Tuesday adventures

Well Missy has abandoned her post so I guess it's up to me to type tonight...So after trying to unlock the wrong room at the hostel last night and scaring the occupant (old man in boxers) we finally settled in for the night in our suite...cozy isn't it??!! Yes..you are correct, there is not a bathroom...that's down the hall and it's a water closet.  This water closet is about 3 feet wide/6 feet long, fully enclosed room with a radiator and sink too!!

Breakfast this morning was another culinary adventure for missy and I as we tend to be "food freaks", I mean picky eaters.. I mean selective eaters.   On the menu was the usual smoked meats, jellies and something in a mason jar that was grey and slimmy...yyyyuuuccckkkk!! So, missy "somewhat" ate and I had bread with jam and my ever faithful coffee.   This was a beautiful place on the lake and we could imagine it full of summer vacationers enjoying the water.

and just like the beverly hillbillies...we packed up and moved to Vaxjo.  Thanks to Olga, the GPS, we found the Volvo dealership where we were greeted by a older lady who began to question us in "swedish talk" and we stared at her like a couple of deer in headlights...she got the hint and started taking "english".  Our instructions from the Volvo factory people were to ask for Eric.  So we asked for Eric and she obtained the deer in the headlights pose...a few moments passed and she asked, "which eric"? then we got the deer/headlights thing and she said there were 3 erics....Asking for eric in sweden we discovered is like asking for Mike in the US...there's usally more than one!! 

Luckily, they were able to plugg the tire!! Good new considering a new "swedish" tire was gonna be $3565 Krona for ONE TIRE!!! We thanked everyone and took off for the Kingdom of Glass.

According to the guide books, we were suppose to just walk in and watch the glass maker so being the brave and fearless girls we are....we went an asked if it was really ok.. and guess what??? it was, so we went thru the blue door and right into the factory...let me tell you OSHA would have a field day with this!!!  There's flames, hoses, cords and carts everywhere and they turned us loose in disability heaven.

It was quite amazing watching the glass making so close and several times we actually felt like we were intruding on their day...hey I wouldn't want someone standing 5 feet from me watching every move I made at work..but they were very courteous and friendly. 

We left them to their creativity and went looking for food even though we had such a fulfilling breakfast.  After visiting several glass factories, our noses led us to this cute little cafe...

Where Missy dove into her liver and onions.....no..just kidding..that would NEVER happen...it's roast beef with fried onions, mustard sauce and something white (don't know what it was).... and the best part...chocolate treat after the meal.

We enjoyed a hearty meal and the owners were so nice...maybe because we were the only customers...it was actually cool today and we sat next to a very small fireplace...

After lunch we headed for the coast with Olga's help.  Where out of nowhere, the clouds parted, the sun shone brightly on the mother of all stores...IKEA.  Like two screaming banshees we ditched Olga, cut off several drivers in the roundabout and headed for the promise land.  Linens maybe?? some sort of storage cabinet??..no no no...MEATBALLS...again...You should have seen the stunt driver moves Missy put on that parking lot...sorry to the people with the cart full of stuff...

We are now in our "porch" room in Farjestaden...It literally looks like they enclosed the porch to make another room, but it's got a nice view of the garden below.  Tomorrow we are going to Kalmar Castle which was built in the 1100s, just the kinda stuff Missy and I like to see.
Good night,
Thelma and Louise



Morning update

We had a great nights sleep I. Our bunkbeds
Had another "interesting" breakfast

Turns out this hostel is on a lovely lake and it's very pretty
The weathers misty overcastand windy

Have talked to the Volvo folks. Going to the local Volvo dealer to get a new Swedish spec tire (I have to pay for that) but Volvo will pit on a new US spec tire before they ship the car to Denver - at no cost to us

So we are heading into town soon to get that taken care of and then we will be off to explore the kingdom of crystal.

More to come later!

Day of Delivery

It is the end of Monday for us...it's about 10:30 pm as I type this.

