Back to my roots...

Well, I decided to let my natural hair color grow out - it sucked having to go the salon every month to touch up the blonde and was just too hard to maintain so I decided that I would give my hair a break....

The weirdest thing about having dark hair now is doing a double take everytime I walk past a mirror like, who is that? Haha. :)

My Besties Blog!

Heather Wright, Maid of Honor at my wedding and best friend since 2nd grade, has officially started her own blog!

I'm so happy and excited about it because blogs can really help to keep friends and family updated on what is happening in your life - so it will be nice to know what is going on with her even though I am living across the world. And one of her first posts is about her and her husband Jamie buying their first home! Soo happy for them!

Here is a link to her blog:

http://euphoric-living.blogspot.com/

Heather's trip to Sweden!

Whenever I come home and see my family and friends I always try to explain what my life is like in Sweden but it gets difficult because most people haven't been here - so when I found out that one of my best friends, Heather, was coming out to visit me I was beyond excited!!

Now that I am feeling better (I was really sick this week) I can finally post some pictures and tell you all about her trip! :)

So, I went to pick her up at the airport in Copenhagen on Saturday, September 29th and was soooo excited to see her - of course there is a doorway that all the arrivals walk through and even though I had gotten a spot right up front so I could see her as soon as she walked through - tall people kept standing infront of me and blocking my view (one of the many benefits of being 5'1)! So I kept having to constantly peek up and around and under to try and see if she was coming - luckily she saw my face peering around this guys arm and waved. :)

The best part about picking her up at the airport was the drive home - its soooo pretty! Tons of fields and farms and animals grazing! And it gave us a few hours to catch up :)

Then that night when we got home we just decided to stay in and watch some movies and read magazines and catch up. I also took her to mine and Ron's favorite Indian food restaurant - soooo good!!!

We made sure to get the guest room ready for her so she would have a nice space of her own when she got here...

Then on Sunday we didnt do very much during the day because Heather was pretty jet-lagged and needed to rest. But we did venture out later in the day and took a walk around the downtown area and even though almost all the shops were closed - the movie theater was open.

I always complain about the movies here because everytime I go to the movies there are always people talking and making tons of noises with their popcorn and candy bags and it drives me CRAZY! I think its because all the movies have Swedish subtitles - so whats the point in being quiet for them - they don't need to hear.

Of course, every time I told Heather something about Sweden I almost immediately got proved wrong. It was like her being here made it a completely different place! Like, for instance I was telling her that there are never any Americans here - which is completely true - Ron and I have only met two Americans in the three years we have lived here and most the Swedes we talk to have never met an American aside from the 3 that moved over with us.

So, of course right after telling her this, we are sitting in the Indian restaurant and a group of Americans walk in - what are the chances!!! And then another night at a restaurant a group of Americans are there too! I felt like I was in the Twilight zone!

Anyways, I thought for sure that going to the movies would be miserable because of how loud it always is - but of course it was going to be nothing like I expected because that is how this whole trip was (in a funny adventurous way). :)

The only movie that either one of us is interested in seeing is the new Quentin Tarantino movie "Inglorious Bastards". That, and the fact that this theater only has about 4 movies to choose from. So we get tickets to that and its assigned seating - which is how they go it at the theaters here.



We grab some candy and popcorn and go in the movie theater and and the whole place is practically empty - but Heathers assigned seat is right next to some big old man - hahaha. We moved down a few seats after the previews when we saw that noone else was coming - but we were cracking up about it!

I had heard people say the movie was really good - however, no one had mentioned that almost the entire movie is in German and French. And in the US I'm sure its fine because then you just read the sub-titles - but in Sweden the subtitles are Swedish! So, here we are having just payed like 14 dollars to see this movie and we can barely understand what is going on - for the first 15 minutes we dont even try - figuring that the beginning was in German/French but that the rest would be in English. Luckily I can read alot of Swedish.

