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HOME OF THE STOCK!!
Before I begin to describe how stunning a city Stockholm is, I have to revisit a little Canadian incident that happened in Copenhagen...
Distress seemed to rear its overbearing head in the Danish capital after losing my wallet. Rage was bizarrely left sleeping, so Fear and Regret began their dirty deads inside my head. Alas, once the day was done, Peace stepped in at last. It was a serious 12 step program, starting with denial and ending in acceptance. The pamphlets don't lie! Anyways, I had finished unravelling my life in the train station and tried to understand the brain of a normal person, "what would a normal do if they lost their wallet?" After not arriving at a conclusion, I decided to ask the front desk!
I went up to the lady behind the desk and explained my predicament, looking for either sympathy or wisdom. The conversation went as follows, leading me to understand that I am more Canadian than I ever thought...
"Hi! So I was out and about today in Copenhagen and I lost my wallet. Is there something imbedded in the Danish psyche that would lead them to return a lost wallet? Where could I go find such a wallet if they Danes retrieved it?"
"You lost your wallet?"
"Yes, when I was out and about."
"So you want me to get your wallet from the canal?"
"What? No! I lost it when I was out and about, I wasn't by the canal, it was in the street!"
"How did you lose it then?"
"When I was out and about, it fell out!"
"What was the name of this boat?"
"WHAT? No, not a boat, when I was out and about!"
"Yes, a boat!"
"No, about!"
A quick interjection from Kelsey saying "I think she thinks you're telling her you were on a boat, not when you where about."
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH, s***."
"So should I call the boat company?"
We haven't stopped laughing since. The two Canadians confused many a Dane that day. Making me proud, now that I have evidence, to be a Canadian English speaker! J
Now, for Stockholm...
Scandinavia rains. This is a fact that everyone but Kelsey and I have come to accept. We ALWAYS forget to bring our rain jackets, ALWAYS forget to wear shoes that can stand getting soaked, and we ALWAYS have fun; except for the first day in Stockholm. It took a seriously long train ride from Copenhagen in a seriously uncomfortable train car to realize that life can break down, and after having to regroup and collect as a collective, we finally broke through and started enjoying the trip! And we did.
We ran around the district we called "funkytown", which was an aptly called Sofo, South of Folkugagatan. Sofo made sense after struggling to pronounce the real street name! We pinballed our way from cafe to cafe searching for warmth and good conversation. We walked around Gamla Stan, the old town, which is located on one of THOUSANDS of islands littered along the Stockholm Bay. We wandered, meandered through the medieval streets of Gamla Stan, passed the Royal Palace of the Swedish Royal Family, headed by King Gustav and Queen Somebody! They live in one of Europe's largest palaces, which is their winter home, conveniently located across the street from their Royal Apartments, their summer homes...
Wandering along, we found a tiny door leading down some brick steps for a SUPER AWESOME dinner of Swedish meat balls and good times! I heard at least one ABBA song while I was down there. It was Sweden alright!
We emerged from our cave just in time to catch a beauty overload! Rainbows are nice, but you ain't seen s*** until you've seen a rainbow at sunset time!! WHAT WHAT!! This was incredible! We booked it to the waterside to catch the double rainbow grow as the sun shrank. It was a pink, blue, purple, yellow, HOTNESS; totally a good way to satisfy a mind under fire. We were definitely at peace after that!
Kelsey and I crashed hard, but not fast enough to miss the Olympic coverage...in Swedish. So for all of you back in Canada who would like the stats on Sweden's Olympic team, HIT ME UP! For any information on Team Canada, you are s*** out of luck on this end!
I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the Swedish Beauty myth. It is exactly that...a myth.From personal observation, I found the Danes MUCH more attractive! Blonde, cool, styling, nice, hot, the whole nine yards! Sweden is bigger though...SO I found a solution. Give Sweden to the Danes and let them populate, OR trade! Swedish people can be from Denmark, and Danes can benefit from the bountiful Swedish terrain. They are both gorgeous countries in landscape and in population, but the Danes take the cake!
After a long sleep, Kelsey and I hit the town for MUSEUM DAY!! We marched our asses to the FREE Moderna Museet which had Warhol's, Matisse's, Dali's, Munch's, and other guys/gals that were lost in the crowd. By the end we were both in serious leg pain and decided to do the unethical thing and just hit the big names and bounce! Sorry to any of you serious art fans, but ya...that's how we roll! We made it all the way to Stadhus, the city hall, where we waited painfully to get access to the best view of the city, atop the tower overlooking the old town! Gorgeous. It fittingly pointed us to our next destination, Oslo.
Ran around old town for a while looking for the perfect night time dinner and settled on Italian. Again, we crashed hard, and hit the hay before the sun went down!
Today we got up early to get some laundry done (the mothers reading can rest easy now). We rushed caround the city to cram in some shopping time, some rest time, and some Stockholm time.I made a pass at speaking Swedish and it worked!! Here in Sweden, they say "Hey hey", which I took too far and started saying "hey hey hey!" and they respond "takk takk". It's a fun language to say the least! But they have no words for "may I have" or "please" so it's kind of difficult for the courteous minded Canadian.
What else is fun about Sweden? There currency is called the Crown, as is all the other Scandinavian countries. There version of People Magazine is much harsher than N. Americas (They circle the cellulite on the stars where as we just mock them). They have lobster paste which they eat on everything. And they border Finland. COOL!
Now Kels and I are on a train to Norway, where they win all the Olympic Games.It should make it more interesting for us, as Canada has a weak record for ass kicking in the Summer Games...no offence.We have got less than 12 hours before we catch a flight above the Arctic Circle for some serious one on one time with Mother Nature. There, we will be cut off, cut down, and ready to get our heads back on!
See you on the other side Blog Town!
Robinson
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