Where have I gone?!? I'm here! I'm HERE!

Sorry for the radio silence - it's been quite a bit of adjusting for us getting back into the swing of things in a 'routine' lifestyle, filing taxes, getting through 6 months of mail that was nicely stacked and collected by my 'future' sister in law, getting my car running again (after 6 months of neglect, it figured it should shut down I guess), trying to finalize some Wedding plans, getting ready for a Mexican vacation next week, etc. etc. So --- here is the last of the Swedish Adventure...BUT....I will continue to keep this blog going (and more regularly once again) so that those of you who are far and away in this country and others can keep up on the happenings of my life. I have quite a few exciting things coming up in the next year - a Mother's Day Breast Cancer Walk (in honor of and support of my Mom, my Grandma, and my great friend Christie), a marriage retreat with Thom, a marathon in May, a few triathlons, the MN Border to Border race in July, wedding prep and the like...and well, life!

Thanks for following the Swedish Adventures...stay tuned for more excitement from the MN KP :) Grab a beverage and read the adventures of our travel home....you would think that I looked like a terrorist or something!!!

XO,

me

Let’s see…when I last wrote, we were just done with our adventure around Europe…a small adventure, but a great adventure none the less!

When we got back to Stockholm, we made a point to see the things that we hadn’t yet seen and do the things we hadn’t done, but had on our “to do” list. At this point, all that was left was to go to Gondolen (a restaurant at the highest point in Sodermalm), see the small, old cottages in Sodermalm, and walk around Djurgården. So, we did.

We started out by getting our hair cut “one last time” while in Sweden, then going to get some last minute souveniers in Gamla Stan (Old Town). While we were walking through Old Town, Thom had not really seen all of the Royal Palace, so it was time to look around a bit, and our timing was perfect for Changing of the Guards (again – I “stumbled” upon it the first time too…just happened to be there at the time that they change…took me back to one of my first weeks in Sweden). We continued walking and seeing the small cabins in Sodermalm. We had read about these many times and so the curiosity was getting to us! It was interesting that there were many different streets that had these little old cabins – most without running water or electricity and still in the same form that they were oh so many years ago! It’s great to see that people can still live as simple as they once did in the past. That was quite a cool thing to see. We ended the night at a place called “Mosebacke” – a place with a great patio and apparently “THE” place to hang out when the weather is good! We would call that one a “favorite” place to hang out if we could spend the summer here.

Saturday we had a lot of time to spend walking around and doing the things we wanted to do, including seeing the island of Djurgården. We took a little adventure walk to get to the island, and once we got there, we were quite amazed with the place! We walked around the area that was at the bottom of “Skansen” where we went to the Christmas market and where the zoo is. The trails led us to places that were so beautiful and the sites were amazing! I did find a pedestal where a statue once was and decided to become a statue myself with Reese (see picture) We saw a map on the island and realized that we had only seen part of the island, but we continued onto Skeppsholmen and Kastelholmen (2 other islands) and saw some more great sites. Since I had to do a long run that weekend (for marathon training), I made a mental note to come back to Djurgården because we had only done ½ of the island. As we were walking, we decided to stop for a bite to eat at a cute little café on the water and take in the view. It was awesome and very relaxing! We eventually made our way back to the northern part of Sodermalm where we would have a chance to go to Gondolen – the restaurant with a view! We decided that we would just have a drink and see how the view was, then go back to our favorite, Mosebacke, one last time. The view was definitely great from Gondolen…but it was too nice to be inside, so one drink and back to Mosebacke we went to enjoy the sunshine! Everyone else seemed to have the same thought process, and it was funny to see the people move tables and chairs as the sun was setting and shadows being cast; everyone was moving tables and chairs into the sun to catch every last minute of it.

