Jag åker till Uppsala!

So Having been in Sweden over 6 months I decided I really needed to visit some family and friends out of the Stockholm area.  While my family was not available, a fellow Mount Holyoke graduate, Alex, was!  So we had a little MoHo reunion exploring Uppsala where she has been living the past few years.

I started my adventure by buying the extra UL ticket at the Norrviken train station so that I could take the pendeltåg or train toward “mot” Uppsala Centrum.  It was really quite easy and the train ride was only about 30 minutes and takes you past Arlanda too.  I could not believe that I had never gone past my Norrviken station while living here so far… glad I finally did!

So as I arrived in Uppsala it started with snow flurries, but I found Alex and her young son without too much trouble and we started off on a walk around the city.  Our first stop was to try and find some Semlor!

We walked to the library where they have a cafe, but it was not open just yet, so we continued a little way further and luckily ran into Carl Linneaus‘s garden!  For those of you not familiar with him, he is considered the father of modern taxonomy, or the naming of species. Here is my Ode to Linnaeus with pictures of his garden, house in Uppsala, gravestone from the cathedral (coming up later) and the HUGE cinnamon buns in his honor at the cafe we went to.  I have to go back just to get one of those buns, oh and to see the garden in bloom!

So then we walked back to the Library and had a lovely Fika at their cafe, Kardemumma!  I loved the ambiance and the old Swedish fireplace, or kakelugn.  Alex and I had delicious Semlor and Coffee while her son enjoyed a “shirt coordinating” orange cake pop!  Gott!

Afterwards it was time for a nap, well for the small one in the stroller, Alex and I continued the tour.  Interesting we ran into some kind of group having a celebration on the stairs of the Main University Building for Uppsala Universitet (the oldest in Sweden, founded in 1477). It appeared they were drinking a special beer for the occasion and also shot off a canon which was quite surprising… Wow!  I took a peek inside the building which is beautiful!  The picture at the top of this post is of the ceiling, and the words seen on the wall below are also from the main hall.  Tänka fritt är stort men tänka rätt är större.  Which I translate to mean… To think freely is great, to think right/correct is greater.

This was followed by a tour inside the Gustavianum Museum which houses the old anatomical theatre at the top… see picture.  It was AWESOME, even though they only managed to do two human dissections there…

After that we visited the Uppsala Domkyrka which is the main church of the Swedish National Church.  I loved the murals on the walls in the church as they had such a lovely, clean, illustrative style, and beautiful patterns.  The art and design here in Sweden is so inspirational!

After that we headed back to Alex’s home for  a late lunch and to catch up before I took the train back to Norrviken that evening.  It was a wonderful and special day exploring more of Sweden (with great company too)!