Patrick Traylor's photoblog
Stumbled upon this scene one of my last days in Sweden- apparently a bachelor party tradition to dress the groom up like a bride. Since the Royal wedding was the same day, however, the rest of the guys decided to wear glasses and crowns like their new Prince Daniel. They had a faux wedding ceremony in front of this church while many an onlooker stared in awe.
Probably the last post from Sweden.
-Pat
One last set of iPhone images from Sweden, which haven’t been previously posted. This set covers the whole trip in no particular order.
Cheers,
Pat
Here’s the last post from Sweden. I’m back in the states now and back at work. These are all from around Malmö- except for the last one, which was in Stockholm. Amidst general wandering the last highlights included watching the Crowned Princess of Sweden get married on TV, watching a bachelor party/cross dressing reenactment of said wedding, and eating at a restaurant called Bastard. All in all it was an awesome trip and good to see my brother again. Whenever I get to it, I’ll probably post one more set of photos from the whole 2 weeks.
Best,
Pat
Today my mom, Garrett and I took a bus out of town about 20 minutes to a living Viking reserve. People live in the reinactment villiage all summer without electricity or running water just as their Viking ancestors did a thousand years ago. It was a nice quiet place by the ocean and a good break from the bustle of the cities we’d been exploring lately. Tomorrow we’ve got one more day in Malmö before heading back to Stockholm on Sunday.
We arrived in Malmö on Wednesday afternoon and after checking into our hotel, we had lunch outside in a small square. Most restaurants here have expansive outdoor seating, which makes a wonderful atmosphere- people just hanging out, walking around, eating and drinking coffee or beer. After exploring some in Malmö on Wednesday, we were ready to venture into Copenhagen today. Tours via bus and boat gave us great views and some history of the city. We had dinner along a canal where the two flanking streets are packed with restaurants and bars, lending it the name “the longest bar in Denmark.” In addition to the official bars tons of people just hang out drinking along the canal, BYOB (btw, beer is cheaper there than in Sweden). After a delicious meal and a coupple pints, we headed back to our hotel on the train. Back in Sweden, we all had some tea and watched Mexico defeat France in a world cup match. Tomorrow Garrett, my Mom and I are heading slightly further south down the coast to check out a living Viking reserve, where people live in a 24/7 Viking reenactment villiage. Sounds pretty epic.
Skål,
Pat
We’re in Malmö now in southern Sweden just across the water from Copenhagen, Denmark, which we shall venture to tomorrow. The last few days, however, were spent in the quiet hamlet of Ronneby, Sweden. Sometime in the mid to late 1800s, Henrik Madelung, the Danish master gardener was brought in to help create Brunnspark in Ronneby- a city park currently rated the best in Sweden and fourth or fifth best in Europe. Henrik’s son left his home in Ronneby and along with about a third of the Swedish population, immigrated to the United States. He settled in Chicago, where my grandfather George Madelung was born to an English mother. George married Evie, the daughter of Swedish immigrants to northern Wisconsin and settled eventually in Rock Island where my mother grew up, and where years later so did I.
Here are a few photos from this town where I can very visibly trace my family history.
After a day of travel involving several train/bus connections we arrived in the lovely port town of Kalmar yesterday evening (Saturday). We dined at a Boston themed Irish sports bar where we lingered for drinks to watch the USA vs. England world cup match. We seemed much happier with the tie than the Brits across the room wearing English soccer jerseys. After that Garrett and I checked out a little pub, called “Lilla Puben,” literally the little pub, which was recommended to us by a Swede we met on the bus. Today after a delicious sushi lunch, my mom, Britt, Garrett and I toured Kalmar castle while my uncle played a round of golf with one of the Swedes we met on the bus. Now we’re relaxing in the hotel before we head out to dinner. On to Ronneby tomorrow- where my great great grandfather Heinrik Madelung designed parks for the king of Sweden.
Skål,
Pat
After being without Internet access for a few days I’m now relaxing in a historic hotel in Kalmar, a smallish town on Sweden’s southeastern coast, about which will be the subject of my next post. We spent Thursday and Friday going back and forth betwen Uppsala and Stockholm exploring the streets, shops and museums and checking out a variety of cafes and restaurants. I spent Friday night with Garrett at his apartment where we sampled a vast number of Swedish beers (for the second time, we drank out of Viking horns we a couple of nights earlier at out hostel) and hung out with a few of his friends. We were still awake to see the sun start it’s ascent again around 3:30 am, although it never really seemed to get properly dark at any point in the night. Anyway, on Saturday morning Garrett packed up all of his belongings into bags and we set off on the train heading south.
Skål,
Pat
With maybe 20 minutes of sleep between us, my mom, uncle Don, cousin Britt and I, arrived in Stockholm from Chicago on our 8 hour Scandanavian Airlines flight. We landed before 8 a.m. on Monday morning and found our way to the train station and from there took about a 25 minute ride to Uppsala, my brother Garrett’s home for the last six months as a student at Uppsala University. He was easily found just outside the train station reading a book in the square, clearly identifable by his shoulder-length hair and fedora. Fighting off jetlag, the now five of us spent Monday and Tuesday exploring the beautiful college town of Uppsala. Garrett is still in his apartment until Saturday so we cooked in the common kitchen area on his floor on Tuesday night. Today, Wednesday, we headed back into Stockholm for the day and explored by foot and by boat. I’ll leave the details to the pictures, as is my fashion (also since typing on my iPhone is best described as adequate). More to come soon.
Skol,
Pat
I’m in Chicago for the day before taking off to Sweden tomorrow afternoon. My parents and aunt and uncle are going to a wedding today while my cousin Britt and I head off to hang out with some friends of mine and wander the streets. Hopefully I’ll be able to update a few times in the next two weeks and share some photos via my iPhone.
Cheers,
Pat
