Go west, young man...

Saturday, October 15th was our last full day in Stockholm. We went to Ostermalmstorg to a market that Emelie used to frequent with her family when visiting Stockholm. They have everything from all varieties of cheeses to any meat or fish you could ask for.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to get the fish soup that Pappa swears by, but it was cool to see the market for a brief time before heading to Mormor's for our last dinner in town. It was a lovely meal that started with probably the best soup I've ever had, Mormor's chanterelle (wild mushroom) soup. Not usually one for fungus, I couldn't stop until my bowl was as dry as a bone. Steak and potatoes followed, and Oliver and I, being the only men present, were not allowed to stop eating until the food was gone. We played a game of hearts after dinner, thanked them for their hospitality over the week and were on our way.

The next morning we met with Oliver to take a bus to his university town of Jönköping for the night. It is a rather large town on the south shore of the third largest lake in all of Sweden. We got a quick bite to eat after the long bus ride then took the local bus to his dorm building. After a busy week in the capital it was nice to be in a slightly more slow-paced environment. We laid low for the night and took advantage of his fast internet connection and wide-screen laptop and watched some good old American football all night. That is to say, Oliver and I watched football while Em played Fruit Ninja on her brother's Ipad. Emelie and Oliver retired somewhat early, but I stayed up til 1:30am to watch the entire Patriots game (which was well worth the loss of sleep to watch Brady drive the field at the end for yet another late win). All night we stared at the large map in his room to see how even though we're doing quite a bit of travel on this trip, there's still a large world out there and we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg (see picture below). We slept in, caught a bus to town to see where he was taking his classes, then hopped on yet another Swebus to move on to our next destination, the west coast town of Göteborg

We had made plans to meet up with an old friend from Wheaton, Owen, who had met a Swede abroad in South America while traveling. Being a native Mainer himself, he now found himself a new father and resident of two years of Göteborg. Getting a few hours away from his newborn son, Leopold, he met us and showed us around a little. He had to get back to tend to his fatherly duties, so we grabbed a bite and headed to our first hostel of the journey. We had been pampered in Stockholm with our own pad, but it was nice to be in a new place in a comfortable room to call home for a few days. We met up again today with Owen, his wife-to-be (sambo) Jenny, and the little man himself. We had a lengthy fika, or coffee and snack, then walked around the area for a while before the normal Swedish weather greeted us with some rain and wind. We returned to the hostel and opted to get dinner at a local grocery store and cook here in the kitchen. We made pytti-panna, a simple Swedish dish Em thought I might like--she knows me rather well... It was a simple yet tasty meal to wrap up what was a simple yet enjoyable day. Tomorrow we depart for Malmö where I can finally see where Emelie gets her strange Swedish accent.