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We stayed for a few days in Finspang with Siw and Eilart, friends of Carina's mother. On Sunday morning we had coffee with Eilart's wife and her husband while the twins played for a while with Rebecca, one of the granddaughters of Siw and Eilart. Again I was struck by how welcoming and gracious everyone was, and it was relaxing and refreshing to have a great conversation over coffee and snacks. Sunday evening we went to visit Ulla Brit, Carina's aunt. At her house was her daughter Gunilla, and Carina's cousins Michael and Nicholas (whom we had previously met in Boston when they were visiting their aunt Birgitta). The evening was filled with comfortable, familial conversation and more coffee and snacks.

Monday morning we took the twins to two Swedish schools. First was Corrin's class of 10 year olds. In Sweden, 10 year olds are in 4th grade, and they start learning English. The class was very excited to get a chance to speak to native English speaking kids their own age, but they were all terribly shy. So too were our girls! I tried to encourage them to speak -- after all, they had an interested and captive audience that would have enjoyed almost anything the twins would have said -- but they only demurely answered questions asked of them by the teacher. Both Carina and I were particularly interested to see that each child had a votive candle burning on their desks. It was dark in the morning, and the candles gave a nice warm light to the classroom. I don't think many schools in the U.S. would permit 10 year olds to have lit candles on their desks, which frankly is a bit of a pity. After a brief conversation, we then moved on to Rebecca's school, and her class of 13 year olds. Rebecca was extremely excited to introduce the twins to her classmates, and she gave a nice short speech in English. Her class wasn't nearly as interested as the younger class, though, and they quickly ignored the twins. I could tell that the twins felt very intimidated and out of place, but Rebecca did a fantastic job of asking them to participate in the lesson on which she and a few friends were working.

Monday afternoon we went to Linnkoping, where we stayed in our first hotel of the trip. The afternoon was spent at Bus fabriken, another giant indoor playground. The kids had a lot of fun, and so did I. After a few hours of releasing energy, we met Michael for a brief tour of the city of Linnkoping. Of particular interest were the church and the public library, both of which were gorgeous.

Tuesday morning we took the X-2000 train back to Malmo for a few more days with Helena and Mickey. We watched movies together, and generally relaxed in an effort to save up some energy for the travel to Ukraine, and for the festivities of my sister's wedding.

I didn't see as many sites in Sweden as I would have preferred, but we made some great connections with family and friends, and I'm looking forward to seeing all of them again!

In almost every conversation I've had with Swedes so far, the Swedish mile has come up. One Swedish mile is 10 kilometers. When describing distances, the Swedish mile is more often used than the actual number of kilometers.

I was extremely curious to know the history of how such a measurement came to be used, but no one really knew. It should have been no surprise that Wikipedia had the answer.

Thursday evening we attended a Saint Lucia musical recital hosted by the daycare that Helena's daughter attends. It was extremely cold outside, but the kids were all so adorable!

Friday we struck out for our own in Malmo again, and spent some time in the Malmo Museum, which was wonderful! It's a museum with art, historical castle artifacts, and an aquarium and zoo in the basement! It was quite a lot of fun to explore.

The plan for Friday evening was to take the train back to Burlov, where we'd meet Michael, and then take a bus back into Malmo to go to "Andy's Playhouse", a large indoor playground for kids. We took the wrong train, and ended up in Lund. Heading back we thought we were taking a train that stopped in Burlov, but instead it went straight on to Malmo. The train was packed, so Carina and I stood at the front of a car, while the twins sat several row behind us. At the front with us was a small group of extremely boisterous people, who at first made me feel very worried that we might have a bad situation on our hands. Suddenly, the guy closest to me offered me the beer he was drinking! When I declined he then had his friend offer me some of his beverage, which was explained to me as something homemade. I took a polite sniff, and quickly declined -- it was clearly very potent moonshine! The guy next to me proceeded to talk my ear off while Carina was engaged by the girl in this group. As it turns out, they were all heading to the Marilyn Manson concert in Copenhagen, and although drunk they were pleasant enough to chat with. They continued to offer us booze, and even invited us to join them at the concert. It was at this time that we rolled into the Malmo station, which provided us a convenient graceful exit.

