We Might As Well Be Swedes

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Armed with our blondish hair, popular swedish names, (and superhuman powers of course), we took scary flight number two to Gothenburg, Sweden. Thanks to Liz's friends Tess, Ryan, and baby Liam we had familiar faces to meet us as the airport, house us, feed us, provide us with clean laundry and showers (yay!), show us around, and above all provide us with some excellent company! Tess made us American pancakes and we practiced our swedish as we explored the older part of Gothenburg. Who knew that Gothenburg is actually pronounced (ok, are you ready for this all you American kids?) YO-TE-BURY. Yeah that's right, no goth, and definitely no burg...huh. No wonder no one in Europe knew what we were talking about when we told them we were going to Gothenburg. The number seven was also a fun word to try. That night we ended up at the "Lille London" pub, in honor of Liz, Tess, and Ryan all meeting in London about three years ago. Oddly enough, this is where we tried some traditional swedish meatballs, then it was off to have indian food for dinner (also in honor of the London kids!) After a damp but lovely walk around Gothenburg that night, we've come to the conclusion that the swedish win the game for decorating their streets with the most classy Christmas lights (and we've definitely seen our share of diverse displays in the many cities we've seen so far!) We also love their open window policy, where many people leave their windows uncovered so they can display lights and stars for the holidays...we love that there are stars everywhere!

The next day, we went to Leisebourg, a fabulous Christmas market which really put us in the Christmas spirit. We have a lot of sympathy for whoever has to put up all those lights though - there are literally strings of lights wrapped around every single branch and twig of every single tree - must have sucked for them, but it's pretty fabulous for us! Thanks swedish light guys! After babysitting the oh so happy, mischevious, and completely adorable Liam (our new favorite saying is Nej (neigh) Liam!), we had a small dinner party with Tess and Ryan and their swedish friends Bjorn and Johanna - how much more swedish can you get! (except for the tacos we ate of course, but they were so good and we never expected to eat tacos in Europe!) We also tried some delicious glögg, a warm (and highly alcoholic!) Christmas drink with almonds and raisins (and definitely not ham and eggs, but whose to judge at this point?) The next day we sadly said goodbye and just made our bus to Copenhagen...but we'll be back Sweden...when the weather is a bit warmer of course!

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Photos

Seriously!
They put lights on EVERY SINGLE BRANCH!!!

Lisebourg Christmas Market
With Ryan and Liam.

Turns out I love kids...
Well... some kids.

Comments

[Julia]

hi!!
hey girls!! you look like you are having a blast. i'm so jealous - i want to be there with you too. i loved the fun fact about how to say Gothenburg! craziness. i've been spying on you the whole time (just so you know - ah yes, creepy julia...) but haven't been able to write until just now because i'm finally done with law school semester 1! it feels great. can't wait for you kids to come home and give me the slide show. :) love you!!! julia

[Leah]

Puts mine to shame
So I was really proud of my first Christmas tree with Travis until I saw these trees. Seriously puts mine to shame.

[Leah]

What's with the baby?
What has happened to you, my cynical touch-stone? What's with all the pictures with the baby? Since when do you like babies? This may kill you a little, but I too think that baby is the cutest thing on earth. I want one...maybe.

[Buddy]

LIGHTS!!!
Love the lights. Do you think they might like to come to my house and do my tree?? Great pictures. Love lots M

[Ksenya]

Good old times...
OMG! Liz, I am so jealous you got to see Tess, Ryan and Liam! And not to mention visit our old house in London (Brit told me :)). Love ya, miss ya!