Norway and Sweden 2006

Hort 496 students and faculty departing for Norway and Sweden for the Spring 2006 Study Abroad trip.

Hort 496
By Ann Marie VanDerZanden

This year's Horticulture 496 class took us to Scandinavia. In class we learned about these beautiful countries and their culture, history and food. Central Iowa has a large population of people with Norwegian descent and we were fortunate that many of them shared their interests and stories with us during class. A number of students on the trip also had a bit of Norwegian in their family lineage making the trip all the more special to them. Our trip this year was divided between Norway (mainly Oslo) and Sweden. We spent five days in Norway and then traveled to Sweden where we spent three days in Stockholm and two days in Uppsala.

Dr. Nick Christians, James Romer and I led a group of 21 students from ISU on this year's trip from May 7^th through the 18^d.The weather was unseasonably warm and dry-not quite what we expected for May in Norway and Sweden. Since we had so many outdoor activities scheduled for the trip, the great weather made being outside quite pleasant. We didn't have to use our umbrellas until the last day as we headed to the airport. During our trip we learned about the Vikings and their influence on this region of the world, we saw some of the beautiful fjords in Norway, the gigantic ski jump used in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, set foot in the unassuming garden of horticulture legend Carl Linneaus, saw the first operating theater built at Sweden University, and enjoyed gastronomical delights of fresh seafood, reindeer, ligonberries and Swedish meatballs.

As I have done the past two years, I've included a few excerpts from my travel journal to highlight my experience.

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Day 1

May 7, 2006. After facing delays leaving the Des Moines International Airport on the last two Hort 496 trips, I was fully prepared for yet another delay. To my surprise everything went smoothly. (We would come to pay for that “smoothness” on our return trip!) We arrived in plenty of time to Chicago enroute to London Heathrow. We departed Chicago about 8:00 p.m. and arrived in London on May 8^th at 10:15 a.m. local time. After clearing customs and traveling via airport bus through the maze of Heathrow, we arrived at the international terminal and the students had their first experience with duty free shopping. I personally enjoyed shopping at Herrod's and buying a latte at Starbucks.

We still had a two hour flight to Oslo before our air travel was over for the day. Once on the ground in Oslo we waited for our luggage (all of which arrived) and headed out of the airport to find our bus to town. We got to the bus at 4:14 and the bus departed at 4:15! After a 40 minute bus ride to where our hostel was located, we got off, lugged our bags down 50 or so steps and then drug our bags back up a hill that had to have been a least a half mile long to the hostel. Everyone was so tired there was only mild complaining.

We had about 45 minutes to get freshened up and then walk back down the hill to the bus station. (The hill would come to be a defining part of our stay in Oslo!) We navigated our way downtown to Karl Johan Street, the main street in downtown Oslo. We all experienced a little sticker shock withdrawing money from the ATM. With the exchange rate $1000 Krone exchanged to about $200 American dollars. It was going to be an expensive trip.

Most everyone headed back to the hostel about 9:00. It had been a long 24 hours since we left Chicago and everyone was pretty wiped out. Although it wasn't the middle of summer yet, the “land of the midnight sun” still rang true. At 10:30 it was just starting to get twilight. Later during the trip some of the students decided to stay up all night to see just when the sun would set and when it rose in the morning.

Day 2

The Norske Vandrerhjem Hostel in Oslo would be home base for our four day stay. For a hostel, the accommodations weren't bad. Breakfast was included as part of the room cost so we got to experience pickled herring (in a couple of different sauces), pickled beets, soft boiled eggs and the Norwegian equivalent of liverwurst as an alternative to Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes. It made for an interesting start to the day.

Our first full day in Oslo included a tour of the City Hall, a two-hour narrated city bus tour which took us by a number of important cultural and historical sites, and a ferry ride across the bay to the Viking Ship Museum followed by the Norwegian Cultural Center (similar to Iowa's Living History Farm). As part of the bus tour we traveled to the top of one of the many hills that surround Oslo to the site of the ski jump used during the Lillehammer Olympics. Television doesn't do the size of this structure justice! It was huge and reaffirmed the comment I had made to my seven year old son during the 2006 Winter Olympics when I told him that I didn't think he should aspire to be a ski jumper when he grew up. (At least with the bobsled they are in some form of protective vehicle.)

