Monday, June 8, 2009

Laura and Chad come to Stockholm!

So Chad arrived a few hours before Laura and the first thing we did was go have an American breakfast. He had been gone from the states for a good 10 hours at this point. But seriously though, these pancakes were amazing. I think they somehow deep fried them.
Chad arrived a few hours before Laura and he had been away from the states for 8 hours, so we took him to some american breakfast
Chad immediately tried to learn the language (he is half Swedish afterall), and started with the word Sverige (which means Sweden). Correctly pronounced, it is Svear-ee-uh. Chad insisted that his Swedish blood over-rules our Swedish lessons, so Sverr-gee it was. For the rest of the week. Yeah.

Later that afternoon, Chad and I went to meet Laura at the bus terminal, and we had to wait awhile, and while we were waiting we noticed that every large group that came through the revolving doors got stuck. Which is of course hilarious when you aren’t one of those people actually getting stuck in the door. So I started to try and get video of this, which was funny too until a blind guy came through and held up the door. Chad tried to look away and pretend he didn’t know me, but when you think about it, it wasn’t like the guy could see us taping him!

Laura finally made it to Stockholm (she flew in from Prague where she had been working the week before) and we celebrated the way we always celebrate- with Pink Champagne! (Except that it was weird Swedish Hot Pink Wild Strawberry or something, but we do what we can in these cruel times over here in Sweden. :P)
Of course we celebrated with (hot) Pink Champagne!

On Monday, Laura, Chad and I went to Skansen, an old fashioned open-air museum where we saw some traditional Swedish things, and ate some traditional Swedish food (or not):
Chad's authentic Swedish meal of Chicken and Nachos.
The best part was by far the baby goats. Blake had gone to Skansen a few weeks ago when Byron and Abby were in town, and they had raved about the adorable goats, so I was glad to see them be adorable as well.

After seeing all of the adorable animals, Laura and I were inspired (but lacking in the adorableness):
One could say that we went apeshit, couldnt they?

After Skansen, we went to Moosebacke, which is a famous outdoor bar with a great view of the city where we waited for Blake to get off of work (poor thing!).
Blake met up with us for a beer after work at Moosebacken

The next day I went into work (boo!) while Laura and Chad took a trip to the archipelago. I suppose you are going to have to bug them if you want to see the pics.

The day after that, I took a half day and meet up with them for Fika and some more exploring.
I took Laura and Chad out for fika (coffee) at this adorable cafe
Not even crazy wind can keep those 2 kids apart
Later that night, Pär and Ylva came over to help us eat the Pike that Blake and I caught at Ida’s cabin the week before and that I somehow managed to cook successfully. Not to brag, but I was pleasantly surprised with myself. Dinner then turned into a rousing game of caps:
On Wednesday night we invited Pär and Ylva over for dinner and some Caps
Blake is steady and ready
Chad wonders if he actually has to crawl under the TV stand to play this game
(Pic by Laura)
The next day was a bust- it was cold and rainy outside (like it has been the past week… gross!) and Chad didn’t want to get his hair wet, so Laura and I went to the Central Badhuset (Bath house) for some relaxing hot tubs and saunas.

The next day was thankfully nice again, and the 3 of us went to sight-see some more around Stockholm.

From the great view, we went to see the famous Vasa Museum. On our way there, we came across a little fair that was handing out some authentic Swedish candy, so I grabbed some for Laura and Chad to try. Mine “accidently” fell on the ground, so they were left to try salted licorice by themselves. This pretty much sums up their feelings for this Scandinavian treat:
I tricked Chad and Laura into trying Salted Black Licorice.. it is nasty!
After the museum, we checked out city hall (we couldn’t go inside, because it was closed, which was par for the course this week):
LJ and I at the City Hall (Stadshuset)

When working hours were up, Blake and Pär met up with us for some real Swedish food- reindeer, meatballs, and pickled herring:
Their last dinner in Stockholm was authentically Swedish: Pickled herring, meatballs, and Reindeer!
And some beers:
Laura can barely even lift up her beer!
Which got us a good jump start on the rest of the evening when we started on the absinthe shots:

Laura and I then put on our Swedish costumes (also known as leggings) and had a fashion show:
My Swedish costume
Laura put on her Swedish costume (Leggings!)
I call the following pics, "Fun with Leggings"
Some other friends showed up, some more drinks were drank, and then next thing I know, it is 3 o’clock and it is light outside:
It is getting hot in here
You want to know why we are pointing?...
When we finally left the apartment, Ylva magically appeared
Take 2
It is 3 am in this picture. 3 am!!!!
After some kebabs and a few hours of sleep, I woke up to see them of to the airport. It was so sad to see them go, but we definitely celebrated it right the last night. If you want to see all (and there are a lot) of the ridiculous pictures from the fun trip, check them out!

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