Hello Kim and Clare!!

7.21 I finished up the night hanging out with some italian guys who though my spaghetti choice (noodles with thai curry sauce...hey i missed it and it was on sale) was interesting, so they decided to share their bottle of vodka with me. The hostel was one of those huge hostels of 48 bunks partitioned by sheets, so it was quite interactive. My partition had a lot of spanish chicas who were quite funny, especially when they came back late drunk and slowed down their spanish so I could hear it much better. There were also two american girls who had interesting stories. One girl, had never had a plan to travel, but her parents bought her tickets for her birthday and booked a bunch of hostels and said, "hey, you are going to backpack euroep bc it is such a great experience" So she was quite fresh and unsure how to travel. The other girl had been planning the trip for quite some time and always wanted to backpack and get out and see things, but it kept falling through and this last time all her friends ditched out at the last second, but she still wanted to go, so she said screw it and just left on her own. And she ended up meeting the other american girl and now they have been traveling for a while. The one gal actually is a ski bum at whistler in the winters and said I could crash at her place if i ever make it up there again...especially if it's not a pineapple express!

7.22 I woke up fairly early and toured around stockholm. Walked along the very beautiful waterfront and explored several of the little islands. Took a walk on one of the more natural islands and then explored the old town with its really narrow streets and cool buildings. Also went to royal palace and watched the changing of the guard. Did quite a lot of walking around and felt like I did a good job of seeing most of the sights at stockholm. In the evening I caught a bus at the central terminal head north for Sundsvall, home of Kim, Clare, Frida, and Caroline.

I arrive around 10pm into sundsvall and clare was waiting for me there with a big sign that said TARZAN. That's what they call me bc we did the long rainforest jungle trek together and they think Iäm wild like tarzan. After some hugs we walked over to where kim works, a casino bar, and he gave us some drinks to have while we waited. In sweden drinks are too expensive, but if you have friends in the right places... After Kim got off, we went to where clare works, the bishops arms pub. It's an english pub, so it suits her perfectly since she is british and has the sweet british accent to go along with it. The pub is actually really cool. You would think you were right back in britain. We had several more beers there, thanks again to knowing the right people. Around 1am we left for the 30 minute walk to where Kim and Clare live (with Kim's dad). The crazy thing is that it was still light. The sun only sets way up here for a very short time, and even when it is set it's kind of like twilight. I woke up around 4am thinking i had slept in til like 9 looking out the window...but i looked at my watch at is was only 4. When we got home Kim's dad had made me a really nice fish meal to welcome me so we enjoyed that very much.

7.23 We woke up early and headed to the supermarket bc kim and clare had a lot of swedish food they wanted to make for me. First of all the supermarkets in sweden have this brilliant thing that we need to adopt in the US, especially in the overcrowded estes park safeway. So you go in and you pick up this portable handheld scanner thing. Everytime you put something in your shopping cart, you simply scan it and it records it on the scanner. Then when its time to check out you just hand the scanner to the clerk and pay the amount. No waiting for everything to be scanned. It's pure brilliance. No more lines at the grocery store! Anyways we picked up a bunch of swedish foods they want me to try.
When we got back to their flat, they made me blueberry soup (tasty!, wish we had it for skiing) and then they made me fikas with egg and fresh cheese and some meats. Quite tasty.
After breakfast we took a hike to a lake through a forest. It was a really nice forest and this is one of their favorite places to xc ski during the winter. After the hike we walked down to the town center to hang out. Got some icecream and just kind of relaxed along the harbor. Then kim and clare had to go to work. So i took one of their bikes and went for a nice bike ride. The weather here is great for riding bikes right now. Sunny and cool, so it was perfect. When I got finished I went back to Clare's pub where she of course treated me royally. Then it was off back to Kim and Clare's by bike where Kim's dad, Lenart, made me a meal.