Stockholm, Sweden

Yesterday was an adventurous day! Ika and I woke up in the morning after a mediocre night's sleep and raced to the train station (we walk everywhere). My train was scheduled to leave at 9:52 and I got on at 9:48. We cut it close, but I made it nonetheless! The train to Stockholm look a bit over 2 hours. When I arrived I ate breakfast at a small coffe shop at the central station. The woman working at the coffee shop gave me a map to the tourist information center. I made my way to the tourist center, got another map of the city and ventured out. I didn't actually end up doing all that much. I wanted to walk around old town and go to city hall and look over the city, but...time didn't permit. I spent too much time getting oriented. I walked around and looked in some stores and ate lunch/dinner at a somewhat fancy restaurant (which sucked up alot of time, it was veeery slow service). I had my first "weird" food. I ordered an appetizer that was described as salmon and shrimp on rye bread. It ended up being raw salmon wrapped around a mayo-filled salady type thing with caviar on top. It tasted good but it was very rich. I had a fantastic time, however I'm going to go back again after backpacking. I've been told it's an easy trip from Finland.

After making it safely back to the apartment, where Ika was waiting and worrying, we went to a barbeque with some friends. We all sat around and drank wine and laughed so hard everyone's face hurt, then went out to a bar called Bolanche here in Borlänge. We danced and drank and had a splendid time. After the bar closed we walked to none other than McDonalds. Then we walked home and were in bed by 3 =).

The best part of yesterday was hanging out with a bunch of great new people. They are all international students (like Ika). There was a person from South Africa, from Mexico, from Finland (other than Ika), from France, from Holland, from Sweden, and the list goes on and on. I felt as if I fit in, in that I am from a different country as well! I was the only person there from the US. I've never experienced that before, it was amazingly cool.