Easter Sunday, I took the time to run around the city one last time…18 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes, I was able to see most of my favorite sites and take it all in. It was a great run, but at the same time, it was very sad for me to realize that this would be the last time I would see these sites for a while. I truly enjoyed my time in Sweden – all of my friends that I met began to feel like family. The public transit system was engrained in my head and I could tell anyone which color line to take to get to their destination, or perhaps even what time a bus might be coming. Thom and I had our favorite “godis” (goodies/candy), we had our favorite beers, we had our favorite places to go, shops to shop at, and we felt at home. I think I’m Swedish by heritage…I think my parents missed that part when they tried to educate me on where our roots are set!!! The only part that I have yet to learn more of is the language, and I was beginning to get to the point where I could completely understand what people were saying, but I couldn’t pick the words to say the right things. Recognition of words, however, was easy for me now…I just hope I don’t lose that. Some day, I do hope I can return and stay forever.

Which leads me into our trip home…
We get everything packed up in the apartment, and thank goodness for our friends Robert and Elin who came over to see us on Sunday night one last time…and we sent them home with some things to deliver to my host family. It was a great thing we did because their car was packed to the top with things and if we had waited to pack those things (one box of things with a microwave, coffee maker, etc., a mattress, and 2 cushions), Thom and I would never have made it to the airport on Monday morning with our things!!! That night, Thom and I slept on the cushions from the couch…literally. He slept on the part that would be the “Seat” of the couch while I slept on the pillows that made up the “back” of the couch. The sleep was not the best quality, but it was good enough I guess. Coach Oscar picked us up at 7:30 on Monday morning and we were off to the airport. Arrival at the airport, we check our bags (2 for each of us) and we head off to take Reese to the “Special” baggage. They asked us to produce a receipt for the transit of Reese…um…well, I hadn’t printed anything, and they checked her in at the front counter…why do we need a receipt?? They asked how much we had paid for her! Um…well, I didn’t have the receipt in front of me, and we actually had one of our friends in the Bandy world help us out with the tickets, so I didn’t have a receipt. Thank goodness for kind souls in Sweden…they let her go onto the plane without that pesky receipt being shown!! Reese is checked in, sedative in tummy…next stop is for us to get through security! Thom is ahead of me and goes through one line and I go through another. I must have had a woman checking me that was having a bad day! She scolds me for leaving “7 days after your residence permit has expired!! This is trouble!!” I stood there thinking to myself “Ok, so keep me here? Really? DARN!” I offered to stay in Sweden if that would make it easier for her…I don’t think she liked that response very much because she proceeded with “I’ll have to report you and you will have problems!” I remained calm and asked “What problems…I’m trying to go back to the States now…?” She responded that it might be difficult to get a residence permit there if I tried again. BECAUSE OF ONE WEEK!?? I didn’t argue as Thom’s permit expired the same day and he had already made it through the line and was on his way…they apparently didn’t have the same issue with his passport check person. Oh well…she let me through, and my heart will be broken if they will not let me come back in for 7 days over my residence permit; ironic that you can stay as a “visitor” for 3 months without a residence permit…hmph! As we start making our way to the gate, we see the “Tax Free” counter where we can claim our 25% for “exporting” of goods that we have purchased…that is if you purchase them within 3 months of leaving the country. That wiped out more than 75% of my purchases. Oh well…we got a whopping $8 USD back! Ha ha! We were lucky on that because they actually require you to show the goods you are taking home. Oops – we already checked our baggage!!! Again, thanks to the trusting souls in Sweden! We make our way to our gate where they do another check of your passport and ticket, and do the random pat down of people. Guess who got selected for the pat down --- yep – yours truly! First they want a receipt that I don’t have, then they want to hassle me for being 7 days past my residence permit, then they want the purchased goods (which took up ½ of a suit case as it was), then they have to pat me down?!? I must look like trouble! Finally sitting at the gate, because they didn’t have anything to stop me for with the pat down and search through my personal belongings (surprise!), we are now ready to board the plane because we are tired and tired of the hassle of traveling – not because we want to leave Sweden!

