Europetour, edition 3: Vi hitta ti Rimbo!!

1st September and we drove out of Isabella's belly and into the Stockholm morning!

 excited about coming closer to Malin & Henrik!

 Hello Stockholm!

 I was crocheting a bit more in the car, as I wanted a little present for Malin & Henrik. Malin got a little heart broch which actually looks more like a pig, and Henrik got a keyring which is a snail but looks like a girl with pigtails..I like crocheting so that people have to guess what the h*ll it actually is(:

 Malins pigheart

I got more excited as we got out of Stockholm and into the country side, this is the Sweden I like!

And then the GPS man finally got us to Malin & Henriks house in Söderbylund. The morning was cold and misty, but damn was it beautiful!

We found a Malin and a Lilla O! Happiness!!! Then we walked around the house and the garden just ooooh'ing and aaah'ing about the prettiness of it all! A totally amazing house for an amazing couple!

 Malin & Lilla O!

 Simba felt the need to have a little poop, but nicely enough didn't look us in the eye(:

 As it was mammas birthday the day before Malin dished up a lovely birthday coffee fiest, and we all ate and drank (coffee) to our hearts content!

 Mamma liked her present!

 Malin & Henrik

Then we went outside and had a look at the surroundings. The garden is full of quirky little nooks and corners, houses, flowers, patios and apple trees! It is paradise for a grass wanderer like me!

 Stora snigel akta dig akta dig akta dig!

 Simba!

 A large cup of tea, sunshine and mistwet grass = HAPPY Anna-Karin!

 The next best thing to bare feet, comfy wellies and knitted long socks!

The day got warm and lovely and we all went outside to do various things...

 pappa started working...

 I did a little bit of crocheting and braiding...

After a few hours in the sun and a lovely dinner we got ready in our evening gear to head into Circus in Stockholm to watch 'Ljust & Fräscht' with Henrik Schyffert and Fredrik Lindström. Henrik works at the show doing lights, and he had managed to get us and his mother tickets to the last repetition before the big premier the next day. 

 Malin and I was patting Lilla O on the way into Stockholm...

Europetour, edition 2: Isabella oh sweet Isabella - Ferry journey Åbo-Sthlm

We got to Åbo in the evening of the 31st (plenty of time in advance of pappa's estimations....hmmm..), and waited to be able to get on the ferry..

 Isabella!

 We had a luxury cabin, with complementary sparkling, so pappa and I corked it open asap, nice way to celebrate mamma!

 Pappa, mamma and child portion of sparkly

 The view from our cabin!

 Oh, we did the 'stupid' thing, i.e. go to taxfree! I got slightly carried away with shopping with a plastic card in my wallet, and 'happened' to buy presents for 122 ege! My goodness! I am all about the extremes, two months of hardly anything else but second hand shopping, and then I go to Mammoth's Mecca and I get so carried away I buy stuff for 122 euros! Oh well, I got a free cruis for the 'effort', so hey, we're all winners!

 my shopping

 you can't leave tiny mafioso cigars can you???

After the shopping extravaganza we were so weak in the knees that we felt forced to change to evening gowns and go out to hunt for food, and MAN did we find good food! An amazing tapas restaurant which had surprisingly good tapas, mmmm!

 MY FOOOD!!!! Mmmm

 Pappa liked his salad (he looked happier after he had started eating it)

 enjoying an Irish coffee after the dinner (whilst mamma was waiting for the magical 12.00 to see whether we would drown before her birthday was over. Luckily we didn't)

I was thinking I would take pictures of all my beds during my Europetour, this is Bed Nr 1, score: 8 of 10 for comfortableness, but my back hurt like h*ll the next morning so I would rescore it 7 or a possible 6 even!

Oh yeah, I do like things which have more than one function, so I was happy AS when I found the below;

 

 

 A green bracelet which says 'Nature' and is pretty awesome as it is. But, what is this?? It doubles as a shoe thingie (the thing you use to get your too tight shoes on!)!! Amazingness! And for a mere 3 euros!

 

 

So long lovers!

Europetour, edition 1: Jeppis to Åbo roadtrip

Finally, 31 August came along, which meant both mamma's 55 year birthday and the day we would descend on our journey down to Åbo and onwards to Sweden!

 Thumb up for getting the journey started!

 I finished my first very own crocheting project, a little mat of some kind, I think it's quite nice!

 Mamma & Pappa & Finland

 Finland

We headed off about 1.30ish, driving down to Åbo från Jakobstad. Luckily I had an entire backpack reserved only for creative endavours and crocheting, so I was kept busy most of the journey! I was also reading old diaries which made me both cry and get new creative ideas. Had to call Sandra somewhere from the finnish outback to just cry a little and get some teenage angst off my chest. Beautiful creative sistersoul! I am so extremely happy I have found you again, and this time I'm not letting you go anywhere! (well ok, you can travel freely, as long as you promise to return to your housewife, our silly looking nonallergic dogs and our organic carrots in the garden!) <3 

I also had some Viking Updates which was very nice(: Some interesting and stimulating conversations about shampoo, roadtrips, Jaguars (?), kidsthesedays, parentsthesedays, music.... 

We had a nice tittle pitstop in a random little finnish village, where we spiced things up by doing something as odd as crossing the road and sitting down square middle of the lingonberry forrest! Crazy bloody finlandssvenskar...Headshakes and stares were common reactions. (But the tv next to the road got no reaction whatsoever from the finnish villagers.....)

(Apparently this was odd)

Got down to Åbo in good time for the ferry, so we had a little wander, a cup of coffee and then qeued (how the heck is it spelt now again??) up to get the car parked in the belly of Isabella (Isabella was our beautiful quirky ferry)

Tjosan!

Sweden!

We've arrived in Sweden! The drive down to Åbo was loooong, but i spent it mainly crocheting and doing other little creative bits and pieces, so I kept myself busy. We also had a little forrest picnic in Honkajoki, which was interesting. People stared at us like we would be the oddest thing in town (village) since purple carrots. Also, interestingly, found a tv (not smashed) at the side of the road. I wonder why someone decided to dump their tv in Honkajoki?

The ferry trip was quite amusing, we had some champers in our nice deluxe suite, AMAZING tapas food and lovely wine, to celebrate mamma's 55 years birthday! Fairly odd ferry but it was still fun..Had to get up really early this morning (to have time for a MASSIVE buffé breakfast!) and drove from Stockholm to Malin & Henrik's house in Norrtälje kommun, on the country side. Oh my dear sweet lord, this house, the garden and the surroundings are utter heaven! I feel so happy and lucky to get to see this, and to get to see my sister looking so happy, healthy and beautiful. Lilla O. is getting bigger by the day, and (s)he is saying hi to her auntie by giving me little kicks. I am looking forward to some amazing days here!

Oh, I managed to blow 122 euros on taxfree on the ferry, in about 10 minutes! THat's some impressive shopping comittment! I got slightly carried away(:

Now we're off for a show, Ljust & Fräscht with Henrik Schyffert and Fredrik Lindström, wohoooo, so exciting!

 Champagne!

 My ferry outfit

 BREAKFAST!

Bits and pieces in the car

More pictures coming tomorrow! So long lovers and freaks!