I like being punctual, I mean it’s a sign of good organisation, motivation, lots of positive things like that.

But being torn out of bed at 3.30am in the morning to sit in a car in the dark for an hour or so and turn up at the airport about three and a half hours before your flight - when check in hasn’t even begun all after less than three hours sleep…well that’s just a whole different ball game. Sod punctuation, sod this holiday, sod everything because the bed is nice and warm and sleep is surprisingly nice….

What the hell am I doing here?!

Pink Elephant

The drive to the airport was nice and smooth, it was a good laugh with the music and all, there were moments where people were in that sleepy daze I guess. Stu happily chomped on his breakfast of chinese leftovers which stank out the car and made me wonder about food.

Kazzie had booked some parking with the company Pink Elephant and we parked up with ease in section Blue L5 (and don’t you forget it!), it was a horrid nippy morning and we lugged our cases over to the bus station. We found a massiveee queue there which we joined shivering but in good spirits, it didn’t take that long for the queue to go down and we were soon riding our way to the main terminal.

The purse fetching mission

The first hiccup of the holiday laid in a form of mild forgetfulness, I blame luck and clumsiness as well, none the less it was the fact we arrived at the airport to find that Kazzie had forgotten her purse. The only conclusion was that it was still back in the car - hopefully this was the case else we might be a wee bit screwed…

I went back with Kazzie to the car to retrieve it leaving the guys to sit at Costa to guard our bags and nurse their poor heads from the early start and sleep deprivation. I especially felt sorry for Kev who had his hoodie up for most the morning and whom I thought was probably actually going to die from being awake and active so early.

I was a little worried that the hike back to the car would be horrible and long like the ride up seemed to be but it actually was quite painless. I chatted with Kazzie trying to keep spirits up but I think there was the underlying worry that we’d get to the car to find no purse there. However this wasn’t the case and we found it wedged by the gear stick and handbrake, we quickly dashed back to the bus stop and hoped it wouldn’t take too long for another bus to show.

It was absolutely freezing in the shelter, and I found myself prancing about and jumping around trying to stay warm. It was then that out of nowhere I started to sing “10 green bottles…sitting on the wall” and Kazzie joined me happily. It was terrible, haha proper caterwauling, I was singing like a drunken cockney and I started dancing about in circles. It did the trick though, which was to keep me active, my spirits up and my mind off the cold heh, thank god there was absolutely fuck all other people about apart from us - kinda made it extra fun.

Then there was this amazing moment where we’d just finished the last line of the song, and we spyed at the top of the road something coming round the corner, it was our bus! Haha I was so amazed and chuffed at the timing, and me and Kazzie hi-fived before flagging down this bus and squeezing on through the doors. It was already pretty packed but there were only two of us so it wasn’t a problem.

We rode back to the terminal listening to the random banter between the bus driver and other passengers and rejoined the guys back at costas.

The money problem - part one

Kazzie doesn’t have any money left.

After all that hassle with fetching her purse (I sneakily wondered if there had been any point in fetching it ha), it so turns out that the bank won’t let her take out any more money, and she didn’t have enough on person for spending money and paying for the accommodation for the weekend.

Euston, we have a problem.

We all go and have a chat about things and turned out Kev can help Kazzie out a little, though only just, it seemed everyone was in a bit of a pickle cash wise. I was already in the red and was only barely managing myself and Stu well he’s a student go figure.

Somehow (and I chuckle when I think back to this point now…) it was concluded Kazzie would be fine after Kev’s loan, she’d have enough to cover everything and through the weekend. So Stu and Kazzie finally get their money changed up into kronor and we head off to queue to check in, content for the moment that everyone was now fine for money.

Check in time - Featuring Sexy Plane talk

We begin to queue for our check in, of course the queue is pretty massive so we pass the time with random video blogging on Stu’s camera and chatting about dropping logs aka taking a dump (I think it was because I said I needed the loo so it spiralled from that), which then led to the concept of “air logs” (farts) and how Kazzie was dropping those everywhere haha. Then somehow we got into joking about Kazzie’s “Six hours” sexual encounter. Kev suggests the idea about the possible innuendos Kazzie would be using that was related to normal plane/airport talk eg. “Please make your way to zone G” (*childish giggle*), and things about flaps…

For those who don’t know (though I don’t think there’s many people who don’t), it was so once told that there was a girl called Karis who had this sexual mouth party encounter that lasted epically six hours. Now despite the many questions that this tale raises, it so turned into a continuing joking of Kazzie by constantly referring to this six hour encounter. Despite it being a commonly used joke before the trip, the amount of times it was referred to on this trip took the biscuit ha. It got to the point that it was just funny because of how old and tacky it had become hehe.

So yes, we finally reach the check in desk and one by one we drop our bags and get weighed up. Stu discovers that his stuff was no way overweight despite what Kazzie had said, and Kev gets to find out that Kazzie had booked him in as a disabled passenger haha.

We (as in Stu, Bob and Me) was hoping that Kev was going to proper ride it out IT crowd stylee (the first episode of S2 for those interested) but instead Kev just got a bit puzzled when the check in girl asked him if he wanted any assistance haha, while Kazzie couldn’t contain herself and laughed at him.

