Perhaps the hardest blog to compose....

This is a tough blog to write as I didn't think I'd be writing some of these things --- *sigh* --- AIK made it to the final match and for the regular season we were undefeated. I was pretty confident that the women of the AIK bandy team were well on their way to a repeat of winning and defending the SM Guld status. I was wrong...and I am very saddened to write that. I am still in a bit of shock and disappointment. The IFK girls came out striking hard with high pressure on our team, and it showed that they were hungry. One friend of mine said “you could tell that your team had everything to lose and they had everything to gain”. I do think that’s how our team played…unfortunately. However, on the up side, it is said to be “good for Swedish Bandy” to have another team win the gold! It shows that you can play all year and have a great season, but that doesn’t mean that you can win “it all”. It means that although we had an awesome chemistry and great team, we too are human. “What went wrong?” one might ask. I honestly don’t know. Not to discredit the girls of IFK, but the goals they scored were from outside of the penalty area…where goals are rarely scored from. Granted, we shouldn’t have given them the shots to score from there in the first place. We had many chances ourselves to score, but we missed the net. AIK and IFK both played a hard fought match and both teams put their hearts into it…but what went wrong? I have no answers. Maybe the question is more for IFK and “what went right?”

I did get to skate for a whole minute when one of our half backs lost an edge (after going flying over the boards and landing on cement!), and one of our midfielders also lost an edge, but that was all of the ice time I got to see. I cannot complain about the little bit of ice time that I saw that particular day. The game was brutal and I even saw our strongest player get flipped as she took a knee to knee impact; I would have lost my knee in that collision – I’m glad it wasn’t me, and I’m glad that our player is OK. I played a lot of bandy this season, so sure, while I wanted to take to the ice during that final match, I realize as well that I’m an American bandy player that has only been playing bandy for 4 years and I played a whole lotta bandy this winter. Coming into this season, I was thinking I’d get to skate every other game or so if I was lucky. The team did originally have about 20 people that were interested in playing, and we ended up with 16 for the whole season; of the 20, there were an additional 2 midfielders that I could have been competing for ice time with – I’m a very fortunate person to have had as much ice time as I did. I am also very thankful that I was given the chance to be on the bench during that final match. You see, we have had to sit at least 2 people every game this year, meaning that they don’t even get to take to the bench in their bandy gear during the games, rather they sit in the stands and cheer on the team. Yes, I’m very lucky to have even been in the jersey that day, and it’s an experience I will never forget. The anticipation, the excitement of getting ready, going through warm ups, taking to the ice, the cameras on the players, the buzz going through the locker room…it’s something that I cannot put into words. The silence that filled the locker room at the end of the game was disturbing; this was something we had been playing for all season and to have it taken away from us…that was not how we wanted the season to end. I do have to say, that it builds character. It makes me hunger to come back even more and play another season with a team that can win the gold just to see what it’s like to be on “that” end of the game. I think AIK will come back with a vengeance and take it to whomever they face next year and win it all back! I know that they can!!! I hope to be able to return to Sweden and play some time in the very near future – I’ve only become hungrier.

I have to admit that the after party was just as crazy even though I was not on the SM Gold team. I will leave it at that…it was a blast and I had a great time…the next day was not as forgiving and I partied like I had won the gold because in my heart and in my mind, I have had a very golden season here playing bandy with a great group of people all of whom I will miss when we head back to the States.

So, the questions I’ve been getting are “what will the team do now? Will you continue to train? What are the other team mates like? Do they have families? How can you give up every weekend to play like that?” Let me take them one at a time:
I am still training, just not on the ice. We ‘pulled the plug’ on the cooling unit for the ice the Wednesday night before we played in the Finals, so I won’t be “skating training” while I’m here. That last practice was quite memorable in my mind: I was on the ice as one of our team managers turned it off and I felt very sad. Thom had the chance to take to the ice before our team did that night and he sat there just listening to the silence of the night and the shifting of the ice as it was fighting to stay frozen on that warm evening. I stayed out there after everyone had gone off, took a lap around slowly taking in the view of the snow capped trees as the ice is set off in the woods. I got to center ice and had a few tears slide down my cheeks, and then I skated off. So sad to realize that it was my last bandy training on my home ice.

