Vacation...Part Duex

Now where did I leave off...oh yes, Sweden!

First we arrived in Malmo, which is a smaller city right across the water from Copenhagen. After experiencing some fun rental car drama: they didn't have the automatic we reserved, the guy working didn't know how to get anywhere in the city, and then we couldn't find out how to get into the parking garage (its trickier than you'd expect) we were on our way! Where to? Stockholm. But our first stop was in Ostra...I can't remember. But it was a small fishing village halfway between Malmo and Stockholm. Armed with nothing but a few books on tape, a map we couldn't fully understand, and some delicious cookies, we set out to drive across Sweden! And you can see by the picture on the right that by we I meant my mom and I (busted Dad!).

It was actually a pretty fun little road trip. Some good bonding time with the folks and a chance for my mom and I to incorrectly pronounce as many Swedish cities as possible. And boy, did we do a good job. Not to top our pronunciation was our inability to decipher road signs. Take this picture to the left. What exactly does that mean? No blue? No sky? No anything? It doesn't matter what it is, just don't do it on this spot... This one perplexed me the entire trip. I'm serious, if you know what this means, please put me out of my misery. Also included on our little road trip was stopping at some glass factories/showrooms. Apparently the Swedish make really nice glass (who knew?). We were able to stop at 2 factories, check out some really nice glass, and make a few small purchases :)

From there, it was onto Stockholm! As promised in my previous blog, in order to keep this short(ish) I will make a top 5 list:

1. Good people
   
2. The Volvo Ocean Race
3. Food
   
4. Drink
5. Memorabilia

Good People
Now, I don't want to start this off by saying Copenhagen didn't have extremely nice people, but it was hard to top our experiences in Stockholm. Now to give this story proper credit, I have to do a little background. For those of you who have never been, streets in Stockholm are preplexing. They like to layer streets on top of each other, they're big into 1 ways, and maps aren't exactly...oh how do you say...helpful. We're at our hotel, trying to return our rental car at the train station maybe 7 blocks away. Sound easy? Lies. After getting lost, reversing down a 1 way street for 2 blocks only to end up at another 1 way, we decided to ask directions. No sooner had my dad gotten out of the car to ask for help, then the Swedish man had replaced my mother as the driver of the car. I, sitting in the front passenger seat, was a little confused by the blond man sitting beside me. However, this extremely kind person left work in the middle of the day to give us a ride, a bit of a tour/history of Sweden and basically delivered us to the rental car facility. Then he called his friends to pick him us and refused to let us thank him (my mom even offered to take him out for a beer)!! He was so sweet, and he didn't even hesitate. Needless to say, the three of us were floored...and eternally grateful.

The Volvo Ocean Race
If you haven't heard of this, Google it. It's an around-the-world sailboat race that started in Novemeber of 2008 and their 2nd to last stop was Stockholm, while we were there! And to say that Stockholm is a party place is an understatement, and this ocean race only magnified the Swedish desire for a good time. The whole port was rowdy and there were just people everywhere! They were even holding mini boat races in the harbor operated by the sailors as well as a fashion show. Each sponsor had a huge tent with a ton of people, a bar, and food. It was awesome! I got a few pictures of the boats which you can see on the right. It was just such a random occurance and so cool to be there for!

Food
3 things made this food amazing:
1. Swedish meatballs. So good. It's basically balls of meat, covered in gravy with mashed potatos on the side. For someone who struggles to find anything besides chicken, it was like heaven sent from above. They were SO good.
2. Chokladfabriken. Yea, its a real place. And the only reason I remember it is because the name is on the box of chocolates I just scarfed down this evenining (and you think I'm kidding). This is a little chocolate shop my mom found in some random guidebook and insisted my dad and I go to. I'm never one to turn down chocolate, so we went and...holy buckets! Every piece was more amazing than the last. Needless to say I was impressed. Nice work Stockholm.
3. This is the most important. It isn't so much about the quality of the food, but the food pairing. You think cookies and milk. Or peanut butter and jelly. In Sweden, it's only about two things, and you find them linked in almost every town: Kebabs and Pizza. I know, I know, I can't believe we didn't think of it before! Sweden has cornered the market. And by the way kebabs are actually gyros. And honestly, what is more Swedish than pizza and kebabs. You think I'm kidding. EVERYWHERE. Hopefully you can read the signs on these pictures (Pizza + Kebabs)

Drink
I moved on from the chocolate, so I'm not going to talk about the huge back of dark chocolate shavings I bought that you mix with steaming milk to make hot chocolate. Not even going to mention it. But what I did appreciate were some delicious beers (inclulding Prips, which we FINALLY found), the fact that they drink champagne before their meals (and who wouldn't love that) and that I randomly found a bottle from one of my favorite vineyards at the restaurant we ate at our last night!!! It's an extremely small vineyard in South America that exports almost nowhere and this place had it. I was blown away and well, super pumped. It was magnificent.

Memorabilia
As you read through my top 5, this was probably the one that stood out as the most out of place. Like the Highlights for Children magazines, which one does not belong? To clarify a little further, the country of Sweden has an interesting hobby...of collecting artifacts from the assasianations of their royalty. I'm dead serious (no pun intended). They had an entire room in the museum next to the palace with relics from the slayings of their kings. The clothes they wore (bullet holes included), blood stained material from the couch one died on, the actual BULLET from inside the body, and my favorite had the horse that the kind (17th c) was riding when killed stuffed and on display. It goes without saying, it was completely creepy. I also want to know what it says about a country that they've had like 6-7 kings assasinated. That's not good. I mean, we're a newer country but we can still count ours on one hand (including attempts). I mean, I never thought that was a stat to write home about, but apparently I was wrong. U-S-A, U-S-A.

Alright enough of that.

Overall, it was an incredible trip filled with many great moments (not all of which fit into my already lengthy blogs) but most of all, it was so great to see my parents. If you don't believe how awesome and adorable they are, check out this picture. Trust me, they're cool. Well, not so much my dad, but you had to imagine my nerdery came from somewhere!!! He's got great taste in music though :)