Security Check - “Thank god I packed my bombs”

I get really paranoid about these xray check moments, I have this horrible feeling my bag is just going to be emptied out or I’m going to be groped to death if I set off that sodding metal detector. I’m especially more weary now what with all the heighten security that’s kicked in after all the goings on in the world.

Kev being Kev decided this the best time to start talking about bombs and making references to this clip:

While Kazzie shot him a stern serious look hehe. Fortunately the security stuff went pretty smoothly and I didn’t set off the metal detector thingy despite all the bits of metal stuck in my ears.

The Departure lounge

I was dying for a cup of tea. It was that sort of craving that made me think if I didn’t have one soon then I was never going to feel right for the rest of the day. God for what I would have gave for a nice sit down with a book and a cuppa in a tea cup and saucer - heaven.

But nah it wasn’t to be, once inside I was phafting about with hand luggage, since we were only allowed one piece each I had to put some of my stuff into Kev’s bag and put Mona’s present into mine. Once through I could revert everything back to normal and carry Mona’s presents by hand.

There was a few bits and bobs of people shopping and such until we headed to a Weatherspoons for a preflight fry up, though this plan was abandoned when Kazzie explains we would be boarding pretty soon. So instead we make a stop at pret for some grub and drink. I made a weird decision of not getting tea at this point because I was more plain thirsty so settle for water and a nice salmon sandwich.

Final Call!

We wait around near the floor to ceiling window that gave us a wonderful view out and of the planes. It was weird, the sun was just about rising now and the planes stood pretty on the tarmac, their tails glinting in the dawn light. I wondered which one was going to be our plane, if any of them were.

Kev dashes off last second to try and hunt down a newspaper so we wait for him, and do some photolising. Stu did get a cup of tea and I ask for a sip, just to try and get the need for tea out of my system. That sip turned out to be the last taste of good english tea for the entire weekend until I get home…

Feeling oh so tired now, and quite hungry the buzz of what exactly was happening began to kick in somewhat, we’re about to take a plane to another country, I hadn’t done this in years. We had no clue what was coming up ahead or how we’re going to make it through in a country none of us had any idea about or the language.

What were we letting ourselves in for?

Kev returns at last and Kazzie is beginning to twitch because our flight had suddenly hit the “final call” point, so we dashed off to our gate hoping we could at least sit together still. Apparently Ryan Air flights don’t have seat numbers, it’s a free for all, but to counter this Kazzie had managed to sort us priority boarding - though we were kinda a bit late to use it now. Thanks to Kev…and a newspaper…

Boarding and Lift off!

This was our plane, the faithful speedy metal tube we would be residing in for the next few hours. Now what with all the latest crazy shit happening in the world you’d think people would be apprehensive of getting into one of these things again. If you think about it you are putting a lot of trust into this structure of metal and rubber and plastic…

I remember before the trip we were on skype, and Kev started to google stupid things like ‘how to survive a plane crash” (haha), and I made jokes about grabbing the radio and yelling “BRACE BRACE BRACE!” down it. Though Kazzie (being the plane geek she is) tells me at one point that the reason you get into the “Brace” position was that the impact will mean you just break your arms and nothing else, therefore still allowing you to escape…I wasn’t sure whether to be shocked or comforted by thought. It made me think that it was something that belonged in a Chuck Palahniuk book…(”As calm as hindu cows…”)

We settle into two rows of seats, since they were rows of three we sat as pairs so we could keep each other company. Kazzie sat next to the window with Stu next to her and in front Kev sat by the window with me next to him. I had originally wanted to sit in the aisle (because I always preferred aisle seats) though it just wasn’t feasible and I shifted over next to Kev.

At least I wasn’t sat next to Kazzie (plane fanatic) or in front of her…

Eventually it was time for take off, and we felt the plane shift and drift gently onto the runway ready for the sprint. There’s a suddenly whirl of an engine, a rushing force that fires from behind and a shuddering of metal and plastic and pressure before we suddenly find ourselves in the air. Tilted and angled upwards, hurling through the sky at a dangerous speed - Yeeee haaaa! We were on our way.

Inflight entertainment

The first 15minutes or so or until we were had climbed to the maximum height was just us four gawking out the window watching as we rose higher and higher, and everything below becoming smaller and smaller. That is the plus side of flying early morning, it’s the best time to watch the rest of the world below. It was an ace view and me and Kazzie snapped away with our cameras.

My favourite bit was when we’d reached above cloud cover, and we were riding through the sky over a blanket of gentle white. If only it had been silent and more comfortable then maybe I could have just slumped back and really really have felt at peace with everything.

Once the rush of the sightseeing was done and the seatbelt light was off the adrenaline of the whole occasion quickly dispersed - everyone began to slump into sleeping positions though was pretty hard in seats that didn’t recline, and unfortunately for me I couldn’t lean either way because I was wedged in the middle. I scoffed one of my sexy salmon sandwiches then decided to have a go at some shut eye.

