Day 5

Copenhagen finally!! Today was a hot day, a very hot day. Waking up I felt like I'd spent the whole night sweating, not having AC sucks. Apparently it's usually very nice here in the summer, like in the 70's we just happened to be here during the heat wave.
We started the day with a walking tour of part of the city and then were free for the rest of the day to explore on our own. On the tour we learned a lot about the history of Denmark and its wars with Sweden. We spent the rest of the day wandering around, shopping and eating. The streets are really narrow and crowded here with lots of shops and restaurants. After wandering around for hours we were really hot and tired and wanted to go swimming but there wasn't a public beach near the hotel. We took a walk down to the canal to stick our feet in there and in the fountain we had seen earlier. Michael and I decided to jump in the canal, which was really fun and refreshing. At night we went to Sam's bar for dinner and for karaoke night along with most of the rest of BGB. At the bar we met a few local guys who showed us where another cheap and fun bar was and we spent the rest of the night hanging out there. Copenhagen is a lot different from Stockholm, it's larger and more urban so navigating the city is tougher. We can't walk the whole city and it's not as safe as Stockholm. It's still fun though, and cheaper!

Our hotel

Streets of Copenhagen

On our walking tour

The main canal, there are a lot of shops and restaurants here

The naval church

One of the original palaces

The tower in the back is part of the stock exchange

A traditional Danish house

One of the many squares around Copenhagen, people sell water and fruit and food in these

The streets here are more urban and have a lot of construction

The palace

The fountain by the water in front of the palace

This is a popular place for wealthy people to live

Teacups in the park. There is an amazing hot dog stand here!

Playing in a park near the hotel, it's in the middle of the street!

City hall

Cooling off after a long very hot day. Of course we were here during the heat wave!

Cannonball into the canal behind the hotel!

Day 4: Train rides that last forever

Today was supposed to be an easy travel day. We got to sleep in, and we were supposed to ride a nice train for 4-5 hours to Copenhagen but of course things didn't go so smoothly. I guess I should have learned after the New Orleans train debacle that I'm not meant to ride on trains but this sounded like a fun trip. We got up and went to breakfast, checked out of the hotel and made our way to the train station. The train was delayed so we hung out for awhile and boarded like 30 min late. Upon boarding the train we then sat for almost an hour with no AC waiting to leave. When the train finally got going we were already an hour and half late but everyone was having fun. The air was starting to work and we were all excited about the trip. I worked on homework, and read my book for awhile then I fell asleep only to wake up sweating with no AC again. About 2 1/2 hours into the trip an announcement tells us that we will have to stop at a station right before the bridge to Denmark to change trains because our train couldn't cross the bridge. Then we are told that we have to stop because one of the stations we must pass through has no power. So we stop in some small town and are told we have about an hour if we want to get off the train. So our group wanders around the town, checks out a few grocery stores and goes hunting for food. The food we had been served was barely edible, it was some strange potato salad, roast beef, and more tube milk (pictures of this adventure will come later). The town is cute and we had fun wandering around only to come back to the train and sit around for another three hours with no AC. We played cards for awhile, but it got too hot and everyone is now sweating and hungry and disappointed that we will probably miss watching the world cup finals tonight. We just started moving again and we have now been on this train for close to 8 hours with another probably hour and a half to go. At least we finally got free internet.
UPDATE
It is now almost 4am here and we are just settled in our hotel. So after 15 hours on the train and another couple waiting around we finally made it to the hotel where there is no AC and we had to pay for internet. It's a really nice hotel, very old and the inside is made of old ships timbers. The whole hotel is set up like a giant ship so it's kind of like a maze. We have our balcony door open to let in cool air and the sun is currently coming up. Today has been the day where everything goes wrong. After the train started moving again the engine stopped working correctly. So we would drive for a few minutes and then stop again, eventually they just stopped us and we were told we were going to have to evacuate the train and get on a new one that would pull up behind us. I guess they got the engine fixed because we eventually started going again, but of course we were stuck behind a slow freight train and couldn't move very fast. The train finally cooled down though and we were able to relax and watch the storm outside. Then we were informed that lightning had struck the next station and it was closed down so we got to sit around for awhile longer. Finally we make it to the last station where we are supposed to catch the connecting train and we missed the 11:22 train because we were in line waiting to get to a platform. So we ran to catch the 12:22 train, and it is delayed 30 min so we just sat on the tracks. Eventually we made it to Copenhagen around 2am and we had to take turns riding the bus to the hotel because we only could only get one charter bus this late. While waiting we watched a couple hookers approach men and a stumbling drunk homeless man. We did get to shout "Espana!" with some locals who were celebrating the world cup victory of Spain which was cool. Hoping tomorrow will be better.

Day 3

Today we toured city hall, which was awesome and the palace the king and the royal family live in. We also had our first subway experience. Meggan, Josh, Michael, Julianna and I decided to stay at the palace after the group left to explore the grounds and took the bus and the subway to get back home.

City hall from the outside

Inside the courtyard. The building was built in 1923 but designed to look like a 17th C. building

Looking out onto the water

They have 103 members from 7 different political parties!

The viking style ceiling

In city hall

This entire room is mosaic. So cool!

Everything is so detailed and very Egyptian looking. Each room in city hall has a different theme.

