The Archipelago

Sweden is largely a collection of islands, some of them large, many of them tiny. Like backyard small. We have visited several of them in the last few days and they are amazingly beautiful, totally peaceful, and densely wooded.

Yesterday, Talia and I went for a walk and decided to wander into the forest. It was fun climbing around on the mossy rocks, but then I got bit by a couple of mosquitos that caused my hand to swell up. I’m hoping that goes away soon.
The weather has been pretty dumb. Windy as hell, cloudy, and cold. Any two of them would be fine, but all three suck. At least it isn’t raining.
Sorry this post is more like a random collection of thoughts than a coherent string of interconnected ideas.

The Bow & The Sea

Stockholm & the Sea

The third day in Stockholm we got up so Talia could meet with someone who manages the Stockholm branch of Hub (she’ll tell you about that), and then go shopping.
Shopping in Sweden is a little frustrating because everything is designed well, packaged beautifully, and priced accordingly. For example, wooden toys at this small shop were super simple, primary colors, very Playmobil and more than $30 for a little car. Screw that.
After some shopping, we set sail for this museum at the outskirts of Stockholm called Millesgarden. It was pleasant, but not engaging, so I slept in the shade.
Then we sailed out to the archipelago and anchored in this small, placid harbor for the night.
The next day was cloudy and rainy and we did almost nothing but read. Which is fine, but I would have rather spent a rainy day in museums in Stockholm than listening to old people music. Oh well.
Today is being about the same, except that we are actually trying to sail and not use the engine. Sailing, however, requires more time outside getting drenched by both sky and sea. Also, I don’t know what I’m doing so everytime I’m told something about starboard I just try one direction and see what the response is. Sailing by trial and error is not going over well with these experienced sailors. I can drive the boat just fine while powered by engine, though. Grand Theft Auto actually taught me a lot about how boats handle.
Speaking of traveling with septagenarians, we are now listening to a collection of sea shanties. Seriously.

Stockholm, Day 2

This morning I woke up to “Bam, Bam, Bam! Alex there are lots of old cars driving by!”

Now, normally, I’d have jumped out of bed to see. This morning, however, I felt like I needed a few more hours of sleep. I got up anyway, though, ’cause if there’s one thing I love more than women, it’s cars (there isn’t, but if there were, it’d be cars).

It turns out, somehow, that maybe 100 feet from the boat there is a classic car show. Seriously. And I didn’t plan it. I may have wished for it, but I couldn’t have planned it. So I says to myself, “Self, classic cars and Swedish women,” and put my shoes on.

Stockholm Car Show

It was great, lots of old European cars and even more old American cars. Including, I swear I didn’t plan this, a Chevelle SS 396 (the red one, below), a Mustang 408 (orange, must research), and some sweet Aston Martins, including a new Vantage (black). This was short lived, however, as they apparently needed to be a parade, so they all took off. I wish that there was some way to capture the sound and smell of that Chevelle starting up, but it’s something you have to experience. That is my dream car and one day I am going to own one and drive it like there’s no tomorrow.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around “SoFo” (guess what neighborhood that’s like) and then we went to the Vasa Museet, a museum about this ship that sank about 20 minutes after it launched and laid buried in the sand for 300 years. It was awesome.

Now I am enjoying an American IPA in the sun. Pretty awesome.

Stockholm, Day 1

We landed in Stockholm at about 7:30 am local time, which is awesome because we have a whole day here and it’s hard enough getting Talia up to do something.

Unfortunately 7:30 am for them is 1:30 am for us, and not an optimal time to try to get your day started. So after hitting the grocery store and a small museum of modern art, it was time to crash. So we slept on the grass in the sun.

Sweden, of note, is amazing. Beautiful architecture, laid back people, not much to worry about, easy access to everything and everyone speaks English.

Stockholm is much smaller and easier to navigate than I would’ve expected. Except for the fact that all the words look and sound like a random selection of letters, and are sometimes bewilderingly long. You can definitely cover the majority of this city on a bike.

Stockholm

Also, Swedish women are everything they’re made out to be. The long, vicious winters must be wonderful.