It was awful, I don’t know which was worse, trying to sleep at Kazzie’s for 3 hours or trying to sleep in that Ryan air flight for three hours. I was shifting from left and right, and me and Kev got into this amusing deadlock where we were leaning towards each other on our elbows which were touching, and as soon as one was drifting off they would get disturbed by the other moving haha. In the end I do get some sleep, I haven’t the faintest idea how, but Kazzie has a photo of me sleeping that does show how I managed it in the end.

I remember jerking awake after my sleep for some reason and found myself with a horrible thirst and a bit of a hunger, so I decide to stay up and finish my sandwich. I look behind me and the others were sleep too, Kev awakes at some point and he tells me to put my hand on the window blind. I do so and find that it’s hot, that kinda cooking your skin hot, and I ponder how Kev had managed to sleep on it all this time without a giant burn patch on his face or something haha.

Hej Sweden!

The others all stir in time for some DSing and then the landing, which I thought felt a bit of a bump but all was well in the descent. I did hate that annoying ear popping that went on for the take off and landing parts though.

We had watched just before our descent that the landscape had most certainly changed, (in the voice of Dorothy from the wizard of oz) “we ain’t in England no more Toto”, the most noticeable thing was that the landscape lacked civilisation and the land was just covered in trees! Lots and lots of trees…

Once landed we headed into the main building, and we’re all taken aback at how small and shit looking the airport was haha. It was in the middle of nowhere with nothing but trees surrounding us (surprise surprise) and the place is suddenly coined “The shittiest airport in the world” by us hehe.

We get through passport control and this is where we witness Kazzie’s “flirty” technique she intended to use to get her passport stamped, though we just laughed at her and unsurprisingly she was denied a stamp.

Next we go reclaim our baggage, this was nice and painless as our stuff was easy to spot (well apart from Stu’s who had a generic looking black bag) and then we set off to seek a bus that would take us to Stockholm.

Riding Flybussarna - “If you try and spell it you’ll be here forever.”

This is the bit that I was expecting to get most anxious about, the whole just landed in a new place without a clue, and now trying to find our way to the city and the hostel. We found ourselves queuing to what we thought was for tickets for the bus though found out it was for a machine that only accepted cards, so we found ourselves at a desk in the main terminal to get out tickets.

I also took a chance to ring home to let them know I wasn’t dead while Kazzie rang Mona to let her know we had landed and would be on our way to the city soon. She also tried to ask if this company we were about to ride with was the right one, but couldn’t pronounce it haha so tried to spell it, which was met by someone commenting that she’d be there forever trying to spell it hehe.

It thankfully didn’t take too long to get on our bus, which was quite quiet and proved to be absolute heaven compared to the plane haha. I’m serious it was so damn comfortable, and the seats RECLINED! Phowerrr…

We put our feet up (no photo pun intended!) and enjoy the journey, and this newly found wonderful comfort. Kazzie and Kev sat near the rear door where the toilet was and Kev was surprised/shocked that Kazzie didn’t realise that the stairs went down to the toilet. She had thought that the height we saw the toilet at now was its full height which amused us all as going by Kazzie’s theory people would have to be midgets to use it haha.

This was also the point that Kev and Kazzie formed “Team K”, I’m not sure what it was all about, maybe some strange bonding thing but so it was born that they were Team K and me and Stu were “Team Pinn” haha.

Stu changes seats and manages to get some sleep while the rest of us admire the view and things out the window as we head towards the city. I do some photolising, and it turned out it was a nice sunny pleasant morning/afternoon, the sky was sleek and blue, though there was still a chill in the air. It made me think of those wonderful glorious sunny winter days back in England, where it felt fresh and comfortable at the same time.

I commented that the place reminded me of Spain, I didn’t know why I think I had this impression that everywhere in Europe looks the same as each other haha. It was nice though, as we drew closer to the city we drove over bridges where we spied wonderful rivers and sights.

We played a quick game of who’s the first person to spot an Ikea, and I was hehe, though it was pretty hard not to miss. It was huge and towering with it’s yellow Ikea sign bold and proud from amongst the other buildings.

Stu wakes from his nap, and the guys have a quick go of some worms DSing as we get very close to our stop, then all of a sudden we found we had arrived and was faced with our first taste of real Swedish civilisation.

The hostel hunt!

Every time I’m with Kev I always end up on the hunt for something, previous hunts include, curry and the internet, but this time it was our hostel.

Prior to our trip Mona had advised us that we could get a several day travel card which we could use happily on the underground and buses, though when faced with this in reality we had looked at a map, considered our location and then figured that we probably could walk it quite easily.

No wait, I lie…it’s Kev that suggests we should walk it.

For split moment I think he’s mad, I’m thinking that I’d been trekking about travelling all day and now I just want the comfort of the hostel and a bed to lie down in, and a fucking cup of english tea! But then I remembered that I liked adventure and one third of the reason for me to go on this trip was because I wanted to have a bit of an adventure.

