Sweden

all figures associated with cost are based on a 60-day trip(hypothetically, june 15-august 15) and splitting the costs between 4 people. if we were to do a 30-day trip, divide day-related costs by two. duh. we're all math nerds. the currency of sweden is the kronor (kr) and is about us$.159. so 1kr=$.158 and $1=6.3434kr links to visit to get an idea of stuff: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/europe/norway.gif http://www.xe.com/ucc/ airfare from sacramento airport to stockholm, sweden round-trip: approx $1,150 per adult (thats us) lodging: hihostels.com hiusa.com http://www.svenskaturistforeningen.se/sweden_youth_hostel.htm i recommend we get ourselves memberships with the iyhf. for those of us under 18, membership is free. for those over 18, its $24 annually. that way, we can stay at one of the many(hundreds) hostels in sweden. most of the hostels charge around 160kr per night, and an additional 45kr per night if you dont have a membership. so, that equals about $1550 total for one person, and an additional $440 if you dont have an iyhf membership. obviously, we will want a membership. food: assuming we dont o to a restaurant all the time, and instead we buy food from a store and prepare it ourselves, we can get by pretty comfortably on $9 a day, so that will be about $540 per person. buy in bulk and save! or we can eat fancy, and spend $20 a day, $1200 total. automobiles: (the costs associated with driving are high, but since we will all share the same car, we each will pay a portion) gas is approx. $5.60/gallon, so driving should be kept to a minimum. if we drive a car with about 25km/g gas consumption, then it will cost $.36/mi or $.23/km. so, a trip to to kjerag and back will cost about $460 in gas money. and here is a nifty table: if we drive x km/week | we will spend $y per week | and $z overall 25 |5.60 |44.8 50 |11.20 |89.60 200 |44.80 |358.40 a car rental will cost between $1770 and $2500, and seat 4 people. a possibility is to rent a car for only part of the time we would be there, and decrease the cost. the only toll in sweden is the congestion toll in stockholm. the toll is between the hours of 6:30 and 18:30, and costs between $1.25 and $2.50 with a maximum of about $10 per day. if we get the whole toll each day, with our luck we will, it will add $600. another good reason to avoid driving. if we really need to get somewhere and we dont have a car, we can get bikes. the cost of renting a bike is tiny. http://www.kemwel.com/rental-car/sweden-driving.cfm our costs so far: (x:y = cost if we eat cheap:we eat expensive) a) cost for each person if we dont go to kjerag, drive 50km a week, get heavily tolled, and rent a car that is $2000 = 5175:5835 b) same as a, but we dont rent a car = 3150:3810 c) same as a, except we do go to kjerag = 5290:5950 d) if we rent a car long enough to go to kjerag only = 3315:3975

e) same as d, but we drive an audi = 3350:4000 remember! these costs are based on a 60-day trip. if we stay for 2 weeks instead, the costs will be less than a third. the good stuff!!! some of the power metal bands that are from or will/might be playing in sweden: insania http://insania.se http://myspace.com/insaniametal hammerfall http://hammerfall.net iron maiden will be playing in the nordics during july. sweet. somewhere back in time world tour 08 july 2008 http://www.ironmaiden.com/index.php?categoryid=8&p2_articleid=684 wed 16th - stockholm, sweden - stockholm stadium fri 18th - helsinki, finland - helsinki olympic stadium tue 22nd - trondheim, norway - lerkendalstadium thu 24th - oslo, norway - valle hovin sat 26th - gothenburg, sweden - ullevi stadium tickets should already be on sale sun 27th - horsens, denmark - horsens gods bane pladsen dragon force hasn't announced any tour dates for 2008, but they do hit stockholm every year, and sweden multiple times. we might get lucky and they will be there over the summer. then there is the swedish rock festival, june 4,5,6,7 a 3-day ticket(june 5,6,7) costs between 1690kr and 1990kr a 1-day ticket for june 4 costs 390kr a 1-day ticket for june5,6, or 7 costs 990kr there will be a ton of bands http://www.swedenrock.com/ basejumping: i have come t the conclusion that base jumping the kjerag will not happen this year, largely because in order to take even a beginner base course, we will need somewhere around 200sky dives each. but for reference, i have compiled some info on it anyway, in case we can in a few years. lets not do this http://www.ifilm.com/video/2731592?cmpnid=800&lkdes=vid_2731592 or this http://www.ifilm.com/video/2718009?cmpnid=800&lkdes=vid_2718009 stavanger base klubb http://www.basekjerag.com/ snake river base academy http://www.snakeriverbase.com/ basejumper http://www.basejumper.com/articles/getting_into_base/ consolidated rigging, really cool because they are in auburn, so we could go talk to them

http://crmojo.com/frame_main.htm