Patrick's Diary - 7/5/2015

Jet Lag continued, I wasn't able to sleep at all through the night. At 3:30 am, I snapped a photo through the window to show the bright early morning in Scandinavia, yes, there are at least 16 hours daytime during the summer here. 

Sorting out the stuff in the morning, I couldn't find my wallet. Where could I lose it? The last place I could think about was Burger King where I used the wallet the last the night before. Was I too tired to keep in mind in putting it back to my pocket after paying? I am a very careful person regarding important things such as passports, credit cards, which are crucial for traveling, especially for overseas ones like this. But I might make stupid mistake this time because I was too excited to manage myself calmly. It's 8:30 am, I wasn't sure if Burger King had opened but walked there to ask. A girl happened to clean the glass doors of entrance, I mentioned the possible lost wallet here last night. She didn't work here yesterday as far as I remembered and said she didn't hear anything about it but would check for me. The result was disappointed. I decided to go back to our room to call credit cards' company. 

When passing the lobby, I saw Molly was sitting behind the front desk and realized that it was her shift again. I mentioned the story to her and she felt sorry of course.

Before calling credit cards' company, I searched the entire room thoroughly one more time per my son's suggestion. He was more sober than I was, I found the wallet wrapped in some beddings piled around my bed. I probably had assumed crisis scenario for the trip in my mind too much, so as soon as not being able to find it, I assumed it lost and became panic. 

I went back to Burger King to let them know the happy ending in order not to cause their concerns but didn't see anyone at counter, so I went back to the garage to check my car before leaving. I didn't share that I wasn't able to lock the car the night before and was pretty sure it was driven by my ignorance of the features of this new model of Volvo. I only drove other's Volvo a very short period of time 20+ years ago, so didn't have any clue of its functionalities today. No, the door wasn't locked when I pulled to open. More seriously, I wasn't able to start the engine at all. What's going on?

Volvo is the most significant car brand in Sweden and Swedish national pride. Its dealership seemed very popular and I had found one in Uppsala when we drove into the city yesterday. I had planned to drive the car to that dealer to have someone checking out for me before we would leave. But since I wasn't able to start the engine, I had to have someone else at the hotel helping me resolve the mystery. 

Coming back to the lobby, I first let Molly know that I found the wallet in the room, which seemed making her happy, of course, she didn't expect her guest experiencing such a bad start of an exciting trip. Then, I asked her if she could do me a favor to help me figure out the features of the car. She said she could help and led me back to my car in the garage. As soon as she saw my car, she made the moment: "Oh, it is a big car." So, I learned it is a good size in Volvo's family.

Apparently, she already knew the functions and features very well. After I showed her the issue of the unlocked door, she immediately explained to me: 

"It is actually pretty smart. You push the button on the handle of the door, then walk away from the car with the key. The door is locked. When you bring the key back to close to the car, the door automatically opens." She showed me how it worked and I tested by myself too. I told her that I had known my stupidity but just hadn't been able to figure it out. She mentioned she just bought a volvo recently, so knew this very well. 

Next, she sat onto driver's seat to start the engine. Again, apparently, she already knew why I wasn't able to start it myself: "You have to put the foot onto the break while starting the engine." I was impressed and also told her that I am driving a 15 years old caravan, so there is no way for me to know any new features of the cars. 

The third issue I had was that the engine automatically shut down when I stopped the car to wait for traffic lights, I could sense it must be designed for gas saving but I didn't feel comfortable to have it on. She concurred my assumption and showed me how to turn it off by pushing an "A" button on the panel inside the car.

All mysteries were resolved in 3 minutes. While coming back to lobby, I mentioned I should give her some tips and she refused. I had thought she might find a technician in the hotel to help me and I would pay for it. It ended up that she helped me out as a piece of cake. Though it was caused by my own ignorance and stupidity, it is still a great experience to have me recalling Swedes' hospitalities back in 90s. I could have checked online to figure out myself but I just felt comfortable to ask for their help. 