I found myself saying that “yeah, actually I would be up for the walk”, while I swear Kazzie was in the mindset of “I just want to be there NOW!” ie. agreeing with the non insane part of my brain, and wasn’t keen on the idea. Though thinking about it, it seemed to make sense though, the idea being we would see more sights and get a better idea of our bearings in the area, plus the walk wasn’t that far or so I was told by the guys.

So off we went in the direction we considered to be the right way, we then find ourselves trying to negotiate a giant busy busy road! At one point we were stood up on the top part of the carriageway, the bridge part, and we needed to be down below heh. Somehow we find a way down and start strolling along a riverbank while Stu decides to dance with danger and walk on the other side of the railing with a suitcase, by the side of the road! Fortunately he doesn’t die, though - it’s okay he had a EHIC. Hehe. Unlike Kev and Kazzie…

Ah the EHIC aka the E111 fiasco. Before you use to be able to nip into the post office and pick up a form (E111) that you filled in and would sort you for reduced/free health cover in EU countries. I found out in less than a week before we go that this system had been replaced with a card! That didn’t arrive before 7 days. Me and Kev had this moment of fuss over sorting it, but then we both get ourselves covered - kinda. Well funnily enough my card does turn up in time while Kev’s was still in the post haha. But really in the end only me and Stu were 100% sorted hehe, and we joked about hurting each other and abusing the system during the weekend haha.

So yeah we hike across the bridge going over the river and follow the signs in the general right direction and all until we reach the top of Gamla Stan island, the area where our Hostel was located.

Now we could have been a bit screwed at this point if I hadn’t *ta dahhh* printed off a map of the area *feels smug* (god bless google maps), we use this to navigate the roads and made the rest of our way to the road with our hostel on.

Gamla Stan and it’s terribly busy main roads

This is the point that walking to the hostel pays off.

Out of nowhere we suddenly found ourselves on a busy cobbled road with a row of shops, cafes and restaurants running along either side. The place immediately seeped character and I found myself telling Stu we so have to go to a cafe one night. Though for the time being we trudged on, me, Kazzie and Stu making an awful racket on the cobbles as we wheeled our cases along. I guess that Kev wins this moment for only having a rucksack, though on the flipside he gets to fight with it when he packs.

At one point we stop to check the map and Stu and Kev decided on the route to take, it involved going off the busy street we were on now and taking another main street off one of the side roads. We followed the map to the letter and was totally stumped when we found that “main road” resembled something that was more of a even more rustic cobbled back alley than a main street. The guys laughed in disbelief thinking it was a mistake but it wasn’t but we still decide to go that way anyway just for the laugh I guess. All the cases bouncing and grinding against the cobbles like crazy as they were dragged along ha. Stu even films Kazzie struggling with her case, making a joke that this was the equivalent of the M25 in Sweden haha.

Eventually we hit the street our hostel was located on, and was really puzzled when we strolled up and down not seeing any sign of it at all, until Kev calls us over saying he’s found it.

That tiny sign was the only sign or indication of our hostel existence at all! No wonder it was a pain to find it. I find myself having a flash back to reading reviews about the place, one clearly mentions that they should get a bigger sign as it was really hard to find. I had thought they were being silly, “how could you miss a building?!” I had wondered, but now I knew.

The money problem - part two, it just got harder!

Once we got inside the hostel I almost fell over while trying to lug my case up the spiral staircase. We got to the desk and Kev was the first to sort his stuff out. His stuff was easy, he paid and got his sheets - all was good. Next was Kazzie’s go, first we tried to get a 3 person room but apparently it was too late, so we still had to pay for 4 though Christy had given Kazzie some cash towards it.

Now as far as I was aware me and Stu were all squared over the accommodation money, we had given it to her when she changed the money at the airport. Now this is the brilliant yet tragic moment where we see Kazzie literately hand over ALL her money to pay for the room. At first we had thought it was her first bunch of notes, turns out it was ALL her notes. She begins to look sheepish and Stu suddenly steps in to finish off the payment and so wiping him out cashwise a little too.

What had happened?!! What had went wrong?? Stu was determined to get to the bottom of this mess.

Once in the room Stu settles down at the table to figure this financial mess out.

Poised with pen and paper he and Kazzie work through the incomes and the outgoings, I guess he was thinking something was up and that money had been swallowed up somewhere by mistake. Turns out that he could account for all the money that was now gone and it was all down to really bad financial planning by Kazzie, and so as a result crippled Stu because he had to bail her out. They had forgotten about the bus ticket and the sheet hire (I was crafty and had brought my own sheets woot) and little things like that.

Conclusion, Stu was going to dare to draw more money out, and Kev kindly offered to loan money to Kazzie. We also remembered that Kazzie would most likely get some kronor from selling her standing Muse ticket that will help things along.

In the end it was only a weekend, we would manage and help each other(kazzie) out. Though it was unbelievable, we had only just got into Sweden and Kazzie had no money already….And to think we had fooled ourselves earlier that everything was fine.

We did joke that Kazzie could only afford a hotdog a day, which she would then divide into three bits, one for each meal of the day haha.

Beds overload

When we went to our rooms we first see Kev’s and how he seemed to have ended up with a room with two single beds, so when we check out our room we find it has three bunk beds…that six beds in total! And meaning we could literately get a bunk bed each - wow.

