
I've been keeping notes for our travel journal, in no particular order. I know how I want to use these notes with photos in my journal, so will leave the photos out for now until I get to actually assembling the photos that go with the notes. Here we go!
*Blue is to Sweden what Green is to Ireland. There are a million shades of blue here. It is so beautiful.
*7-11 is Starbucks in Scandi. Amazing food, clean decor, free wifi. Everyone here hangs out at 7-11. Imagine when they come to the US and find out it is a 24-hour gas station with bad food.
*There are no bad brownies in Sweden and Denmark. Every single brownie we tried was good or amazing.
*Italian food in Stockholm is as good as Italian food in Italy, to our great surprise.
*Everyone speaks perfect English unless you are lost or trying to buy a ticket to something.
*There are white candles flickering everywhere. EVERYWHERE! On the ground, on tables, in bathrooms, even at the 7-11! It is charming and beautiful and so different. In America, people would be filing lawsuits, insisting that all the candles are a fire hazard.
*For every candle in Stockholm, there is a sign warning you about pickpockets.
*Stockholm has soccer hooligans. We rode the train with some who were singing and dancing and we loved it.
*Everyone in Stockholm had sensible shoes for the weather and the cobblestones except the prostitutes. They were in high heels in freezing temps!
*In both Sweden and Denmark, the soda (Coke, Pepsi, 7-Up) is barely carbonated. We would consider it flat here. The water is so overly carbonated that it is like swallowing shards of glass.
*The Scandi men look like Russell Brand and the women look like Uma Thurman.
*Smoking is still widely advertised to kids in Copenhagen and everyone smokes. We saw a school get out and all the kids lit up on their walk to the train station. We were shocked. So shocked we got on the wrong train.
*Copenhagen is one of the most beautiful and colorful cities we have ever seen. It is also covered in trash. You look up at the architecture and then look down and you are standing in a heap of trash. Not only is everyone smoking, but they are littering.
*Public restroom doors are confusing in Copenhagen. When the door is not locked, there is a white dot. When it is locked, there is a red dot. That seems easy but the dots are hard to see and the locks are hard to turn.
* When there actually are garbage cans in Copenhagen, they are weird bags on metal clips that require the jaws of life to open. They are often placed too far behind the toilet to reach without dislocating your shoulder.
* Max Burger is Scandi's In-N-Out Burger. We call it Lax Burger.
*Times Brent asked for tissue: 756. Poor Brent got a sinus infection the day before we left for our trip. He blew his nose all over Scandinavia.
*Times Linda yelled Slow down! Dustin can't run on uneven surfaces! Well meet you there!: 693.
*Times we laughed at Karen saying her chocolate kabob was a bar mitzvah on a stick: 267
*Times we laughed at Emily saying this was my most liked photo until I had a Belgian waffle: 285
*Times we asked for the wifi code: 122
*Times Karen ordered tomato and mozzarella anything: 30.
*Times Dustin fell asleep in a restaurant: 4
*Times Brent fell asleep on a train: 5
*Times Emily fell asleep on a train, bus, or chair: 6
*Times we said Walt Disney was a copy cat while we walked around Tivoli: 12
*Times Linda tried to figure out the credit card payment machine: 32
*Dustin listened to the Beck CD on Repeat.
*Brent listened to Common on Repeat.
*I kept the tradition alive and listened to
Stockholm in Stockholm. I also listened to Sturgill Simpson on repeat.
*Karen and I loved listening to the church bells outside our windows on repeat.
*Deep discussions over dinner: mistaken rebellion, self-expression, peer pressure, pot, and keeping kosher. People thought I was rebelling with purple hair but really I rebelled by dropping out of highschool! Adults are dumb. <--- said by Linda.
*Less deep discussion over diner: What tattoo would you get if you were to get one? We all said our dearly departed kitties and our cancer-surviving Karen (who actually has blue radiation tattoos).
*Movies watched on the plane: Mockingjay (eh, semi boring like the book), Gone Girl (worst movie EVER!), Wild (eh. Too much heavy breathing), Moulin Rouge (excellent, still. Poor Nicole Kidman in that whole Scientology mess), Birdman (the first 20 minutes were good and I could tell the acting was good but it put me to sleep, literally).
This was one of our best trips ever. We are so lucky we got to do it!
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