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Here's a little blog that I will update once every few weeks telling of my adventures on Exchange in Sweden.

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

Trosa/Stockholm & Paris

Two days after arriving home from EuroTour Johan, Linnéa and I woke early and drove the 500km north to their holiday house in Trosa, an hour south of Stockholm. Trosa is a little town nestled in the archipelagoes.

(The View from the holiday house)
The nest day we were joined by Lena and Vilhelm who drove up after Ville's shift at work.


(Having dinner with Johan's brother and mother)

 


(The cabin I stayed most of the 2 weeks in)

One afternoon we made our way into town to have a look around.



(Town hotel) 





(Taking a walk out along the marina wharf) 

Unfortunately Ville could only stay a few nights as he needed to go back to Ängelholm to work. The remaining Sandbergs and I spent the next week boating and platforming. I even attempted water skiing but I seemed to be too heavy for the boat's engine.

One Evening after dinner we took the boat out around the archipelagoes for about 2 hours. It was cold, but the scenery was stunning. I did my best to capture it.














(some nights the water was as smooth as glass; platforming on the perfectly flat water was amazing)

(this was about 10:30 at night)
(We arrived back right on Sunset)

A few days later Johan, Linnéa and I made a day trip into Stockholm so that Johan could show me around/



(Horribly exposed pic of the Swedish Royal Castle)
(Much nicer picture of the Royal Castle)

(Inside the Castle waiting to watch the changing of the guards)





After seeing the castle, we walked through the city to one of Johans favourite restaurants where we had lunch before waling back towards the centre where we caught a ferry over to Grön Land next to the Vasa Museum where we spent the afternoon.





(Grön land with Skansen and the Vasa Museum behind it)
The next 2 days were spent out on the water finding islands to picknick on and swim around, as well as platforming behind the boat.







We were joined by Linnéa's friend Sofia and Lena took us into Stockholm to look around Skansen and see 'Allsång På Skansen'; a weekly concert held over summer. We were joined by over 25,000 people (1:400 swedes were there). The show consisted of a combination of Swedish folk song and current swedish artists. This was my first appearance on Swedish television.  



(Måns Zelmerlöw; swedish celebraty)


(This was the first time the camera pointed at me and projected me out over sweden)




The next day we were joined by the rest of Sofias family for two nights before they went home to Ängelholm.

Later that week Johan hired 3 Kayaks for me, Linnéa and himself and we spent 6 hours kayaking around the islands and eventually out to an island on the outskirts of the archipelagoes and the edge of the Baltic sea.


(Linnéa taking a nap after 3 hours of paddling)


For the rest of the week we continued enjoying the water and sun until we too had to return to Ängelholm.




(Linnéa is a very good waterskier)

(Linnéa and I both on the platform)

PARIS

On the 6th of August I woke up early and caught the train down to Copenhagen before boarding the plane to Paris.

I managed to catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower out my port side window. After making it through bagage collection I found my way to the train station. After trouble with my visa card at the ticket machine and standing inline at the ticket office for an half an hour, I finally made it onto the train to Aulnay Sous Bois and the O'Reillys.

The next morning and awoke early. Having realise it was a Tuesday and that the Louvre and other museums would be closed I found my way to the Musée d'Orsay; the only museum in Paris open that day...

Naturally being there 15 mins before opening didn't quite cut it so I had to wait in line for about half an hour before getting through security. I managed to get into all museums in Paris for free using my Sweden residency card.



(The Musée d'Orsay is set up in the remains of an old railway station)



After seeing all the Musée d'Orsay had to offer, I made my way through the back streets on Paris to the Centre George Pompidou before crossing the river and making my way to Jardin Luxembourg.

(Fountain outside the Centre Pompidou)




After the Jardin Luxembourg I made my way home to the O'Reillys.

The next morning was clear and sunny so i decided it was time to climb the Eiffel Tower.







