Stockholm Syndrome

Okay, it´s time for part 2 of mine and Aaron´s adventure.

After leaving Belgium, we flew to Stockholm, Sweden. Stockholm is a really cool city and the people are some of the friendliest I´ve encountered. We went to a few museums while we were there, including a musical instrument museum (they let you play several of the instruments), a military museum, and the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a Swedish ship built in the early 1600´s and sank on its maiden voyage because there were too many cannons on it and it became top-heavy. It sat underwater for over 300 years and in 1961, they pulled it out and restored it. Because in the low salt content in the Baltic Sea, shipworms are unable to survive there, so ships in the Baltic are always well preserved. It was amazing how few parts they had to replace. I think they said that over 90% of the ship was original!

The next and final stop was Berlin, Germany. We were extremely tired by the time we arrived there, but we were still able to see a lot. Some of the highlights were the Berlin Wall murals, Checkpoint Charlie, the Reichstag (the line was too long, so we didn´t get to go inside), an old concentration camp (wow), the Holocaust memorial, and a museum about the German Democratic Republic. I didn´t really know much about Germany between the end of WWII and now, so it was really cool to get to learn about the GDR and fill in that part of the countries history.

I have heard many people say of many countries that "Everybody there speaks English". "Oh, (insert country/city name)? Everybody there speaks English". This sentence is obviously an exaggeration. Clearly, everybody in a given European country is not going to speak English, right? Being in Stockholm made me think otherwise. After being in Spain for a few months and somewhat adapting to the culture, I really hated having to be a true tourist and having to rely on other people knowing my language. In Belgium and Germany, there were a lot of people who spoke English, and I am thankful they were willing to be nice to us and help us, but in many situations I could still tell that they were still somewhat reluctant or uncomfortable with doing so. In Sweden (Stockholm, anyway. I can´t speak for the whole country), English is so integrated into their lives that it never seemed that I was hasseling someone by talking to them. I actually heard one group of girls switching back and forth between the two languages, rather seemlessly. They would be speaking Swedish (which is a bizarre sounding language, but cool) and then all of a sudden they would say a few sentences in English. Then as if nothing happened, change right back to Swedish. It was so wierd, but in an awesome way!

I'll only be in Barcelona for one more week. Wow... Volcanic ash permitting, I'll be travelling to Ireland for a 2 day hiking excursion, then to Liverpool, England for my pilgrimage to the hometown of The Beatles, then to Leeds, England to see my good friend, Jency. After that, I'll jump on a plane in Manchester and head home. Its so weird that this is almost over. I have very mixed emotions about it right now. I am excited to come home and see friends and family, but I know that I will really miss this place.

See you soon!
Landon