Stockholm, Part 2

It is Sunday, we get up and eat our free breakfast, and then head to another boat tour. By boat is defiantly the easiest and best way to see Stockholm. You can access every part of the city so easily, you get to see so much and it is kind of nice to travel by boat. Our first stop was the Vasa Museum. If you are ever in Stockholm, you have to go to this place. It is not just another old boat. This thing was awesome.
The story goes, the King of Sweden was at war with Poland and wanted a big war ship built to scare the Polish. He ordered a Danish boat builder to build the biggest, and fastest boat with more cannons than any other boat on the sea. So the Danish guy designed a narrow tall boat, and they worked on it in Stockholm for 3 yrs. Just before the finial touches were put on, the King ordered for there to be one more level of cannons put onto the boat. The designer argued with the king, but the King gets what he wants.
Just before the maiden voyage, they test the stability of the boat in the harbor. They have 9 crew members run from port to starboard side. Normally they run 30 times, but it only took 7 times before they realized that the boat was very unstable. But they did not notify the King about this problem. A week later the maiden voyage commenced and the boat set out from the harbor and with a small gust of wind and the inaccurate calculations of counter balance to the sails the boat tipped and quickly filled with water. With in 30 mins. of setting sail, the Vasa, a beautifully grand ship sank. And at the bottom of the harbor the Vasa sat for 333yrs. In 1961, they found the ship and began the excavation of the boat. It took them 4 yrs to pull it up out of the mud, and then another 17yrs to put together the largest jigsaw puzzle in the world. In 2001, the ship had over 200 million visitors.
The King was too proud to see that he had ordered to build a top heave boat. They held an investigation, but no one involved in the building of the ship was held responsible. The King wanted to be seen as all mighty and powerful with this ship, but he was laughed at in his time. But he will live forever through this exhibit of his big mistake, what a way to be remembered.
I throughly suggest looking up this boat, The Vasa, it throughly intrigued me and I could not get enough info on this ship. We arrived at the museum at 10am and left around 2pm, I don't think I have ever spent that much time at any museum, including the the Louvre and the Sistine Chapel.
Ok, if you can't tell, i thought this place was awesome. So after we ate some lunch we got back onto the boat and went to the old part of town. This was a neat part to wak through. There were small alley ways that had shops ligning the street. Even though it was a Sunday, most of the shops were open. I did some serious shopping. Everything in Norway is so, so, so, so expensive I have not really bought anything. But in Sweden, you get a better exchange rate and things do not cost as much. I bought all sorts of little souviners and a couple of cool things for my house.
We wandered our way through ould town and through the palace and back to the main archepegilo. That is what they call all the little islands in and around Stockholm.
We stoped at a pub and had and early dinner. 5pm is early for Americans, but it is really early for europeans. My parents had sweedish meatballs and I had fish and chips. It was a really nice meal.
We walked back to the hotel and we were in bed by 9pm. It was a really full day, and we got to see a lot. On Monday, we woke up to a heavy, steady rain. And it rained all day long. My mom was not so into walking around in the cold rain, so we head underground to the mall. We could walk for blocks and never come above ground. I love things like that, why don;t we do that in Texas, I also want tunnels in Texas.
After a lunch at the London pub again, we went back to the hotel, got out things and headed for the airport. It is an hr ride to the airport by bus. I slept. Once at the airport we checked our bags and went through security. We checked out the Duty Free shops and spent the last of our SOK on chocolate. We found a chair and sat down.
European airports are no big deal and no big fuss. Show up 45min be for your flight and check in and you get right on. That is not how it opperated in the states. We got to our gate 1hr before it left to go to Oslo, and no one was there. People did not show up at the gate until 20 mins before. And then they pushed to get on.
We took our short ride and landed in Oslo. The longest airport in the world. We walked the full length again, cleared customs. Which, I am not sure I have shared with you, i no big flipin' deal. You walk though a closed in area, but you do not wait in line, you do not get a stamp, and you may or may not even see a customs official. We checked our luggage again and went back through security.
My mom is going to get in trouble, everytime we go through security, she has a bottle of watter and everytime they take it away from her. She is eventually going to end up on some list. We then find a snack and sit for 4HOURS!
Did you know that the train takes only 4 hrs to get from Oslo to Kristiansand. We could have gotten home in the same amount of time we sat in the airport. Instead we took a flight leaving at 11:35pm. UGH...was i tired. I was tired of waiting, of sitting, of being awake. I hate lay overs.
We get on and now I think we are on the last leg of our trip back home. BUT OH NO...we arrive in Kristinasand at around midnight. My luggage was the 2nd peice off the plane, I walk outside to catch a cab, there were none. So I get in line, behind 8 people. And we wait.
And we wait and I call, and we wait. We waited for 45 min in the dark, cold, windy. Finially one, by one, taxis show up and take people. We made friends with this one guy and he was willing to share a cab. But when we loaded up, all the luggage did not fit. So he took it and we waited. Finally one came for us and we loaded up, she took us home, and we got out. We had to be very quite becasue everyone had moved in town from the island. I was worried we would wake up the whole house. But we didn't. I finally laid down in bed at 2am. Boy was that a long way to end the weekend.
Nora and Trip left on Tuesday morning to go to Bodo. That is a small town above the Artic Circle. They are showing a couple of friends arround and taking a rafting trip through the fjords.
I am babysitting again until the end of the week. But it is not too bad, Dora and Luvim are cooking and I am doing the rest. My parents are just hanging out, trying to rest up before they head home to work again.