(The climb to the second floor is the equivalent of climbing 43 stories of a building; took about 10-12min)


The Eiffel Tower stands 300m tall (323.5 with TV antenna) with the top floor only being accessible via elevator which was not included in the Stair ticket and required a further 1.5 hour wait on the second floor. I decided against it.

(the view was good enough)

(L'Ach de Triomphe)



After my adventure up the tower I caught the Metro over to the George Pompidou where I spent the rest of the afternoon.

Again waking up early, I made my way into the Louvre, entering via the metro station around 9am (30min before opening) I only had to wait in line 20min before being ushered through security and by 9:30am I was standing infront of the Mona Lisa with only about 10 other people in the room.

(Couldn't get a nice picture myself so I pinched this from online)
I actually left my camera back at the O'Reillys on charge by accident so all the photos from the Louvre were taken on my HD video camera. It worded pretty well.




As you can probably tell by the photos, I spent most of my time in the Egyptian section moving later on to the European art and sculptures.











(Le Mummie)
(A Mummified cat)







(the Apollo room)










On Friday i had a fairly relaxed day starting at Sacre Coeur and Montmartra.






I had lunch in a really nice outdoor restaurant consisting of 3 courses; Tomato soup with baguette and mozzarella, the most exquisite beef bourguignon i have ever tasted, and chocolate pudding for desert. All for €15 + drink.





After exploring Montmartre I spent the afternoon cooling off in the Musée des arts et Métriers.

(Copies of the original Metric measurements)

(First computer to exceed 1GHz of processing power)


Sensing Saturday was going to be a hot one I decided to go to the catacombs which I though would be quite and cool. How I was mistaken... The line took and hour and a half and was mostly out under the mid-morning sun. However, it was much cooler down the 120 steps into the underground tunnels.





The Catacombs are home to over 6 million Skeletons 'of the innocent' dug up from overflowing cemeteries around the cit centre several hundred years ago. There were guards insuring no one touched the bones or used flash photography (making hard to get good photos). Needless to say, 6 million skeletons meant that the bones were literally piled 5ft high along both walls of the tunnels for about a kilometer.





After the exhausting heat from waiting in the sun and then the long walk through the tunnels, i made my way back to Aulnay Sous Bois to rest.

The next morning, having exhausted my 'to-do' list of Paris I made my way to the Invalides. On my way, I noticed the Entrance to a museum down a side street with a sign saying Musée Rodin. As i didn't have any real plan for the day I decided it would be worth a look and was pleased with my decision.







(Jardin Rodin)





After the Musée Rodin i moved on to the Invalides and Napoleon's Tomb.

(I couldn't quite understand the plaque but i think one of Napoleon's Generals)




(Napoleon's Coffin; still compensating after death)



(300m of towering steel)
After the Invalides I walked on through the streets of Paris and around the base of the Eiffel tower to the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris's indigenous art museum displaying artworks and objects from all varieties of indigenous cultures from around the world.

The next morning Graham and I made our way to the Château Chantilly north-east of Paris, the old home of the Condé.


(Graham on our way to the château stables)

(We watched a horse show in the theatre like horse arena)



The Château was rebuild after the French Revolution and turned into a private home with one of the most extensive private collections of French and Italian paintings in Europe as well as an enormous Library of book, manuscripts and building plans.





(On the left is exclusivly French art, and on the right just Italian with one French artist who studied in Rome)



(One of the houses that at one point owned this Château was called Longueville)

(Some of the books are s old that they are only allowed to be displayed for one month at a time [Pages turned every few days] then put away in storage for 5-10yrs)








Amazingly the art collection holds the most Raphael paintings of any private or public art collection equaling the Louvre at Three painting (next 3). This collection was much quieter than the louvre, there were maybe 15-20 people in the entire château.





After having lunch in the Château's restaurant, Graham and I wandered the Grounds.







That night I packed my bag and I the morning Graham dropped me off at the Airport and I made my way home to Ängelholm.

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