Today was beautiful. I woke up to sunshine, warmth, and the sound of the gentle water brushing the shore outside my window. I slowly had breakfast, sipping coffee, eating a soft boiled egg with caviar (in honor of you, min morfar), and gazing out the window toward Gamla Stan and cruise ships sailing into port nearby. I lazily got ready, walked out the front door, and took a bus into the middle of the city. Wandering around I did some shopping (and bought David, my brother the most amazing gift of all time!!) Stopping to enjoy a cup of coffee, I sat at a table outside a cafe, watching stylish Swedes of all kind walk by, going about their lives. Wandering over to Gamla Stan, I walked through narrow, cobblestone streets photographing the mundane, ordinary, the little details that may be overlooked. Later, I enjoyed another cup of coffee in a small cafe beside of the busy walking/shopping promenades that tourists frequent. This time I enjoyed watching groups of people from all over the world--with their backpacks safely facing forward, their large camera slung over one shoulder (of which I am sometimes guilty), their multifold city maps, and their looks of excitement to visit the swedish restaurant offering real swedish steak and potatoes, as advertised in bold english signs--meander past my table. (As an aside, I do not want to appear aloof or haughty, or somehow better than other tourists. I fully recognize that I am a tourist and a plainly obvious/ignorant/typical one at that! I just find tourist culture/dress/customs to be interesting, even across borders or national boundaries). As a second aside, I think I would like to assert that it seems universally true that if you do not speak the native language people are bound to speak to you much louder, with greater annunciation as if they are speaking a dull-witted child.
Back to my lovely day, after wandering around Gamla Stan, I eventually took a bus back to the apartment. I sat on the sun-drenched balcony until Ylva and Janne's children and grandchildren arrived for a chicken dinner. I officially love these people, one of these sons has a wife who is from Colombia. They met and lived in London for several years, and have now returned to live and work in Stockholm. I cannot say how jealous I am of their two sons who at less than 10 years old are both trilingual. TRILINGUAL. How many people do you know are seriously competent in three languages? English, Spanish, and Swedish. I know two of those languages and truly wish I could claim all three. What was even cooler, while I enjoyed dinner, I was sitting next to this part of the family and loved that the conversation easily flowed between all three languages. Coolest dinner conversation (pertaining to chicken, potatoes, and batman) that I have ever been a part of. Another highlight of dinner was when I was asked by one of these, my third cousins, which came first, sheep or people? I guessed sheep.
Tomorrow I look foward to going for a run (if I write that in this blog, hopefully I'll feel compelled enough to actually do it), go to the Stockholm Globe (like the London Eye) where one is in a ball of glass that is a part of a giant ferris wheel of sorts, which will provide a fantastic view of the city. And to conclude tomorrow's exciting events, the evening will provide the finals for the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST!!! If you have no idea what I am talking about, see yesterday's blog post. You won't be disappointed.
Love you all