And now, the details...

Our weekend, in sum, was quite a whirlwind. From Friday morning through Sunday night, we were on the move! We visited good friends, ate amazing food, and were treated to a fantastic weekend by our wonderful hosts.

My mom also demonstrated an unprecedented prowess for kicking some jet lag butt. (In order words, she was happy and alert, despite some travel fatigue… unlike me, last June, when I sank into a jet lag coma for five days.)

Friday: My mom’s plane was on time. I was not. My train was over 30 minutes getting to the Copenhagen airport (sorry!) but my mom took it in stride, and when I finally showed up at the arrivals gate we grabbed her bags and headed back to Lund.


After some post-transatlantic-recovery (shower, food, tour of my place), we headed downtown for lunch. We ate at my favorite Thai restaurant, browsed through a bookstore, bought about 200 kronor worth of imported and Swedish magazines at Pressbyrån, printed our tickets, and hopped on the train to Kungsbacka, a small town just south of Gothenburg (about 2 ½ hours north of Lund).

The Kungsbacka area is beautiful. Our hosts, Gunvor and Christer, live in an amazing, modern Swedish house that sits right next to the North Sea. We witnessed a stunning sunset and ate a delicious salmon dinner (Gunvor is a fantastic cook).


On Saturday morning, we were treated to some more breath-taking views of the sea.


Then it was into downtown Göteborg for some shopping and sightseeing. We bought some cold weather gear, including a new pair of boots for me, which Lina thought to immediately waterproof!


Afterwards we headed to a performance at the konserthus: the Göteborg Symphonic Band and Triple & Touch (famous Swedish performers). It was a blast. The repertoire ranged from John Williams and ABBA to Miriam Mabeka and the Beatles. We even sang Pomp and Circumstance at the end (while waving Swedish and British flags). As my mom said, “who knew there were actual words to that song?!”

After the concert, we walked to Liseberg, an amusement park in the middle of the city. It’s all decked out for Christmas, and filled with booths selling traditional Swedish crafts and food. We strolled around the park and I went on a few smaller rides (still open for the winter) with Maja, who, like me, is a roller coaster connoisseur. Maja also seems to have very good luck – last time she visited Liseberg she won a giant Toblerone bar. This time it was a giant Kex bar! 2 kilos of chocolate! Mmm…


For dinner, Magnus cooked an amazing spread which left us all feeling very satisfied. It was a fun, social, and late night, and my mom and I fell soundly asleep some time after midnight. The next day, of course, was just as busy. A tasty Swedish breakfast (cereal with filmjölk or muesli, eggs, cheese, bread, coffee, juice), was followed by a coffee break with Daniel and Viktoria, where we got to meet their kids and see their house.

Finally, it was back to Christer and Gunvor’s for lunch. I won’t bother explaining the family tree, but there were 14 of us! (Christer and Gunvor, Lina and Magnus, Daniel and Viktoria, Johan, Axel, Elin, Ida, Maja, Adam, my mom, and me!) To both me and my mom, these people are our Swedish “family” and it was such a treat to be around all of them at once!

That was the weekend! My mom is enjoying some time in Uppsala and Stockholm while I study and go to class for the first part of the week. I’m sure there will be more pictures and stories to tell soon!

Linnea

P.S.

We are SO ready for Thursday!

See?

Gobble.

:-)