Outside in a cage

Looking over the lawn outside city hall

Group shot before we caught the ferry

With the palace behind us. We took an hour ferry to get here!

The palace from behind. It used to be a summer palace but now the royal family lives there permanently. 

Us on the grounds. They were gorgeous! All gardens and trees. 

Looking out a window in the palace

The gardens behind the palace. They go on forever! the whole island is covered in monuments, gardens and other cool stuff. 

Tonight we plan to go check out the Swedish mall, eat dinner somewhere cheap and watch the world cup at a pub and tomorrow it's on to Copenhagen!

Day 2

Today was our first full day in Stockholm! We got up around 7:00, and went down to breakfast which was a buffet. I ate eggs, which were sweetened with some kind of sugar, potatoes, and bacon. It was a pretty good breakfast and then the whole group met at 8:45 for our walking tour of old town, then we went to the Vasa Museum and had the rest of the day free.

Central Station next to the hotel, we also saw chimney sweepers and street cleaners near here! Stockholm is very clean, and now we know why. 

On our way to Old Town. You can drink that water straight from the lake

People in Sweden don't stop their cars for pedestrians, neither do bikes!

Meggan and I in Old Town

The cobblestone streets and the architecture are gorgeous 

Outside the palace, the royal family doesn't live here anymore but the king drives in every day for work. 

Changing of the guard. Military service is compulsory here so all the guards are young girls and boys. 

Julianna, Meggan, me and Anita in a square in Old Town.

Ashley and me

Pretty street

A fountain, we came back later with water bottles. 

At the Vasa museum. The Vasa sunk 333 years ago and was raised in the 1960's and a museum was built around it. 

The ship

The back of the ship, all the carvings were originally painted in colors

Boats in the Baltic

A Nordic museum, it was really pretty from the outside. 

These are all over the place!

Walking through parliament 

The group outside parliament. The highest governmental power. 

Free Swedish beer on our boat tour. It took you around to the various islands in the area and you could get off and back on.

Dinner at an Italian restaurant. So good!!

BGB outside a Swedish dance club! It was awesome, and we got in for free!

Day 1

Or as they say in Sweden, dag ett.

It's been a long 23 hours, I've been in three different countries and spent waaaayy too much time on an airplane but I'm finally in Sweden! I checked in at the airport in Houston yesterday around 5:30 and met up with my friend Meggan who is also on the BGB trip. We went through security and then hung around the airport until our plane finally took off at 8:35. It was a long flight, and I really didn't sleep much on it, I don't think anyone did. We got dinner, pasta and some weird cold stuff with cheesecake for desert and they served coffee and tea. I mostly just watched movies on my private tv. They had a really good selection of new movies and classics. We had really bad turbulence for about 45 min where the whole plane was shaking and my head was getting bounced around. I finally fell asleep for a few hours, woke up for breakfast and read until we landed in London.

Once in the London Heathrow airport we rushed to get our bags and load them on a van to take them to Imperial college while we travel for a week. We explored the airport a little and enjoyed seeing the strange terminology used over here in the United Kingdom. Words like "lifts" and "porridge" were seen a lot. We finally got on our plane which was freezing and sat around waiting for the runway for about 20 min. It was a lot of fun to look out the windows as we took off over London. The flight to Stockholm was pretty easy, the food was disgusting. Tuna/ Cucumber sandwiches and milk in a tube...

 Stockholm is pretty awesome so far. We had a nice ride to the hotel we are staying at and after unpacking and showering Meggan, Ashley, Julianna, Josh, and I headed out to explore. We found a mall, and the shopping area along with a lot of restaurants. Stockholm is a really pretty city, there is an old cathedral with really pretty grounds that we walked around in. We ended up eating at this very Americanized sports bar type place, mostly because the menu was actually in English and it didn't seem too expensive. None of us were really sure of the exchange rate or how to figure out how much things cost so we just sorta guessed. The food was good and we got to try some Swedish and Danish beer which was very good. Everyone here seems to be nice, and most people also speak English which was very helpful. We also all tested out our straighteners and phone chargers and stuff and everything seems to be working ok in the plugs here which is good news.
An interesting thing about Sweden, it doesn't get dark here until after 11, and apparently it won't be dark for long!

Tasting new beers at dinner

Exploring Stockholm

The hotel room

More Stockholm

Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow!

The day is finally here!! At this time tomorrow I'll be getting ready to head to the airport for my trip. I leave at 8:35 tomorrow night and get into London Thursday morning around 11. Then we have a few hours to hang out in the airport before we fly to Stockholm. We spend a few days there and then take a train to Copenhagen and on July 14 I'll be in London the rest of the summer staying at Imperial College. I think I'm all packed and ready to go, I'm taking my phone but turning off all the data so I also have Kristin's old iTouch so I can get online through wifi and use all my apps. I have plane tickets, camera, clothes (probably too many), shoes, etc. I'll also have my computer and skype and my webcam so I should be pretty easy to contact not on my phone. I'm so excited about this trip and I'll update on here with pictures and videos and stuff like that hopefully on a daily basis.

Here is my address in London if you want to write or send stuff and I'll send postcards if I have your address!

Caitlin McCreery
Baylor in Great Britain
Southside Halls
Imperial College London
Prince's Garden
Watts Way,
South Kensington Campus
London, SW7 1LU