unsurprisingly, unvisited by the Hochhausler-Olsson crowd).
I don't remember exactly which building this is, either...
This duck was found at the Universeum in Goteborg. It was labeled as a Scandinavian native, but I never saw another one on my entire trip (or on any previous trips, to my knowledge...).
This is a picture of Liv and I, happy because we just ate really excellent whitefish on an island outside of Goteborg with our grandma. There is also a picture from the boat back to the mainland.
Liv and I spent one weekend in Copenhagen, which was better, more fun and crowded than I expected. One of the first landmarks I spotted was this: a Rio Bravo Tex-Mex restaurant in Denmark...
Sometimes, Liv would get bored as I was trying to take pictures of beautiful Danish scenery with my unwieldy manual Canon camera. Here is one example of her walking quickly away as I act as a tourist:
You can't see it in this picture, but there are also American capitalist representatives from the fine companies of Burger King, McDonald's and KFC right next to the Palace Hotel, in the oldest sidewalk market in the world.
Here is downtown Copenhagen. People actually ride bikes here!
A trip to Copenhagen isn't complete without a story from Hans Christian Andersen. He doesn't seem very interested in telling one, though, possibly because he is distracted by Tivoli Gardens across the street.
Our last and final day in Scandinavia was spent on the island of Marstrand. There is a fantastic sidewalk market, a 17th century fortress, and an excellent, yet crowded, beach.
In my final picture of the trip, I am representing the bling from the U.S., (not to mention our poor spelling reputations), Swedish-style.
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