Hello Sweden!

Tuesday, August 24th

We got off the plane in frankfurt around 7am am. We breezed through customs with our United States passports, then watched as Russian and ukranian men were asked to step aside and searched. Thanks Obama. We then boarded a plane to Copenhagen, Denmark. Once in Copenhagen we hopped on the train to Malmo, Sweden. The train was a normal commuter train, but because Sweden’s railway system is much better than ours it felt first class. The seats were comfy and the train reached speeds of about 75-80 miles per hour. The acela fast train from Boston to Washington barely averages those speeds.

We arrived in malmo around 10am. We took a taxi cab to bjorns apartment to drop off our things. We headed to a small café near the apartment for a welcoming breakfast/lunch, then got settled in and took a nap. Bjorns mother arrived that afternoon, we all went to the center of Malmo and walked around the Malmo Festival, the biggest festival of the year. We walked around for a bit, checked out some of the sights, many different ethnic foods (ate smoked moose), lots of candy and some of the women. It really is true, tall, blonde and beautiful. We started getting hungry so we hopped in Bjorns mom’s car and drove to his cousins house. After some conversation, we went to a small restaurant on the water and had a good meal. Salmon and soft serve ice cream with hazelnuts. After, we went to the candy/movie store and headed back to the apartment. Instead of a movie we watched one episode of fawlty towers, “the germans”. (Don’t mention the war, I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it). Classic.

Wednesday August 25th

Today we had our first “real breakfast” of the past month. It was delicious. After we wrote a few e-mails to some organizations, we headed to the festival again, shopped around in some stores, picked up some new threads, and watched Brazilian samba dancers do what they do best. Bjorn then picked up his work car, and we drove around a bit then went to grab a bite at the best burger place in town. This was also delicious. James got in the habit of eating as much food as possible at each meal because he was deprived in Tunisia. After dinner we digested with a ride through the ghetto of Malmo, then headed home for the night. Goodnight.

Thursday August 26th

Around 12pm, while bjorn was at work, and the weather was nice we decided to head to Copenhagen. We took the train, and went to the main shopping strip. After lots of browsing we stopped to get some lunch. We ate at a famous smorrebrod restaurant. A typical Danish restaurant, fat men bursting from their button down shirts, and lots of beer. After we went to get some ice cream, and walk around the harbor, and visited some other sites. Headed back to Malmo around 6pm, Bjorn picked us up and we headed to dinner at Napoli’s Italian restaurant, where we enjoyed bruschetta, and pizzas.

Once home we decided to watch the men who stare at goats. For any Ewan Mcgregor, george Clooney, and Jeff Bridges fans, we caution you from seeing this movie, it was crap.

Friday August 27th

Made breakfast at the apartment, and tried to upload pictures to our blog but it did not work. Lora headed out to get her haircut. When she came back, she was a different person, eastern European, Svetlana. She cut her hair short and dyed it black. We were all quite surprised. Bjorn took a half day, and we took the train and headed to his Mothers apartment and summer place in a town 1.5 hours north called Bastad (pronounced “bostad” not bastard). Arrived at the apartment complex, where we had a nice pool and ocean view. We settled in, changed up and went to the beach to jump in the frigid water. It was cold! For dinner we ate traditional Swedish meatballs. We played some cards to pass the rest of the night. Gin rummy, 500 rummy and Hi Lo Jack. The boys headed out on the town, except since it was already fall in Bastad everything was closed by 11pm. Goodnight.

Saturday August 28th

Woke up, went to a small café where its traditional to sit outside under blankets. The café was on a large hill over looking the ocean and the city of bastad. The food was good and we had lots of company, bees. Took a drive across town, went to the spot where Bjorn and friends would cliff jump in the summer. We snapped some pictures, and lora tried to befriend a cow with some grass. It did not like eastern Europeans so it almost charged at her. On the way back we drove past old Swedish gun turrets, erected to watch for the Germans who never ended up attacking.

We went back to the apartment, met Bjorns little cousin oscar, played some American football and met the rest of Bjorns family. After showering we met up with the family had some snacks and went inside to celebrate our first crayfish party. You eat mass quantities of crayfish, sing Swedish songs and take shots after every song. James was unaware you were not supposed to take a whole shot, and ended up taking full shots after the first few songs. Good thing he was stopped. After everyone started leaving, Bjorns uncle started playing piano, he was able to freehandedly play some of “Piano Man” by Billy Joel, it was very good.

Around 11 we headed to Pepes the main bar in Bastad. It was closing night so it was crowded. We had a drink and hung out and eventually made our way to the dance floor. We danced with some cute women and heard some good saxophone. A transvestite also took interest in stalking us. After it got a bit too crowded for our liking we decided to head back home. Goodnight.

Sunday August 29th

After breakfast we were entertained by spike tv’s most extreme challenge. For those who haven’t seen it, I suggest you check it out. James, Mark and Oscar decided to go play some golf at a little par 3. They got through 10 holes before it started to pour. Bjorn and lora picked us up and we drove home via the beach. Yes, that is correct, on the beach next to the ocean for a few miles. Apparently it’s perfectly legal to do so. We made reservations at a pizza restaurant, and had some more good food. Per usual, we had our after dinner ice cream then watched some tv and went to bed. Goodnight.