Students had the late afternoon and evening free to explore Oslo and find some dinner on their own. Many of them ended up sitting outside the hostel visiting with a group of college-aged Norwegians who were staying at the hostel while they were in town for a training seminar for their jobs on the deep sea oil drilling rigs.

Day 3

We took a 30-minute train ride south to As to the Swedish University of Life Sciences where we were hosted by horticulture faculty members. We toured the campus; some students then toured the aquaculture facility while the other group went on the animal science tour and had the chance to put their hand in the side of a fistulated cow. A highlight of the trip for many!

Day 4

We had a very touristy day and visited the Viegland Sculpture Park, the Munch Museum (The Scream wasn't there as it was in New York on loan) and then a 2-hour boat ride through the fjords around Oslo. This was our last day in Oslo.

Day 5

A 6:30 a.m. departure for the airport included one last walk down the hill and back up those stairs with our luggage in tow. The flight to Stockholm was just a couple of hours, and I think was the highlight of the trip for a couple of students. On our flight were the last three World Poker Champions- and seated next to once of the students was “Fossilman”. These three gentlemen were kind enough to pose for a group photo at baggage claim and to sign autographs afterwards.

We took the fast train (120 mph) to Stockholm. Once we arrive we had quite a hike to our hostel in the gamlen stan (old town) area of Stockholm. Imagine narrow cobblestone streets lined on either side with two story buildings and no sidewalks. Now add 24 Americans dragging approximately 48 pieces of luggage on roller wheels up these streets. To say it was loud is an understatement. We stopped people in their tracks and made babies cry. Oh, and it was all uphill as well!

We arrived early enough to do a little site seeing via a boat tour and it helped us get our bearings for some of the other locations we would see during our stay.

Day 6

The weather was still cooperating so we decided to take in Skansen (the Swedish equivalent of the Living History Farm) in the morning. It was an amazing collection of original Swedish buildings from the 1800 and early 1900's, including a thriving downtown area with a working bakery, cobbler, and glass blower. They also had an exhibit of native animals including reindeer and wolverines and examples of houses lived in by the native Sami population. The four hours we spent here was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Day 7

We started the day with a 3-hour bus and boat tour of the city followed by a short tour of the Royal Palace. We ended up finishing our planned activities about 4:00. One of the students and I went in search of a particular store so I could purchase a gift for my husband. We felt pretty confident we could figure out the subway well enough to get where we needed to. After a couple of missteps and ending up in the very deepest bowels of the subway system, we realized the error of our ways and got to the right level and headed in the right direction! And, we still made it to our 6:00 meeting spot for dinner.

Day 8

The Vasa Ship Museum was the focus of this day. I had been anxiously awaiting this museum visit since learning about it in class in March. The museum didn't disappoint. The story of the Vasa Battleship is fascinating. In the 1600's, King Vasa commissioned a ship to help in the battles with Poland. The king took a personal interest in the design - unfortunately. He asked the shipbuilders for two gun decks, as opposed to the standard one, and the ship had eight levels. When the ship was finished, it pulled away from the quay, heeled over in a small breeze, and sank to the bottom. It was found again in the 1960's, raised to the surface, preserved and restored, and finally moved to its own museum building. The ship had been amazingly preserved in the clay at the bottom of the sound. Aside from the ship, over a hundred sailors' remains and their gear was recovered - some of this material is on display in the galleries surrounding the ship. I wasn't able to get any good photos of the ship because it was so huge and the museum is kept so dim.

Day 9

We packed up and headed back down the cobblestone street at 8:00 in the morning (still making a lot of noise as we drug our suitcases along) to the subway station. The hour trip north to Uppsala gave us a chance to see some of the beautiful Swedish countryside. The bright white of the birch tree trunks created a strong contrast against the deep green of the conifers and bright green of the newly emerging grass.

Our hostel in Uppsala was only a few blocks from the train station and didn't involve any hills! Oscar who checked us in had spent his senior year in high school living outside of Waterloo, Iowa on an exchange program. He enjoyed visiting with us Iowans.

We had an appointment with the director of the Linneaus Garden that afternoon. As a horticulturist it was a dream to see the garden designed and organized by the Father of Botany. Although the garden was quite small (an acre or so) learning about the collection of plants he had originally included in the area, and how that has changed over time was very interesting. I hadn't given much thought to the medicinal role played by many of the species he collected, but seeing the collection as a whole and connection he had with the medical program at Sweden University made sense.

