May 26, 2009

Day 2 Photo Gallery

For more indepth coverage, including addtional blogs,please visit the Dons Viking Voyage Tour Central.

May 25, 2009

Hello everyone,

We made it! Today we arrived in Sweden around 7:30 a.m. and we immediately got our tour bus, or coach, to explore the city. It was really interesting to learn about the history of Stockholm. Besides fighing off sleep, I think that everyone enjoyed the tour and was excited to finally be in Europe.

Today something that I found interesting was seeing the new age mixing with the "old town", as it is called here. For example, there are buildings from the mid-evil time period within looking distance from a very modern shopping mall. Also, we learned that there is still a royal family and a king who likes to drive himself around...in a Volvo, not a horse drawn carriage.

One thing we haven't done yet, but something I look forward to is eating a smorgasbord. A smorgasbord is a buffet type meal with lots of dishes. I imagine it will be similar to a buffet back home, but only with much different foods, we shall see.

Well that's it for now. Tomorrow we play our first game against the Swedish team, so stay tuned!

-Heidi Anton, #12

-- Once we finally got into Stockholm this morning, we began a long long long day. Our bus driver, Folke, and our tour representative, Neal, met us at the airport and explained a bit about Sweden and the culture during our trek into the city. Once in the city, the bus took us straight to the Kungliga Slottet, the Royal Palace of the Swedish Royal Family - where we met our tour guide for our sightseeing trip. The first part of the tour was through Gamla Stan, the old town, of Stockholm and all of the government buildings. The tour then continued, going all over town to the major islands that comprise the city. Stockholm is made of up 14 islands with two major water ways - the Baltic Sea and Lake Malaren. The tour continued until about Noon, as we toured all the major sights and viewpoints of the city. One of the stops on the tour was the smallest statue in Stockholm, the Boy Looking at the Moon. The statue is not more than six inches tall and is thought to bring luck to those who rub his head. So, of course, we all stopped and rubbed his head, hoping for his luck in our up-coming games.

Following the tour, we checked into our hotel and were urged not to take naps in order to adjust to the nine hour time difference. Most of us went out to lunch in the surrounding shopping district of our hotel before taking showers and strolls around the city. We were on our own for dinner and most of the staff went to a restaurant called C&C in Old Town. It was truly a Scandinavian restaurant with some items on the menu that you can't find back in San Francisco. Members of our party dined on elk, moose, reindeer, salmon and wild boar. I was pleasantly surprised by how good all of it was.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect of Stockholm, or Sweden in general. Flying in, looking out the window, I felt like I was landing in the Pacific Northwest thanks to all the green trees and wooded areas. On the other hand, once in Stockholm, it felt like a European version of Boston because of the mixture of new and old architecture. Everything here is expensive and I have been told it won't get any better on the rest of our journey. We purchased small bottles of water today at a 7-11 and paid around four dollars a bottle. Our guide, Neal, kindly reminded us that it may seem steep now but wait until we get to Oslo, where the going price of a McDonald's hamburger is 15 bucks.

I'll close with some interesting things we learned today, and a couple Swedish words that have gotten quite a few chuckles out of us. First, the Swedish King drives himself into work everyday, often times with the Queen joining him in the passenger seat. Apparently he doesn't come with an overwhelming security detail either, as a bodyguard simply follows in a car behind and no streets are shut down or interrupt for his drive. On a similar note, next spring on June 19 (the tradition Royal Family Wedding Day), the crown princess will marry a commoner, who she met while working out at the gym. Finally, for the Swedish words - utfart and turbo fart. We first saw an utfart sign on the Swedish highway and after some laughs were informed it meant exit. Turbo fart, means quick exit, hurry or fast.

That's it for now, I am exhausted. Tomorrow we will eat breakfast downstairs before going to practice. We will take the afternoon at leisure and then play the first game of the trip at 6 p.m. against the Swedish U-20 Team. Check back later for a full game recap.

Don't forget to check out the daily photo gallery at the top of the page too!

-Rachel