Boulder, Colorado...After 18 hours of grueling travel I am home, yeehaw!! It was an extraordinarily long day of travel involving a car, 3 planes, and a bus. The most exciting part of the day was trying to catch my plane in Amsterdam with only an hour to do so. With the assistance of Susanne, the airport helper lady, I gathered my baggage, went through customs, checked in for the next flight, went through customs again, used the bathroom (she didn't help me with this), dashed for the gate dodging bags and hopping over small children, and last but not least went through security one more time. By the time I got on the plane I was out of breath, but on the plane.

The rest of the trip was relaxing and calm for the most part. . .except for maybe the butt push-ups I did every 20 minutes to keep from getting ulcers on my arsh. I think I did over 200 push-ups, but who's counting. My triceps are really huge now, though. Watch out Arnold!

So since I haven't written in my blog for so long I'll backstep to the previous days. After the wedding in Karlshamn, I headed to Ängelholm with Todd, Julie and Todd, Tony and Ned, and Mike and Katarina. Some of us took the train. Others drove. We had a really short layover between trains. Julie sprang for the train while we grabbed the bags. She kept telling the Kontroller, "Please, just one minute." The Kontroller kept saying, "No, we must close door NOW!" When I seconds later arrived, she pointed at me and said, "No room for you!" I just replied, "I've got my own chair. I can sit right there," pointing at her. She shrugged, defeated, knowing that she couldn't send us to a Turkish prison like she so wanted to do. Todd grabbed the back of the wheelchair to pull me up the steps and onto the train.

We stayed at a little bed and breakfast near the ocean owned by Elisabeth, an incredibly friendly and radiant local artist. After getting our rooms arranged, we headed to Katarina's parents house for a Crayfish Party (Kräftskiva), involving more delicious seafood, alcohol, songs, toasts, and good company.

View from Bed and Breakfast

Elisabeth

Crayfish Party

The next day the group headed to Nimos on a difficult hike to see castles made entirely of twigs and scraps of wood. I went to school with Pernilla, an idrottslärare (athletics teacher)for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Classes seemed a little more structured than the gym classes I remember. After helping to umpire the baseball games with Håkan, another idrottslärare, I went to an English class with Pernilla. Here, I shot the shit with the students and told them a little about myself in English.Håkan

Pernilla

Nyhemsskola Class

Todd and I headed for Stockholm the next day by train. At Stockholm, my friend Linda met us. Todd waited for his friend Mirjam. Linda and I headed back to her house where Johan and her kids Alex and Hannah were making a fancy delicious dinner for us. We caught up that evening, played Legos, and laughed over a self-inflating whoopie cushion (those innovative Swedes, making the world a better place).

Linda and Johan

The next day I had a fika with Fia. Fika is the Swedish term for taking a coffee with someone. Actually, it was more like lunch, shrimp salad and fish soup. Fia, a reknowned egyptologist, works at the Meditterranean Museum so I partook in an in-depth, behind the scenes tour of the Egyptian section before our lunch. Very cool! Everything I wanted to know about mummies, but was afraid to ask.Fia

After lunch I wheeled around Gamla Stan, the old part of town with lots of cobblestones. If I ever moved to Stockholm I would definitely purchase some extremely large softer caster wheels for my wheelchair. I was getting beat up, tossed around, bouncing, and getting stuck in cracks.

The next few days I spent with Lukas and his wife Mirja, and children Svante and Hannah. This included Star Wars Legos, a trip to Vaxholm on a ferry, wandering through the subway system of Stockholm (elevators, escalators, stairs, and ramps), and a nice dinner at Grodan with American and Swedish friends.

Lukas, Mirja, and Hannah

Svante hid under the coffee table

Roger, Kimberly, and Eva at the Grodan

Todd and I took one of these days and toured the Statshuset, lunched at the top floor restaurant Godolan while looking out at the city of Stockholm, and ferried to Djurgården. Todd checked out the Vassaskepps museum. I rolled to Ostermanstorg to fika with Eva, another college friend from Uppsala. Lots of fikas, and I don't even drink coffee!

The last day I spent with Marcus, a Swedish roomate from college years, and his American wife Carolynn and girls Natalie and Mikaela. We had a fika, took it easy in the afternoon, arranged my ticket back to the states, and caught up. The girls bounced around on the furniture. No Legos:(

Carolynn and Marcus

Considering how many of my friends have kids now, I guess this was the trip to decide if I ever want kids. The vote is still not in, but all the kids were fun and great. Everyone was great and everyone was very, very hospitable.

So there it is... next day was off to the US of A, sad to leave, happy to head home.