May 28, 2009

Dons Viking Voyage: Day Four

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As part of the coverage of the USF Women's Basketball "Viking Voyage" to Scandinavia, assistant coach Abby Conklin and freshman Katy Keating each provides www.USFDons.com with a blog entry from the fourth day of the 11-day trip.

May 27, 2009

Good bye Stockholm...hello Oslo! We depart tomorrow...or today...depending on when you're reading this for a 6 hour bus ride to Norway.

Today, or yesterday...we went to the Vasa Museum - which was AMAZING! As Katy Keating may have told you, the Vasa was a 1620's warship that was supposed to be the most impressive of it's time. But things did not turn out so well for the Vasa. Legend has it that before the maiden voyage, "Thirty men had run back and forth across the Vasa's deck when she was moored at the quarry. After three runs, they had to stop - otherwise, the Vasa would have capsized." Even though I am not a boat captain, sailing would not seem like a good idea to me with this knowledge. But Hansson (the ship's captain) still decided to sail. The boat capsized 20 minutes into its voyage. The Vasa then laid at rest on the bottom of the Baltic Sea floor for 300 years before it was resurrected. The most impressive part was that much of the boat remained in tact and many of the lose piece were recovered. The boat was pulled off the sea floor in the 1960's and it is drying in a dry-dock museum to this day. This was no small vessel...the boat needed about 450 crew members to run the boat. Google the Vasa if you have time!

My remaining question is...how come there were no barnacles on the boat? I checked out the sea walls in the bay and the boats docked in the harbor and I saw no obvious barnacle. I read that there is one type of barnacles that lives in the Baltic but I wonder why none were attached to the Vasa?

The last and most impressive fact that I have to share about the Swedes are how eco-friendly they live their lives. Their toilets have two different flush modes: for #1 and #2...It's kind of like being in the Portland Airport! Stockholm gets its drinking water from Lake Marlan, where the water only has to be purified for 10 hours before it is drinking quality. We could take so many conservation lessons from the Swedish people!!

Until next time...peace, love, happiness and soul train!

- Abby Conklin

-- Today we had fun filled adventures throughout Stockholm. Early in the day we went to the historical ship known as the Vasa. The Vasa is an excavated 16th century war ship that sank near shore in the waters around Stockholm. There were intricate carvings all over the ship and objects from 300 years ago. People of all ages and organizations and groups were in the museum. We all left the museum with a new knowledge of a Swedish historical object.

After visiting the Vasa, a few people from our troop went to the Skansen Museum. The Skansen is an open air museum full of old buildings and farm like structures. The museum also has places with animals ranging from farm animals to lynx.

The trip is an exciting new experience for all of us. Hokay. Goodbye.

-Katy Keating #22

-- I will keep my blog to a minimum today since we heard from Abby and Katy, but I will still share a few of my thoughts. Stockholm was great, could be one of my favorite cities in Europe I have seen. I think the highlight for me was the Vasa. Words can't describe the ship, unless you see it in person and not the mention the story is an entertaining one. You should look it up, its kinda worth a chuckle. One note I will share about it is a quote that was painted on the wall of the musuem, it read "Nothing can be more impressive and more dedicated to glorifying to his royal majesty than for his ship to bear the most magnificent decoration that has ever been held on the ocean". Well, think about it. What's that say about your king that you built the ship for if the ship only sailed for 20 minutes before sinking? Kinda funny. After the Vasa, I went the Skansen, which also was pretty cool. If you have ever been to Williamsburg, it is very similar to that. In addition to the zoo aspect, it had towns that would show life in old Sweden. Pretty entertaining and very educational.

Well, that's it. We have an 8-ish hour bus ride ahead of us into Oslo and Norway.

-Rachel