The flight was uneventful, just the way I like them. There was a little boy, Max, who was 7 months old and barely made a fuss, and I kept entertaining him to ensure that!!! I did not want to listen to a crying baby!!! Arrival in Chicago and off to get Reese – first priority on our list!! We get her, the customs folks do their inspection, and away we go to get our bags to re-check them. We go to get our bags and the TSA agent tells us we can “relieve” the dog outside – “Through those glass doors, then come back in and you can put her in her cage after they inspect it.” Thom goes with Reese, I go with the cage. 10 minutes pass, so I figure I’ll be proactive and figure out which gate we are departing from when the TSA agent tells me that someone is trying to get my attention outside…I look and there is Thom (no surprise) and he’s flailing his arms, but I can’t hear what he’s saying beyond the glass door. I step out there and then I realize he was saying “Don’t come out here, but I need to get back in and they won’t let me!” I realized that as I was stepping through, then I tried to double back and they wouldn’t let me --- now all 3 of us were outside of the glass doors and Reese’s cage was inside. Luckily, the TSA agent that sent me out, came out to see what was going on, apologized for not telling me to NOT go out there, and then she helped us by getting her supervisor. Whew! Thom had been arguing with the Security person to let him back in and she wasn’t budging, but the TSA supervisor was willing to talk to the security person and let us back in. What fun!? Welcome back to the USA! Finally, Reese is checked back in, we are off to the gate and…yes…a DELAY! Great! 2 hours…could be more, etc. We were delayed 3 hours and finally got home around 7:30. We were happy to be done with the travels, but we still miss Sweden.

“Why?” you might ask…well, it’s a lot of things. The people are so kind. The language is fun to learn. The way of living is healthier. The city is much more accessible via public transit so you can live without a car. It just FEELS like I fit in there so easily. There really is no way to explain how it feels or why it feels so right, it just does. I will be back there some day, and hopefully we can live there again! I'll keep working on it as long as Thom is still willing to be by my side as we make the adventure, and based on his experiences, I think he will.

We will miss our Swedish adventures...for a while...then we will be back.

Puss och Kram to our Swedish "Family",

Kristy, Thom, and Reese

more pictures of the last few sights in Sweden can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76738&id=566826522&l=30f9b994b0

4 capitals - Stockholm to Helsinki Finland to Tallinn Estonia to Riga Latvia

Why this schedule for our “vacation”?
We have both always wanted to go see Helsinki. We were told that “if you take the boat to Helsinki, you might as well take another boat to see Tallinn in Estonia”, and I have a friend who plays hockey for the Latvian national team so I thought that it would be a good time to see her and see where her heritage comes from.

We hopped on the boat to Helsinki and as we got into the waters around Sweden, we were amazed! The Archipelago is BEAUTIFUL! I cannot put into words the peacefulness of the area, the beauty of the nature, and all of the places we commented “it’d be awesome to have a cabin there!”. Should Thom and I be fortunate enough to come back to Sweden, we will make sure to come back during the time where we might get to enjoy these waters. Unfortunately this trip was during the winter months where most boats were not setting onto the water (and who would really want to stand outside in the cold like that??), so we didn’t get to enjoy these sites until we were on a covered ship behind some windows so we could stay warm.

It’s amazing how one can have a perception of a city before they even get there and then have images in their head replaced by the reality!