Instead, the training I will do now is more for my “off season” sports such as marathons and triathlons. One of the girls on the team teaches classes at a local gym, so I went to a spinning class on Monday (after we played the final on Saturday), and will attend on Wednesday as well. My running training will start up in full force after this weekend as our team is going to a “Ski Weekend” together. From what I understand, there is very little skiing and more socialization than anything…I intend to do both in moderation.

The team will take a bit of a physical break (after we do our skiing/social weekend together), and then they will get back into their training in May. Really --- they start training for their bandy season in May and it doesn’t start until November!! I will plan to follow their training plan this summer as well so I may be in the same top physical condition as them when I make my return  (Ok, I will do the training, and am going to work on figuring out how we can come back!)

The team mates – they are all in school or working full time. When I say “School” there is one girl who is still in “high school” and the rest are at University. They are all very dedicated to bandy and they have no problems giving up their personal time to train and skate like they do. Everyone’s family members and significant others realize the commitment that is required of them and they just understand it. The players on the team --- none of them are moms this year (although 2 are pregnant now!), but in the past, there were a few that were moms. Like I said, the family just realizes that the commitment is in the players blood, and they work together to make it happen.

What will Thom and I do now?
Well, this coming weekend as I’ve already mentioned is a skiing weekend/party weekend for the team. Thom will hang at home and go out with the guys (which is good as I’m sure he’s been dying for some “guy time”). After that, we have planned a small Euro Trip to Helsinki, Tallinn, and Riga. We have a day scheduled in each of the cities, and in Riga we will meet with my friend Sarma so she can show us around. After that long weekend of travel, we will come back to Sweden to see how they celebrate Easter and then (tears filling my eyes), we fly back home.

We will only be home for a couple of weeks (long enough for me to file taxes, say hello to those in Minneapolis), then we fly out for a family vacation with my side of the family. VERY excited to see all of them, especially my mom and my little niece (who I understand speaks in full sentences now and she’s just 2!!!!!!! Glad I’ll have someone to talk to on the vacation, HA HA!)

I just can’t believe that we are down to our last 3 weekends here and that’s it. We’re done in Sweden, we resume life back in the States, and I wish that I could come back and do it all over again. We’ve had a great adventure here and the only thing I would do differently is schedule the trip to be longer so we could see Sweden in the summer months as well.

Oh – and I did win the Bjorn Borg underwear competition (thanks everyone!) I came out with 15 new pairs of underwear and 3 new bras! Quite the collection!!! I will know if I am a finalist in the Adidas competition on March 30th, but I’m still in the running for the Nike competition! Please make sure to vote each day! Thanks to all of you who have been, I appreciate it.

Keep on voting for me on the Nike one!!!
http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/PhotosAlbums/PhotoView.aspx?picid=832420_51122567&pid=1393431&scid=418&=HP_sports_PPIMEMAIL&isep=1&pbapi=-1&pbvi=45721425&pdi=2366

I’m sure to have a few more blog posts before we head back to the states…I just can’t believe this was my wrap up of the bandy season. Where did the time go?

For the love of the game,
KP

I will shed a few tears...of joy and of sadness...

I can’t believe it – it’s the last official week of the bandy season here in Sweden! ?! ?!??!? Fy Fan! I’m sad! I wish that this season could continue, and at the same time I wish spring would finally get here. If I could have the best of both worlds, I’d have the seasons outside but have an indoor bandy field! Some day, when I win the lottery, I will build an indoor bandy field and play year round. Now THAT is a dream I will have to work at to achieve.

This past weekend, we faced VAIK for the 2nd match of the Semi-Finals. We had ice time reserved on Sunday in case we needed game 3 (as it was a best of 3 series), but we also were prepared that we would win on Saturday and therefore have practice on Sunday instead of another match. Yes, we had practice on Sunday. With a great match played by the AIK dambandy spelar (women’s bandy players), we won the match 5-2. I won’t elaborate on the play, I will just say that “dang that was great bandy!” Unfortunately, I was unable to play in the match as it’s fair to give everyone a chance. I sure do hope I will skate on Saturday March 21st as we are IN for the FINAL match against Nassjo. These two teams have faced eachother last year for the series final as well, so this is one that will be a hard fought match. We did a great exercise with the team this week – the task was to positively say something about each of our teammates, then we were given a sheet of paper that had all of those positive thoughts from the team members on it. My level of determination and passion for the sport has been seen by others on the team, and I have been called “The Fighting Tiger”. That’s very flattering, and I hope I get to show that spirit in one more match this season.

