Jogs, Jazz, and Jitters
[Photos from 21-23 July 2016, posted online 10 September 2016. Back at the coffee house I like to blog in. Need a coffee house closer to home!]
After we returned from Sweden, we lay low for a little bit. I went out for a couple of slow jogs, a friend dragged us (in a good way) to a jazz concert downtown, and uh, then there was more jogging!
Be warned that the image for Friday 22 has a close up on a small wound on Emma’s face, that she got when she fell face-first on the edge of a table. :/ (18 images total)
p.s. I rearranged the blog posts into the order they happened, as I was getting confused.
Thursday 21 July 2016
Was feeling jittery so I went out for a jog. Warmed up by walking up to the stupa above our house, where somebody had left flowers.
Day #10 in Sweden: Going Back Home
[Photos from Wednesday 20 July 2016, posted online 10 August 2016. In the middle of an allergy test for antibiotics.]
After a lovely time in Sweden, it was time to head back home. Happily, the flight back was in the middle of the afternoon, so it was a relatively low-stress day… if you discount the fact that we managed to mess up getting onto the correct highway, causing a small delay… oh, and due to a misunderstanding, one of the handluggage bags got left behind in the check-in area, and had to be reclaimed from lost and found. (7 images total)
Goodbye pink house!
Day #9 in Sweden: Tom Tits Experiment
[Photos from Tuesday 19 July 2016, posted online 9 August 2016. The adults are back at work. Goodbye summer vacation!]
On our last whole day, we opted to visit something called the Tom Tits Experiment. It’s essentially a science museum, and unfortunately shared a lot of things with the other science museum we’d just visited a few days before, so it felt less special than it could have. But there were also neat new things to see, and do, so it wasn’t a total loss. (24 images total)
When we arrived, there was a show going on. As we sat down (see Finnur and the kids in the middle), he was just finishing juggling regular stuff, and then went on to swinging around things on fire. Like this huge ball!
Day #8 in Sweden: Google Office & Junibacken
[Photos from Monday 18 July 2016, posted online 7 August 2016. House finally painted and woodwork stained. Phew!]
Finnur had some business to attend to at the Stockholm Google office, so we all went there, and ate lunch.
Afterwards we decided to visit the Junibacken, a unique place where locales and characters from Swedish children’s books (many of which we’ve read) have been made real. It’s not big, but packed with stuff. (50 images total, some taken by Finnur)
We parked underneath the Google building, and had a little trouble finding the way out and up and back into it!
Day #7 in Sweden: Visiting Friends & Second Beach Trip
[Photos from Sunday 17 July 2016, posted online 4 August 2016. Two posts in one night? It’s really late…]
On this lovely Sunday, we went and visited our friends, Stina & Tommi. (Yes, this is the same Stina that Anna and I went to watch sing a few night earlier.)
Afterwards, we decided to try the ‘other’ beach in our town, and the kids had fun splashing around for a bit, while Finnur went grocery shopping. (23 images total)
By Stina & Tommi’s dining room table.
Day #6 in Sweden: Relaxation & Mall of Scandinavia
[Photos from Saturday 16 July 2016, posted online 4 August 2016. Sitting on the sofa around midnight, and it’s dark outside, although the sky is still dark blue rather than black.]
After so many days of ‘doing stuff’, we tried to take it easy for one day. Since it was a weekend, I in particular feared crowds in Stockholm proper, so we just hung around the house for the most part.
Towards the end of the day, me and Anna took off to check out the Mall of Scandinavia, which was a 20 minute drive away from us.
Most of the images below are screenshots from Anna going on a snapchatting-spree! (11 images total)
How’s that for luxury? Getting your cup filled with water from a water-gun?
Day #5 in Sweden: National Museum of Science and Technology (Tekniska Museet)
[Photos from Friday 15 July 2016, posted online 23 28 July 2016. At a cafe with the bestest Adda, who lets me be anti-social in peace, while our kids Pokemon! And uh, five days later, at another cafe, while the kids Pokemon.]
Bjarki really really really wanted to go back to the Tivoli, but we wanted to see something different. Evil parents!
After much searching, we found something that was not right next to the Tivoli (which is right next to the Vasa ship Museum), and off we went.
Our destination was the National Museum of Science and Technology, aka the Tekniska Museet. Unfortunately it took us too long to decide what to do, so we arrived really late. We could have stayed there for quite a bit longer, but oh well… (30 images total)
After reading tips about this place, we knew to race through the traditional exhibits in the front of the museum, and go to the back, where they had this fun obstacle course room, and various cool things in the other direction.
Day #4 in Sweden: Tivoli!
[Photos from Thursday 14 July 2016, posted online 22 July 2016. Back at the cafe downtown, while the kids are out walking and playing Pokemon Go!]
[UPDATE on 23 July: Added two photos of Finnur and Bjarki on a roller-coaster towards the bottom of the post.]
The kids began the day with a water battle, and then we drove back to town and visited the local Tivoli (amusement park). We ate a snack beforehand, and had dinner afterwards, which I believe represent the only proper restaurants we visited on the whole trip! (30 images total)
The kids discovered a water-gun, which attached to regular plastic bottles. A water battle ensued!
Day #3 in Sweden: The Beach and a Jazz Concert
[Photos from Wednesday 13 July 2016, posted online 22 July 2016. Holidays are nice.]
After our ship museum excursion the day before, we decided to have a quiet-ish day, and not drive anywhere far.
The highlights were me jogging to a nearby public beach, where Finnur and the kids met me. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t nice enough for us to hand around for long, but Bjarki gave it his best.
In the evening, I took Anna on an adventure trip into Stockholm, via a drive to a nearby train-station, and a 30 minute train-trip, to see a friend of mine, Stina, sing jazz in a converted vine-cellar of a bar! Good stuff! (17 images total, 1 video)
My friend, Stina, singing jazz, with pianist, Anna Gréta, and the house base player. Stina and Anna Greta form the duo 23/8.
Day #2 in Sweden: Water/Play and Ship Museum
[Photos from 12 July 2016, posted online 21 July 2016. I did manage to sort through the photos every night during the trip. Makes writing faster.]
I suck at planning vacations. I never manage to plan what to do until we’ve actually arrived where we’re going, and even then, I can only decide what we’re doing on the day we’re supposed to be doing it.
I keep telling myself this is planning!Me trying to be on vacation, but still, I can never decide if this planless-ness makes things more relaxed or more stressful!?!
But, thank goodness for TripAdvisor, my bestest planning friend in the whole entire world when we’re traveling!
One neat thing I read on TripAdvisor, is that a lot of Stockholm tourists are there on day-trips via ferries, and that most of the ferries leave by 4 pm. Thus, we were advised to show up late in the day to do our thing.
This fit our schedule nicely. Every morning the younger kids would wake up stupidly early, eat breakfast, and then be glued to screens for some three hours, while one adult sacrificed themselves to watch/sleep over them. Then we’d eat lunch, and try to keep Bjarki from going right back to the computer. Getting out of the house took a long time, but then we’d drive to do stuff, and usually get back around six or seven, at which point Finnur would whip up some dinner. After a little playtime it was the time for bed, rinse, repeat. (38 images total)
Our big destination of the day, the Vasa ship museum.