Stockholm Take 2

I went to visit Helen and Johan this weekend in Stockholm, Sweden, and it was lovely.

The only downside was that I stupidly calculated how long it took me to get there. I left work at 1330 on Friday and got to Helen's at 2130. On the way home I left Helen's at 1700 and got home after 2300. With the hour’s time difference, that makes for a seven-hour journey both ways. Ouch. That's longer than it used to take me to drive from Canberra to Bendigo to see Ali.

But: and it's a big but: I really had a lovely time. H & J are great hosts and we had gorgeous food all weekend and they really made an effort to entertain me royally including excellent tea in copious amounts, homemade blueberry crumble, Kanel Bullan (sp?? Tastes just like Cinnamon toast – yum) roast beef with mushroom stuffing and home-cooked bread for breakfast. And we even had tablecloths and linen napkins with every meal! Wow. Very Cool! :)

And Stockholm is a beautiful city. Clean lines, elegant architecture, clean streets and fresh air. I finally got to see some of it after spending my entire last trip sewing a bag for H for the wedding (grrr… damn stretchy fabric!). Really lovely. And even the weather cooperated. It wasn't snowing and (for this time of year) was a balmy 8-9 degrees. It's supposed to be minus lots right now. In fact J was saying that it is possibly the mildest winter that Stockholm has seen in recorded history. I didn’t mind a bit.

There is a real dearth of craft- shops in London because the overheads here are so ridiculous so H took me round to see some of their craft shops and I spent lots (the actual real down-side to Stockholm is the cost of things; it is expensive even if you are earning pounds). We did lots of talking and shopping and talking and craft and talking and walking and had chocolates and basically caught up. It was all good.

An actual relaxing holiday in a strange city for a change. Very happy.