And the crudite... or is it coup d'Etat? Hmm...I forget ;) anyway, the main shindig was a fancy-schmancy dance held in Stockholm City Hall where they hand out the Nobel Prizes...


No folks. You are not crazy! You did see this outfit before - tis my Wedding Singer outfit! I don't have a suit so I decided to wear the 'anti-tux'. I think it worked and I even got some compliments...



This is the outside of Stockholm City Hall. Apparently that tower is very famous. It claims to be in the league of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Eiffel Tower...hmm....













Here is the inside (smaller than I thought) and my friend Illona in her beautifully, handmade dress!

Some people used the conference to their benefit - a guy had his friends unfurl a banner inside City Hall that said 'Will you marry me?' at least that is what I hope it said....my Swedish is very limited you know.... ;)


And my funky co' madina camera! This is a picture of the Stockholm NIGHT sky! Honestly! My camera makes dark into blue...oh well...still pretty eh?

So here are some highlights of the conference:

This is a picture of us putting together kits for children in China. I was just amazed....there was this girl, probably about 19, who didn't want to leave Sweden when her parents decided to move to China. They stayed for 4 years and she felt the need to serve, so she spent a lot of her free time volunteering in an orphanage, they ended up adopting two orphans, and and and....amazing what people can do if they want to. So our task was to write letters to school children; make little games for them; etc.





This is Kubb, i.e. Swedish horseshoes. You take these sticks, shortened broom handles, and try and knock down wooden blocks that are standing up. It goes back and forth until at last you 'topple' the block with the crown on it in the middle (the King). There are certain rules, and even though our team knocked them down and was poised to win, we didn't knock the King down during that turn and thus we lost!







And of course, my personal friend, Sherri Dew came to talk. I wasn't sure about taking this picture, but since it was at the beginning, she hadn't started the 'religious' part, etc. I decided to go for it (largely for Suzanne and my female relatives who all love her so much ;)










After the Conference was over we had a 'mini-after BBQ'. This is the group of us playing Brennball (burn ball), i.e. Swedish baseball. It's interesting to be 1 of 4 runners on a base at a time...

Here you go! The waterfront of Stockholm. The church spire in the back is where Swedish royalty have been buried for centuries.











This is the Swedish countryside on the way to Enkoping where the conference was held. Now how do you think you say that name? If you said Ee-uhn-shopping then you were correct - if not, it's time to brush up on your Swedish, eh?











I've never been to Minny-sotah so I don't know if it looks like this, but parts of Sweden definitely reminded me of parts of Alaska - especially around Wasilla-Palmer area.

I decided that since I turned 30 I should take advantage of all the 'privileges' of being a Young Single Adult in the LDS Church, i.e. go to all the Singles' conferences I can because next year I can't go (no 31+ allowed!)....

Me trip began on a train from Berlin to Luebeck on the Baltic coast. Here is a pic of the Luebeck Bahnhof (train station).






Then I went to Luebeck Airport via bus. The city center was pretty cool - they're trying to keep their Hanseatic traditions alive through the markets/buildings/canals, etc.

Ryanair is good and cheap, but it's also a big fat 'liar'! Almost all of their destinations are just 'off the beaten path', i.e. they say they fly to Hamburg when in reality it's Luebeck (an hour away), etc. Hmmm...people and their bidnezz practices...and yet we continue to fall for it!




It was amazingly hot and what made it worse was that this was the waiting area! It literally was a brand new barn they built! The water ran out, it was probably 90+ inside and and and! Grr....but I was all right in the end. I guess the Swedes are in cahoots with the Germans. I didn't have to go through Customs/Passport check at all. If you fly from Luebeck to Dublin, London or elsewhere, yes; but to Stockholm, no.

Our Studentenwohnheim (Studentlivinghouse, i.e. dorm) had a 'goodbye' party for last year's students so we got to go up to the terrase and have a fancy meal. I think my favorite part, as usual, were the views. I shall share a few with you....

Here of course is our very own Theodor Heuss Platz (first president of the new Federal German Republic back in the 50's)....he was a very good man!





