Reminiscing..Sweden part 3

My Stockholm Adventure:AKA The Hunt for Prince Carl Philip

A few weeks after we got back from Ljusdal it was time for my first SOLO trip in Sweden. Also, my first weekend away from Jasper. Ever. As my boys dropped me off at the train station I couldn't even fight back the tears as I kissed my baby boy goodbye, He was 19 months and I'd only spent one night away from him- and that didn't even count since I left him at 7:30(his bedtime) and was back as he was eating breakfast.

I was going to Stockholm to meet Sofie, Jessica and Kerstin. (three besties from childhood in Ljusdal.) Jessica and Kerstin lived in Stockholm(though on opposite ends and hadn't seen each other since they graduate highschool!!) and sofie was driving down from Ljusdal. It was a three hour train ride, and it passed so quickly sitting there sipping my coffee and reading my book trying to keep myself distracted from the fact that I was going to be away from my baby for 50ish hours.

I get goosebumps whenever I think about Stockholm. It's the most beautiful place I have ever been. And not that I've been everywhere but compared to anywhere in the states I have been, Thailand, Bali Indonesia, the Caribbean, all Hawaii islands, and a few other parts of Europe- no where else compares to the beauty of this old city, built on 14 islands.

Some of the hi-lites?
1. Double decker(closed in) tour of Stockholm. (Jessica lives there but was More than willing to do all the touristy stuff with us) It was a hop on hop off bus, so if we saw somewhere we wanted to stop- we just pushed a button and the bus stopped as soon as safely possible. Then when could hop back on anytime we wanted to for the whole weekend. Definitely recommend!

 

2. Seeing old buildings and museums. Crazy being in a place with building hundreds of years old than this country!!

I thought this one looked like it belonged at Hogwarts.







This tower thing. I can't remember the name of it..but we went up it and it was HIGH. 

3. Amazing dinner at a mongolian place where the prime minister was shot(many years ago)

4. A boat ride to the other side of Stockholm. We stood outside while it was misty/foggy, everyone thought we were crazy but it was such amazing views I couldn't sit inside!

5. A Swedish "party" that Kerstin was invited too and brought us all along.

6. THE SHOPPING- I was too busy exploring all the stores to get a picture of any of this. Not surprising really.

7. Seeing the castle- I'm slightly obsessed with monarchys, and wanted to see the royal family (esp. the prince who was newly single) but no such luck...on this trip anyway :)

8. Exploring Gammla Stan, Old Town, and standing in a teeeeny road.

ANd most importantly- getting some much needed MOMMY time and getting to spend time with these three amazing ladies. We bonded so much this weekend, hopefully the first of Many trips like these. **We have vowed to get together every year, in a different country or city and so far we are two for two!

Reminiscing..Sweden part 2.

If you missed part 1 go here

Covered up to his ears in snow(same slide his mamma used to go down) and he Loved it! We kept taking turns bringing him up and letting in slide down. 

In the beginning of February (of 09') we took our first trip(of many) away from Karlstad. We took a 7 hour trip up North to Ljusdal, Sweden. The town I grew up in. This town holds so many memories for me, and it was so surreal to go back after 12 years.  Jasper did amazing on all of our train rides- we had his pram- and we would always find a spot to park the pram where he could stay buckled in the pram and we could sit and entertain him. It worked amazingly well. One of the things that would distract him the most was an ipod- Drew would put the headphones on him and he would be content for so long!! He was 18 months old at the time.

Up in Ljusdal my grandma met us at the train station. It was Amazing to see her after so long. Words can't describe how it felt to see her again after so long.

This post could get rediculously long so here are the hi-lights
1. Eva, my moms best friend when we lived there and our former babysitter who used to live next door picked us up and we stayed with her the first couple of nights, but went and visited my grandma, or Farmor, daily. Farmor lives in a small one bedroom apartment, where as Eva lives in a larger 2 bedroom town home so much more space

This is how we got around in all the snow for walks. People walk their children to daycare like this! True story. 

2. We took long walks in the snow around my old neighborhood, saw my old school and the house my uncle built- which we I grew up in.

My old house.

The forest behind my house, this is the shortcut I would take to school every day. In the spring and summer I was always late because I would find a blueberry bush and get distracted eating. 

3. The last half of the long weekend Sofie came and got us and we stayed in the cute little cabin that her and her fiance lived in. Sofie was a childhood best friend- has since come to visit us twice here in the US and was a bridesmaid!

4. While with Sofie and Henrik we went snowmobiling, went to a little ski/sledding resort (practically during a blizzard) went out to the bars where I ran into former classmates!!!!, stayed up till 3 am talking every night and just had a wonderful time. They are truly amazing people Sofie and Henrik.

Add the sledding resort, little half cabins for warming up and grilling! Best invention ever. See that pram in the background? There were Dozens of sleeping babies there. Told ya Swedes are awesome.

Sofie and and I snowmobiling! 

The school I went to from 1st grade through 4th

Sofie, me and Jessica

Reminiscing..Sweden part 1.

From January through July of 2009, Drew, Jasper and I studied abroad in Sweden. I started a blog then- but I was HORRIBLE at keeping up with it. The one thing i was good about doing was taking a LOT of pictures. I never want to forget our amazing time there, so once a week or so I'm going to pick a memory of Sweden and right it down so I wont ever forget.

I'll start off with the first blog post I wrote, after we had arrived in Sweden.
Greetings from Karlstad, Sverige
Well after possibly the worst 24 hours of my life we finally made it here. I'm not going to write too much about the trip because honestly I dont even really want to think about how horrible it was! To sum it up- I started throwing up at about 11 am Iowa time and didnt stop for about 25 hrs. Im a horribly flyer and always seem to get sick- and throwin up every 15-20 minutes and not eatiing or drinking anything tends to make me a litle weak. So on top of getting so sick, as soon as we landed in Stockholm I fainted- and had to be wheeled around the airport.

Anyway enough about me being so sick- jasper did really well! He only slept about 3 hours out of 25 hrs of traveling so was a bit crabby but other than that did amazing. Drew did good also, he was a little fed up with my getting so sick and being of no help- and going on NO sleep in about 48 hrs tends to make a person a bit crabby but all in all it went really well for the boys.

When we arrived in Karlstad we had two people from the University meet us and take us to our apartment- which is only about 2 blocks away, but w/ ten pieces of luggage that would have been an impossible trip.

We Love our apartment- its bigger than we thought, and is going to be a great fit for us.

Well im going to sign off now because the battery on the lap top is dying and we have yet to get a converter to plug in it! By the way the way im using the laptop outside on our 4th story porch of our apartment- its the only place we could get recetion!

Love and miss you all
Darlene, Drew and Jasper (or Jesper) as these swedes like to call him.

Taken The first week we were in Karlstad, from our balcony

This was our apartment building. We were on the top floor (4th) on the far left (not pictured)