This morning we awoke refreshed and ready to collect the new car.  I went in search of a Coke, of course, and walked across the way to the train station with what I thought was a prince's ransom to buy a coke.  I placed my morning wake up on the counter and proudly handed the lady 10 SEK to pay for it.  The coke costs about 3.50 US dollars.  She looked at me quizzically and I stammered out..."How much do i have?"  Ended up i had about .50 cents US money....so i had to trudge all the way back to the hotel and ended up drinking a coke out of the mini bar. 

This is very reminenscent of a story Shannon has when she was trying to pay off the "clean your horse trailor police" in Mexico....she was trying to pay her 'bill' with about 50 cents worth of US money too!

Any whoo....i got my coke and was a better person for it!   We then went down to eat breakfast at the buffet.  They had some interesting choices for breakfast...smoked salmon, sauteed mushrooms, variety of cheeses, baked beans, breads, cereal and a few other things that were just strange.  Missy ate Coco Krispies, shannon ate some mushrooms, sausage like substance and potatoes.  It was ok.

We then collected our luggage and went down stairs to wait for our ride to the Volvo Factory Delivery Center. 

Low and behold our 'ride' was a Volvo Limo....we shared the ride with a couple of nice ladies from Cincinatti - they were a hoot - Dorothy (in picture with me) and her friend Tina.  This was Dorothy's 5th Volvo and first to get through the Overseas Delivery Program. 

So now, we are in the building...yeah!!!  Shan and I met with our Volvo person, who reviewed the paperwork and then went and retrieved "the car".  We weren't able to video the grand entrance to the car, but here are a few pictures that Shannon took....

So off we went to test drive the new car on their 'track' - - - really its just a short road that you u-turn on, nothing special like the Daytona track.  So back to the parking lot where we parked my branny new car next to about 6-10 other cars that  were delivered today.  There were actually 2 other cars identical to mine in color, but i was the only one with the 2 tone interior and dark wood accents....one of the other people told me that their volvo person was talking about mine and how nice it was.

Then we were whisked (herded actually) to the employee cafeteria for our buffet lunch.  Lunch consisted of Swedish meatballs (fantastic!!) boiled potatoes, salad, and bread.  Nice little spread if i say so myself.  And again those meatballs were really really good.

We then had a few minutes to waste before we all were taken on the Factory tour.  There were about 30 people on the tour (and our tour only consisted of folks there to pick up their factory deliver)...Sorry there will be no pictures from this part of our day as Volvo has to protect their trade secrets.  The factory was fascinating...all the robots doing the welding and all....Must include our tour guy was oriental and every time he said "robots" it sounded like he was saying "rowboats".

After the tour we were ready to hit the road...but not before I got the all-season weather mats put in the car (thank you lady from North Carolina....I had forgotten about getting these in all of the excitment, but she was telling me that they got them, so off I went to get them put in so that we would mess up the other ones)  Good thing we did and it has rained most of the day here.

Shan and I left the Factory Delivery Center and headed over to the Volvo Museum.  Also need to add that the FDC let us borrow a GPS unit...thank god we had the GPS or we would still be driving around Gothenburg trying to find a way to Vaxjo!!!

The scenery was lovely, nice farmhouses, barns, and even an old church...

Then disaster hit......

we got a flat tire, can you believe it??  i was so, excuse the language, pissed!   Shannon said she was glad she wasn't driving when that happened.  So after a couple of phone calls we had a tow service at our side within 20 minutes.  So the big tow truck pulls up in the rain.  We are expecting this huge, sexy, muscle bound swedish god....what we got, was a 5 foot 1 blond haired blue eyed swedish godess.  She had that tire off and the spare on in no time.  Shan and I of course felt silly - as this petite lady changed our tire.  she didn't even use those fancy dancy air hose things....she just muscled it off.  needless to say, we were impressed.

Shan says we could have done it, but it was dark and rainy and we didn't have a flashlight.  Shannon was quite prepared as we waited for the tow service....she had her camera out waiting for a moose to cross the road...there is a joke in there somewhere, but i can't think of it...

So we then limped to our Hostel....had a hard time finding (as the lady told us) the box by the door as that is where our room key would be.  Finally found it (after the 4th building) and have settled nicely into our Bunkbeds for the night.