This week we have spent every day on the ice, so I don’t have much of an update other than that. Thom and I didn’t do any exploring, just work, to the bandy field, back home (and I don’t mind!). This coming week will be more of the same, and for that I am quite excited honestly. We were told in our Sunday morning practice that this week before the Final will be dedicated to bandy, and I couldn’t agree more! Training all of the usual days this week, however, we will be going to Uppsala for the game on Saturday. Uppsala is about an hour north of Stockholm, so we will actually make the journey there on Friday so we can get to the field, take in a skate, then relax for the evening with visions of bandy goals dancing in our heads. The excitement on the team is buzzing with high energy and the girls are all so pumped. I’m anxious, excited, and yet at the same time, sad. I am sad because the “Final” means that my time here to play bandy is coming to an end. I’m so very grateful for the fun and educational season I’ve had, but I wonder “couldn’t it be a bit longer??” I have so much yet to learn, so much to improve upon, and so much more to experience and do on the ice. Please? Just a few more months?!? Ok…yes, I realize that the seasons change, and the iced bandy fields will turn to green fields for futbol and the bandy klubban will be exchanged for cleats by many. I will turn in the skates for my running shoes and begin more training for my marathon coming up on May 31st --- ironically, Minneapolis and Stockholm are holding their marathons on the same day. I think I should take part in the Stockholm marathon instead of Minneapolis . Since I did not play on Saturday, Thom and I decided to try this bar “Peppar” that we have seen every day as we make our way to and from the subway station. Boy, am I glad we did!!! I had a fajita (granted, not served sizzling hot like in the US), and it tasted wonderful! We had a beer there, then decided to hit a few places on the way back home and try the atmosphere (beer) at each of them. I had a blast! We both enjoyed the night very much and had a great time. On Saturday morning, I decided I would turn to my marathon training for some exercise and take in some more of the glorious views of the Swedish terrain. I ran around Haga park and then decided to continue my run to the bandy field. I was surprised that it only took me 30 minutes to run there – it takes most of our bus and/or train rides 45 minutes! Once I made it to the bandy field, I continued through Bergsharma and the surrounding areas – the areas that we have been running as a team during the dark, so I hadn’t seen most of the sights. I will have to take Thom and Reese back there with my camera to capture some of the cool things I saw. It was simply beautiful and definitely reminded me of why I was running that day.

So there won’t be much of an update this week from me as I’ll be doing what I said I would – focusing my energy towards the bandy training this week. I will, however, post the results of the final match, and I do anticipate posting a picture of me with a golden helmet very soon. If you wish to watch the match, it will be televised on “SVT” – I’m not sure which channel (1, 4, or 24), but you should be able to find it if you want to watch it through the “svenskbandy.se” web site. Email me if you are interested and I can do some searching. We will play at 11:45 on Saturday (5:45 am CST for those of you back home  ). In my upcoming blogs, I will try to reflect back upon some of the highlights of being here. I simply cannot put into words the emotions I have started to feel this week, knowing that the bandy season is coming to an end for the year, knowing we will be returning to the States, and all of the great adventures we have had here. There simply are no words to really explain the experience, but I will try. This week, I anticipate the tears of joy and sorrow will flow; I will be so excited to be a part of the SM Guld chant and participate in the game, but I will be very sad to have the last 90 minutes of the season ticking off of the clock...a happy and sad day all at once.

Thanks to everyone who has been voting daily for the Adidas and Nike contests. The Adidas one only runs for one more week so keep your votes rolling in! The Nike one will continue for about 40 more days, but keep those votes going!!!

Believe in the Run - vote every day!

