TOUR TO ÖLAND

Today we have visited an island called Öland. It is located beside the city Kalmar in the historical province Småland. After a drive with our rented Ford Focus we arraved the island at about 10 o'clock. The island is connected to the mainland by the six kilometer long Ölandbridge:


At first we tried to go to the coast to get a view from the sea. So we found a campsite, where Dani had some fun with domestic children :)

Afterwards we traveled up to the most northern part of the island, to a village called Byxelkrok with a wonderful historical lighthouse:

We also found some windmils which are special because they can be rotated over a wooden axis:

We enjoyed the tour and finished the trip with a birthday lunch for Dani at a nice restaurant at Borgholm directly at the seaside:

The map of our trip:

Größere Kartenansicht

The fotos of the trip, you can find here.

DANI'S BIRTHDAY

Today is Dani's birthday. Now she is 22 years old and very happy to celebrate it with me in the amazing country Sweden:

Afterwards we took the Wittus from Karlskrona into the Schärengarden of Blekinge.

When we reached Utlängan, we walked through the typical Schären-landscape - wonderful!!! - to the most eastern point of Blekinge. After half an hour or three kilometres of walk we came to a glade, where the deep-blue sea was gleaming in the background. It absolutely was a sight to behold. But it even got better: We passed a lighthouse, in front of which we decided to picknick and celebrate Dani's birthday with champagne.

It was also time for some romantic moments and so on ...

Before we returned back home, we refreshed ourself by jumping in the Baltic Sea.
I think this picture represents Dani's emotions the best: SMILE. It was a perfect day full of sunshine, a little bit dreamlike.

For more pictures from this great day just look here.

FIRST TOUR WITH DANI

The weather was favorable so we started a tour with our brand new rental car (Ford Focus - ~300km) to the island Hasslö. Before we had an exhausting shopping tour in the WiLLY:S and in the Systembolaget :)

At first we visited the Almö naturreservat with an impressive landscape - an view over the baltic sea.

We enjoyed the time together after not have seen each other for one month. It was the perfect place to pause for a moment and feel Sweden in every part of your body.
The most beautiful pictures of this trip you can found here.
A map showing our trip and some pictures can be found here.

ARRIVAL OF MY GIRLFRIEND

Dani got up at 04:30 in the morning and so she missed the train. Just a joke ;) but something like this really happened. On the way to Vienna the brake of the train broke and so she nearly missed the connection train to the airport. Fortunately a very kind ÖBB train conductor helped her out of that misery. He took her very heavy luggage and ran as a flash to reach the bus to the airport. Unfortunately he hit the curbstone and damaged the suitcase so that the handle broke away and it sprang open *sigh*.

After a pleasant flight to Copenhagen airport she luckily got the connection train which arrived in Ronneby at exactly 17:00 in the afternoon. Finally she was just happy to fall in my arms:

In the evening we had a very pleasant walk thru Brunnspark, which is a very lovely place for chilling and so on.

Afterwards we made "Wiener Schnitzel" with garlic potatoes and salad and an ice cold beer.

NEW BIKE

Because my student room lays about 1,5 km outside of Ronneby on a hill, it's very exhausting to carry all the boughted things up to my accomodation. So I decided to buy a "new" bike from a local shop. You know the toilet from the movie Trainspotting - The Worst Toilet in Scotland? So this bike is comparable to that toilet :)

But for 400 SEK, it's okay. Have a look:

CRAYFISH PARTY

Yesterday evening we had the last event organized by Lina. She was responisble for all the trips and events we had during the three weeks of the EICL language course. Lina did a real great job and so we had a crayfish party at the clubhouse of the rowing club in Karlskrona.

I haven't eaten lobster before. But if you don't look him into the eyes, it's a very delicious meal.

From the club house we had an amazing view to the seaside:

LUNCH WITH THE EICL COURSE

Yesterday we had a traditional Swedish lunch organized by the teachers of the EICL language course. It consists of different kinds of bread like crispbread, many different juices and kaviar out of the tube:

NEWBIE RITUAL

Today I have seen a great ritual for the first semester students. Unfortunately the exchange students weren't "invited" to it :)

They had to dance and make a human snake and such things:

Some pictures of the event.

HOLLIDAY-ADDICT DANI

Hi!
One of our greatest passions is travelling, wining and dining and simply enjoying life together. I will never forget all these holidays and the fun we had there. This picture shows Joe and me posing at the beach of Mallorca ;). We also rented a car there and explored the island. Joe is always the navigator as my sense of orientation is typically female *g*.
Nevertheless I am really looking forward to visiting my Schatzi next week in Sweden, where he is studying for six months abroad. I guess it will be an unforgettable time again...

