The first stop on my "grand working holiday" was a small town in the middle of Sweden called "Norrköping". It took about 30 hours to get there from New Orleans- the longest I have ever traveled continuously- but the moment I stepped off that shit Ryanair plane and saw the Swedish landscape, I quickly forgot about all of the time I spent on planes and in airports. I stayed with my friend Molly and her family, who took excellent care of me. Her family fed me lots of good home cooking and taught me lots of interesting things about Swedish culture. We had a lot of different foods- some Swedish, some Goan- things like: smoked fish, pickled fish, hard boiled eggs, caviar, swedish cheese, prawn cheese, fish paste- much of which sounds a bit bizarre, but is surprisingly tasty. Ok, well I wasn't quite hardcore enough to enjoy the prawn cheese, but at least I gave it a shot.
Some of Molly's family from Goa was visiting while I was there, so I also got to learn a bit about Goan culture. Her cousin Rashel is our age and it was her first trip to the western world, so it was interesting to see the way that perceived European and American cultures.
The house where we were staying was in what I guess is a suburb of Norrköping. I hadn't really been to any houses in Europe that weren't connected to other houses, so it was cool to have a yard where we could chill out and toss the frisbee with Evert.
Molly took me on a few nature hikes through the Swedish countryside, which was some of the most incredible scenery I have ever seen. There were green fields, and the sky was an amazing blue- it almost looked like the clouds were painted on it. The woods were mostly pine trees (I think) and there were wild berries growing everywhere- we ate blueberries and raspberries right off of the bushes. There was also a nice lake nearby that Evert likes to swim in, so we took him down a few times to fetch sticks.
When the weekend came, Molly and her friend, CC, took Rashel and I into town for some good times. The first evening, we went out for a couple of drinks which then turned into a night of discobowling and dancing. When CC told the bouncer that we were visiting from Goa and New Orleans, he hooked us up fat with free admission and the rest was history.
Saturday was our "big" night out; we started by having a few drinks at a CC's house- with ~$10 beers, only the richest can afford to not pre-game in Scandanavia. We then headed down to a "prominent" club in Norrköping where we danced the night away to some of the latest pop hits and classic euro-mashups. One of the things that fascinates me the most about Europe is the club culture. You'd think it's grossly exaggerated in movies like Eurotrip, but to me it doesn't feel that National Lampoon was too far off. After the club closed down, we took a cab back to the lake by Molly's house to watch the sunrise. I was on a mission to see the sunrise while in Scandinavia, and everyone else was down for it as well. Since we were going to a lake, it only seemed appropriate to go for a swim. Surprisingly, it wasn't too difficult to convince everyone else that it was a good idea too, especially since I was the first to go in :) But I quickly learned that there's nothing quite as sobering as a swim in a frigid Swedish lake. Despite the ridiculous amount of alcohol that I had consumed that night, the following morning I woke up feeling like a million bucks.. I'll have to go for a.m. swims more often.
I only had a week there, and that time passed quicker than I had hoped- but it was a week well spent. To anyone who has never been to Scandinavia, I would highly recommend saving up a bunch of money and going there. The land is beautiful, the people are beautiful, and the quality of life is unlike any that I have ever seen. I had an incredible time there with my friends and it is a place that I won't soon forget.