Packing everything, we were ready to check out before noon, it's a neat room and I already experienced this type of Swedish set 20 years ago, so felt pretty comfortable with its size. To my son, it was a bit small compared to those big rooms in States.

Saying thanks and goodbye to Molly, we loaded the bags into the truck. When I booked this hotel on Expedia, I was impressed by the photos of its garage. Before driving out of it, I did think back then I made a great option. Of course, Its overall experience was wonderful not only the parkings. The first night in Sweden, we were tired with jet lags, so didn't have chance to eat in its restaurant due to the timing. I hope I can try it next time.

Driving the car to park in a lot adjacent to Uppsala Cathedral, we walked to the entrance. Oh, it was Sunday morning, the service wouldn't complete until 12:30 pm. Alternatively, there were several other places we could visit before coming back, so we went uphill to arrive at Uppsala Slott, which was built in 16th Century by King Gustav Vasa. 

After wandering around outside a little while, we walked into Uppsala Museum. I had known it is free of charge but confirmed with the lady in front desk. After hearing her confirmation, my son raised of his both arms and chanted: "Socialism!" I don't know if it was a dry joke, the lady laughed anyway.

We went up to the 2nd floor first to appreciate the arts collections by Uppsala University. There were hundreds of small paintings hung on the walls in addition to a dozen of fine sculptures. 

Asking the girl who was administering the floor if we could walk to Uppsala University to pay a visit from there, she recommended us to go to the nearby historic building. My son tried to open another door to another room, girl stopped him and explained it is Home of Fame. I told him if that were allowed to visit, the door would have been opened anyway. Next, we went up to 3rd floor to appreciate some other collections and sought Swedish Flags waving. 

Back to the first floor, we were ready to say goodbye to the lady but she reminded us we miss the first floor. Oh, I hadn't realized there are bigger exhibition rooms on this floor when we came in. 

We walked to the historic building where Uppsala University Library is located. Since visitors are not allowed to go into the library and it isn't allowed for photographing in a small museum inside the building either, I didn't take a clip there.

University of Washington has a Study Abroad Exchange Program with Uppsala University, though my son's first option is to go to Tilburg University if he is accepted by Department of Economics, he just showed interests of coming here to study as well. You never know what will end up eventually. 

After walking around the main campus of the University, we figured the service had complete and we could go back to the Cathedral to visit. 

Inside the Cathedral, many tourists appreciated the magnificent settings. Some of them might be very religious because they studied the documentations in each small side room very carefully. Sitting on the bench, I seemed sensing a sort of holy spirits there myself.

Walking out of the Cathedral, I looked up to the top of it again to appreciate its marvelous architecture. It was rebuilt 4 times due to the wars and fires. 

We had decided to have a lunch in Uppsala before leaving for Karlstad, so we didn't go back to the car right after visiting the Cathedral but went back to the center of the city. My original plan was to go back to one of the restaurants close to the hotel we stayed in last night but when my son noticed an Italian restaurant along the side of the street we walked through, he wanted to eat there because it looked neat and he was pretty hungry. 

The waiter was a 23 years old young guy and very nice. You may wonder how I could know his exact ages, yep, because he told me later he was born in 1992 when I talked to him about my experience in Sweden. 

Before coming to Scandinavia, my son had planned to drink his first beer in his whole life here because I told him in most of the countries in Europe, youth can drink beers and wines as soon as they reach 18 or 19. A waitress came over to take the order for us, after she learned my son's interest, she recommended a Swedish beer for him. Since I would drive, she brought me a non-alcoholic beer of the same brand. My son was so excited to have his first beer and almost bottomed it up in first try. He didn't feel anything at the beginning, but alcohol started influencing a couple of minutes later. His face started turning red and he kept laughing. It was a good experience for him and that has been the only alcoholic drink he ordered since then. He likes the taste but said it didn't cure the thirsty. 

After the drinks, we had very delicious pasta. While eating, I chatted with that young guy about my past experiences in Sweden and impressions of the city of Uppsala. He definitely agreed with me that Uppsala is very historic. After we sat at the table, a group of four Swedes came in to sit at the table beside us. My gut told me they were interested in our conversations. 

