Sick. I mean, I guess after consuming mostly beer two days ago and mostly wine yesterday and after traveling for 10 weeks that's what I should have expected. It's like my body was just searching for an excuse to break down on me. Anyway, I don't feel good and that's poopy, because I'm so excited to be here but I can feel myself getting worse.
Over breakfast, I looked up some things to do in Stockholm since we've just been taking everything as it comes the past couple of days. Turns out there is a lot going on this week, the Stockholm marathon is coming up on Saturday, and the big national holiday (their 4th of July) is coming up on Sunday. Then we went to school with Helen and sat outside in the sun while she took care of some things. After Helen was done at school, she and her friend Marie spent the afternoon with Laura and I. We went to the food festival (another instance of awesome timing, we're here during a Swedish food festival!) and tried some Swedish stuff. I got this thing that was kind of like a weird mix between a crepe, a pizza, and a burrito. It had goat cheese and pesto and pine nuts and arugula I think. Delicious. We stopped at a tourist information shop and by the harbor to ask questions about boat tours through the archipelago (FYI - Sweden's archipelago has more than 30,000 islands). Then the four of us walked all around the city and the old town.
While we were walking we were loudly introduced to Sweden's graduation tradition. When people finish high school here, the entire class piles on to the back of a huge truck. Their graduation hats look remarkably like sailor hats, and the poor truck driver drives them around town. They BLAST music, drink / spray beer on themselves, and are usually dressed with the intention of ruining their clothes. They also make special posters that decorate their truck. So there are tons and tons of dump trucks driving around town with drunk kids jumping up and down and having a dance party on the back and using super soakers on on-lookers and blowing whistles and making all kinds of other noise. It's a really funny sight! And they do this all over Sweden - it's like their version of a grad night.
On the way out of the old town we stopped at an old alcohol store. They had the worst system in the world. They had cases and cases of alcohol that you could only look at. Then you had to pull a number, and wait for your number to be called, and then tell the cashier what you want, and then pay for it and show your ID (Sweden is by far the most strict country we've been to in terms of showing your ID). So we took a number and sat there for probably half an hour - it was the most awfully slow process of buying a bottle of wine EVER. We finally had our number called, and Marie, who is 35, didn't have her ID. And even though she is 35, they refused to sell her (or Helen, who did have her ID), a single bottle of wine. It was ridiculous. During all this, I was feeling sicker and sicker and ended up taking a little cat nap waiting this process out. This dude next to me taps me, and I thought he wanted the time, but he just goes, "Are you tired?". Moron. You just woke me up. Seriously? Some people...
Sans wine, we continued on our walk. Marie knew about the oldest natural lookout point in the city. I think that was the claim to fame for this hill. I never would have been able to find it on my own, you have to access it through lots of small unmarked side street type of things. But Marie was able to find it and we got to the top of this hill and there was a gorgeous view of Stockholm! We sat up there for a while enjoying the prolonged evening sun and the water and the view of the city (including the city hall, where we were yesterday).
Once we arrived at Helen's bike (she had left it locked up somewhere two days ago), we parted ways with Marie and headed home. We stopped for groceries and Helen probably would have left her bike again had I not reminded her :) Then we made it home and had a calm night of diner and tea and chatting.
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