Of course on this one freak occasion everyone in the theater is completely silent, except for Heather and I because we have candy and drinks and during the whole movie I am translating the Swedish subtitles telling her what is happening! I tried to whisper but we were just about dying because what are the chances that I would say how loud people are at the theaters here - and then I talk through the whole movie!! I was kinda surprised actually at how much Swedish I could understand! We ended up really liking the movie - and will probably watch it again with English subtitles just to see if I was translating it correctly! haha.

On Monday I planned for us to go on a 3 hour boat tour around Karlskrona's archipelago. There are over 800 islands in Karlskrona! So on Friday, before she got here, I had tried to buy the tickets then but the fishtorget office told me we could buy our tickets on the boat (named Axel) and that we could pay with a card. So of course we get there and the boat is named something else and we need to pay in cash! The best part is, when we were boarding the boat I asked if we could pay with card just to make sure and the guy told us that we needed to pay with cash but that we could go on the tour and then go get cash after wards - which is totally shocking if you live in the US because businesses aren't usually so trustworthy.

We had a ton of fun on the boat ride!

After the boat tour we walked all around downtown and walked through all of the shops and did some shopping - we had soo much fun!

Yummy food at the grocery store - caviar and cheese in a tube anyone? ;)

Dangerous....the green one is called a Princess cake and it is to die for!!!!

Systembolaget - the only place in Sweden that sells alcohol over 3.5%. Its a pretty bizarre place - All products are sold with the same profit margin. This explains why a cheap vodka can be seen as expensive, while an exclusive single malt whisky can be seen as cheap, compared to the US. Also, nothing is refrigerated because they dont want anyone to favor a certain alcohol over another because its refrigerated - this also means that there are no 'sales'. And if you buy beer - you have to buy each beer individually (no 6 packs or boxes of beer). Its also closed on Sundays and only open from 11 - 5 most weekdays. I took Heather there to get her some traditional Swedish Schnapps. :) She also tried the Cider.

On Tuesday we decided to go to Kalmar! Kalmar is a few hours away (also a really pretty drive) but it has something that Karlskrona doesn't - a castle!! Ron and I had gone to Kalmar castle a year or two ago when his parents came out to visit and it was so much fun and so pretty there that I knew Heather would like it. :)

Here is a really old cemetery that we walked through to get to the castle...

Some pictures of the castle - right next to the ocean with a mote around it! So pretty!

After going to the castle we went to the downtown area and spent a few hours walking around the shops there. We also ate at this cute cafe :)

On Wednesday Ron was landing at Copenhagen airport - coming home from his trip to Mexico for work. So, instead of having him travel across the world and then take a 4 hour train home - I offered to pick him up at the airport.

We had planned to go ride Icelandic horses this day but my Swedish friend Ulrika called the ranch we had previously gone to and they said that three people wasn't enough for them to make a trip out. So we had though that we would not get to go - which was really sad because that was one of the things that Heather was most looking forward to.

Luckily Ulrika got ahold of a man who has a ranch on this nearby island and also has Icelandic horses to ride. She called him and he said he would be happy to take us out. I had already planned to pick up Ron at this point, but told Heather that she should go since Ulrika is a really nice girl and a good friend and that I didn't want her to miss out on this opportunity!

So we met Ulrika at this museum in town and then I drove on a ferry (first time ever and pretty scary for me!) to take them to this island, Aspö, and dropped them off at this ranch.

Turns out that the man who ran the ranch was super super nice and they had a ton of fun!! :)

Here is the museum where we met up with Ulrika, and did a little shopping in the gift store...

Here is Heather and Ulrika with the Icelandic horses and the nice man who owns and runs the ranch...

Heather has some family in Sweden and they live in a town a few hours away, Lund. So Thursday morning we dropped her off at the train station before going to work and she went out to Lund where she spent the day with her family and did some sightseeing and ate some traditional Swedish food.

