Uppsala

My Saturday was a fun filled adventure to the town of Uppsala - a 40 minute train ride north of Stockholm. Myself and 2 friends from the program got on a train bright and early in the morning to enjoy the sights and sounds of the 4th largest city in Sweden. The weather couldn't have been better for us. It had just snowed and the sun was out and it was in the mid twenties (in F). Basically, it was a perfect winter day! :) 


The first part of our trip was in Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala). Here there are old burial mounds from the 1600s. There is also an old church and a museum that wasn't open. We took a hike around the mounds since it was so nice out. A few pictures are below. 

The mounds

Yep, lots of snow but there was still a path to walk in.

We went to the top of one and got covered in snow up to our thighs!

But we made it! :)

After our very tiring but exhilarating walk through the snow, we went back to Uppsala - the current town. We visited the University's museum which included the Anatomical Amphitheater, a spectacular cabinet full of lots of trinkets from a king that included a nut from New Zealand, a fantastic Chemistry exhibit for the year of Chemistry, and lots of excitement for me! My favorite part (which probably comes as no surprise to all of you) was the Chemistry exhibit. They had collected a lot of old instruments and other lab equipment from the department at the university to put on display. My favorite was the apparatus they used to use for PAGE (pictured below). This is a technique that is used to separate proteins based on their size. It is near and dear to my heart because I did this a lot my first summer of research. It doesn't look like that now but the idea is still the same! My friends who were with me really got a kick out of my excitement about the exhibit! It was so cool! 

The Anatomical Amphitheater where they performed dissections in the sunlight. There is only standing room where those panels are. 

Old/strange shaped glassware - always interesting! 

PAGE apparatus that I talked about above. That is HUGE in comparison to what I use!  Hooray for innovation!

The Periodic Table of Elements made up of, well, the Elements!

The (Theodore) Svedberg was a scientist who determined that proteins were made of macromolecules. :)

We then got a late lunch and rested our feet before meeting with a relative of my friend's host family. She is a student at Uppsala University and she gave us a tour of the town - mostly the university side of the town. There is no official "campus" in the city, but there are lots of different university buildings in the same area. The oldest university building was built in 1480 something. That is correct; it was built BEFORE Columbus! The yellow building next to it was supposed to be shorter than the old building but it is not. Now it is known as the "scandalous building!" The city is also famous for this humongo church that stands proudly in the middle of the town. We didn't really venture inside because there was a concert going on but the outside was still beautiful! There is also a huge pink castle on the high part of the town. It is literally a big pink castle! We didn't go inside but just saw the outside. 

The Oldest University building and the yellow "scandalous" one behind it.

The old university building....

Inside of the oldest building...this is where they have graduation. Wouldn't that be nice?!

The church

My friends, Marie and Alex, in front of the pink castle.

 We were pretty tired after all of that exploring so we got some delicious desserts from a cafe (a tradition known as fika here) to rest our feet. We decided to take the train home early since we were so tired but it was a lovely day in Uppsala...and who knows, we still have a bus ticket valid for 30 days so we might go back!


I should also mention that Sunday was equally as beautiful and I got to go cross country skiing! It was so fun. Alex's host family lives near a lake where people ski all the time. I borrowed some skis and hit the snow! I only fell once which I consider quite an accomplishment. 

Yea, be jealous of the awesome place I got to ski at! :) 

Well, that's all for now. My week has started up again and I've got plenty of reading to keep me busy once again. 


Let me know if there is anything you want me to blog about. Any burning questions you have about Sweden! I'll keep posting away! :) 


Tack för läsning! I hope you enjoyed the pictures!!