Sweden and Finland

Hi Everybody. Matt and I both have returned from our Sweden/Finland study tour. Matt got back last night and I got back Friday due to our cruise being cancelled. We both had a blast and got to see two amazing countries with plenty of architecture to offer. Matt's charger for his computer was K.I.A friday night before our departure, so he is a little out of commission. My tour started in Sweden where we first stopped at St. Petri by Lewerentz, which to me was worth the trip entirely. It was a powerful building with a unique construction in that no brick used was allowed to be cut. Hopefully some of the pictures will do it justice. My camera battery died right before we got to the church so I had to resort to solely sketches. However, Matt took some great photos to show you guys.

We then traveled to Stockholm, ahich again is another beautiful city. We were able to walk around and explore the city on our own, which was nice. That night we enjoyed some Swedish Meatballs and mashed potatoes and capped it off with a few beers at an underground bar. The bar was one large barrel vault and it had a soccer game playing, so I was set. We then visited Woodland Cemetery in the snow. It is a place that is definitely more powerful when visited. We could probably write a novel about this whole trip so we will spare some of the details and try to give most of the highlights. Although the weather was cold, I think we all still had a great time.

Our next chapter included an overnight Viking Cruise to Finland with a Swedish Buffet. I am not sure how I feel about Swedish cuisine, but I did try most of it nonetheless. The cruise ended with a wake-up call at 5:30 A.M., which is never a good idea with 40 some kids. The coffee, or coffee flavored water, did help a little. After we docked, we got to the Aalto experience. We started out with Villa Mirea, then Saynatsalo, Muuratsalo, and Jyvaskyla University.

Between all the Aalto, we had the unique Finnish Sauna experience. Basically you sit in a confined room with 8 other dudes and sweat it out for about 10 minutes, then you sprint to the lake outside the sauna and jump in a hole in the ice, and sprint back to get back in the sauna to warm up a little. The guys I feel talk in a higher octive temporarily after the water, as a little inversion took place. It is an exhilerating experience and one that I would encourage all to do. I jumped in the water twice and did a cannonball into the eight ft high snow pile outside the sauna. It was refreshing although the spill on the run down to the lake wasn't my highlight. To top all of that we then cooked our dinner over an open flame and had a couple beers with everyone. I wasn't as man enough as Matt, however. I found out after he got back that he did the lake dip in his birthday suit. Luckily he did'nt have to worry about too much bouncing around on the return trip to the sauna.


Helsinki was the next stop on our week long travel, and luckily we got to see quite a few chapels and churches. We began with Myyrmaki church and then continued to Chapel of the Holy Cross, and Chapel of the Resurrection. My trip was then cut slightly short due to the Viking Line being stuck in ice. Therefore, we were all booked flights from Helsinki to Copenhagen, and I got back on Friday night. Although it was shorter than Matt's trip, I do not feel I was short changed in the least. I got to see architecture to my hearts content and did not have to worry about any of the logistics of the whole trip.