Language

We are staying in an apartment with 6 other people, from 6 different countries, speaking 6 different languages. Perhaps one of the most interesting things about our trip so far has been the languages. Seth and I speak English, which thankfully most of the others living here speak as well, but German is the house language. Everyone living in the apartment speaks at least three languages. I have never felt so linguistically challenged. In the U.S. I am able to talk my way into, and most of the time out of, nearly any situation. Here, it is crazy. You first have to identify the language being spoken, then translate, then respond. I just can not believe how easy it is for nearly everyone we have met to transfer from one language to another so seemlessly. Seth and I have picked up the basic three phrases in each language we encounter. "Hello," "Thanks," and "Cheers" are all we can say in each language, but at any one time there are 4 languages flying around the house, none of which I understand.

Besides the languages, we have found interesting museums to occupy our time here. Today we went to the Pergamon Museum, where I was able to recognize a lot of the sculptures and artifacts on display from my many Greek and Roman studies college classes. Berlin is a very walkable city, with monuments and important looking buildings around every corner. Everyday Seth and I don our cameras and maps, we try to look the part of American tourist, and head out on the town.

When we come home, though, is the time when I love to sit and listen. I try to recognize a word here and there, but for the most part I sit in amazement at these people who are my age and speak fluent in several languages. It is really amazing.

Light Rain

I no longer trust weather reports. What kind of profession lets you guess at something all of the time? Would we elect a president if he got up there and said, "today we have a fifteen percent chance of invading Canada." Then we invade Canada, lock, stock, and barrel, and everyone is ok with that because the president said, "we had a fifteen percent chance?" Well, today was the last straw between Seth, me, and the meteroligists of the world. A "reliable" internet weather source told us to expect "light rain." That was the exact quote, "light rain." We can handle "light rain," but today we got "torrential down pour." As we were walking through the unbelievable sights of Berlin, we got wet. We had to wait outside to go into the Reichstagg, which is the German Parliament building, and it really started to come down. Seth, being the forward thinker that he is, brought an umbrella. I, being the eterneal optimist, did not. Somehow I thought that if I packed expecting rain, there would be rain. Superstition be damned. Anyway, as we were wating to get into the Reichstagg, the heavens opened up and gave us a small dose of what the apocolypse would be like. Seth got out his umbrella, which is big enough for him, and I tried to crouch under it. I quickly realized that Seth's umbrella was not going to keep both of us dry so I ditched Seth for higher ground and sought cover under the overhang that projected from the Reichstagg. I felt bad, but Seth had an umbrella, which I thought would keep him dry. As the rain subsided some fifteen minutes later I walked back to Seth, who was soaked. Our astonishment with the ridiculous weather was palpable. "My shoes are soaked," was all Seth needed to tell me. We both feel that if our feet get wet, than that is just about as miserable as you can get.

We toughed it out, though, and we were both thankful that we did. The view from the Reichstagg is incredible. Visitors are only allowed on the top of the building and the view is amazing. The Reichstagg is one of the taller buildings in Berlin so you get to see nearly all of the city. The important buildings in the distance stick out with their pointy steeples. The rain did subside long enough for us to get a spectacular panorama.

The rest of the day we spent dodging thunderstorms, seeking shelter in the forest and in museums. Berlin is a very interesting city. Seth's friend that we are staying with is an architect and loves Berlin. I can see why. The older, gothic architecture stands right next to ultra-modern buildings, both with their own unique charm.

Tomorrow the weather forecast tells us that there will be "light rain" in the morning, then clearing up in the afternoon. Yeah, right. We shall see...

And Now, Berlin!

The rain came again. Seth, Tina, the Russian Lady, and I went to work as the rain started to come up from underneath us and flood again. Luckily we were able to stop the water from going to the electrical room again. That was good. After the flood abatement practice, Seth and I were off to Stockholm City Hall. This was our last bit of touristing (I'm pretty sure that is not a word, but oh well) before we caught our afternoon flight to Berlin.

City Hall was a cool looking building from the outside, but inside it is filled with all sorts of art that is just weird. There are paintings of people that have eyes with no eyelids, hands and feet that are disproportioned, and an entire wall that was painted wrong. The artisans started painting at the bottom and decided not to pay attention to the scale of the piece until they reached the top of the wall, and ran out of room.

After City Hall, we had lunch with my cousin, then headed to the airport to catch our flight.