I was sceptical of the whole thing, with a worry that some people would get lumped in with us later but I was reassured it was a private room and we would be the only people staying in it.

Score, we each picked (well Kazzie and Stu picked and I just took whatever was left) a bunk to claim as their own. It was kinda handy actually I could cover the bottom bed with stuff and I’d sleep on the top - nicee. Though I did fear I’d roll over and fall out in the night…

Exploration and Kazzie’s first hotdog

Me, Stu and Kazzie took a little excursion back outside and back down the main street (the real one) to seek supplies. Kazzie wanted some snackage and coke (cola) as well as a hotdog, while I was after some milk on my mission to have a cup of tea! (Yes I was stilll obsessing after one…). Kev was still at the hostel where we left him because he was napping.

We nipped into a sort of general store type place, where I tried to figure out which was semi-skimmed milk, and Kazzie picked up some icky chips (crisp) and some coke. Then we moved on and Kazzie finally got her hogdog while me and Stu spied sushi and a mexican food place and went to investigate briefly heh.

Kazzie declared that it was goodddd hotdog, plus it satisfied her hunger since she’d not eaten all day/morning/flight/ermm…(apart from biscuits so I’ve been told, she caned off a whole packet of marylands).

We head back to the hostel and I keep eyeing up the Italian restaurants there, and I begin to get an idea of prices. I get really lazy with my currency conversions and start relying on Stu for them. Which then leads me to believe that everything was fucking stupidly expensive! According to stu this small carton of milk I was cradling back with me, probably not even a pint cost 4 quid and this starter I saw on a menu cost 10 quid!

Later on Kev corrects Stu’s exchange calculations which relieved me somewhat ha, as things weren’t as expensive as we Stu calculated.

Chilling out and Hej Mona!

Back at the hostel we sort out our stuff and unpack a little. I get some sheets on my bed reluctantly (I mean who wants to fight sheets after a full day of travelling?) but I realised the existing stuff was kinda grubby so I knew I would feel better if I was chilling on nice fresh sheets. I also go investigate the kitchen and put the kettle on, but I’m suddenly put off the tea idea since the inside lip of the kettle was rusty :/ god dammit I wanted tea so bad!

I go grab a shower and I get to experience the idea of communal showers. Alright it wasn’t bad, actually it didn’t bother me at all apart from the fact that despite there being locked doors, there was a massive gap above and below the shower dividers, so if you had a nice pervy guy next door they could easily look in. Thankfully the showers never got that busy for this to ever be an issue.

Stu manages to get a nap in and Kazzie is about to get a nap herself but just as she was settling down Mona arrives! I wasn’t planning on napping but I’m glad Mona turns up when she does because I think I would had been bored while everyone was sleeping.

Me and Kazzie go greet Mona at the door and we go hammer on Kev’s door bless, he wakes briefly enough to open the door for us, and he looks at us in that dozy “my body is here but my brain isn’t, please try again later” way. So we leave him to nap some more and we pile into our room and chat some.

Presents and Photos!

The first thing I do is present Mona the muser poster ha. I apologise for it’s belatedness but I think she was surprised that it still existed more than anything heh. Then next I gave her the chocolate Monkey which she loved, followed by the Whittard Tea for two tea set which again she seemed to really like also (win). I think she was overwhelmed with the generosity, but I thought it was deserving since we had came all the way to visit her and she was about to take us home for dinner that evening. I’m sure presents would at least be a small compensation for having to have Kev meet your folks ;)

We sat about and chatted, generally about our trip and other random stuff, some lovely banter and teasing between Stu and her which was nice. I must say Mona does have some damn good wit in her. Hehe.

She also managed to sort a buyer for Kazzie’s spare ticket which was one thing less to worry about. Then we somehow ended up in this big photo session, it was just me taking photos of the three of them posing and being daft - it was a laugh though and helped to pass the time.

The wheatfree soya sauce strikes again!

After some debate it was decided we would set off to Mona’s soonish. I had hoped for a skint in a cafe somewhere though in the end we didn’t have time. We got Kev back up (again) but for proper this time, and he goes for a shower, though not before he comes into our room declaring “The wheat free soya sauce strikes again!”.

“What?”

“Well you know my soya sauce, it broke in my bag and has got everywhere”

We go to his room and take a look, and find that a) amusingly what he had said was true, b) there was this stain on the spare bed that could have reassembled blood (ha) and c) his room now stank of soya sauce. Haha.

I tried to offer advice about getting it out the sheets, but meh it was a bit too late, plus it had gotten into some of Kev’s clothes, a lovely example was him shoving a pair of soya sauce soaked socks into my direction for a sniff - dear gawd it wasn’t good. Thankfully not all this clothes were trashed but still the ones that were, were just eww.

