Its a Small World!

So I know the phrase "Its a Small World" is way over used, but sometimes it is so true! So two days ago in Amsterdam I was out and about seeing the various sites of the city. I had actually ventured away from the main tourist areas in order to see the Heineken Expearience, a museum all about the famous Dutch Beer (plus admission gets you three beers!!)! Unfortunately it turns out that the place was closed for renovations so I found a nice canal and sat down to figure out what I should do next. All of a sudden I hear a voice say "Carl Hoeg?!?". I look up and see one of my friends from college Aaron Schute! I could hardly believe it! I knew he was going to be in Europe for about a week or two when he came home from Tanzania, but I had no idea when or where in Europe he would be going, and here we were not only in the same city (with millions of other people), but we had some how managed to run into each other! Of course from there we spent the rest of the day togther wandering the streets of Amsterdam and catching up with what each other had been up to. Aaron like myself plans to make his way up to Finland to visit Ari and his family before he heads home via Amsterdam. Yesterday we went our seperate ways, me to Brugge, Brussels and Aaron to Frankfort, Germany.

There have been a number of random things happening to me throughout this trip including being on the same plane as Ruth Torkelson, meeting students from UNI in Sweden, and just running into random people from Minnesota, but I must say that this one takes the cake so far! In fact I will as they say "Eat my hat" if anything actually tops this one!

I am Home! (At least in 1890 I would be)

So I have arrived and spent the last few days here in Southern Denmark rediscovering part of my family's European roots! I arrived and was picked up by Mie and Michael. I recognized Mie right away, but I was a little unsure about Michael. It has been around 10 years since he visited my family in the states and at the time he had a ring in his eyebrow! Now he is a professional vet, married, and has changed a lot (he no longer as the ring by the way). Right away I was treated to a massive meal (something I have become accustomed to here) and beer (I seem to be drinking beer as if it is a substitute for water!).

My first morning here I was taken to Anne Marie and Hedamon’s house (see above picture) for breakfast where they showed me old pictures of our family and who immigrated to the United States and who stayed in Denmark (turns out they showed some of the same pictures to another college bum some 30 years ago…). If you look at the picture below you can see a family from the mid 1800s. The two adults are Anne Marie’s grandparents.

I believe it was the son on the left who immigrated to the United States and since the Hoeg family (and myself!) has come into existence. The son on the right due to health problems stayed in Denmark, and actually died after only another 10 years or so, but not before he had a few children creating our Danish Relatives family!

After breakfast I was taken all over Denmark. We made our way over to the West Coast for a lunch amung the Sand Dunes, and then went to many different cities and historic sites on our way back to the East Cost. We finished the evening at Mie's home, which is beautiful! It overlooks the sea, farmfields, forests, and the horses she raises!

From there I spent the next two days at Jens and Anna's house, which is the family farm. This farm has been in the family since around 1000 AD! That is a LONG time, and really cool. During my time here I got to meet a lot of sheep and two more horses while also being shown around much more of Denmark, including many more local spots that have significance to the family. I even saw the grave of the son who did not immigrate to the US.

Lastly I came back to where I started this visit, Michael and Carla's house. Here I was able to utilize high speed internet to plan the next few parts of my trip, including several changes. I decided that Denmark to England is a long trip and would skip a lot of good spots, so I have moved back my trip to England in order to see more! Tomorrow I am off to Amsterdam for two days followed by two days in Bruges before I will head to PARIS!

Gustavus' Folly

My family members might believe this post is about the fact that Gustavous College hired President Ohle...but they would be wrong! I am actually talking about the person named Gustavous! At one point during his rein he decided he wanted to drastically improve his naval power and ordered 4 new boats to be constructed, one of which was the Vasa.

The Vasa was a giant of a ship, which two decks of canons. Normal boats only have 1, and for good reason it turns out. After the Vasa was completed it set off on its maiden voyage, which lasted for a grand total 0f 20 mins. Two strong winds came up causing the boat to list on the first occation, and then tip onto its side on the second occation allowing water to rush in through the canon holes and sinking the boat. Gustavous was obviously not happy and their was an inquiry and everything but no real reasons were discovered at the time other then general theories.

333 years after it sank it was rediscovered and after some elaborate work it was raised from the bottom in 1959, and the restoration work began. The Vasa now sits in a museum full of information about the ship and the lives of sailors from the time. The boat is really impressive and looks like it came right out of pirates of the caribean.

Turns out the boat sank because it was too top heavy and did not have enough space for a proper amount of ballest weights! Meaning it was on the one hand too small, and on the other hand too big! At anyrate the massive design was ill concieved and brought on the boats doom, thus Gustavous' Folly.

At any rate if you can not tell already, I thought this boat was really cool! I also went to a national park today full of buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries in Scandinavia ranging from Manors to farmsteads to settlements. The park also had a zoo of animals from Scandiniavia, which included Reindeer (A small girl near me asked her father how they fly!).

Tomorrow I am off to visit the Danish relatives! I hope everyone back home is doing well!

A Good Home Stay

How does one know if a home stay was good? While there are many different criteria one could use, but it was not hard to figure out that I was treated exceedingly well While I stayed with Ari´s Family.

Ari's Mother made it her personal mission to make sure that I had clean clothes (she did laundry twice!), and was always enjoying big hot meals (I added a few pounds during the stay). I saw their local town of Jarvenpaa, Helsinki, as well as the lake district of Finland when we went to their summer home.

During my time their I was able to relax (the saunas helped) and recharge my batteries. Overall I had a great time there! I have now taken the boat back to Stockholm Sweden where I will be for the next two days before I start making my way down to visit my Danish Relatives! Today I saw the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. It was a 45 min ceremony which involved a lot of numbers by the Swedish Army Marching Band (they were really good).

Pictures!

So in a little under 2 weeks I have already over 300 pictures....Obviously I can not post them all to my blog. That would be a bit much! I hope you enjoy the pictures I have posted!

At the Bus Stop by my home, waiting to go to the airport...

Blue Lagoon!

More Blue Lagoon, it was so neat.

Iceland, Very Rugged very beautiful

Geyser in Iceland (the little dots around it are people)!

View From the Harbor in Iceland


Copenhagen!


As I said in a previous post, the Gardens in Copenhagen were Amazing!


Royal Palace in Oslo


Vikings! (in an Oslo Museum)

Brilliantly Colored Sunset in Bergen

The Fjords around Bergen


Flam Railway

The View of the Fjords from Flam

I hope you enjoyed that taste of my trip so far, I will put up more photos as the trip goes along, but do not worry I still will have plenty more photos to show you all when I get home!