Berlin is the mark of our real adventure. Stockholm was nice because we had my family, which made us comfortable, and gave us a great place to stay, as well as familiar faces. My cousin was awesome to have showed us such a great time. Berlin is going to be different. As we stepped off of the plane into our new world it immediately felt different. Stockholm is clean, and very well kept as a city. Berlin is a bit, um, rougher around the edges. There is a lot of graffitti, and the city is a bit dirtier, but they both have their own charm.

Berlin is a bigger adventure for us as well. As I was saying about having the comfort of my family, we are now going to be sleeping on floors, couches, and in hostels. This should be a bit more gritty. Tonight we are staying in a top floor apartment in the Turkish district in Berlin, which has amazing falafel, with 6 other people. The comfort of a bed and family have been traded for the necessity of a roof. Berlin will be our first stop in mainland Europe, and we can't wait to explore.

Swedish Pancakes

I love food. I have always loved food. Seth and I were treated to Swedish Pancakes tonight. When my cousin told me that we were going to my other cousin's house for some Swedish Pancakes I did not know what to expect. When we arrived, though, there was a sweet aroma in the air. We stepped in, said hello, and followed Marten, my cousin's awesome husband, to the back where he pointed out a deer that had been in his back yard. Marten and the deer were talking before we got there, but the deer had now moved on through the field.



Marten made his way back to the kitchen and we all headed to the dining room. The first round of pancakes made there way to the table and I decorated mine according the standard set by the Swedes at the table. They were delicious. I might be a little bit biased because I have a major soft spot for any dinner that includes ice cream, but oh well. Ah yes, by the way, a Swedish Pancake is basically a really thin pancake, almost like a crepe, then you put your choice of fruit or berry filling (I found the bluberries particularly tasty), then put a scoop of ice cream on your plate and go to town. It tasted like happiness, and they made Seth and I happy and full. Thanks Marten and Nina.

The Great Flood

Today, as Seth and I slept in, it rained. The rain turned into hard, which broke open the heavens and turned into "sweet baby Jesus, this is the worst rain imaginable" rain. We are staying at my cousin's place and it just so happens that when the "sweet baby Jesus, this is the worst rain imaginable" rain happens to come to town, the entry way to the apartment building floods. Well, since Tina was at work, it was up to Seth and me to be on the lookout for flooding. Well, it flooded. We were interrupted in our plans to sleep until 1pm, and were called into action. We grabbed a bucket and started to bail water like we were on the Vasa. The worst part about the section that floods is that the electrical room is directly in harms way. Luckily a couple of the other tenants knew this and came to our rescue. An older Swedish woman bailed water like a true champion. She flew down with her bucket and dust pan and moved more water than Niagara Falls. She and Seth spoke at each other, as she knew no English and Seth could only say "thank you" in Swedish. Through pantomime they decided that she would fill the bucket with the dust pan, and he would carry it to the sink. They made pleasant conversation as Seth laughed at whatever she said. For all he knows, she was saying, "you idiot, move faster," or "can you switch jobs?" And Seth would just smile.

The rain only lasted for about fifteen minutes, but the small ocean it left took about an hour to move. It was a better rousing than an alarm clock would have given us, plus we felt a sense of accomplishment for having helped keep the water from entering the electrical room and possibly electrocuting us. Now it is 2pm and we are ready for the rest of our day. There is plenty of day left here as well, since it doesn't get dark until 11pm, then the sun comes out at 3am. It is a bit weird.

Seth, Sean, and Sweden

Seth and I are still getting our bearings here is Sweden. The Swedish language is a little difficult because there are really no words that even sound like English, so when we hear people talking we understand nothing. Luckily we are armed with our three Swedish words, though. I tried out my Swedish by saying "Hej" to every girl we passed. Hey means hello in Swedish. Then as we passed I would give them a "Hej da," which means goodbye. I got a few smiles, a few odd looks, and a good deal of girls just walked right by. I was just being friendly.

Today got off to a bit of a late start when we decided last night that we would sleep off our jet lag once and for all. One o'clock rolled around and we finally made our way out of bed and into the kitchen for some corn flakes and yogurt. Seth decided to have lunch for breakfast because of the time, but I am traditionalist so my first meal of the day must be some sort of regular breakfast.