Our next stop was the Sweden University museum and Operating Theater. The museum was fantastic and really showcased all of the contributions Swedish scientists have made to the world. What a brain trust. After walking through the museum, a few of us stumbled onto a tour being given in the Operating Theater. The Operating Theater, now standard in many teaching hospitals was the idea of Olas Rudbeck in the mid-1600s. He designed the entire thing and much of the original materials are still in place. The steep steps and narrow areas to stand made it easy to see the operation (autopsy) that was being done on the rotating table below, and prevented those who fainted from falling forward onto the table. He also had the walls in the area painted in a Campbell's Tomato Soup reddish orange and a splatter technique in grays and blacks applied over the top. That was to hide the inevitable blood splatters and vomit that occurred during the sessions. To hear the tour guide describe the whole process was very informative and quite entertaining.

Day 10

Our last full day in Sweden. We were treated to a guided tour of the second Linneaus garden by a botany professor at the university. It was great to hear his descriptions of the collections and the history of the garden. We had a little time to explore the garden on our own before meeting for a couple of more optional tours that afternoon. One of the students and I ventured to a coffee shop for an afternoon refreshment. We ended up sitting there for a couple of hours visiting. Something I know wouldn't have happened if we were on campus because of all of our other commitments. What a delight to find the time to do it. Our last evening was topped off with a group dinner at a lovely restaurant of creamed nettle soup, lox and of course Swedish meatballs. As we walked back to the hostel it began drizzling- our first rain of the trip. Everyone packed up that evening in preparation for our 5:30 departure from the hostel to catch a bus to the airport.

Day 11

We trudged through the rain to the bus station a few blocks away. We weren't able to take the train to the airport since the earliest departure wouldn't get us to the airport in time. Instead we took a commuter bus to the airport. The driver, and many of the passengers, weren't too pleased to see us lined up outside with all of our luggage. The driver wouldn't let us put the luggage below in the cargo area so we had to pile it all into the bus. It was an articulating bus so there was room in the middle articulating area. Of course when the bus went around the first turn, all of the luggage tumbled into the middle of the aisle blocking anyone from getting off!

We were able to understand all of the people we talked to in both Norway and Sweden, except the bus driver that morning…Needless to say, we got off at the wrong airport terminal. After a little hike, and of course a few more stairs, we arrived at FinnAir to get checked in. Unfortunately there was a problem with our electronic tickets and they had to wait an hour before the headquarters in Helsinki opened before our group could get ticketed. (This would be the beginning of our luck changing from our smooth departure I mentioned on Day 1!)

We got to the gate with a few minutes to spare, only to find out our plane was delayed by 40 minutes. We already had a tight connection in Manchester, England for our flight to Chicago. We arrived in Manchester and were met as we exited the plane by the American Airlines agent who asked if we were the group of 24 they were waiting for. She then informed us, in no uncertain terms, we were to proceed directly to the security area then upstairs for American Airlines security. Do not stop to shop. Do not stop to use the restroom. In lock step we all negotiated security and got upstairs where we went through additional security screening. I was with the last group of two students to be screened and the three of us were the last ones on the plane. And just as luck would have it, our seats were in rows 37 and 38 in a plane that had 40 rows. We got to see the `pleasant' faces of the passengers already on board who had been waiting for our arrival!

The eight hour flight went smoothly and we arrived in Chicago with plenty of time to clear customs and make our connection. A couple of student had to surrender their reindeer jerky- but everyone else made it through fine. We all found our way to the gate only to find out the plane was delayed. For the next two hours we waited for the updates, which of course gave us new estimated departure times, only to be pushed back later at the next update. After many phone calls everyone got their rides from the Des Moines airport squared away and finally the plane was miraculously ready for us to board.

Des Moines- it was good to be home. Overall our trip was a great. I think the students enjoyed the sites we visited and experiencing the Norwegian and Swedish cultures. Traveling with students puts an interesting perspective on the experience. For many of them it was the first time they had traveled overseas. For some, a first time out of Iowa, and for at least one, the first time they had flown. In all, I hope it was a trip they will fondly remember.