Well, here we go...

So I may have mentioned that we've been planning a trip to Sweden this summer. As it happens, with what's been happening with Alexander's father we've had to push our plans up to the earliest possible date now. That's okay though. It's been hard being so far away while his dad is going through a major life change and his siblings are there to deal with it. We've been so worried and getting as much information as we can by calling directly to his care givers and physicians but still it will be good to see  him with our own eyes and know that he will be okay.

Turns out the earliest we can go to Sweden is in August so even though we've had to move it forward it's still pretty far away. My job just wouldn't be able to accommodate any earlier travel what with my coworkers all out already on their own summer vacations. After much ado, we have gotten our tickets and reserved two hotels. We fly into Stockholm first where we have a car reserved for us at the airport. We'll drive to Karlstad the day we land in Sweden. I'm going to be the driver! Yikes! I've actually driven in Sweden before but that was on Gotland...a small island without a lot of traffic. This time I'll be taking on the highways and byways of the country. Wish me luck! We'll be staying in Karlstad for a few days to help get his father's apartment in order and move some things still there. I love Karlstad. It's a lot like Kenosha in size. A university town with a quaint yet cool city center. Very cultural yet rural. Yep, I could live there. After that we drive to Stockholm for the rest of our time in Sweden. We won't be keeping the car for  the entire time since the public transpiration in Stockholm is aces. No need for it there.

I love Stockholm too. Sophisticated yet homey, urban yet laid back, hugely cultural but not snooty, new and innovative but reverent to it's history, full of sights and sounds and tastes and smells. Yep, I could live there too. It's a big city with a smaller city feel. I would put it up against Chicago anyway of the week. It just doesn't have to try so hard to be cool because it is cool. Love it there.

I'm looking forward to seeing the family in Sweden and, most of all, seeing Alexander's mom and dad. I worry that we're so far away. I wish it was easier for us to travel there any time we wanted to but it's quite expensive and we have to save up to do it each time. Still, we're going! That's all that counts!

And I can't wait!

Wanderlust...

My wanderlust is getting to me today. I feel so homesick for the place I want so badly to call home. I spent a good hour this morning checking all the live webcams around Stockholm and wishing I was there. There are so many good people there and I've had so many good times there and I could use that right now. And, of course, Alexander is there.

We are inching ever closer to Alex immigrating here and getting married. For that I am so excited! But our long term plan is to live and work in Sweden. I will not lose sight of that ever. Even though circumstances, financial and otherwise, have made us choose a reverse plan - him coming here - we are focused on getting back there. I've been pouring over information about real estate and rentals and how to's and we know it won't be easy. But I still believe, from what I've learned, that it will be much easier to work here and save the cash to have to negotiate what we need there when we're ready to move.

Anyway, I love Sweden and all the people I've met there. I feel that Alex's family is now my family too and I miss them all very much. So, I am sitting and dreaming of Sweden, the archipelago, the architecture, the history, and, most of all, the people.

When life meets art...sort of...

Remember that scene in "Schindler's List" where Schindler is looking out on the Jews walking through the ravaged town and his eye is following the little girl in the red coat. I was just looking at a live cam of Sergels torg in Stockholm. It's one of the coolest looking places in Stockholm. It's a lower level mall type thing with a black and white checkerboard open air plaza. In the cam, I can see the people of Stockholm bustling through their busy day while traffic circles up above them around the glass tower. Just as I was watching them, all of them in dark jackets, there was a little girl in a red coat. It looked like she was with her mom or something and the mom was walking slowly across the plaza. The little girl, however, was running around and around, jumping from white triangle to black and back again with the abandonment of childhood. I became fascinated. It was almost surreal and I watched until she finally ducked out of sight into the building.

I think there was some poetry in that scene.

Stockholm Song

I woke up with this overly sentimental poem in my head. I am a sucker for sentiment and I like it, so there.


When head and pillow meet to rest
My dreams soar where I love the best
In mist of night, by light of moon
I’m taken where I’ll be e’re soon

Cross nights pale, glow stars on black
O’er ocean twilight churning
I rush to city, taken back
To my hearts fondest yearning

On cobbled streets of Gamla Stan
I hear the voices past
Starlight in window of each home
Say I am home at last

This city that is calling me
To make its heart my own
Stands bright and bold, uniquely free
The new enmeshed with old

I hear its vibrant ancient song
I feel its present verve
I let its friendly arms reach out
Enlivening every nerve

Now raise a glass of tender love
Where lifelong friends do meet
And Alex, yes, jag älskar dig!
Jag älskar dig för evigt.

Homesick?

Is it possible to be homesick for a place that you have never really lived?

I've been to Stockholm only twice but, I can tell you, the very first time I visited there I felt a pull to that city that I have never felt before. I'm sure that, in part, it has something to do with the fact that Alex lives there and I have friends there but I think it is something more. Right from the start, I felt completely comfortable there. There is something about the urban coolness of the city itself that gets to me. More than that though, the people there are so inviting, warm and kind. They really made me feel at home. They have a certain quiet pride in where they live and, boy, do they have reason to be proud.

Stockholm is clean, bright, welcoming and exciting. It's a forward thinking city but has a deep respect for it's history. And even though it is a bustling, busy crowded place - it has all the charm of a close knit neighborhood.

Today I woke up late and wandered around in my pj's finally settling down to a cup of coffee in front of the television. What came on? Scandinavian Cooking on PBS - and it was all taking place in Stockholm and it was focusing on those places I had seen and loved and my heart just blew up! I want to be there. I want to live there. I love that city! I love it so much I should work for the Swedish tourism board because I would be the BEST ad they could ever have! Haha!

If you travel and haven't been to Sweden for heaven's sake - GO! And take me with you, okay?

Cripes oh mighty...

Last night was a wing doozy! I'm still fighting this cold which has now been reduced to an annoying throat tickle that sends me into fits of coughing. Last night there was little sleep to be had. I coughed so much that I finally gave up sleep altogether and sat out in the living room on the couch for an hour. That was at 5:30am. I tried sleep again once I felt the cough subside and managed to doze off at around 7am. The next thing I knew it was 4:00pm and I'd slept the entire day away! Normally I wouldn't mind that except that Alex leaves for Sweden on Saturday so these last few days are very precious indeed.

We did manage to get out and get some McD's for dinner and then off to see "Sweeney Todd" which we missed the night before. We missed it the night before because dinner at the Roadhouse took too long but it was well worth it. So, all was not lost. We did have a great time after all.

Only one more full day and he's off again. I hate even thinking about it. It makes my heart hurt very, very much. I'm jealous that he's going back to Stockholm without me. I long to live there so badly. I'm sure there has to be a way but not being independently wealthy I haven't thought of it yet. Thank god for phones and computers and Skype... they keep us hanging in there but they are a very cheap substitute for the real thing.