The weather, which consisted of rain, convinced us to stay inside, so we went to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a ship that sank on it's maiden voyage. After being built, the ship failed the highly technical stability test, which consisted of 30 or so men running from one side of the ship to the other to see if the ship would tip or not, and so the Vice Admiral still gave the ship his seal of approval since the King really wanted the ship to sail. So the ship set sail and sank only a few hundred meters outside of the harbor. The lesson here, folks, was don't build a shitty sailboat, then let it fail a shitty sailboat stability test, then sail it anyway. The museum itself was very neat, though. Thanks to the ships designer, which is why the ship sank, the ship was perfectly preserved at the bottom of the harbor. In 1957 there was a huge effort set out to exume the ship and now in the Vasa museum they have this huge, 17th century ship in amazing condition on display. It is quite amazing to see, but at the same time you have to laugh because of all incompetence that went into sinking the ship.

Our day ended with a great dinner prepared by cousin Tina. Tina's friend Kicki joined us and after dinner we headed to the bar. I was hoping to wake up at a reasonable hour, but now I am thinking that we are going to be up in the middle of the day again. Oh well, we are on holiday. As a side note, Tina pointed out some "typical" Swedish girls, and they were all beautiful. I am hoping I can win them over with my American charm. Perhaps I will have to learn more Swedish than "Hej" and "Hej da".

Jet Lagging

A good trick to get over jet lag is to be really tired and then fall asleep at a normal sleep hour in your new location. This is obviously not the most scientific method, in fact it is actually not that great of an idea. Seth and I went to sleep last night around midnight and woke up around 10a.m. For most people 10 hours of sleep is quite enough. Seth and I woke up, ate our cereal with yogurt, and embarked on our day on the town in Stockholm. It was around 12 by the time we got out, and it took until 3p.m. for us to be nearly useless. Tiredness had crept in. The conversation became less sharp and the weather got a little colder so we decided to make our way back to Tina's apartment to catch a nap; after all we are on vacation.

We were able to see a most of the south side of Stockholm and it is a cute little city with a river splitting the southern and northern areas. My cousin took us up to Skrapan, which is a bar at the top of a tall building, overlooking the city. The view was pretty spectacular. The buildings in Stockholm tie seemlessly to the trees that dot the landscape. Beyond the city are vast expanses of green fields. There is also the archipelago where thousands of little islands poke up out of the shallow harbor waters, all of them covered in green.

Today was mainly a recovery day. I don't think either Seth or I had the energy required to really get ourselves into much. I know that we would much rather be recovering at my cousin's place than in some hostel where some party boy is blasting techno music while Seth and I try to nap while sharing a twin cot. Thank you Tina.

SWEDEN!!!!

After an eight hour flight across the Atlantic sitting next to Harvey, a retired school teacher from Maryland who gave me the rundown of how everything in the world is "shitty," as he put it, I landed with a healthy dose of cynicism and a belly full of curry chicken. Seth made the mistake of ordering a vegetarian entree out of fear of airplane meats. Strangely, they decided that one who receives a veggie meal does not deserve dessert (just fruit), needs wheat bread instead of white and margarine instead of butter. Oh and protein. Apparently protein is not necessary either. Just need asparagus and rice. Thanks. Anyway...

One of the few plans that Seth and I made was to meet each other up at the baggage claim at the airport in Sweden, which went fine, and off we were to find my cousin Tina, which also went fine.

Seth and I landed in Sweden with about two hours of sleep over a 30 hour period, so we were fairly useless, but we still made the effort to combat the jet lag by having Tina take us for a drive through downtown Stockholm. Seth consistently nodded off, but luckily he had me, the good friend that I am, to pinch his nipples to revive him.

Eventually we popped into my other cousin's house for a Swedish dinner and some unbelievably horrible tasting Swedish candy. We were fortunate enough to have a rather large bush nearby because as soon as I put the candy in my mouth I had to spit it out. Who puts salt on candy? I would say that is un-American, but, well... (Here are some pics of our reactions)

Anyway, we are here and our European adventure is now officially underway. We will be sharing a bed for the time that we are in Sweden, which is ok, because we can use the "it's the European thing to do" excuse, plus we are both secure in our masculinity. I hate to mention it here, but Seth needs a warm body next to him when he sleeps, so I, taking the role of good friend once again, am helping out the team on this one. Well, time to recuperate and re-energize for tomorrow.