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Hello from Sweden.
First comment we must make is how remarkably similar the landscape is to Vancouver Island.
We have had 4 full days here in Stockholm and have had a wonderful time. After landing far from the city thanks to Ryan Air and a scenic bus drive to meet Sara we had a chilled out evening of drink and dinner with some confusion over the definition of meat sauce on Del's pasta.
Day 1
Upon waking up our first full day the confusion with various translations began. First off Del put yogurt on his cereal thinking it was milk and we thought it had gone off, so opened another carton only to find the same result. Only then did we Read the instructions left to us by Sara regarding the translations for milk and yogurt. Next we attempted to use the Mac computer (which we are not used to this operating system) and it was all in Swedish. We had many troubles trying to upload pictures and soon gave up until later on. We decided to move onto uploading an audio tour to our MP3 players but needed to make space, so tried to delete some items. This was not as easy as it would sound. After 30mins of making copies, zip files and many other things that we don't really know what we did, we just gave up and decided to head out the door. We walked into town through a lovely Park and picked up some rental Bikes. When we got into town the language barrier continued. Decided to get some cash out we went to a cash point and popped in our card, there was a message on the screen that we could not understand. After a small amount of time (and us thinking that the machine had eaten our card) we asked the woman behind us what it said, she told us "Please Wait" so a little embarrassed we finally got our money and moved away fast. After all this we ended up having a wonderful day wondering the city looking at shops. Came back in the evening for a nap and then a BBQ with Sara's family.
Day 2
Finally got Sara's audio tour to work. The one she gave us was in English, and the one we had bought ourselves turned out to be in Swedish (oops). Again made our way into the city on the Stockholm City Bikes and learned all about the statues and parliament and the palace and kings. All very interesting. Although the best part of the day has to have been going to 7eleven for a slurpee. That night we went into town for a drink at one of the city's many cafe/bars.
Day 3
With Sara off work the 3 of us headed to the Medieval Museum, where we learned about the early days of the city. Did you know the city is actually rising out of the ocean? News to us too. Highlight would have to be when I won a chocolate bar at a Hula Hoop contest. The last five people left going would win a large chocolate bar. During our practice time I was struggling until I figured out the I could do ok round my neck. So when the time started off I went, but when my hula hoop stopped spinning I figured I would just turn round in circles to give the illusion of the hula hoop spinning. To everybody's surprise I won!!! (I must have provided enough entertainment for the workers to be deserving of such a prize). On the way home we took the long route through the old park which used to be a Royal Estate. Del had fun on the mountain bike leaving Sara and I to walk. In the park there are many royal structures including a half built castle. That night we cooked a pizza for us all. We made the dough using swedish instructions with great success showing improvement from day 1.
Day 4
We visited Vaxholm which is considered to be the capital of the Archipelago (large group of islands). Once again we must say that we felt at times like we were in the Gulf Islands, it was a very relaxing day. We rode a ferry to the island and had a picnic. Rode out a rain shower in a local Cafe and then just wandered around enjoying the scenery. We suggest that if you get a chance to visit the area, take a week or more to explore the islands and camp. This is something that we would love to do someday.
Tomorrow it is off to Malmö....
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