The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

I didn’t see much of Budapest – 2 days of meetings and one night out. But, at least I did see the Nyugati Railway Terminal, Saint Stephen’s Basilica, and the Hungarian Parliament Building (pictured). All of these were at night in the rain, but they were nice to see anyway. I never saw the river or the bridge which are also famous. Check them all out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest 

A bit more fun is the growing list of cities we’ve visited since arriving in London a year and a half ago. We are up to 18 (give or take) assuming I’ve not forgotten any of them.

We walked around Helsinki on a cold (6 Celsius), but sunny day today seeing the mix of architecture and cultural influences. We have seen restaurants that are themed around Latin America, Texas, Memphis, Russia, India, Japanese, Chinese, and of course Finland. It is certainly a different mix of culture than Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen. Even if you do see some of the same restaurants in those cities, you get the feeling that Finland is much more influenced to the Eastern Europe cultures than its Scandinavian cousins to the West.

I have posted a few photos here.

We spent the day walking around Stockholm today, mostly in the old town, then caught a flight to Helsinki. During the flight we saw about 1 million islands off the coast of Sweden then again off the coast of Finland: maybe it was about 10 million little islands. I’d love to have the time to explore them one day!

While walking around in Stockholm, I saw two games of Bocce Ball like we play in Minnesota at the lake cabin. However, the balls were metal so that could get dangerous. I uploaded a few new photos here.

This evening in Helsinki we had some reindeer meat for dinner, but most of the meal consisted of mashed potatoes and red currents. Reindeer tastes sorta like steak and the potatoes tasted like… potatoes.

After 2 days of solid, but useful, meetings I finally got an hour or so this evening to walk around Stockholm. The old town area, which is on a little island (Stockholm has lots of islands) is a great place to walk since there are few roads that cars can drive on. Click the photo for others pictures. Now it is time to find dinner…. will it be sushi or Swedish meatballs?

We landed in Stockholm, Sweden this evening and enjoyed a tasty little meal (fish of course) but the main item I have to share is about the bread. Flatbread, or crisp bread to be precise: the restaurant had some along with regular bread and it was good, at least after putting butter on it. After all, flatbread isn’t that exciting so it is basically a tool to carry some sort of spread/topping. In Swedish, it would be called knäckebröd, spisbröd, or hårdbröd.

This is a picture that I stitched together of the inside of a black taxi – a TX4 by LTI to be specific. It was my ride home from Heathrow Terminal 4 on Saturday.

Milo and I are due to get good and wet this weekend as thunderstorms roll through the city. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better in Stockholm, Helsinki, Budapest, and Brussels; all of which I will be visiting over the next couple of weeks, so expect a few more interesting posts compared to this one.

I met up with the folks and Keith & Lisl last night at Ivars Acres of Clams (yes, the same place we used for a dinner at our wedding – classy, I know). I had to compare their fish & chips since it is my normal pub meal in London. The batter Ivar’s uses is much better than what I’ve had in London, but the chips are certainly better in London. I might need to retest though, just to be sure since I think I had halibut instead of the normal cod or haddock. 

If we could open a small business for Lorie, then we both agree that this would be a "day in the life" sort of video of her.

Click the picture to watch the video.

Yesterday Milo and I walked over to Bishops Park to see if there would be a big crowd for The Boat Race like there was last year. Despite the beer tent, pig roast, big screens (to see the race if the crowd is too big next to the river), and two portable rock climbing walls, there was hardly anyone there. I think the cold rain and wind was a bit of a deterrent. I find this event somewhat fascinating, probably because I’ve never run across a sporting event like it before. Some facts I find interesting:

1. It’s quick: It’s one race and takes about 21 minutes from start to finish, and as a spectator, you see 2 boats cruise past just once, and that’s it.
2. It’s old: This is a rowing race between Oxford and Cambridge universities that happens each year and has been going on since 1829 – there have been 154 races.
3. It never ends: So far, Cambridge has won 79 of the races and Oxford 74, but there was a tie back in 1877. Oxford won this year. Basically, this is an ongoing match that never ends.
4. It’s popular: 7-9 million people in the UK watch it with millions more outside the UK watching it.

Essentially, it is a good excuse for people to lounge around at or near a pub along the river with a bunch of other people. In other words, it’s an excuse for a party.

At a pub the other night, we got into a discussion with an English friend who explained that someone who is British is not necessarily English, and her opinion was that if someone is English then they will probably not call themselves British. To quote the Wikipedia article "The term British is also used by naturalised immigrants and their descendants", which is what our friend was getting at. We explained that if you are an American citizen or green card holder, then you are basically an American and there really isn’t a distinction between someone who has lived there for five generations or just recently moved there. We are expats, so we’re not considered English or British! We enjoy living here though.