This is the Messe Berlin (Exposition Center). That is our Funkturm (Radio tower) and apparently the first regularly scheduled TV broadcast was sent out from that tower. The whole place looks very 'brown', i.e. Nazi era and indeed was built during that time.










Former NSA-Amerikansky listening station. Rumors are they are trying to sell it; build a restaurant inside; etc. Anyone want this business opportunity?! As we learned from 'The Simpsons' the commis are just playing 'possum'...







I don't know what is up with my camera. It makes the night sky look just right around dusk when it was pure darkness out! So, imagine the bluish sky all dark and that would be the way I saw it...

We walked around and found the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), Protestant of course! - Those Hohenzollern's!











The two intrepid backpackers proud as can be after their night in 'East' Berlin...












The Berlin Olympic Stadium where Jesse Owens made the 'magic' happen back in 1936! He showed the world and Hitler (I still remember the 'film' showing Hitler 'surprsingly' stand up and then hit his knee with a paper because his Aryans were being beat by some black guy from the States.) that Germans weren't the best, at least at running ;) Sadly, he returned to the States only to be treated as a 'race traitor' by the blacks and discriminated against by whites - tragic to say the least...






This is the inside of the new multi-billion Euro Main Train Station (Hauptbahnhof, or Hoppenhoff as Sarah liked to say). This is right after I saw them leave on their train to Prague - the whole place seemed 'eerily' quiet after they left. Come back T-Sarah!







I am hoping that this is art from World Cup, because I would hate to think that this was just modern art they decided to put in front of German government buildings. Notice the girl on top - they're UUGE!







Here is the outside of the Hoppenhoff (per Sarah of Medicine Hut, sorry I mean Hat! ;)













Here are just a few pics from the rest of the day. Okay, here is a 'German is semi-easy some of the time' lesson: 1) What does Onkel sound like? If you said 'Uncle', good job!; 2) The 's' just makes it posessive so Tom's; and 3) take away the 'te' and ignore the dots. What does that spell? HUT What is another word for 'hut'? Cabin, true dat! So...Uncle Tom's Cabin....interesting eh?




Am I in London?! This is what London Underground station signs look like, but the Tube folks gave this one to Wittenbergplatz back in 1952.

'Now let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...' when you travel you begin with S and T! Yes, my Canadiennes who inspired this blog and my travels came to visit me in the Fatherland! Here we are in the dome of the Reichstag.
A view Berlin from the Reichstag roof.
The heat was amazing! And it literally felt this 'white'...
So, I shared my love of the sound of breaking glass with Sarah and she found this exhibit and wanted to especially show it to me - what made the temptation worse is that a whole bunch were already broken on the floor! Modern art...go figure!
We went to the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. I honestly didn't like it when I first saw pics of it...I was like 'come on, we can do better than that...'
But I was honestly happy to have Tara (Art student) and Sarah (politico extraordinaire) to interpret and open my eyes to the potential of the piece...they helped me see the 'genius' in it - 'we' have to interpret it for ourselves...

But they honestly did a fantastic job! The underground of it shows pictures of Jewish families from all throughout Nazi Europe (Greece, Ukraine, Germany, etc.) and showed their lives before, during and after WWII. It was amazing! They even had home videos of one Jewish family from the Netherlands! Then in another room you just sat while individuals' names were named in a very darkened room by voices in German and English and they told you about their fates....it was just amazing at showing the 'individuality' of the Holocaust - 6 million is too hard of a number to grasp, this showed them as individuals. Well worth a visit!
Here are the 'Peace Bears' in Bebelplatz (famous for Nazi bookburnings) in front of Humboldt University. I am standing by the Yankee entry, whilst the British bear is to my left.

Here is an ancient Celtic 'suterrain' (French for 'underground' apparently). It's right there in Kathy's front yard! The Celts used it for food storage.
Sorry to be stereotypical, but you know those pictures of Ireland that show herds of sheep stopping the cars, etc. Well, this guy was just running at us with this herd of cattle behind him. Luckily Kathy had stopped in the right place...
...because the cows belonged to the place just to the left of us...
This is the Romanian version of Bono, aka Corneliu Onofrei! This was just a crazy night that Marcos and myself had him put a wig and glasses on...pretty convincing if you ask me.

