A really nice day in Stockholm

Ida in the front of the kayak, Paula in the back. Paula, Ida, and Joakim at Paula's apartment.

My time in Sweden has had no shortage of wonderful people and wonderful, memorable days. Ida, one fifth of the pink bandit posse, was in Stockholm visiting her family. I hadn't been to Stockholm in about 16 years, so I came north and was greeted at the train station by Ida. We walked out and got into her friend Paula's convertible and drove as they played the song "World, Hold On" by Bob Sinclair. I laughed. This song has been the themesong of my last three months, primarily because it plays everywhere and plays nonstop. In Romania, it was actually the only song I ever heard. It was in every car, every club, every store, every cafe. It literally followed me around. I actually hadn't heard it in Sweden until now. We drove to a riverside pub and watched as the full yellow moon rose just above Stockholm's lovely skyline. Paula said she was going to bake some bread in the morning, which I assumed was a joke. How many people really bake bread? Sure enough, there was loads of fresh bread coming out of the oven in the morning, and it was delicious and soft with some full grains and raisins and lingonberries.

They asked what I wanted to do, and I mentioned that I didn't need to see sights or museums, I've seen enough cities in summer heat. I was more interested in spending time with cool people. Ida said "That's going to be a problem, we're better at showing you museums than cool people." They had no shortage of sarcastic humor. The girls took me kayaking on the river around King's Island in Stockholm, where we got to see many of the famous and beautiful buildings, swimming spots and other boaters. They hadn't kayaked much but they looked like pros and were later criticizing other kayakers we saw. We had a nice lunch with some friends of theirs, Markus and Henry, who shared my life interest of just hanging out with cool people. After lunch, Ida, Paula and I drove around and went to the driving range which overlooks a lake outside of town. We were actually hitting floating balls into the lake at floating targets, which I hope won't have a subconscious effect on my game. These two had such smooth and fluid swings that I was almost afraid to show my rusty swing in front of them.

After golf we went back to Paula's, and the two cooked a dinner of pork with a mushroom sauce and grilled vegetables. Joakim came over and mixed some drinks. It was a Tuesday night, so we decided to create a party of the 4 of us, singing karaoke with Paula's karaoke cds and dancing, and taking really strange pictures of each other's faces as we contorted them. Ida told us about the time when Joakim was in NYC this past March and danced at Amatuer night at the Apollo. He is not a dancer, but he had the chance and took it. People came up to him on the subway and said, "hey, I saw you dance at the Apollo." Paula even got us into doing some aerobics to the dance music.

Like I said, it was just one more really great day with really great people that I've been blessed to meet. As my time in Sweden comes to an end, it is sad to have to go. Everyone has been so hospitible and nice, and I've met so many people that it's not uncommon to go into town in Malmö and run into someone I know. It really is like home. I've become determined to make my home the same way for others who visit me whenever or wherever I have a home.