I thought I was done, and thought 25 blogs was a good number to leave off on. But I got something to say about it, and it goes somethin' like this....
Only a few days left, and while Kristy continues to work, I now spend most of my time cleaning, doing laundry, doing dishes, and taking care of Reese. I guess that's what I've been doing for the last three months, now that I think about it. We spend the rest of our time lately packing, and trying to get some last minute things wrapped up. We got back from our trip on Monday morning, and started going through our stuff. We had given most of the borrowed items back to Miska & Camilla, so the apartment is sort of barren. But we still had a lot of junk to deal with. Some of it will go in the garbage, some of it goes in bags to give away, and our non essential belongings went into boxes to mail back to the U.S.
On Tuesday morning, I took Reese for a walk, and happened to stumble on a historic site, which we must have walked past two dozen times before. This particular day I happened to notice a little sign just off the sidewalk that had a Swedish and English translation. It said that this was the site of the Russian Walls, which legend has it were built by Russian prisoners of war back in the 1830's. Looking up the hill and through some trees were what looked like walls built out of huge stones. Reese and I explored the area, and found a wall, and also ruins of parts of the wall where they had toppled over. There were small trees growing out of the toppled rock, so it was fairly well hidden from view. The site is not maintained apparently. Kind of strange, but a cool discovery I thought. On Tuesday night, our good friend Jeanette was kind enough to come over and pick us up to take us out to Arlanda Airport in order to drop off boxes at SAS Cargo. Arlanda is kind of a long drive, so we were pretty annoyed when we got there and the place was closed. We found out that their hours were 10-3, with a one hour lunch at noon. When Kristy had called to ask when they were open, the girl had told her that she could come anytime, even on our way to catch our plane. Well, not so much, honey! We were none too happy, but tried to look at the positive. We got to spend more time with Jeanette, and even had dinner with her at her home. Jeanette makes some mean spaghetti!
The next day, we tried it again, but this time with our friend Robert, dogsitter extraordinaire. Robert has a work van, so he picked us up and took us out there. We got there, and it took a ridiculously long time to process the shipping of the boxes. One good thing that happened though, was I happened to be wearing my AIK hooded sweatshirt, and the guy who was helping us noticed. He's a huge AIK fan apparently, and when Robert mentioned that Kristy played for the AIK Women's Bandy Team, the guy gave us a discount on the shipping. We finally finished, and headed home. Later that evening, we met Robert and his girlfriend Elin for dinner. Elin is also one of Kristy's bandy teammates, and the reason we know Robert so well. We wanted to take them out to dinner as a thank you for everything they had done for us. We had given Robert a number of gifts (Beer, Music CD's, etc.) to thank him for watching Reese whenever the girls had an away game, but we wanted to thank them both for being so good to us. Elin had been really good to Kristy, and helped her with translation most of the season. We had a nice dinner at the Texas Longhorn, and hopefully convinced them to come visit us some time. This was supposed to be the last time we saw Elin & Robert, but we made plans to see them Sunday evening before we leave.
Thursday, we headed down to Gamla Stan to pick up some last minute gifts, and explore the area one last time. I'm so glad we did, because I saw a few things I had never seen before. We saw the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace, and I saw one of the better views in Stockholm that I had seen, which was from around the side of the palace, and down across the Stockholm Harbor. We walked up some streets I hadn't seen, and saw some very cool area's. We came home, and decided that we were going to take Reese for a little walk. Our little walk turned into a two hour jaunt as we discovered new neighborhoods that led to a really cool area along what looks like a river. It's basically more like a very long canal between two larger bodies of water. You could take this waterway and eventually get to the Baltic Sea. Anyway, there looked like a military instillation of some kind down near the water, like maybe a military school, or training facility. There were cannons out front, as well as a large anchor. In front of the buildings was a gravel covered yard, which I thought looked like the kind of place you'd see a lot of marching and drilling going on. Down along the waterway, there were also historic old homes and cottages, and a ton of runners and walkers using the paths on either side. We jumped up and across a bridge, and back into the neighborhoods leading back to our place. On the way, we decided to get pizza at our favorite pizza joint. We love this place, and we also don't have a lot left to eat in our apartment. Good way to wrap up Thursday.