BELIEVE IN THE RUN Sponsored by Visit NIKE USA

2 contests in addition to the Bandy contest

Ok, time is really getting away from me and I apologize. Since our last game...we have done quite a bit. We had the weekend "off" the last weekend of February, and so after I posted my last blog, we went on a walk to see if we could find this "old wooden house that the Queen lived in in the 1800's". We thought it would be close...and we had read that it was a "major tourist attraction" so we figured it would be easy to spot. Ha! Well, it wasn't easy to find, but we did find it, and we didn't see any signs that it was a tourist attraction. I took a picture anyway! That was pretty much the excitement for the weekend as I was still coming down from the cold I had battled. The week wasn't much more exciting until Friday rolled around.

We headed to the "Radio Tower" (the name is Kaknas Tower - literally translated - "Cookie Nose" tower). It is the tallest building in all of Scandanavia and there is a restaraunt at the top. We went up at dinner time, so I was starving and hoping for a good dinner anyway since we had a game on Saturday that I was to play in as it was the first game in the Semi-Finals! Steak and potatoes sounded great....

We found the tower (after crossing across a very large field/park that seems a bit different for what we have seen in Stockholm...), and we took the 30 second ride to the 30th floor to have some dinner. Oh my! The view was spectacular, even though it was a bit cloudy that day. The dinner -- mmm!! YUMMY! I haven't had a "Swedish Steak" before, but it was delicious. The only difference - they put an egg on the top of it. More protein as if the beef doesn't have enough I guess. Whatever the reason, I ate it, and I ate it all because it was so yummy! The evening was definitely romantic and one of the best adventures we have been on I think. Perhaps it's because we didn't have any expectations going into it, but whatever the reason, we really enjoyed it and I'd be happy to go back again.

Saturday was the first game against VAIK in the Semi Finals at their rink. I was told I'd be dressing to play forward and midfield. While this was true, I did dress to play those positions if needed, I did not get to see the ice at all. It was a tight match from beginning to end, so I, being the less talented one of the team I guess, rode the pine for the game. I hope to dress again on Saturday - even if I do ride the pine, it's just great to be a part of the experience. I do think our team will do better against VAIK this coming Saturday though, so the score may have a larger difference and be weighted in favor of us for more of the game so I may get my chance to skate. We ended up tying the game 3-3 in regulation, went into overtime and with the game still 3-3, we went into a shoot out. The 7th shooter for our team finally put one in to win! Whew! 1 game down, 1 more to win before the Finals!

On other news of things I've been keeping busy with - I've entered 2 more contests online. The Adidas one is to win a chance to be a model with Candace Parker for Adidas. The other is for Nike and to win some of their gear. You can vote daily for both of them:



Adidas: http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/uswomen/content/default.asp

Nike:
http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/PhotosAlbums/PhotoView.aspx?picid=832420_51122567&=HP_sports_PPIMEMAIL&isep=1&pbapi=1393431&pbvi=45721425

The Adidas one is tricky - - - when you get to the page - "Skip Intro" is on the right - - - it helps to skip it. Then a purple circle with a white arrow will be in the middle of the screen ---- you can click on that and it will take you to the page. You will have to enter your email address and some other information if it is your first time to the site. Otherwise, log in with your email address, then search for me with my email address: bandychick6@yahoo.com Then you should be able to find me and vote for me that way.

The Nike one --- that one is very direct and simple!

Thanks for all of your support and voting!

KP

Catching up...another 10 days has gone right past me!

The game against Tranås was great!  We won the match 10-0 and one of the forwards on our team, Mikis, won the scoring title for the season! yeaye! What was really not good about the game....was that it was the last "regular" season game of the year. I had a hard time not shedding a few tears because the end of the season has come. Ok, so I cried like a big baby because it was the last game of the regular season. I just don't want the bandy season to be done. I'm having so much fun training and learning, experiencing life here in Stockholm, and just living life to the fullest. But I can't stop time, so the show must go on.