Here is an enormous koo-koo-clock that she saw while she was there! :)

I actually missed her alot while she was gone for the day and couldn't wait to have her back that night!!! Which made me realize even more how much I would miss her when she went home on Sunday. :(

Friday I took Heather by my work to show her what it looks like and to introduce her to a few co-workers. We also wanted to use the printer before our trip to Copenhagen the next day and luckily the CEO (who's Danish) was in the office and gave us a few tips for our trip. :)

That night we decided to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant downtown.

Then Saturday we woke up really early and made our way to Copenhagen, Denmark.

When we got there it was pouring rain and I had my overnight bag and purse and Heather had her luggage with her and we had printed up a map but took a wrong turn and needed to help finding the hotel....

Then we finally found it!


Heather's Mom booked us a room at this super nice hotel in Copenhagen that was really modern and had lots of artwork - we loved it!!! Not only that - but it had an ICE BAR downstairs!!

After we dried off in the hotel room and dropped off our bags - we went back to the place where we asked for directions to get some food! Soooo yummy!!! We both ordered Tex Mex (chicken, cheese, avacado, salsa, salad, etc.) wrapped in pancakes! It sounds gross but it tasted amazing!!!

Then we started walking through the shops and also looking for the Canal Tours which is something we really wanted to do. Lucky for us, we didn't have to buy an umbrella because the hotel loaned us this really nice black one!

What we didn't expect at all - was the Danish football fans!! It was INSANE how many people were decked out in football fan gear for that nights game against Portugal.

Some of the fans had too much fun..... haha

We finally found the boat tour! The only problem was that the boat didn't have a top - but we had an umbrella so that didn't stop us!

So we sit down for the boat tour and we see this football fan stumbling on to the boat - so Heather asks him if he wants to take a picture with us and all of a sudden he thinks he is our tour guide! He wanted to sit next to us the whole time - telling us what different buildings and areas were - we could barely hear the actual tour guide! Not only that, but people were giving us dirty looks because he was being so loud and they thought he was with us!


There was one point where I got really freaked out - the football fan stood up and the butt of his pants was soaking wet and everyone around us started laughing because it looked like he peed his pants!! Then he turned and was wiping all this yellow liquid off his seat - so I thought for sure he peed his pants - but he had actually sat on a beer can that he forgot was in his back pocket!! haha.

Halfway through the tour it started raining and we were cracking up so much I thought I would pee my pants because the football fan was trying to get his head under our umbrella but this silly hat he was wearing with bells on it kept getting stuck on the rim of the umbrella!! haha.

It was a really pretty tour though and we got to see some really interesting things - including this mermaid statue that Heather really wanted to see while she was in Denmark. :)

Aside from the football fan that wouldn't go away (it was okay, he was really nice actually - and entertaining) we had another funny and unexpected adventure!



We needed to use our umbrella during the tour because it started to rain - of course then this huge gust of wind came through and turned our umbrella inside out breaking almost all of the spoke-like-things ---- but wouldn't close!! So we had this huge broken umbrella that wouldn't shut!

At one point we were going to go under this really low bridge and we had no choice but to grab the umbrella and force it shut. It was definitely the most fun and interesting boat tour I have ever been on!!
Then we were back to walking around in the rain on our way to the hotel room - holding a broken umbrella. We did stop in a small restaurant first...

That night we decided to go to the ICE BAR! Its a bar completely made of ice - even the cups are made of ice! The bar is kept at minus 5 degrees at all times and you have to wear this big coat when you go in because its so cold. They also have a 45 minute time limit - although we asked the girl that works there if anyone ever stays for that long and she said that they normally stay in for 20 minutes before getting cold and leaving!

(I didnt really lick it! hahaa)

The next day we got on a train to go to the airport where Heather went back home. :( It was sad for both of us, but Heather had a lot of fun being here and Ron and I had so much fun having her here!!! Having one of my best friends here really made me appreciate Sweden that much more - I hope she visits again one day! :)