I’d always wanted to go to Helsinki since I travelled to Lappeenranta, Finland in 2004 for the World Championships in Bandy. The city, from what I can remember, was very quaint, old, and cute…so, I thought that Helsinki would be much the same! I was a bit off…the city is pretty modern now, and full of…cement! I was told by a friend who is from Finland that Helsinki is very “grey”…and I was surprised to see that it actually was! Don’t get me wrong – the city does have character and has some very neat buildings and other sites that make it full of it’s own character. Being situated on the water with the water shaping the lines of the city, the streets weren’t always the easiest to follow and there were many different ‘sub areas’ that were shaped. There was the area of Senate Square with some history apparent. Then there was the area of the beach, the bay where people must hang out in the summer, the political (embassies) area, shopping, and “city” areas. We were fortunate that I have a friend there, Jarmo, who was an exchange student from when I was a freshman in high school. Jarmo met us a couple of hours after we arrived in the city and took us on a car tour…definitely the way to experience the sites I’d say. Because of the waterfront carving the city and making it feel more spread out, going by car was a great idea. The only thing that I think would have been fun to see that we didn’t was this one island that was apparently like a “fort” with a wall around it. I guess we have left something for us to see if we can ever make it back. He took us around the outskirts of the city first so we could see how it is kind of curvy, then we went to the football field where the local Helsinki football team plays. We were fortunate that the team was practicing, so we were able to watch a little bit of that…then, he called a friend of his who works with the team and we were given a small tour of the facility! How cool! We were able to see a lounge for the visiting team (or corporate party area), as well as a suite for watching the game. I loved the fact that they had a Finnish Sauna IN the suite where you could watch the game! He then took us to the Olympic Stadium from 1952 and up to the top of the tower there! (Which is to be noted that it was on “The Amazing Race” when they had to repel down the wall of the tower!). GREAT place to see the lay of the land of the city. He took us many places including where a statue has been made in tribute to a famous composer. I thought it was so cool - when the wind blows, these different pipes make different noises and it becomes musical!! He gave us a recommendation for dinner and it was fantastic! We also got to see "Rock Church" where there is a rock in the center of the city and someone decided to carve into it and make it a church! crazy! We ate reindeer (poor Rudolph – although, the waitress assured me that it was NOT Rudolph!) and it was delicious! The story of Santa Claus in Finland is that he comes from Lapland, so it was a bit ironic that we ate Reindeer at a restaurant called “Lappi” where the workers dressed in traditional Lapland clothing.

Up early the next morning to catch the boat to Tallinn Estonia. Both Thom and I had no real expectations of the city. We were thinking that it would be a bit run down and almost poor. Wow – it was really amazing! A 2.5 hour boat ride from Helsinki and we were in a different era and different town. The City itself was pretty modern, but the “Old Town” was very interesting – amazing to me. I could have taken thousands of pictures of old buildings and neat structures!! I felt like we were walking in the old cobblestone roads of the movie Beauty and the Beast. My souvenier score of the trip to Estonia were these “Boiled wool” slippers…I had my eyes on some from Stockholm for a LONG time (since my first visit to Stockholm in February of 2008), but they were $70! I couldn’t believe that nor could I justify that. So you can imagine my delight and surprise when I found some for just $20 USD! I grabbed those and that was a great surprise to me. We decided to sit in the square and take in the town a little more and a beer. That was a fun time and we got to see a Borat impersonator. That was funny – imagine the scene in the movie where Borat is in his “swim suit” – yeah, this guy was running around in his swim suit like that. Apparently, it was a group of guys from Norway on a Bachelor party, and his wife to be wanted him to do this little gig. Quite funny. Thom and I decided that it was not in my character to “make” him do it, nor would he do it, but it was quite funny and disturbing all at once. We headed back to the hotel room for an early night and we were quite tired from all of the walking we had done in the past couple of days. Our bus to Riga would leave the station at 7:00 in the morning, so we also thought it would be a good idea to turn in a bit early.

The bus ride was somewhat of an adventure with the bus driver in somewhat of a hurry apparently. We get to the bus station to check in with the driver who was a bit gruff with the whole check in process – perhaps a language barrier – perhaps not as we were not the only ones he was gruff with. We get onto the bus, find our seats (apparently the numbering scheme on the tickets doesn’t really matter), and settle in for the journey. This bus route took us on some roads that reminded us of Northern Minnesota where you could see through some trees to the Sea off to the side with a beach. Ok – so in Minnesota, that would be a lake and not the sea…but the same atmosphere anyway. Very woodsy and peaceful…unless you looked at the road we were traveling on. Sitting in the first seat behind the driver, we had this vantage point; perhaps not always a good idea. We could see that he would get close to the vehicle in front of us – a car, a truck, or a Semi – and he would make the pass. There could be a car, bus, semi, etc coming towards us in the other lane, but that didn’t seem to phase the driver; he had faith that they would move over on to their shoulder for him to get by the obstacle in our way…luckily, they did! Safely we arrived in Riga and the adventure continues.

