3 40 a.m. bus blues

Yesterday was quite relaxing as we prepared for the next leg of the journey. As planned, we spent the day running errands, relaxing, packing and then conquering the impossible task...the vacuum bag. Sofija sent us out to find a vacuum bag, a task which we assummed would be as simple as walking to the grocery store. The only favor she has asked us, of course. Very excited we could do something for her, we set out on our little 5 hour quest. We searched the city up and down for vacuum bags. To give you an idea of this embarassing adventure, James walked around either holding the empty vacuum bag and taking it up to customer service representatives, or wearing it as a bib. It would be the equivilant of picking up a freaking empty box of corn flakes, walking around greenville with it on your head, and hoping someone would help you find new corn flakes. idiots again. As the final stores were closing for the night ,we found the vacuum bag at the 15th store we searched, and also got a beautiful pink flower for our host and some olives, which are her favorite. We were so excited. yay!

We had a lovely mexican dinner, complete with wine, coffee, and chocolates. yummy again. Then we watched the final game of 2008 EuroCup. Go Spain! We chilled with our hosts and packed up our bags for our next adventure.
Then we cracked up in bed. Tija has unique breathing excercise she will display for all to see when we return. Very interesting.

This morning, June 30th, we woke up at 6 am and showered. We decided to acutally blow dry our hair for the first time. James only got one side done before she got too lazy. Oh well. pretty. Sofija had, of course, made us a lovely breakfast and coffee. She also was the sweetest and packed us a bag for Stockholm. After saying goodbye to our lovley hosts, Sinisa carried us to the train station where we boarded and were off to Stockholm by 8 00 am. We can always find something to laugh about or someone to laugh at, in a kind way of course. Our victim, we will stick with the theme...vacuum cleaner lady. Ok, so it is no more than 8 30 in the morning. Home girl, make that 80 year old home girl sits down in the train, downs a sandwhich, downs an entire cartoon of OJ, downs an apple, and then comes a massive chocolate bar. Tija was making James laugh so much she had to get up and go to the rest room. Yep, fell off the toilet. Trains are curvy. Another laugh. We were cracking everyone on the train up and they dont even speak our language.

Arrived in Stockholm at about 1 00 pm, had our packed lunch at the train station, and after a long search and lots of questions, bought our bus tickets, learned how to use a swedish change machine, put our bags into the locker, and set out to explore the city. Wow.

Stockholm is beautiful. It, too, sits on water and seems to be rich in history that we did not learn about becuase we could not pay for the tour. We did our own exploring. We visited the Kings palace, at which Tija got yelled at by the guard for walking too close to the circle. Come on guy, she wanted a picture. We walked all around the cobblestone streets sourrounding the body of water we have yet to identify. Still working on that one. We also visited this beautiful park, far off the beaten path. So we wanted a photo shoot in the patch of daisies since daises are both of our favorite flower. Yep, sat down in the patch of daisies, finished our photo shoot, loved the picture, oh what a great idea. Goose shit all over our pants. The only pair of pants we have. So, with no bathroom in sight we trecked on. 7 hours later, we are still sitting in goose poopie nicely displayed on our pants.

We picked out this lovely itialian restuarant with outdoor seating and had an awesome minestrone soup and margarita pizza. Very tasty. Um, so once we got the bill we wondered about this little 24 kroner charge, so we asked the server about it. yep, we paid an equivilant of 4 dollars for a glass of water. What the heck. After dinner, we sat on the stairs in the middle of the city and listened to this lady play violin so beautifully Tija almost cried.

We also had the most amazing coffee and coconut chocolate fudge this afternoon.

We are currently in this train station thats closing in ten minutes. wee. We just had a really interesting bathroom experience. We had to pay 10 knoners to use the toilet with no lights. humm. Ahhh since we are getting kicked out of here in ten, we are heading to a local bar we scoped out earlier for a beer or two. It looks cozy and safe since our plan to stay in the station failed. Tija is lame and tired. We will be running back up here to catch a bus that leaves at 3 40 am, the train station opens at 3 30. Looks like we will be runners again. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

much love to you all.

sorry about the misspellings and no punctionation. the keyboard is wack.

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