Tranås is about 3.5 hours away from Stockholm, and 3 of our team members are from there originally. On the way there, we were a little early (we left a little early because we were supposed to get a lot of snow), so we stopped at one of the team mates parent's house for our "snack" (theory session) and to enjoy a fika (coffee break). Then it was off to the rink! When the game was done, I was exhausted and hungry, so it was a very pleasant surprise when Josse said that her parents were offering to have the team over for tacos!! Mmmm! We haven't had mexican food since we've been here, and Thom and I were just talking about how Chipotle sounded SO good! I stuffed myself to the point of feeling like I had gone too far....doh! oh well, I enjoyed it. Back onto the bus for the ride home and we watched Bolt - the movie - very cute. We didn't get to finish it because some people on the team wanted to listen to the "Melody Festival" - the show that is how the Swedes pick who to send on to the European competition where all of Europe competes to have "their" singer/band win the title. Quite the event here - everyone seems glued to it --- so much so that they put it on the radio so you can listen if you have to be on the road and can't watch it from the comforts of home! We don't know how the movie ended --- we will soon though, we'll borrow it from someone ;)

Sunday, I was exhausted, but we were up to go to Miska's house to plan our European adventure trip. Once the bandy season is done with finals (boo hoo!), Thom and I will venture to Helsinki Finland, Tallinn Estonia, and Riga Latvia, then back here to Stockholm. I was surprised to find out how cheap this trip will be --- about $600 for the both of us for a week's vacation, including transportation and hotels!?? WOW! Pretty good deal all in all! We will get to see my USA teammate Sarma in Riga! She's there training with the Latvian national Hockey team for their World Championships in Italy. That will be fun to see a familiar face and learn where she "comes from". We enjoyed a great lunch with Miska and her 2 twins, some relaxing time, then back home for the evening. The rest of the week was pretty normal with work and training --- except for Thursday --- I didn't make it to training because my head felt like it was going to explode and I had the whole body aches - worse than I've ever had them before!!! So, I did still manage to make it to 3 days of training this week, but I would have rather been at the fourth day of training as opposed to curled up in a ball in pain. Oh well - I slept for 30 hours out of 38 and felt 85% better the next day (Friday). It is now Saturday and I'm feeling 90%, and hope to be able to go to the gym tomorrow with the rest of the team for training yet again. I HATE being sick! Sounds like some others have the same "cold bug" that we know, so I apparently got it from somewhere around here...it wasn't lurking in my suitcase anywhere! I'll make sure to leave it here though too.

We also found out that we could possibly ship some things home via "Cargo" through SAS. I hope that we will be able to do that --- you see, I have purchased a few items here, as well as gotten my team warm ups (they are spiffy! I will have to post a picture of me in those eventually), AND --- guess who won the Bjorn Borg competition!???? YEP! I DID! So, they are going to send me a "collection" of Bjorn Borg Underwear! I don't know what is included in the "collection" - but we will soon find out!

For those of you who are wondering - we have also booked our flights back home - April 13th is the date. That gives me one whole day to prepare our US taxes and file them! Glad we don't have any major things to complicate the process ;)

Next weekend, we have a Semi Final match - this process is the best of 3....so, we anticipate that we will play 2 matches, have a week off, then play in the Final Match which will take place in Uppsalla. I'm excited to see what the excitement is like around the finals. Still amazes me that there are enough teams full of women bandy players in order to have quarter finals, semil finals, and the finals! I LOVE this place!

So, until after our next game...as I'm sure you don't really want to read about the stuff I do for work while I am here...Take care and stay away from the nasty cold bug I am over coming --- it's not a nice one!

Hej Do,
KP

So much to do and see...

Wow – it’s been another week and I have yet to make another post! Time sure does fly by me here! Ok, backing up to where I left off….Saturday we won the game against Sandviken – 2 -0. We had this weekend “off” as far as games go, then we head to Tranas to play our last season game this coming Saturday. I can’t believe the season is coming to an end already.