As with all things, they must come to an end. I truly enjoyed being back and seeing everybody. A big shout out to Kathy Keane and her parents for letting me have a place to stay and playing 'tourist guide' for me. Thanks to Corneliu, Alexy and Marcos for giving me a place to stay and call 'home' whilst I was in Eire. Thanks for John, Tami and Michael Connolly for having me over and feeding me and to all those who helped me have a great time!

'He's too late! Look! The Cliffs of Insanity!' And so they are...the Cliffs of Moher in real life though. This was my favorite part of 'the West'. The Cliffs were so beautiful...very rugged, powerful...just awesome!










When I first saw this I just laughed...'no jumping off the cliff'!! What?! Kathy and I jumped the barrier to get down where you used to be able to take pictures...I guess this was our 'do not jump the barrier' sign. OH well...ignorance is bliss because we got the following photos and views...awesome beyond awesome!










Notice the people on top - the Cliffs are huge!
















Dizzying...truly...I think people who have a 'fear of heights' it's just that their eyes can't focus....mine had a hard time focussing....if that makes any sense...












'Truly you have a dizzying intellect.' 'Wait till I get going! Where was I?' 'Australia.' 'Australia!' (just for those of you that get easily confused, those are just a bunch of 'Princess Bride' quotes and Cliffs of Moher are in Eire, not Aussieland ;)















Me and my illicit photos...thanks Kathy! ;)

In between the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher there were two very interesting and fun 'side trips'. The first was Pulnabrone Dolmen. It's an ancient, and when I say ancient I mean ANCIENT (older than the Pyramids! 3800 BC!!) burial chamber. It was really special to see it...kind of feeling that connection that we're all one family kind of a moments....it was nice....


















So when I got to Ireland I was introduced to one of the funniest series ever 'Father Ted' (apparently one of the BeeGees brothers that just died had copies buried with him because he thought it was so funny!)...and so I heard that the house that is 'Father Ted's house' was near the Burren....and here it is! Thrills galore!

This is a distant view of 'the Burren'. It's this huge limestone hill structure that was formed when all of the area used to be underwater. It was very interesting to see because it looked like another planet...how you'd think the moon would look like, etc.

So, my favorite geologist in the world just sent me this explanation for why the Burren is so cool and since he constantly talks about how he will be World Dictator someday, I figured it was best to acquiesce now rather than face his wrath in the future. The following is from the future Dr. Christopher Davis:

Nice Photo's of ireland but i'm a bit upset that you didn't include the proper explanation for why the Burren is so special.Limestone undergo dissolution quite readily and they tend to form low lying ground. However the Burren is high ground on the west coast of ireland (a paradox). This is due to the fact that there use to be a layer of mudstone on top of the limestone, as if you raise sea-level deepen it you shut down carbonate production (the animals that form the coral reefs that make the Burren need sunlight to photosynthesise, if you go too deep there's no light and they die and sedimentation is replaced by hemiplegic clastic material i.e. mud).Mudstones have low permeability this means that water finds it really hard to get through it. As a result the limestone that lies beneath the mud remains dry, and this prevents the dissolution (dissolving) of the limestone. However during the last ice age (about 12,000 years ago) the glaciers planned off the top mudstones from the Burren. The result of this is two fold 1) you get the moonscape you see in the photos and 2) the Burren is now no longer protected from dissolution and as a result the Burren is slowly fizzing away.Therefore i feel it important that you tell your blog views that they see it now before its all gone!

And there you have it folks! He who controls geology can control the world, at least that is one man's belief...







Here I be at the entrance to Aillwee cave with the ocean in the background...











Those are the Arann islands in the background - they are super famous for their wool sweaters (jumpers in Ireland) and for being 'Irish'...

It kills me though...the Irish all call me Ahhren, but they'll say 'Erin' for Arann islands....what can you do?










This is what I meant by the 'moonscape' of the Burren...cool eh?








And here is a view of the Burren from my friend Kathy's house...