Gothenberg

After an eventful Christmas in Salen, Maddis and I headed to Gothenberg via Norway. We made our way with 6 fun filled hours of music, random laughs or screams of restlessness, past Oslo, back into Sweden paying a small fee, to a large shopping mall, to another shopping mall to get alcohol for the trip and finally landing us at Gothenbergs central train station to pick up the one and only Kyle Gramit. Quick side note, Kyle Gramit is also a pro volleyballer from the USA (Chi town to be exact) with a powerful hitting arm and a go big or go home type of attitude on and off the court. He has played in Sweden for two years but this season, he has taken his game elsewhere. He now plays in Ennz Austria and as for next season, who knows, he says. After the pick up, we headed to Maddis's sisters house for the remainder of our stay. Her sister is married with two young children that are absolutely adorable. They live in a narrow three story house, the second floor is for the kids leaving the top floor for the grown ups of the house. The decor was of course very well put together (no surprise since they are Swedish) and everything just fit perfectly. Unfortunately, her daughter Embla, had a terrible ear infection and was crying a lot the first night. I remember when I had ear infections as a kid, I was super uncomfortable and crying as well. Her littlest one, Vilgot, was also crying, however, I think it was because his sister was, but he stopped after a little, warming up to us nicely. He took a liking to Kyle really quick. Maddis' sister, Helena, made us a wonderful dinner that night and so we ate and drank a little bit of wine while we waited for Kristofer, Helena's husband, to come home. After meeting and chatting with the family for some time, we all decided to get some sleep as we were to go sight seeing the next day.

Woke up the next morning to a mix of laughing and crying babies. We went up to the second level of the house and came to find Embla was doing worlds better and Vilgot was on the floor crying. What a turn of events. He did not cry for long though, he was a little distracted by me taking pictures and then showing them from my new camera. After a quick breakfast, Maddis, Kyle and I got into the car and headed west, to the coast. I was so excited to see the ocean, it had been about 4 months since I had seen one. We parked the car in what seemed to be an icy pond but was in fact a parking lot covered in ice. We made our way by foot on a path through a forested area until we reached the oceans edge. I can say with out hesitation that I was glad to be back near the ocean. When you grow up on the coast and you are away from it for a long time, seeing it again is like seeing an old friend, feels like you never left one another. We walked along the waters edge, over rock faces and some sandy beach, but not much. Most of the shore was rock, icy, slippery rock which wasn't a good match for me or the shoes I was wearing. Kyle ended up helping me out a lot. We made our way out onto the dock and snapped a few pictures of the fading sun in the distance. It was hard to believe that we were in fact at an ocean since the surrounding area was closed in by land and a few solitary islands. However, off in the distance you could see where the vast open ocean began, it was all so beautiful. There was a path that led us over a small hill top to another view of the coast, so we decided to take a little hike. That day was so bright and sunny that for a moment you could actually feel the heat of the sun underneath all the layers of clothes we were wearing. Or maybe it was my imagination wanting me to feel that.

Once we were back in the car we headed to town for some shopping. The city was big incomparison to most cities in Sweden, so we did quite a lot of walking. We went to the usual stores, H&M, Vila, Vera Moda, etc and I must admit that at some point I felt bad for Kyle since he was outnumbered and pretty much forced to come shopping with us. He seemed to be ok with it since he and I were playing around like kids most of the time anyway, trust falling on one another and taking funny pictures in the dressing mirrors in the stores. Maddis had no time for games, she was on a mission. She was on the look out for a certain type of hat, so we were able to help her out with that. Luckily we were successful in finding it and she was no longer annoyed with us acting like kids.

Back at Maddis's sisters place we ate a really nice family dinner. Her brother in law made pizza which was absolutely delicious. One was a normal type of pizza, cheese, veggie toppings and some meat. The other was my favorite, made up of mozerella, arugula, brie cheese, honey and pecans. It was amazing! I regret not getting the recipe from him while I was there, but hopefully I can retrieve it on a later date. After dinner, the kids were put to bed while the grown ups had some drinks down stairs and talked. I proceeded to play a drinking game with Maddis's sister and brother in law that I made up on the spot. I had my swedish to english dictionary and was testing their translation skills as they were mine. It turned out that they were better then I thought, therefore leaving me to drink a bit more every round. After a while they decided to head up to bed leaving us to get ready for the night out on the town. In Gothenburg there seems to be one popular strip where most bars and night clubs line the street, that was exactly where we wanted to be. We headed to the bus, a little late I might add but luckily he stopped for us.

Our first stop was O'Leary's for a couple of beers before the club. We chatted up a couple people while there and I am pretty sure Kyle was getting hit on by a burly looking man. Kyle kept trying to get our attention but Maddis and I were to busy enjoying the scene. We then made fast, but somewhat wobbly head way to a club around the corner were we danced the night away. I didn't know that Kyle could dance the way he did that night, I was pleasantly surprised! He was in more words or less "cutting a rug". Towards the end of the night, I danced with a guy who must have been about 5'2 to Grease Lighting. Kyle later exclaimed that he must have been Bilbo Baggins and that he had showed him the ring, just to clarify. We got back home around 3 in the morning and were asleep by 4, what a night!

 The next morning, we rose reluctantly with achy heads and puffy eyes to a bright day. It was about noon when we woke so we decided to order pizza to the house, stay in and watch TV. It was the perfect way to spend a day after a long night out. Maddis and I had about a 4 hour drive back to Orebro, so we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Maddis's sister, the kids and her brother in law and took Kyle to the train station. Needless to say we were utterly exhausted on the drive home. It was a great time in Gothenburg with those two and was also a sad ending to my amazing holiday. I won't ever forget this past Christmas, it was definitely one to remember. Its back to work once home and then New Years is on the way!