yay for Sweden

After Berlin I flew to Sweden to visit some friends. I met Ida at an au pair meeting in Stuttgart one of the first weeks I was in Germany, and she met Sara through her au pair family. They are both from Sweden and Super sweet girls. Sara, was au pairing the year after high school, and she started studying at university this week. Ida is a couple of years out of high school, and came to au pair just for the experience. Anyhow, we hung out here in Stuttgart, and went out a bit together, but not nearly enough, because I didn’t discover the later night bus until it was basically too late :-( So a few months ago when I was thinking about these weeks I had off, I thought it would be great to visit them in Stockholm.

Sara lives in a town that is an hour away from Stockholm, but Ida lives in a Stockholm suburb. So Sara came in for the week, to stay with Ida’s family too. Sweden was really pretty, and actually kind of reminded me of the US…. Well, more of the US than Germany. This is based on seeing 7/11, T.G.I. Friday’s, and EB Games. There is also a lot more space in general in Sweden, due to a huge country with few people, so many people live in houses with big yards, and there was even a HUGE grocery store that we went to. Ida had to work during the days, so it was great to have Sara there to tour around with me… here’s a run down of what we did:

day 1 – shopping around a cute up and coming neighborhood; lunch with Ida; boat tour in the afternoon. The boat tour was great because Stockholm is made up of 14 islands, so there is a lot of water to explore. We got to see most of the famous sights from the water, and see many things we wouldn’t have seen by just walking around on our own.

day 2 – Ida called in sick, and her dad and brother came home early from work (they have their own construction business) and they took us sailing on the family boat. The weather forecast said that would be the nicest day that week, and it was. The eastern side of Stockholm is on the Baltic Sea, and there are two locks there in the city, that separate that from the fresh water lake to the west. This freshwater lake goes deep into Sweden, and is where we went out with the boat. We sailed for a few hours, then parked the boat and had lunch, and layed out in the sun a bit. On the way back, we all went swimming behind the boat. It was so beautiful being in the Archipelago. The trees are mainly evergreens, and there are people on all the rocks and beaches just enjoying the nice weather. They were also saying that in the winter the lake freezes over and people go cross country skiing and ice skating out there!

day 3 – got up early and went to Sara’s town for the day. I got to see where she lives with her dad and one of her brothers (she has 4!!) we had lunch in town, and while there wasn’t a whole lot to see, it was great to see another city there, and where she will be for the next three years studying.

day 4 – more walking around Stockholm; saw the huge park in the city, and a couple other neighborhoods; met up with a few of Ida’s friends that night for dinner

It was wonderful and so refreshing to be there there, and to stay with Ida’s family. With three kids, 23, 21 and 16 their family runs much more like what I’m used to at my parents house. We had a chance to tour around, and just veg out and watch movies… it was the perfect way to spend the last week of my vacation. Since I’ve been back, I have met up with friends, and gone out over the weekend. This week is off to a good start, I just am shocked to think that the year is nearly over!

photos at: http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177635&l=33547&id=3206990