Arriving in Sweden our planned stop was in Jonkoping, Sweden. Chris’s family hosted our host about 20 years ago as a foreign exchange student, Maria. I had also met Maria once at Chris’s sister’s wedding. Maria was worried her apartment was not large enough for us and her 2 children. It turned out her children were staying elsewhere for the week and Maria decided she would still stay with her boyfriend for the week, so we had the place to ourselves. It was very kind of her to let us take over her apartment for a week. The week was a great time to slow down and relax. That is what we did! We ventured to the grocery store a couple of times, a candy store, shopped for winter clothing at consignment stores, played outside at the park, washed laundry, cooked dinner, and went to the city shopping area once. We really slowed down, it was nice.
We did do a couple of things, along with the apartment we took care of two cats. The girls didn’t mind at all, since they are both missing their two cats at home. The cats were a bit skittish and shy with us the first day, but when it came to the night when we were sleeping, they wanted their attention. They would wake us up either wanting to be petted or to attack our feet! I think we all enjoyed the cats.
The girls have been wanting to try the back facial mask that is all over YouTube. After searching and trying to communicate at the stores, we found a tube and bought it. It only took about 2 miles of walking! We couldn’t get Chris to try it, so it was just us three. Our experiences:
Brooklyn said, “not painful at all” and “it was fun pealing it too”
Kaleigh said, “good, felt tight, it was weird, exciting and different, it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would”
Myself “I don’t think it hurt very bad, I think some people are just exaggerating”
We went to a park and the girls played on the equipment for a little while. There was an obstacle course the girls played on for a while. They decided to compete against each other based on time. However, if you touched the ground 30 seconds was added. Kaleigh was having one of her fastest rounds, all of sudden she missed a stop and took a nose dive into the dirt, she got right back up and finished her run. It was awesome! Defiantly ‘Bombardo Tough’.
We also had dinner with Maria’s parents. They lived a bit more in the country, Chris drove Maria’s car, Maria had another ride. Maria’s parent stabled several horses the girls fed carrots too. Kaleigh really loved the opportunity to interact with horses again. The dinner was traditional Swedish meal of moose and local greens. Chris liked it the best. There was also a really good Swedish dessert. After the meal Chris and Maria’s dad made plans to meet up to tour a court house and sit in on a trial. Maria’s dad is a retired judge. Maria and decided we would get all the kids together to play when they were gone.
Chris said the court system was really different and really neat to see. He sat in on a shoplifting case, which would have likely been settled and pleaded in the US. In Sweden, all “major” cases get a trial, shoplifting is major. There is not a so-called jury, but instead a judge, 3 members of the community who serve a term, and a recorder or assistant to the judge. The judge asks most the questions to both the defendant and the witnesses, if any. Everyone stays seated in more of a triangle setup. After all questions are answered and witness called, the judge and community individual have a verdict and sentence. Chris said the case load in the US would never handle this type of setting.
While Chris was at court Maria and I watched the kids play at the park. Kaleigh and Maria’s daughter Hedvig got along great. Once Chris was back we all walked up to a park to play, have some hot chocolate, and just play. It was very nice.
It was getting close to Kaleigh’s birthday, so one day Brooklyn and I made a cake for her. Brooklyn is a fan of Nerdy Nummies on YouTube. She had seen a unicorn on one of the episodes and really wanted to make it for Kaleigh. Chris found a place to take Kaleigh ice skating, while Brooklyn and I worked on the cake.
The first item was hunting for ingredients. Have you ever tried to get all the ingredients to bake and decorate a cake not speaking the language in small Swedish grocery stories, it is a challenge? The one thing that did help was Google Translate. Earlier in our travels, we downloaded the Google Translate app to help with language barrier. It has been very helpful when shopping or really anytime trying to translate language. The image translation is easy to use, select your language, choose camera mode, snap a picture, and then wait for it to be translated. This was helpful, but Brooklyn and I still had all kinds of difficulties finding ingredients. We found cake mix, which made me very happy, I’m not good at making cakes from scratch. The biggest problem was finding frosting. We couldn’t find confectioners’ sugar or fondant, which the cake required both. We thought we had found the fondant and used it as fondant. Later after we had the cake, Chris told me that it was actually marzipan. One is almond based and one is sugar. I had never heard of marzipan, almond based one, but it worked good enough. With all the improvising, we made it and everyone thought it was great, especially the birthday girl. Maria and her daughter came over and celebrated with us too! It was a special day for Kaleigh.
After the surprise birthday party, we decided it was time to close our resting period and do something, after much debate of going to Norway or going to Abisko, Sweden to try and see the Northing Lights we decided on Abisko, with an extra stop in Kurina to see the famous Ice Hotel. That night we made reservations at a hostel in Abisko and book train tickets for the next day. We spent the evening packing, saying good byes, and preparing to travel again. This included a grocery stop – the nearest store or food in Abisko was a 2 km walk!