Meanwhile if you thought things couldn’t get more bizzare Kazzie starts to randomly have a nose bleed at this point 0_o and the next time I see her she’s on the phone with a piece of tissue shoved up one nostril…nicee…

Kev grabs a shower and Kazzie gets bored and rings Adam for a chat, we all say hi and she goes off to get Kev to say Hi too haha. There’s this surreal moment where the main shower door is open, and Adam is on speaker phone, so you hear Adam’s voice echo followed by Kev’s and Kazzie’s haha.

To Mona’s! - Cheating the Swedish transport system

Eventually everyone was ready, and we set off following Mona across town to catch a certain underground station to get to hers. It was a massive walk but handy as we got to see more of Stockholm. We also discovered on this walk that the places was covered in posters, but they were only put up with masking tape! Very easy to steal, and we spotted a Muse one that we stole for Mona to keep.

Once at the station Mona enquired for us about getting tickets, turns out she had to be real sneaky about it by buying us this ticket strip that would get stamped, and when we passed through we had to pretend we were only going one or two stops heh. This seemed a bit dodgy but in Tyler Mona we trusted and went for it, it was daft though we were such tourists. When asked our destination all four of us chorused the place at the same time, in that way that was loud and proud like a kid who had just learnt a new word and saying it with a big smirk on their face.

Mona meanwhile went one up on the cheating the system thing, she told us she wasn’t even going to pay and was going to just walk through, which is why we were left by ourselves to try and con out own way hehe.

We got through fine and jumped onto our train that we rode straight to the stop near Mona’s. But not without a conversation about what dodgy english terms did Mona’s folks understand or not, the idea being the guys were tempted to play a game of seeing how many of these english slang/innuendos they could slip into conversation without her folks knowing haha.

At Mona’s - “Can I have some sauce on my balls?”

Mona lived in this nice flat not far from the underground station so it didn’t take us long to actually get there. We were warmly welcomed by her parents, there’s that coy uncertain moment as you shuffle off your shoes and jacket, and each of us found ourselves wedged and sat in the living room area on the sofa with family friends of Mona’s.

It wasn’t bad or anything, it was just a bit eepp, we chatted lightly when we were questioned about things and I was most amused when I saw the baby there didn’t like the look of Kev haha. Soon Mona must had realised how weird this was for us so invited us to her room and therefore bailing us out of the living room. Hurrah.

Mona’s room was gorrgeous, I adored the wallpapered wall and just the feel and style of it, though Mona had explained that everything apart from the bed did come Ikea haha. We sat about her room just chilling out a bit, nipping on the internet and arsing about on her guitar. It wasn’t long until the food was ready and laid out on the table for us and we were called over.

Before we had even left the country Mona had been harassing Kazzie what we fancied for tea, I wasn’t fussed to be honest, I sorta liked this idea of the unknown and this whole idea of having a new total eating experience, of eating what they ate kinda deal. But it was settled that we would have meatballs and potatoes, which removed the surprise element of it but I guess at least we got to eat some swedish cuisine.

We sat down at the table, all of us utterly starving, I sat next to Stu with Mona at the head of the table to my left, and opposite me was Kazzie who had Kev beside her. The spread looked wonderful! With the dish of meatballs, giant bowl of salad, block of cheeses and dishes of potatoes and rice. We all tucked in happily and Mona told us how we should eat our Meatballs, with some of this sauce and some jam (kinda like how we have gravy and cranberry sauce with our turkey). Kev takes this wonderful opportunity to slip in a dodgy line about putting sauce on his balls while Mona’s dad was about, which we all snickered to quietly to ourselves and tried to keep a straight face. Ha.

So we ate, and the food was as gorgeous as it looked, the sauce for the meatballs was absolutely amazing. We joked that Kazzie should take this opportunity to eat well because this will probably her last decent meal of the weekend haha. Meanwhile there was some light fun conversation, it got a bit gossipy actually but it was a good laugh, Kev even managed to embarrass himself by saying something to be offensive but funny at the same time, but once he’d realise what he had actually said the shame sorta kicked in hehe.

Once we were all nice and stuffed, we begun to offer our services to help tidy up but of course it’s one of those deadlocks where both parties would be insistent towards the other, so in the end it was easier to just go retire to Mona’s room. But not before we tinkered about on the piano for a bit heh.

Chilling out and Exploiting Swedish Keyboards

Back in Mona’s room we just doss about andthe Muse absolution dvd ends up being put on (to help get us PUMPED for the gig tomorrow), I admit I’d not even bothered watching this even though I have it ha while Kazzie shows her fangirlism by being able to name/recite the track listing as the dvd plays..even on mute! We also have a moment of pausing and skipping frames as Stu said he was on this DVD somewhere…

There’s some time spent on the muser poster with Stu drawing on some Harry Potter related crest thingy, Mona adding some bits, and Kev just writing random crap ha. Mona’s mother comes in with a bowl of fruit for us all, and also Mona got us some Moroccan tea. It tasted like melted polos to me and was a lovely experience, see this is the sort of thing that I like to get out of a holiday abroad, just little new experiences like these.

