Royalty Comes to Karlstad

Today, on a beautiful Spring day, the King and Queen of Sweden came to our little city of Karlstad. Sounds like an April Fool's joke, doesn't it? Many people thought it was a joke when they heard that they might be coming, but in all reality, it wasn't a joke! There are even pictures to prove their existance in Karlstad! :-)

I was taking the bus to the city centre to walk around and enjoy the nice day. Two of my German friends also got on the bus and said they were going to the university to see the King and Queen, so I went with them instead! I had no clue they were even supposed to be in town, so it was all news to me. Apparently they were there becuase the university was opening up a research center or something like that and also there is an international food store that is owned by the state, so they were in town for that. I dont really know, I could also be very wrong about what I just said! All I know is that I got to see the King and Queen of Sweden today :-)

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden

Queen Silvia of Sweden and her assistant (??). She is half German and half Brazilian and she is from the same town in Germany as one of my friends here!


Swedish security. Notice the dilly bar in his hand! haha HARDCORE!

This is where the royal family stays when they come to visit Karlstad. I pass this everyday that I take the bus and just found out today what it is!


It was interesting to see how the Swedes reacted when the King and Queen arrived because they hardly had any reaction at all. I thought maybe there would be clapping or at least some kind of acknowledgement of their presences. But nobody really did anything. Everyone just watched and waved back to them. And as you can see, the security was not that big of a deal! There were some cops and people who had on Securitas jackets and the "ice cream man" but that was about all!

Life has returned back to normal here. Exams are over!!!! So now I just have Swedish 2 and that meets twice a week. That will be really nice once the weather starts getting warmer because I will have lots of free time to enjoy it!