So, after the game on Saturday, Sunday we went to the Globen Arena to watch Team Sweden play hockey against Team Finland in front of a sold out crowd. The Globen Arena is pretty cool looking, but has some design flaws on the inside --- like if you are sitting up in the nose bleed section like we were, if you go up the wrong side, you can’t just walk around to get to your seats, no…you have to go back down the 5 flights of stairs to go back up on the right side. Oh well…as we were correcting our wrong of going up on the wrong side, we ran across someone I knew --- yep – I’m far away from home, but run into someone I know in a city where I know maybe 30 people of 3 million! It was one of my co-workers and his son. That took me by surprise! The game was really good – very close until the end and Sweden won 4-0. The week days were more of the same with work and then training, including a training run on my own on Wednesday where I ran my “typical” 4 miles through Haga Park. What wasn’t typical about the run this week was that my legs were dead from the training we did on Tuesday, including hill sprints running, drills on the ice, then sprints on the ice! Oy vey! That was awesome and tiring. Thursday and Friday I did take ½ days from work so we could go and see a few things. Thursday we didn’t do anything exciting as we had training that night, but Friday we decided to walk around Sodermalm and hang out a bit there. That was kinda neat to see some different parts and walk randomly without a place to go or something holding us to a time table. Saturday was Valentine’s day, and we didn’t really have anything particular up our sleeves, other than enjoying time with eachother more. So, we headed to Drottningham Palace to see if I could meet Prince Carl Phillip and see if Thom could meet Crown Princess Victoria – we figure that if we are going to stay in this country, we have to try to hook up with those who can make it happen. While we didn’t get a good chance to meet them, we did wander the palace grounds and that was interesting. Reminded me of the White House combined with Versailles in France. Quite the combination, but pretty cool overall. As you can see in the picture - I could hold it in the palm of my hand ;)



We headed to a Thai place for ‘dinner’ – Thom enjoyed it, I didn’t as much. Oh well, it was a great experience. Saturday night our neighbor was having a party and had slipped a note through our mail slot earlier in the week (we came home and thought that it was going to be a note about how our dog was causing noise again! Whew!) We headed to her apartment for what we thought would be “one drink”. Everyone there was SO incredibly nice, it was easy to just hang out and talk with everyone. It was funny to see some of them ready to go out to the club and some were not so ready. We were flexible and enjoyed the fact that we “closed it down” next door with some very nice people. Sunday I needed to get a training run in for my marathon training, so I ran 9.5 miles through Solna and Stockholm combined. Very enjoyable I have to say! Monday was Presidents day, so Thom and I decided to do something “American” and find a good place for a good American brunch. We found this place called “Sirip Café”, and it was marvelous! They had “American” pancakes! Ok, doesn’t seem like a big deal when you have Perkins or Denny’s at every corner, but the pancakes normally are very thin here --- unless you find some American Pancakes! I highly recommend this place. Although, like anywhere else, this restaurant is quite pricey. I don’t think I’ve ever spent $45 on brunch before now. Oh well – it was definitely worth it!

Tuesday, back to work for the week and ready for the big week of training – not a night will go by this week without intense training. We are ramping up for the finals that we will be getting ready to play. Amazing….still can’t believe that “the end is near”. Like “All good things must come to an end” --- so must this edition of my blog! Cheers!



Oh - and Reese celebrated turning 2 on the 7th!! Our little girl - she's all grown up!!! She even sports hats for fashion here. She must realize that she needs to keep her ears warm!!





In case my email didn't reach you, I also entered a contest this past week - Bjorn Borg (the famous tennis player) has an underwear line that I really like...so, why not try to win a whole wardrobe of it?? If you haven't done so, check it out (and for those of you who have - thanks for the comments - I should find out from them next month if I am a winner ;) ) Enjoy!
http://www.bjornborg.com/en/SwedishExports/Kristy-Powell-USA/

Bandy, Culture, Fun

We won one of the toughest matches we had to play this season, 5-0. YEAYE! That secured our position as the “All Svenska” champions (all Swedish Champions). That’s an awesome feeling. So, that means that we stay at #1 in the league, then we have to prepare for playoffs where we will face that same team, Nassjo, again. They are a good team and a friend of ours helps coach them, Pelle. Pelle, Hanna Brusberg, and Matilda J came to the US last year to see what USA Bandy is all about. I had the pleasure of getting to know them a little bit and Pelle was supportive of me coming to Sweden to play bandy. Hanna Bruseberg (aka – “Brus” on the ice) joined the AIK team this year too, and it has been fun getting to know her a little more. Pelle and I will write back and forth to eachother and poke at eachother that “the best team will win” --- I have now the satisfaction of 2 of 2 matches going to the “BEST” team --- AIK. We will see them again and we will prepare for that match, as we will wear the golden helmets at the finals. As for the game this coming weekend, I’m very saddened to say that I will not get to play. At this point, I can only hope that I will get to skate in the finals. I have busted my @$$ on the ice during our team trainings as well as off the ice when the team hasn’t had any training and I was to run and lift on my own; I only hope it has made me a better bandy player - good enough to play in the finals. This was our last season home match, and that makes me sad to realize that my “last home game” was last weekend and I didn’t even know it --- sometimes I guess you have to take your “10 seconds to soak it in” each and every time just in case there isn’t a “next time”.