TRUTH ABOUT MEN AND WOMEN

I finally find out why men are from Mars and women are from Venus:

FIRST VISIT AT THE BTH - RONNEBY

Today I have visited the campus at Ronneby for the first time. We had a guidance thru the buildings organized by the student union. I think they are really great guys, having a lot of fun. After the tour the rector explained us the study program and we recognized that the explanation was only for the starter students and not for the international students. So we had a boring one hour presentation in Swedish :)

The student union also organized a subsequent tour to Karlskrona where a Swedish gangster raper is going to give a conzert. As the weater isn't very nice today, I have decided to stay at home and study the Swedish stuff for the mondays examination.

WIENER SCHNITZEL

Today I have tested my cooking skills by cooking an original "Wiener Schnitzel". Therefore I bought everything you need for such a feast:

• meat
• flour
• breadcrumbs
• potatos
• eggs
• salad

After hauling home the credentials I started cooking:

But in my anticipation I forgot to cook the potatos and so I got a very good looking and good tasting "Wiener Schitzel" without potatos:

MARITIME MUSEUM

Today we had the last lesson of our Erasmus language course. From now on we are able to speak Swedish perfectly.
To celebrate it, we visited the naval museum in Karlskrona. It is a very interessting place with many impressive objects. For example you can see the original muzzle from James Bond's intro :)

The Maritime Museum houses a collection of carved figureheads from 17th century vessels and original ship models:

At the end of the trip, we were invited by Lina to the biggest ice cream cone I've ever seen:

Other images can be found here.

TRIP TO THE SCHÄREN-GARDEN

On August, 15th 2008 we visited the „Schären“-garden around Karlskrona. A „Schäre“ is a small island, which results from the ice ages, when continental ice sheets of Scandinavia and Canada have verflowed and grinded away the rock masses underneath. That’s how their flat shape has been formed. We started from the harbour in Karskrona and took the "Wittus" to Utlängan.

We were passing the whole “Schären”-garden with its islands Tjurkö, Sturkö, Senoren, Ytterön and Inlängan before we finally rrived in Utlängan one hour later.

We were spending the whole afternoon there, exploring the island and even jumping in the approximately 18 degrees warm Baltic Sea.

At about 5 pm the Wittus brought us back to Karskrona and we had a very nice and informative talk with a Swedish lady.

Further pictures to this trip can be found here.

VISIT TO CAMPUS KARLSHAMN

On august 11th, 2008 our language course visited the BTH campus in Karlshamn. There we had an excursion through the new building and saw what a real great campus looks like:


After the excursion, we had some time to visit the great city square of Karlshamn. At about six o'clock, we watched a Pippi Langstrumpf performance. It was a very good act but it was in swedish and so we did not understand everything.

The rest of the pictures you can find here.

IMPORTANT LINKS

University

• BTH Website
• BTH Library
• it's learning

Traveling

• Swedish railways
• Sky Europe

GENERAL INFORMATIONS

Aspö Ferry
The ferry is for free and crosses between Karlskrona and the island Aspö. It takes about 25 minutes to go from one side to the oter. Here you can see the departures/arrivals:

From Aspö (Aspö Mad)					From Karlskrona (Handelshamnen)
	Mon - Fri	Sat	Sun		Mon - Fri	Sat	Sun
06	00, 30	00	00		00, 30	30	30
07	00, 30				00, 30
08	00, 40	00	00		00	30	30
09		00	00		00, 45d	30	30
10	00, 45d	00	00		30	30	30
11					45d
12	00, 15d	00	00		30	30	30
13	00	00	00		30	30	30
14	00	00	00		30
15	00				30	30	30
16	00	00	00		30	30	30
17	00	00	00		30	30	30
18	00	00	00		30	30	30
19	00	00	00		30	30	30
20
21	00	00	00		30	30	30
22	00c				30c
23	00a	00	00b		30a	30	30b

Minutes past the hour

a) Sails only on Wednesdays and Fridays.

b) Sails only between 1st June and 31st August.

c) Sails only on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

d) Sails only between 18th June and 17th August 2007.

A Saturday service operates on Easter Sunday, Whitsunday, Midsummer’s Day and Midsummer’s Eve. A special timetable operates on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. On Lövmarknad market day and Walpurgis Night a Saturday service operates after 9 p.m.

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