Friday June 25th:
Made our way from Copenhagen to Lanskrona, Sweden via train. Its a week after now so I don't have as many details as previous posts...got busy and got drunk since then, but will do my best....
Went through Malmo, Sweden and into Lanskrona which is a smallish town the size of Nacogdoches I gathered. Today was a holiday...Midsummer which is the longest day of the year. I kind of equate it to Thanksgiving in the fact that is was more of a family holiday and everything was closed. We (mom and I) were a bit lost coming out of the train station and wondered down the wrong street for a bit before asking (my mom spoke basic sweedish) and getting directions towards the Hotel Chaplin. After about 30 minutes of walking with our luggage we found it. Turns out there are only like 4 buses in the town and were pretty easy to figure out by the time we left but oh well.
Basic 3 star hotel. There was this ridiculus picture in the elevator of a man with a trash can getting squished and having his head chopped off....all due to the fact that there are no interior elevator doors and thus one could lose a limb or get crushed by a rising trash can. To get in and out of the elevator, one simply opens a closet door and steps in...simple as that. Wifi present so I was happpy to at least be able to download more podcasts for the boringness to come.
We headed to the ferry station to go over to the island Ven (pronounced vein) which is where some great grandmother of mine was from and is burried. We had a bit of a wait so hit up a sandwich shop for ham/cheese, cookies, chips, etc. Sat in the ferry line for like and hour then another 30 minutes on the ferry to the island. People were bringing loads of beer and food and dogs and kids and stuff so it looked to be a good time. Got there and took the bus to the center of the island (this is a small island about maybe 5 miles in circumference, 2 miles diameter or something like that) and up to the church. Asked some old nun lady where the G-ma was burried and she walked us right to the grave stone. I'm not sure how because there were at least 500 gravestones...she obviously had been there a long time and knew every square inch and probably went to every freaking funeral there in the past 70 years. Took a picture, then I wondered over and made some pee on the side of the cemetery (I felt bad but I had to go). Took a few more pictures looking out over the ocean next to the church before we departed as a wedding party was arriving (via a wagon pulled by a tractor by the way). Walked back to the center of town and saw the cross thing they made with flowers, then went to a few crappy craft and art shops...this is a sparsely populated island and on a holiday so there really was not much happening other than family picnics and what not. Saw the house my ancesters used to own (was once a cafe) and is probably worth some ridiculous amount of money now. Talked to the neighbor who grew up there and they remembered whatever relative my mom mentioned from like 40 years ago living there.
We had time to kill before the next ferry back so we walked down to the beach then around the trail/path to the front of the island...took like an hour maybe. Quite nice and I thought it would be a nice isolated portion of the earth to live on. Found a camp site with a fair number of people partying and chilling out. Sat and watied for the ferry for an hour then headed back to Lanskrona.
Got back and everything was closed except for a Kebab stand (I guess turks don't celebrate midsummer?) so had one and sat on the edge of the dirtiest fountain ever (green water, a book, and I think a diaper floating in it). Had a beer at the only place open. They had blankets on all the chairs to use instead of the propane tank heaters back in the US.
Headed home for the evening and probably watched some world cup game...