So, onto the fun things that we did this week…I did some research online for the Vasa Museum this week and found that if we went on Wednesday nights, we could go for less $$...and we figured that it would be less crowded in the middle of the week as well. We were right!!! A very pleasant and informative evening was spent at the Vasa Museum, and followed by dinner at O’Leary’s! The Vasa was a ship that was being built for the military guys and was going to be used in battles against Poland…but apparently, the Polish (no offense Jill) must have designed the thing as it sank within 30 minutes of it’s maiden voyage in front of the King. This thing was massive! The theory is that all of the weight of the cannons and guns was not counterweighted enough in the bottom of the ship, therefore as it started to sway one way, then back, and back the other, water came in through the port holes for the cannons, and thus sinking the ship since the counterweights at the bottom could not keep the ship upright. Such a tragedy for all of the hard work that went into making the ship. The ship sat for 300 years at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Amazing that it was preserved so well…the theory on that is that because the waters in the Baltic are not very salty, the “wood eating creatures” that would normally thrive in salt water don’t live in the Baltic, and therefore, could not eat away at the ship or the skeletons that were found there as well. (there was a name for these creatures, but it escapes me). Anyway, the ship was quite impressive and I do recommend anyone who comes to Stockholm to take 90 minutes to see the film and tour the museum. (If you see the film, chances are you don’t need to do the guided tour). What I found quite interesting more than the ship, however, was how some one in a wheel chair was to climb flights of stairs. Oopsies.

Next stop – Food. We stopped at O’Leary’s to see about getting some grub and I wanted some buffalo chicken wings. Let me just tell you that the “buffalo wing sauce” here is nothing more than a honey red pepper thai sauce with a little something else mixed in. Kind of disappointing, so onto more shopping in Gamla Stan J I love shopping…I love shopping on a mission. When we first got here, my mom said “Do yourself a favor and see about getting some Crystal candlestick holders….they are timeless and you can always use them to dress up a table.” So…my mission was laid before me (thanks ma!) Again, using the handy dandy world wide web, I did some research to find out that the factories are too far away for us to go there and get any kind of great discount without us spending money to get there as well as a hotel for the night or two that we’d need to stay there. Onto the local store in the great city of Stockholm. I found the candle stick holders…well, ok, so they aren’t intended for that, they are really tea light holders, BUT the Kosta Boda/Orrefores people must know that we like multi functioning things, so they have these neat little things you can put into the tea light holders to make them “candle stick holders”…I picked up a set of 3 “Snowballs”. I also picked up a special something for mom…but I’m not telling what!

We also decided that since I didn’t have to get to bed early on Friday night, that we would do something fun and special. I took advantage of the “no game on Saturday” thing to do some marathon training as well…so, I ran around the city a bit – for an hour anyway – on Friday morning before work, did some work, then in the evening we headed out to do some fun things! As we ventured out, we decided we would check in to see what the Absolut Ice Bar was like…it was pretty “cool” (pun intended), but at the same time, very underwhelming. The bar wasn’t much bigger than the living room at our apartment and it seemed a bit…well, kind of plain. We think that it must just be hopping when there are a ton of people in the bar, and the atmosphere a bit more exciting that way. We did offer to take a picture of some girls who were in there doing self photographs, and they must have been pretty unsuccessful as they kept trying. The girls from China accepted my offer, then wanted a picture of me with them; quite cute. After that, we were onto “The Soap Bar” for some dinner and then back to home as we were tired from a busy day. Saturday we will go to the AIK bandy match, and Sunday we will go to the Globen Arena to watch Team Sweden take on Team Finland in some hockey. Should be a fun weekend! Until next time….Cheers.