There was a bit of guitar jamming between Kev and Kazzie (I’m actually surprised with how well Kazzie plays - beats the shit out of me, then again I had stopped playing for a year or two now…). We doss about on the net and board a little, including exploiting swedish keyboards, that have some keys with those funny symbols above some of the letters letters:

Bånter 18 - Nöw legålly åble tö think ånd pöpe

And we gobble fruit and take photos, and soon it was time for us to head off so we wouldn’t miss the train back. We bid farewell to Mona and folks, and thanked them graciously for their hospitality and all. They even invited us over again for the next night! But we said we would see since it was gig night after all.

A lovely flattering photo Kev took outside Mona’s place:

We left the flat and strolled back to the station again cheating the system, but time it was just horrible, the guy gave us this “Not impressed” look as we could barely pronounce where we were supposed to going to ha.

But we make it through, get on our train and chilled out on the ride back just chatting and joking about. I can’t remember what we talking about (probably Kazzie and six hours…) but I do remember laughing so much and so hard that my stomach hurt.

“Fancy a quick one?” - Moosh moosh

From my experience of guys and drinking, there’s this unwritten code; when they say “lets go for the one”, what they really mean instead of just going for the one pint as the line suggests, they go for a few pints. If they say “Fancy a few?” this probably means about five and they will probably return a bit pissed and stay out twice as long as intended.

So when Stu was all fried up and said lets go for the one somewhere, I laughed because I thought of what it meant in real terms.

It was insane to think that this was only the first day, that we had only been in England less than 24 hours ago, and that we’d been surviving off god knows how little sleep. It was weird because of how long the day actually had been it felt like we had been there for a week already.

Anyhow, Stu fancies trying to get rat-arsed at some point, and he decides that tonight he’s raring to give it a go. Kazzie was quite content to go back to the hostel and sleep, and I think Kev was sorta in the middle but did want to go for a quick wander for a bit to see if he could find food.

We nipped back to the hostel to drop off Kazzie so she could crash, but she didn’t like the idea of being left alone there. So in the end we all end up heading back out again. We take a stroll down the main street that was all now shut up and closed, but me and Stu shows Kev the mexican place there. Kev had gained a hankering for tacos since spotting a taco place earlier heh.

Next we wander about looking for somewhere to grab a drink in, we spotted a cool Rock cafe place but it involved paying to get in, but eventually we end up in a pub place literately a min walk from the hostel.

It was quickly donned our “local” haha, and we venture further into the place that pretty much looked like your regular pub. That was until Kev found a staircase down and we suddenly emerged into what resembled more of a groovy bar, with the gloom, lights and the “sexxay” (yes with two Xs) dancing area that Kev got excited about.

Me and Stu were disappointed that they didn’t have Kopparberg :( I was desperate for some strawberry stuff! But instead settled for the brand they already had which came in various flavours too. Stu got himself one followed by Kev getting some in for himself and Kazzie, and we found out how stonking expensive it was! I think Kev said it was about four quid for a bottle :/ so damn expensive even moreso than London.

I settled for a pear cider after trying another flavour Kev brought, and we settled down in some seats close to the bar. We did some clinking of bottles and we toasted to various things (”To six hours!”) and so it begun…

“I’d never….had a sauna…”

For people who know me, they will know the following two thinks about me and drink 1) I’m not much of a drinker, I’ll go out and be happy to just drink non alcy drinks all night and have an ace time, and 2) When I do drink I am such a lightweight drinker.

My philosophy with drinking is that if I’m doing it then I’m probably doing it with the intent to probably get a bit drunk.

So I’m there drinking this bottle of cider and I know that this is all I’m going to need to make everything good and drunkenly for me. The guys and Kazzie? They’d never witness me drinking before and I think they were surprised and bemused at how much of lightweight I really was. I had always said I had low tolerance, I felt no shame about it, but I guess no one really believe it until they saw it for themselves.

I feel my body go through it’s reaction cycle, first I feel the heat in my cheeks but my face is a normal tone, then the rush of blood hits the capillaries near the surface of the skin and my face flushes with pink and heat. Then I start becoming stupidly giddy, extra vocal, extra confident and more willing to talk to strangers. I know I’m reaching the point when I’m texting this to twitter:

“OH MY cider”

Meanwhile Stu is downing his cider fast, man there are very few guys I know who can drink as fast as he did, but it wasn’t touching him at all. I guess Stu figured at this point he couldn’t afford to get hammered in Sweden, which is a shame. I would had loved to have seen him spackered.

Him and Kev also constantly began rating the girls in the place, well actually they started their rating thing slightly earlier in the trip, but it was a constant thing to hear them mutter numbers to one another as they scored the womanly sights.

I think Kev spots some 7s on the table near us and I tried to encourage him to go over and talk to them, but instead what does happen is this Swedish guy comes to sit in the spare spot by Kev ha.

He ended up talking to us lot a bit, and we find out his name was Thomas, and we explained our trip so far and why we were in Stockholm. He was joined by a friend, who was a lot quieter maybe because he wasn’t confident with his English, who knows? We end up playing a game of “I’d never…” it seemed fitting for the time and was pretty simple to pick up.