We are excited to see what this place looks like in the daytime...there is some water close by.  But also, it could be the perfect setting for a scary movie - something like Jason XXXXXVI

So here we are exhausted and tired.  Its now 11:00 pm and we have to spend the morning fixing/finding a new tire for my branny new car.

Good night and we love you all!  Shannon and Missy

We have arrived

Shan and I are currently sitting in the Stockholm airport.  Our flight to Gothenburg doesnt leave for about 2.5 hours.

We have already seen a McDonalds and did think about grabbing a bite to eat, but decided not to.
I have bought my first Scandanavian Coca Cola. 

Very quiet airport, but it is only 9:00 am on Sunday. 

The flight went fine, couldn't really sleep, we are considering looking into getting an upgrade on the return flight.  We had beef brisket for dinner and a ham and cheese sandwich with juice for breakfast.  They also had some bizarre Greek yogurt - which Shan took a bite of....I wish i had my camera ready for the face she made!  It was classic....needless to say, she didn't like the Greek yogurt at all!

So we are just hanging out Sweden style for the next couple of hours.

The night before

 

all my bags are packed
i'm ready to go....

i'm leaving, on a jet plane
don't know when i'll be back again
i'm leaving, on a jet plane

now sing along with me......

all my bags are packed
i'm ready to go....

i'm leaving, on a jet plane
don't know when i'll be back again
i'm leaving, on a jet plane

The Day After Tomorrow

Getting closer to Saturday...we leave the day after tomorrow.

Does anyone remember the movie The Day After Tomorrow?  Its a disaster flick where the world enters a new ice age...for some reason it is a movie that Chris and I can watch whenever it is on.

Speaking of Chris...here is a photo of him from today...isn't he handsome?  :)

Have been selecting clothes, shoes, etc. and have even thrown in a couple of scarves for the cool evenings.
Still have a few things to pick up tomorrow after work - - - snacks, batteries, some magazines, and a travel size pillow.

I'm sure I'll be all filled with excitement and anticipation tomorrow...hopefully I will be able to catch some zzz's!

Daily Medication

Almost forgot to take my Vitamin C to ward off those nasty dirty germs!!!!  OH MY! 
Also heading off to take my aspirin so I don't get the dreaded DVT..

 Where is my brain????   I can't sabotage my trip before it starts!!!

Shannon.....it appears I need daily reminders to take these 2 things!

2 days and a wake up....

So the great adventure is drawing closer...now is the time to wrap up things at work...(what was i thinking when I made the start date for our students this week????)

I have also officially begun my packing process.   If you are saying...no way...Missy never packs this early....rest easy, as i am not actually packing...i'm washing clothes.  Hey...that's part of the process...got to have clean clothes to pack, right?

So as I type this, the dryer is drying and the washer is washing....on to the toiletries....have all my goodies together - advil, pepto, tums, bandaids, shampoo, conditioner ...you know, the works.  I am likely leaving most of my makeup at home this time.  I know...suprise suprise  ;)

I am sure my big sis is already packed and sitting on her newly purchased suitcase ticking down the minutes...I jest...it seems like our family is more likly to throw a bunch of stuff in a suitcase 5 minutes before we walk out the door and pray we have stuff that matches in there!

3 days and a wake up...

Down to 3 days and a wake up and getting more and more excited about the looming adventure!

Shan told me today that I needed to start taking Vitamin C and baby aspirin. The Vit C to ward off those nasty germs in the airplane so we don't get sick and the aspirin to help avoid a DVT. Well haven't taken Vit C in a while, so I thought---why not do it and be on the safe side! So I have taken a Vit C and will take an aspirin before going to bed.

Shan says if i answer the phone and only hear squeal's then its a good bet that it's her!

Here's a picture of "The Car"   It's pretty isn't it?!?!?!?!?

4 days and a wake up...

The countdown continues....4 days and a wake up before my sis and I head over to Sweden.

Why Sweden you ask....i'm becoming the proud new owner of a Volvo.  We are taking a trip across the pond to pick up my 1st new car in 16 years.  We will be using this new XC60 as our mode of transportation during our trip.