IKEA. ABBA. Meatballs. Nokia...... Things that come from Sweden!

So I have returned from Sweden after being there since last Thursday the 8th. I have to say I really enjoyed myself. I went with my roommate Monique and her classmate Brigitte. We had a great fun time! Like my tour in Italy, this was a multi-lingual trip too! Brigitte is from Paris and you may remember that Monique comes from a French-Canadian quarter so French was used often. I first listened to them converse on the plane. They were sitting behind me and I was sitting with their classmate Kevin who was in Sweden at the same time (I got put with him often, haha, but that was because the other ladies didnt wanna sit with him! haha). I would tease them but they always spoke English when I was in the room!! :-) They were great fun! I'd travel with them again.

We arrived Thursday evening. We found our fantastic hotel, The Crystal Plaza, and wandered around after settling in looking for food. We noticed that, sort of like Dublin, things were closed early, and none of us claimed to have that much money, so we ate our first meal at McDonalds. Those of you who know me know that I dont eat Micky-Ds, but as little money as I had, I thought that it would be necessary to break that 4 year-running rule of no fast food. It's sad, but I forgot how good a cheeseburger there tastes. But not to worry, now that Im back in Dublin and am getting my money sorted out, I wont be hurrying back there soon.

And by the sounds of it, you'd think I had lots of money. I started out with two 500 krona bills. But in Euros that's about two 50 Euro bills. So throughout the trip we all were in shock when we'd hear the bill or total. We ate at one nice restaurant one evening and got all dressed up for it. I think my portion of the bill was 235 krona, which is just under 24 euro, so it's not as scary when you remember to divide! I bought 2 new pairs of jeans, which are desperately needed, and easy to find since I was in the land of TALL people, and the total was over 600 krona. It was a shock but then I remembered it wasnt euros or dollars, so we were ok!

(I have to say, to anyone - like Mom - who knows what I'm talking about, but I got the famous Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes for dinner at our nice night out. The meatballs were fantastic, just amazing! And the mash was great. Not as great as Mom's, but it was soooo smooth. I kept thinking "These mashed potatoes are so creamy. . . . Mary mashed them" and would laugh to myself but couldnt actually say this out loud. )

Definitely dark haired Monique, half Egyptian Brigitte and myself stood out in a fairly blonde culture. The three of us got lots of looks. It was obvious that were not locals. But it was fun. I also enjoyed the tallness of the people. Dublin seems to be keeping all the leprechauns around. Seriously, you should see the amount of tiny people here. And they find each other and form little girl groups. I'm shocked when I realized these barely 5-feet (if that) girls are studying at Trinity. And in addition, it's hard to shop here. But, besides the dark hair, I fit in with Sweden. I really enjoyed being in a tall culture. Sure, I was still taller than lots, but it was quite a change from Ireland. I love Ireland and always will - the people, the culture, the land - but Sweden was a nice change of scenery and great to see people at or around my eye level!! Plus it's so artsy and hip (but not intimidating), full of theatres and museums. A lot like Paris, Brigitte noticed, being a Parisian herself, in the landscape buildings and shops, but without the traffic, people and tourists.

When we arrived it was foggy and pretty chilly. On Friday we took a bus and boat tour around Stockholm which was a great idea, because then we had a better idea of what we wanted to see the rest of the time we were there. But Friday and Saturday brought light rain, and were cloudy, foggy and 30s temps. Sunday brightened up. It was still chilly - in the low 40s at the high - but the sun finally came out. That day we rented a car from Hertz and drove up the coast, went to a Viking town, then visited Sweden's oldest town, then back to Stockholm. And today was lovely! It was sunny again and in the 50's (As I stop and read this sentence, I realize that it sounds crazy to be excited about having 50 degree weather. But you hafta understand, Ireland has not been hitting that high and Sweden was not nearly that high. So when I see the temp starting with a "5", that's amazing. Plus you know it's great for the locals when you see them in shorts and tank tops - sure i'm still in a jacket, but i can lose the scarf and gloves! And PSS - Lisa, I wore your scarf again. Its the warmest thing I have and could not have been more appropriate or needed!!) ! Today was our shopping day, so of course it was a good day.

Pictures to come. But I've gotta say, I really enjoyed Sweden so much. We had thought about taking a train trip to Oslo or Copenhagen because Monique had thought shed read about the 1.5 hr train trips from Stockholm, and we got excited about trying that one day, but it turned out they are both 6 hour train rides, so we decided against it! haha... oh well, another trip. I'd love to visit Sweden in the summer. Currently they are still trying to move out of winter.

In Northern Sweden they hit a point in the summer when the sun never sets (the famous midnight sun). In October the sun rises at 8am and sets at 3pm! Can you imagine? Then in winter, the sun doesnt rise at all. Crazy huh? But I can tell how beautiful this place is when it's warm and the plants are living. They have 24 thousand islands that apparently are so great to see, but given how cold it was, and how much colder it got when we were near water, we decided against going out there. It was a bit like Venice, in that Stockholm was made up of several islands (but in this case they use cars instead of gondolas to get around) and we were constantly at the Baltic Sea, which was cool to me, just because it's different than the Atlantic Ocean...

Anyways, blabbing too much as usual. When I get my many pictures sorted I'll pick out a few and put them up here.