Vålådalen Hiking Trip

Finally got the network working well enough so I could upload some pictures. These are the long-awaited pictures from the Vålådalen trip, hiking, day one. Cross your fingers the network stays nice, and I'll hopefully get more caught up to recent trips. Cheers!

Me picking blueberries

Figuring out where we are

Jessica & me

The 4 of us, 4 hours into the hike

moi, doing it all

Caesar & Jessica enjoying the beautiful weather

So peaceful

Uncle Brian's awesome pic of the lake

Aunt Jessica guiding the way

Another nature shot

On the way back

Water's the coolest

Waxholm, Sweden

On the Wednesday after arriving in Sweden, Brian, Jessica, Caesar & I went to Waxholm. It is an adorable town on the water (actually, the Baltic Sea) with cute shops. And excellent ice cream. Can not forget the ice cream. Unfortunately, I didn't take as many pictures as I probably should have to really capture the town, but this is what I have. I'm going to take this as a lesson to take as many pictures as possible; I didn't buy a bigger memory card for nothing, right?

Me & Caesar in the Baltic

Brian, Jessica & Caesar

View of the water

How I would love to own this house...

I still have to put up pictures from camping in Vålådalen, but first I'll wait until I get pictures from Brian so I can have a complete collection.

Old Town Stockholm

I'm a little behind. I was unable to update before we left for Vålådalen to go camping, and we just got back late last night.

Many of you are probably getting my email updates, so you are pretty much updated to the camping trip. If you're not on the awesome email list and you would like to, shoot me an email at johnch10@gettysburg.edu.

On Tuesday (wow, a week ago today), Brian, Jessica & I went to Skansen, which is the world's first ever outdoor museum (think Colonial Williamsburg). A man decided to go around and buy old Swedish buildings from around the country. He numbered every rock, every piece of wood, to these buildings and put them back together exactly as they were here in Skansen. Here I was able to get a feel of the different areas of Sweden (including the south, which is where Jessica grew up). Here are some of my favorite pictures...

Belfry


Brian is a tad tall for these homes.


Brian & Jessica


moi


Real life reindeer!


View of Stockholm

Then Jessica & I walked around Gamla Sta'n, or Old Town Stockholm. What a neat place! I could have walked around those streets, looking at those old buildings all day. Unfortunately, I don't feel like these pictures can do it any justice, but enjoy anyway.

Enjoying our vika.


Sweet Vespa


Outdoor urinal. There was someone in there when I took this picture. His wife said, "Someone just took a picture," as I was walking away. Jessica & I just burst out laughing and kept walking.


I could not get enough of the buildings. Everything has so much color and character to it.

Town Square





Jessica walking down into a bar, but it was closed. Pretty cool place, though.


Narrow streets


Water view


Me trying to be artsy...can you tell I just love the buildings??

These are pretty much my pictures from the day. We met up with Brian, who had gone back to the house to take care of the dog, and we ate dinner in Gamla Sta'n with Jessica's sister Jasmine and her roommate Pauline.


Coming up...Waxholm day trip, followed by the Vålådalen camping trip.

...It's my aeroplane

Some random shots from the plane with me being an awkward tourist.

Near Iceland

Uncle Brian tells me I was probably near Greenland


Arriving in Sweden!

Departure

My flight out of BWI was at 8:45pm for Iceland on August 6th.

Dad is on the left, brother Nathan's on the right, me smack-dab in the middle.

Me & Ma

I left the family at security with a few tears, but then I was excited to get to Sweden.

By the way, my sweet shoes for the trip...don't hate :o)
So very comfortable, perfect for travel
Pick up a pair of Crocs at your local shoe store for only $29.95!!
...I promise, no more plugs.

Coming up...flight pictures