Monday August 30th

Bjorn woke up early to head back to work for some important meetings. Lora, James, Anita, and Mark headed to have some breakfast in Torkov, a small, posh, port town. It was empty, so we went to the only place open. While we were sitting outside we were stalked by more things. This time it was a scene out of Alfred Hitchocks the birds. We had probably about 25 birds perched above us waiting to eat our food from our hands, not to mention the slew of bees that were happily buzzing on our sweet Danish’s. We took the remainder to go, and headed to the train back to Malmo. We scavenged for change as we did not have enough money for the train, luckily the train was late so it allowed us to pick some from the wishing fountain in the train station (just kidding). Got back to Malmo, stopped in to the grocery store to pick up some dinner supplies, and then Lora cooked us a meal of lemon chicken and assorted side dishes. Who knew she could cook??

Tuesday August 31st

Woke up and tried to publish our blog pictures, again blogger would not allow it. We wrote some more e-mails in hopes wed have something set up for Indonesia. After, James and Mark headed out to the mall by themselves. Shopped around and then walked around a bit. Lora and Bjorn were having a date night, and we realized we didn’t have a key to the apartment. We rushed back, thankfully Bjorn is a smart man, he left us a key and the door open. We headed back out and tried to look for Best buy to get Mark, or should I say Grizzly Adams a beard trimmer. Apparently James was seeing things when he saw it on the map because no Best Buy existed.

We then headed out for some dinner. We went to the main square in Malmo and looked around for a suitable restaurant. We ran into the happy couple on their way to eat at a restaurant called bastard(prounounced as it looks). After some chit chat we parted ways and we ate a the MooseHead restaurant. We had some good moose burgers. The heated patios were blasting on a 65 degree night, so we were sweating during our meal. Went to look for ice cream for our post dinner treat. It took us over an hour to find one. After ice cream we finished our blog (the Tunisian one) and went to bed.

Wednesday September 1st

Mark woke up and 4 months after beginning the book 3 Cups of Tea he finally finished it (great read for anyone looking for a good book). Got a response from Ashoka, and we replied, also sent in an application form for the International Humanity Foundation. Met Bjorn for lunch at a great restaurant called atmosphere. Bjorns cousin did the interior design. They had really great food. Walked around town for a bit, did a little shopping. Went to the mall again, browsed around and scoped out some chicas. Ordered some pizza for dinner, nothing like sal’s. Too lazy to go out to the bars so we hung around the apartment. Goodnight.

Thursday September 2nd

Had to wake up at 7am to do laundry. Went back to bed. Lora went to meet Bjorn for lunch. We went back to atmosphere and had the exact same lunch we had the day before, that’s how good it was. We then walked up town to Sicilias Gelateria, supposedly the best gelato in Malmo. Hung around in the square while we ate, saw a beautiful business woman (top 10 all time in James’ book) and fell in love. I’d be happy to be the stay at home dad so after proposing marriage…I mean, After finishing ice cream, we enjoyed our last walk through malmo. We walked back along the canal and headed back to Bjorns apartment. Headed out to take a dip in the frigid ocean. Mark, Bjorn and Lora went swimming while James played paparazzi. The platform was about 8 feet above the water, and the waves were big. It was a funny site watching Mark and Bjorn run off the platform holding hands all the way into the water. After a shower mark shaved his beard completely for the first time in months. He looks more like Rich everyday.

We then headed out to a sushi restaurant for our last supper in Sweden. Ate lots of sushi, had some good desserts and enjoyed good company. Went home, packed our bags and went to sleep.

Friday September 3rd/4th

Lora woke us up at 7am to say goodbye she had an early flight. Went back to sleep. We woke up to e-mail Ries and Nadia to make sure everything was all set for us in Indonesia. We ate left overs for lunch, made sure we were packed. We met Bjorn at the train station, as we were on the same flight from Copenhagen to Frankfurt. On the flight to Frankfurt, somehow we were put into economy extra, which is similar to business class. We got a meal and had tea. The flight was not full so Bjorn tried to come sit next to us but the stewardess kicked him out of the section, back into economy. We arrived in Frankfurt and said goodbye to him as our journey with him came to an end. We anxiously awaited our flight. 9pm came around and we finally boarded our flight. We asked the steward how much it was to upgrade to first class and he told us 9000 dollars. We headed to our assigned seats. James ended up sitting next to 2 Polish embassy workers, and mark 2 younger Asian girls. We got to watch the new karate kid and ate some wonderfully fresh and delicious airline food. Around the middle of the flight, mark heard a lady near him start vomiting constantly. She kept throwing up and one of the men sitting next to her was escorted somewhere else on the plane.

The girls sitting next to Mark, had asked for a glass of wine during the meal. They were clearly underage. They sat nursing the wine for nearly 12 hours and coughed and giggled after each sip. It reminded mark of when he was a child. Behind mark, an elderly lady fell while trying to go the bathroom. Marks instincts kicked in and he immediately jumped to the rescue and helped her to her feet. We had breakfast about an hour outside of Singapore. Arrived in Singapore(hellllo asia) and boarded our final flight to Indonesia. We arrived in Jakarta around 630pm where we were met outside by Nadia. It was hot and humid, but we were finally here. Took a cab to Nadias and had about 20 years of catching up to do. After talking with Nadia and her Australian roommate kerri we went to bed.