It was the first time for me to pay the check at restaurant in this trip. I had to learn from the girl how to do it. She instructed me that I needed to key in the total by myself then push the button of green key. So, I asked her if the tips had been included, then added an amount equivalent to the tips in US. I knew I didn't need to give that much in Europe but once a couple of years, I didn't mind following US traditions, I had done the same in France and Germany 3 years ago. Of course, if you are a frequent traveller, it makes sense for you to just leave the changes on the table. However, paying by credit card, you may have to add certain amount into the total anyway. 

I didn't catch the name of the restaurant at the spot but happened to find out in my Credit Card transactions online: Ristorante Villa Romana. 

Walking around the city center close to Scandic Uplandia and took several clips and photos, we went back to the parking lot close to the Cathedral and were ready to head to Karlstad where we would stay for the night. 

I keyed the address of the hotel in Karlstad into my cell's GPS app, our rental Volvo XC60 was brought onto E18 without any problem. Driving such a powerful SUV under such a beautiful sunny sky, I couldn't complain anything. 

We probably drove to a place in the middle of Uppsala and Karlstad, my son wanted to drink something, so we stopped at a gas station, I didn't memorize its brand name, which wasn't either Statoil or Shell but with letters of X and M in it. While paying for the drinks at the counter, I asked how to pay the gas if I wanted to pump some, though I didn't plan until arriving in Oslo the night after. I knew credit card readers at gas stations generally don't recognize the ones without chips in Europe, so I had to figure out if I would have to pump the gas during the daytime whenever there are people taking care of the payment in the stores. The gentleman behind the counter told me that I could pump the gas first then came into the store to pay. I changed my mind and decided to test the process at this station. My most recent experience was in Germany in 2012 while I pumped gas at a Shell station in Frankfurt during daytime and I paid it at the counter in the store. For this trip, I would pump possibly ten times more. 

Testing one of the pumps, I wasn't able to do it. A girl just pulled in her car to pump the gas at another pump, so I walked toward her and told her that I wanted to watch her doing it to learn. She told me that the pump I was using was for Card Payment, if I wanted to pay at the counter, I needed to choose another one like she was using. Another mystery was resolved, I did pump 24 liters into the tank.

While I was pumping, that girl at her 20s had paid at the counter and walked out. She came over to check if everything was fine for me. I said yes and appreciated her help. After saying: "Thank you, ma'am", I was trying to think about a Swedish equivalent but couldn't, just said to her: 

"Froken?" 

She hadn't caught it in the first place but after I explained, She said: "We don't really say it but it is Froken." Yes, it is just like in English, I guess, we don't use "Miss" anymore, even using it, you have to add the last name. 

I asked her to forget this dry joke, she smiled and left. 

Following the GPS instructions, we arrived at the hotel in Karlstad very smoothly. The hotel room was much bigger here and my son felt great. After sleeping for several hours, we decided to walk along the street to find a restaurant because the one at hotel had closed.

It's a very quiet town, my sense was if most of residents had gone to their summer home. Not very far from our hotel, we found a restaurant name Oleary's was still open. Sitting at a table outside where I could remotely watch the soccer matches on TV hung inside the restaurant. It was a Sports bar and it looked like several Allsvenska matches were televised on different screens. Yes, it was Sunday night but too late to televise live matches. Probably they were replays.

As I shared earlier, my son didn't order beer again but a pepsi, I ordered a local draft beer the waitress recommended. We both ordered the same BBQ Ribs, which were pretty delicious. This restaurant was more American style. 

When paying the check, I confirmed the tips were not included and added a pretty generous amount by European standard, I guess, so the waitress seemed pretty surprised but happy. 

From the signs hung across the street, I could tell there would be a street fair starting several days later, it would be crowded then.

Walking back on another street to come back to hotel, we saw the train station. 

The day was wrapped up and we would drive to Oslo tomorrow.