UK Adventure

17 May, Monday: Up again at 7:15. Took a shower and woke up Rob and Beata at 8:30. Read a while, uploaded pictures and ate breakfast. Then I got Rob addicted to Zuma (I can just hear friends chuckling.) Now he’ll hate me just like my friends do.

I went outside and took many more pictures of Alexander and Stasha’s garden.

At 10:45 Alexander gave us a ride to Central Station where we met Beata’s best friend, Malgasia. She’s a beautiful girl, very friendly and fun. She visited R and B in Okinawa, so Rob already knew her.

We took the train to Malmö Sweden. No reason—other than to say I’d been to Sweden. What fun! I’d forgotten my passport, so every time we passed an officer Rob said, “Don’t talk, Mom.” I think he enjoyed saying that anyway, as there’s no passport control between countries via train.

To get there we had to pass over the longest bridge that connects two countries. And part of the journey included the train going under the sea. That was fun. Of course, I had to find the toalett right away—5 kroner. They took Swedish or Danish kroner, it didn’t matter. Bea said they voted twice not to institute the Euro, but I think it’s inevitable at some point.

We started walking through the city (on “walking streets”) and we took a lot of pictures. Ate at Casa Mia’s—I was craving Italian food. I insisted and finally they let me buy lunch with appetizers and alcohol as well. Totaled 921 kroner. Luckily I don’t know how much that is. I’ll find out soon enough when my credit card statement comes in. But it was worth every penny, er, I mean kroner. So delicious.

You can tell the tourists in Sweden. They’re the only ones who aren’t stunning. I have a little Swedish in me, from my great-grandfather Charles Gustison. Was Gustafson before it was Americanized. He was born in the US though. At least I know where I get my good looks—I crack myself up sometimes. (Now there are people going to be reading this who don’t have fluent English and they’ll think I’m serious about my good looks.)

Then we kept walking for a long time. I loved it but the girls kept saying how boring the city is.

A little after 4:30 we arrived back in Copenhagen and headed for the Tivoli Gardens. First I stopped at Hard Rock Café to get a T-Shirt. Then of course we had to have a beer. So I ordered coffee instead as I was getting tired, but before long someone slipped a beer in front of me. What could I do but drink it? I didn’t want to appear rude.

Tivoli is gorgeous, full of gardens, rides, and food/drink. As we walked we noticed the brand new roller coaster was stuck up at the top of the ride. Luckily it wasn’t when it was upside-down. A man said it had been there 90 minutes already. So we took pictures of workers climbing up toward them. There was no danger and after a while, it took off and finished the ride. They ran it empty twice to ensure that it would work, and then put people back on it again. I did want to ride it, but Rob said maybe later. We didn’t do it though.

We laughed for hours and hours. Such a beautiful place.

Took a bus back to Stasha and Alexander’s house—walked about 10 minutes to finish the journey. My feet were very tired by then. But when we got home, I plopped on the couch for a few minutes and soon dinner was ready. Stasha had prepared this fragrant, delicious soup from Turkey. She made two versions—vegetarian for me, and with lamb for everyone else. It was so good it makes my mouth water just to write about it, even though I’m still full. They served it with Turkish rice, and it’s eaten with a fork as a stew rather than soup. We had bread as well. Oh my, it was good.

We sat and chatted for a while, but I had to sleep. It was a tiring, but wonderful day.

posted by Jerilyn Dufresne, author @ 17:30