Yesterday we got up early and went down to get our hair cut at Lena's work. We took Reese with us, so Lena & Linda could see her one last time. Lena has been cutting Kristy and my hair while we've been in Stockholm, and we really like the way she does it. The funny thing is, she works at a place called L&L. The L&L are Lena and Lena. But she is not one of the owners. There are three women that cut hair at this place, and they are all named Lena. Go figure. Anyhoo, we got to L&L and let Reese go ahead of us and look in the door. According to Lena, Reese had come to work with her one day while we were on our trip, because they couldn't stand the thought of leaving Reese in her Kennel for the 6 or so hours they would be gone. So Reese recognized the place. She immediately started squealing with delight, and she hadn't even seen Lena yet. We went inside and she ran over and jumped on Lena when she saw her. Linda was not there yet, but when she showed up, it was much the same. Reese' tail didn't stop wagging the entire time we were there. Reese loves these two, and they love Reese. It almost makes you feel guilty for taking Reese away from them. The funny thing is, we made plans to see Linda & Lena again on Sunday when they get back to town. This will be third "last time" we see them. Sound familiar? After we left L&L, we headed down to find some historic cottages in Sodermalm that we had been meaning to see. We got down there and found the cottages, as well as some great parks, and some incredible views of Stockholm Harbor. We walked and eventually found a Bar/Restaurant called Mosebacke, which Elin & Robert had recommended. We finally found it, and this place was so cool. It's up on top of the hill overlooking Stockholm Harbor, and has a ton of outdoor seating. Perfect day for it too, as it was sunny and just warm enough. Lot's of people out there enjoying the view, the weather, drinks, and lunch. We had lunch, and then headed back home. Cleaned the apartment for the last time (I HOPE) when we got home, while Reese slept, and Kristy went for a long run.
Today we went down to Djurgarden one last time, and also finally made it to the Gondolan. The Gondolan is a restaurant that Kristy really wanted to go to from day one. It's high above Stockholm harbor in Slussen. It's shaped like a crane high above the ground. We finally decided that we would just go down there and have a drink at the bar instead of having dinner. We looked through the drink menu, and settled on a Colorado Bulldog. Best Colorado Bulldog we've ever had. And yes, we challenge anyone to top them! We enjoyed our drink and enjoyed the view. As we sat there, we debated what we wanted to do next, and another Colorado Bulldog was definitely an option. Neither of us were really hungry, but we didn't want to go home yet. I suggested that maybe we go back to Mosebacke, which was about a block away. If we went there, we could have a glass of wine or beer out on the patio, and that idea was a winner. It was such a beautiful day, we thought it was stupid to be sitting in a stuffy restaurant. So we went over, and grabbed a table at Mosebacke. As we expected, the patio was pretty packed. Fortunately, the patio is huge. The funniest thing was the fact that it looked like someone had picked up the patio and shook everyone to one end. The sun was going down, and everyone was trying to stay in the sun for as long as possible, so the place was tilted to one side. We found a table, and enjoyed the view, and the people watching. We were especially amused by a dog that was digging a hole in the ground and throwing dirt and gravel everywhere. The patio of this place is made of dirt and gravel, by the way. We also enjoyed seeing how everyone dressed. So many in Stockholm looked like they just grabbed the first thing they found to wear, and somehow, it worked. Nobody seems to care how anyone else is dressed, although I'm sure they look at me and laugh. Hell, I do, so why shouldn't they?? We wrapped it up at Mosebacke and came back to the apartment to hang with Reese. She's got us wrapped around her paw after all. Watching another gorgeous sunset out the window, and Reese is sleeping with LELO Bear next to me.
Tomorrow we'll bring the rest of our borrowed stuff back to Miska & Camilla, and then spend a little time with Robert & Elin before heading over to Linda & Lena's place to drop off some more stuff and say our goodbye's. Monday morning, we are catching a ride to the airport with Kristy's coach Oscar for our flight back to the U.S. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. We're ready to get home, but at the same time, we're not ready to leave Stockholm. As we road the bus today, it finally hit Kristy emotionally that we were leaving. We were both on the verge of tears as we rode the bus from Slussen to our apartment in Solna. We realize that it might be the last time we take the bus past all of these familiar sites. Kristy commented that she is going to miss the recorded voice announcing the various stops. Believe it or not, I will miss this too. I'll also miss the voice on the tube, with the english translation guy that always follows the woman's Swedish announcement...."Next stop, Fridhemsplan...Mind the gap when exiting the train". We have truly come to love it here, and have made many very good friends. It seems like everyone we know has asked us what we will miss most, and it's hard for us to narrow it down to one thing. We will miss our new friends, the public transportation, the healthy lifestyle, the cleanliness of the city and the comfort level we feel here. Stockholm is a beautiful city in a beautiful country, and we hope it stays that way. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close in our opinion. Toodles.
Thanks for watching! Not sure if there will be any further blogs. We'll see how I feel when I get home. I appreciate you two reading my blog though! :D
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