My Swedish Surprises :)

Ahhh Sweden, my new favorite place!! I have so much to blog about this could take hours to write.. better start at Saturday night and go from there.

Sat. Night--Halloween party. I dressed up as Angelina Jolie, pretty much just a short black dress with huge sunglasses. My Japanese neighbor agreed to be my multi cultural child, plus a good excuse to search for a Brad Pitt :) The party was at Pink, a club by my most hated Kulor Bar, but its more of a hard rock place. It was pretty crowded, hard to move around and I had to wake up early the next day to go to Sweden so I only stayed for a little while.

***Interesting note--my camera BROKE! Don't know how/when, but its done for, luckily Dino brought his for the trip*******

SWEDEN TRIP! Okay onto the good stuff now. Sunday morning began with me being woken up from the buzzer on our door going off like crazy. I knew that couldnt be good--sure enough, my alarm failed me again and I had 4 missed calls from Dino. I had asked him to call to make sure I was up cuz my alarm on my phone is so unreliable, turns out I just dont wake up to hardly anything. So I quickly got ready and we were off. We ate breakfast at this bagel shop on Kongens Nytorv (my metro stop), hopped on the metro and then got on a train at Norreport station and took it all the way to whatever stop we get off to go to Dinos place. His car was parked there and we took it to his place. It is soooo weird to be in a car again. The cars are pretty much like in the US except they're all stick shifts, I couldn't stop laughing though when I saw his speedometer. Because it's measured in km/hr, so in town he was going a whopping 50kph... hilarious because we were going sooo slow but it said "50", later we were going an astounding 110 or something like that. His place is soooooo freaking cute. So much less clutter than most American homes. Simple and relaxing decorating, reminded me of some Chinese yen or whatever that was called, just calming and it was spotless. His mom even made me P-I-Bs!!!! Homemade bread and everything, what a lady. I didn't meet his parents at that time because we just grabbed the camera and were off. We drove through his town to Helsingør , the drive was so pretty. Right on the coastline with houses all different shapes and colors, people out and about all around. We parked and walked around the main street there, it was all cobblestone like Copenhagen with the same side streets as the city but a much more relaxed and cozy feel. It was Sunday so nothing was open, but we did find a cafe/restaurant and got a coffee while we walked around. After awhile we decided it was time to get a move on and get to Sweden! We boarded the ferry ship, which was huge, like a cruise ship pretty much. A big store, bars, restaurants, you name it it was on that ship. We went out onto the deck so we could see Denmark and Sweden at once.

Sweden is so pretty, reminds me of a version of Copenhagen. We went to Helsingborg, did a lot of walking around, everything was closed but they have much hilly-er (not a word, oops) streets than in Denmark. Still cobblestone though, which my feet hated. We walked up to this castle and took a lot of pictures there, sooo many stairs! When we reached the top we looked around it was huge! We walked through the streets and found the "football" (aka soccer) stadium where his brother played, reminds me of Camp Randall (Badgers stadium) or something. We were waiting for his friend Kayed so we sat on a bench and watched some (huge) ducks waddling around for awhile. For some reason I get such a kick out of the animals here, they're soo big!

We went back to the ferry dock to meet Kayed and were planning going to eat lunch at a Greek/Turkish restaurant. Kayed cracks me up, his English is not 100% the best but he is like the lovable guy everyone just laughs when he is around. They were both so nice to me the whole day--when Kayed heard me complaining that everything is closed on Sunday and how much that really cut into my shopping habits, they post-poned lunch and took me to the shopping center that was open. Kayed lives in Helsingborg and has a car so he knew his way around. We passed a genuine IKEA in Sweden, that was cool. When we got there they gave me 30 mins to shop, and did I ever make the most of it. I found a store with amazing sales, Sweden is much cheaper than Denmark. Found two shirts/tunics, a gray dress, hair conditioner, leggings, and an alarm clock and barely spent $50!!! I could barely find gum for less than that in Denmark. I tried to buy a digital camera while I was there so it would be cheaper, I called the guys over b/c I found one I really liked. We asked the guy if we could see it and his response: "Well actually thats an mp3 player" hahahaha... whoops! (In my defense, it did look like a camera)

Finally....lunch.. at about 4:30pm. This restaurant was delicious, I let Dino order me something from the menu--it was just a massive plate of all sorts of food. Chicken on sticks, sauces, salad, pasta, bread. For dessert--chocolate brownie w/homemade whipped cream. I thought I died and went to Heaven, it was amazing. The restaurant was decorated so cool inside too--dark with a ton of Greek/Turkish colors, paintings, and statues around, we sat in a big booth with pillows in it.

I thought they were going to have to hoist me out of the restaurant with a crane after that meal! It was getting dark and we still had to go to Dino's place for dinner so I figured we'd get going after that. We drove to the ferry station.. but then Kayed kept driving.. I was a little confused and then Dino told me Kayed had a surprise for me. I got a little scared when he stopped in a dark parking lot and told me to "get out"... I was confused and they told me to get in the front, but not the passenger seat. Drivers seat?! But I don't drive stick... well, I was going to learn! Can you believe it--surprise stick shift driving lessons in Sweden!! I was not by any means a pro and dropped the clutch (I think thats what its called...) right away. I thought I ran over something/one and felt so bad that I wrecked his car. Luckily I did neither, and kept trying. I finally got it once!!!!!! First AND second gear, I was cruisin around like none other. We decided I better stop on a good note, said our goodbyes, and to the ferry we went. What nice guys, seriously! Who just takes time out of their day to spend with a strange foreign girl and then teaches her how to drive stick on a Sunday night????

Meeting Dinos parents was quite the cultural experience. They speak no English and I speak absolutely no Danish or Bosnian (they are from Bosnia). We walked in, said "hello" and then they had to go to Dinos aunts house (we were later than expected due to my killer driving skills). His parents are sooo cute! Tall/lovable dad and the cute little mom. Even though I didn't understand them.. I'm pretty sure I would get a kick out of them. His mom had dinner waiting for us, something I have not had in awhile--a meal prepared w/o me having to make it or find it. She made homemade veggie/meat soup, tomatoes and corn on chicken, rice, and salad. All amazing. I was still pretty stuffed from the last feast but that was not going to stand in my way of a meal made by a mom. After dinner we watched the movie Guess Who and Hitch on his brothers flat screen. We bought chocolates on the ferry and had some of those--the perfect ending to the perfect "fat kid" day :)


*********PICTURES FROM THE TRIP ARE ADDED TO THE END OF THIS ALBUM:

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Today (Monday) has been pretty uneventful--meeting for our sports econ workshop presentation due on friday, library to work on that project, frederickberg centre to see about my camera (its completely broke, not worth fixing even), then back home for a housing meeting (long and boring), a quick dinner, some homework, and now blogging. The highlight of my day... PACKAGE FROM MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So much valentines day candy, homemade chocolates, chicken noodle soup, lemon juice, hair conditioner, ahhh so much American stuff!!! I walked there with Dino and his friend Jamal, I had them try all the candy and chocolates. Watching them eat Warheads was priceless, probably how I look about 80% of the time I'm here trying new things. They were skeptical and curious, nice to be on the other side for a change!