Sarma had provided very detailed and excellent directions for us to get from the bus station to her hockey game, including some walking, some tram riding, and some exploring in a sense. We had an idea that there would be some kind of language barrier, but we didn’t realize how much of a language barrier until we tried to buy a ticket for the tram. We get to the kiosk where we should be able to buy a tram ticket just a few minutes before the tram arrives. There were a bunch of little old ladies that were ahead of us trying to buy something and having discussions with the kiosk clerk. The tram is arriving behind us and all of a sudden, it isn’t important to these little old ladies what they were after to begin with and they scurry to the tram, leaving us standing there hoping to be able to buy our tram ticket. I use the words that Sarma had written to me to try and buy some tickets where the clerk shoos us away as if to tell us that we can buy the tickets elsewhere and just to go. So we get on the tram. We see people trying to buy tickets from the driver, so I make the attempt again. The driver also shoos me away and shows me what looks like a token – meaning I must need a token to get the tickets. Sarma had told us that the “tram police” might hop on board and ask to see a ticket, so Thom and I started to get a bit nervous. We hop off at the next stop where we see the ticket selling store and attempt to buy a ticket again. Luckily, the gentleman behind the counter spoke a little bit of English and was able to help us out. With our tickets in hand we waited for the next tram to come and we hop on. Good thing we had the tickets because at the next stop, the tram police hop onto the tram, checking for tickets. Whew! We are minding our own business when our tram makes a stop a bit head of the next marked stop and we see 2 young guys sprinting around the street corner while a guy hops off of our tram and runs smack into one of the sprinters. As the tram sits there, we watch and see that something must be going down. We think that the guy on our tram was an undercover cop going to the spot where these 2 ‘kids’ would be running. As we watch the other ‘citizen’ (maybe under cover cop) holding and using pressure point tactics on one of the guys, the police arrive in their van and haul these two guys off. What the??? Ok, this city is apparently a bit rough! We finally make it to the hockey game (after walking around the whole arena a bit trying to figure out where we were to enter the building as all of the doors were chained shut), and feel a bit of relief and safety in the walls of the arena. Sarma had a pretty good game from what we could see, and we were anxious to have our tour guide by our side!!! We made our way to Riga’s “Old Town” where we saw a different style of Old Town from Tallinn. This Old Town was a bit more worn down and showed signs of the war --- including some old cannon balls still in the side of a tower!! There are monuments there that are symbols of Freedom…it was a different feel based on the language as well – much more Russian was heard and obviously Latvian. Thank goodness we had Sarma there to help us!!! The city itself is full of old buildings that seem to be crumbling, and the streets are very dusty and dirty. We did get to go to the top of the church tower to see the city from the top --- we’ve done that in the previous 2 cities, so we had to do it here too! Sarma took us around to an area that was a bit “nicer” with the homes and they were individual houses instead of the apartment buildings. The houses were nice and definitely different than the architecture that I’m used to. We walked through an old cemetery too and saw many German names and various dates – many back to the 1800s! I can say that aside from the history in Riga, there is really good beer there! We went out for a beer at a bar just down the street from Sarma’s apartment and she asked “do you want a big or a small”…well, we said “Big”, thinking that it was going to be just a bit more than a pint….um, the beers were the size of my head! Seriously! I loved it! The costs in Riga were MUCH less than anywhere else on the trip, including Stockholm or even back in the States. Back onto the boat to head Holm and there were many more loud people on this boat.

While we really enjoyed our trip and all of the different sites, the history that we were exposed to, and the good company, we realized how much we really do love Stockholm.

We are going to miss this place we have called home for 6 months. I’m very glad to have these experiences, and cannot wait to do this again and get some different and new experiences. *sigh* Now, I must catch my breath before we make the adventure back to the US from this lovely land of Sweden. Perhaps I will blog once I get on the other side of the water…just because I’ve come to enjoy the written memories as much as living them the first time.

Thank you to all of my Swedish family and friends. You have made our time here most enjoyable. You will all be missed greatly.

For those of you back in the US --- we will arrive on the 13th, but we will be heading out for a family vacation shortly thereafter. I think we will see you then!Realizing where I feel at home – here in Sweden – has been a great adventure.Sad and excited to return to the States,
Kristy

I have plenty more pictures if you would like to see them --- here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=75938&id=566826522&l=fb59c06ccd

and

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=75940&id=566826522&l=7d0ae882fa

and

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=75985&id=566826522&l=a001be97e1