I almost missed my flight...due to some pickled herring. As a Swede, I never thought I would never say anything nasty about pickled herring. This very time it gave me food poisoning and I started feeling utterly crap at 1 am when I needed to get up at 5.15 am to jump on a train to Frankfurt airport. I had wobbly legs and could hardly stand up at 3 am.
-I'm gonna die! I thought to myself.
-Harden up, my kiwisized part of me quickly responded.
Sonia helped me carry my 20 kg backpack and I asked some big guys at the train to help me with the luggage. I made it. I only puked once on the train. Not too bad at all. The worst thing was that my mum had cooked me lovely food that night and I couldn't really eat any of it when I arrived. Poor mum.
The next aim was to go to Finland to visit my grand mothers and other relatives and enjoy the best sauna I know, which is on Bessören in Vasa archipelago.
To get to Finland, we tried to emit as much carbon as possible so we decided to drive around the Baltic instead of taking the ferry across. To be fair, the ferry (RG line) is the crappiest piece of ferry I have ever been on...totally over priced and no tax free alcohol even (spot the Swede!).
We drove up to Luleå and I had the chance to see Åsa (I think I have referred to her before as my other half). We grew up together and have been friends/neighbours/~sisters since the year of 1981 when we met in the sand pit. Linus and Åsa welcomed us with wine and great food. It never got dark that night as we were very close to the Arctic circle. They showed me "Luleå by night" and their 70's style camper van. I can't wait to spend more time with them in August and later on in New Zealand!
Åsa and Linus in front of the beauty
Finland is just like I remembered it...flat, very very flat. Especially where my parents are from. My dad has pointed out where he went downhill skiing when he grew up and I could hardly detect any slope at all. Maybe that is the reason he never became a brilliant skier.
It is flat:
My brother Kristofer and Lisa joined us and we escaped out to our batch with the great sauna since the weather was good. It is a great place to chill out: eat sausages, sit in the sauna and drink beer and whip each other with cut off branches from birch tree (yes, I am serious), read books, eat pickled herring and sing Swedish drinking songs (listen to one below), go for a swim and occasionally do some stuff around the house. I became a master at chopping logs. It was so much fun I will turn down my job at MWH and become a Lumberjack!!
My dad, the brilliant BBQ Master
This is a game from Finland called Mölli, which I can explain one day over a few beers (if you pay)
Most of the rellies were pretty much the same as before. Some of them had just grown a bit, some upwards and some outwards.
My grandma (mormor) has been in a retirement home for the last 6 months and she now tried to live by herself again. I thought that she was pretty sharp and funny as ever before. She can crack the most hilarious comments when we watch telly.
Me and my grandma and her evil looking toy cat
I always go through my grandma's wardrobes when I am there. There are so many treasures to be found from back in the day. I found this sexy swimming costume for example, which I will now use only at very very special occations:
When we ran out of stuff to do, Lisa and I started playing with an old doll which my grandma had painted. We thought Rebecka looked pretty evil as taken from a bad horror movie. Imagine waking up with her by your bed with a knife!!
Lisa and I having one of many bad laughs
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