It was alright, but I think people were a bit tired and feeling uninspired so it died in the end, but not without us finding out about odd things of one another, which I shan’t repeat. Though come to think of it, more accurately I got caught out in this round of the game a bit, nothing I give a damn about mind but usually I’ve been lucky and never had to disclose things.

The best bit was right at the end when the Swedish dude was genuinely shocked that none of us have ever had a sauna before. At first he had thought it was “sex in a sauna” but after he was corrected he was in disbelief. I guess that’s a sign of another cultural difference?

In the end him and his mate went for a wander asking Kev to watch their stuff, though we had about finished our current drinks, and Stu’s “moosh moosh” energy had vaporised and was replaced by tiredness. I think the cider acted more of a nightcap than anything. So we finished off and wandered back to the hostel, leaving the guys stuff there without telling them haha…

Two uncontrollable drunk girls and two scared sober guys

By the time I stood up to leave I knew instantly I had reached that point a littleee bit further than I had wanted for the night, the lights felt brighter and glowy and I was worried I wasn’t going to make walking back to the hostel haha. Let me just say that though the guys thought I was spackered I wasn’t, they have absolutely no idea what my “spackered” state is like, it’s worse, it’s like when I enter that badd realm of drunk - instead I would happily declare I was just plain pissed/drunk. Though not completely off my head. Though according to Stu he had expected everyone in Sweden to be “off their tits” haha.

We wandered back to the hostel and I’m relieved that I can actually walk about sanely, but admist my drunken state I had totally not realised that Kazzie was a bit doolally too. I only realised she was a bit drunk when Stu had chucked his stuff onto her to take back to the room while he went to the loo, and she carried it on her back while being bent forward, imagine if you were pretending to be a bull, that position. Anyway she goes to our room and I unlock the door for her, and she sorts of charges while in this bent forward bull position and instead of the door opening she just bangs right into the door. (I should inform you now that Swedish doors are weird and open outwards not inwards from the room!)

I couldn’t take it any more.

This was the last straw, I literately laughed my tits off while I slid down the wall and onto the floor, just laying there laughing and laughing and laughing, loudly and uncontrollably - it was just so plain fucking funny!!

I had no idea what Kev was doing but I think he was probably thinking along the lines of “Oh god what has happened to them?!”

In the end I manage to bring myself to my feet and me and Kazzie stagger back inside our room finally. Fortunately Kazzie’s head was okay (not that there’s much to damage inside it ;) ) well she was still moving and being silly so I think she was cool. Stu returned at some point asking what had happened and I just said plainly that Kazzie ran into the door, probably followed by more laughter.

In the room Kazzie just lies on the floor in her daft state, and then attempts to climb into her top bunk bed while drunk without the help of a ladder or step. Dangerous as it was, this was just too was funny to watch to really try stop her - Despite Stu’s pleas that Kazzie should just sleep in the bottom bunk. She kept on trying until she succeeded by fetching a step ha.

Stu decides to film the occasion from the safety of his bed while I fumble drunkenly for my 400d, I hadn’t taken it out with me because well drunk me + technology is generally a bad thing, like me and my phone, I should stay away from my phone…

We arse about for a bit, and both pile into Stu’s bed (no this isn’t heading where you think it’s heading), to watch the footage he’d filmed for the day. Kev comes in at some point before sleeping and I film him making this great “entry” of the trip so far. He says something along the lines of:

“It’s now…4am, I’d been up since 3am, inn and Kazzie are battered, Stu’s about to bang them, everything is going great…”

Hahah…

Stu borrows Kazzie’s phone to do some twittering, and I film him drunkenly while he looks at her txts and such. We have this great drunken conv where all I’m filming is Stu’s eye, nose and profile in the dark, then midway I randomly go “ohhhhh I have to go brush maaaa teethh”, dear god it was so slurred and goofy it was brilliant.

Eventually everyone ends up in bed about to kip, I do some random texting - I get in that mood where I think..hmm who can I text now? Thankfully I had enough sense to remember it costs 50p to text the UK so I didn’t go mad, instead I text some odd people including Darren and Kev (I even screw up predictive txt to him haha) and then I get this fantastic idea -”Oh I know I’ll ring K, she’ll love that!” I say in my head, and just as I’m ringing her number I think “Oh god it’ll be dead expensive if I rung america” so I cancel the ringing. Except I hadn’t realised it had gone through to the ringing stage :/

K rings me back, but I keep losing her due to signal, but finally I get it stable enough so we can chat, I put her on speaker so everyone else can hear her, heh I had got everyone back out of bed to just go chat to her. It was a nice chat, I told her about Kazzie running into a door and all. Hehe.

After chatting we bid farewell and then a moment after Kev turns up at our room with his phone to his ear, K had rung him too haha. Bless, so we said hi some more and eventually despite my giddyness and uncontrollable fits of laughter we all somehow rolled into to bed to sleep.

I remember laying there with my head beginning to throb thinking, ohh shit, and also thinking that the top bunk was tilted so I thought I was going to slide out of bed…

Whether I passed out from exhaustion or alcohol, I’m not sure but I nodded off contentfully and sleep soundly…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 4:08 am and is filed under (Mis)Adventure, Social Life, Travelling me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.