Back in Malmo we called Michael to explain our situation. He told us which bus to take toward our destination, and he said he would meet us there. After several false starts we decided that the time spent trying to figure out the bus system would be better spent walking the dozen or so blocks to where we were going. This was, in fact, a big mistake, and we arrived at the destination bus stop substantially later than intended. Thankfully, Andy's Playhouse was still open, and the kids (and adults!) got to enjoy a lively 30 minutes frolicking there.

The facility was really nice: lots of mesh and rope climbing surfaces, tunnels and tubes, slides and obstacles. We played a bit of chase, and then simply ran abound before discovering a courtyard inside the maze armed with air guns that shot soft balls. We took turns shooting and being shot, and everyone had a great time. If we get the opportunity to go back, it would be a great place to spend several hours in order to wear out the kids!

Friday night we stayed up extremely late chatting with Michael, Helena, and their friend Frank. I went to bed at 4:30, and Carina and Helena turned in about an hour after that. We were all up again at 7 AM in order to catch the train to Malmo. There I bought tickets literally just in time to board the X-2000 high speed train to Linkoping. Carina and the kids stayed at the platform while I purchased the tickets, and it was a scene straight out of a movie as I rushed down the platform, waving the tickets in my hand as the final boarding call was announced! Safely on board we had a quiet ride through the Swedish countryside. The train, to my surprise, had (for pay) on-board wireless internet, and the captive portal splash page showed a real-time display of the train's position!

We've now spent the afternoon with friends of Carina's mother, who remember Carina from when she was a baby living here. They're extremely gracious hosts, and we've had a wonderful time chatting with them and their children (and grandchildren!), talking about the differences between Sweden and the U.S., as well as just sharing personal stories and getting to know one another.

We left Monday afternoon for our winter vacation. After a boring 9 hours on the plane, we arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark. After a short conflict with the payphone, we met with Michael Heilemann for lunch. Even though we only spent a brief time together, it was a real treat to meet him! I've known Michael for several years through his work on WordPress and K2, and more recently with Habari.

After lunch we took the train to Malmo, Sweden, where we were picked up by Carina's penpal's husband, Michael. The reason we're staying in Malmo is for Carina and her penpal, Helena, to finally meet -- they've been friends for almost twenty years, and have spoken on the phone a number of times but had never met one another! Helena, Michael, and their daughter Linnea are wonderful people, and we're so thankful to have such warm hosts. We stayed up (very!) late Tuesday and Wednesday night simply talking.

Tuesday we stopped at Linnea's daycare, where we had a small tour. We're going back tonight for a children's Saint Lucia concert, which should be a lot of fun. Wednesday, after a late start, we wandered around Malmo. This proved more taxing than we expected, as the twins didn't respond well to the lack of structure. Carina and I were glad to be seeing the city, and learning our way around, but the twins wanted something a little more rewarding.

I knew that it gets dark early in the afternoon here during winter, but I wasn't prepared for what an effect it had on me! At 4 PM it was very dark, and my body and brain insisted that it must be past 9. It was a long couple of hours until it was 9, and I had to keep reminding myself that I had no business being tired!

Before we left for the trip I had purchased walkie talkies at Radio Shack, so that we could communicate across moderate distances should we split up for any reason. The clerk, upon learning that I was going abroad, tried to sell me a GPS unit -- "You don't want to get lost," he said. I replied "Yes, I do!" and I meant it: getting lost is how you find those great little treasures that make a trip so rewarding: a cafe hidden away somewhere, or an unexpected event that you never would have found otherwise. Just such a thing happened to us while looking for a restaurant on Wednesday night: we walked back toward the city center and saw a lot of police officers -- a lot more than we had seen through the day. As we approach the square, we saw several hundred motorcycles lined up, with a very large crowd watching them. Perplexed, we asked one of the bystanders what was happening. "Santa Claus" he said, matter-of-factly. "Malmo tradition, for ten or fifteen years." Indeed, at the front of the group of motorcycles were several riders dressed like Santa Claus! We started taking photographs, and then shortly after the riders set off for a drive through town, led by a dozen Santa Clauses!

My sister is getting married in December, so we're all going to Kiev, Ukraine to be with her for the occasion. Carina observed that since we're heading that far east anyway, we should make an effort to stop in Sweden for at least a couple days in order to visit her friends and family there. And so tickets were purchased, and vacation time was requested from work.

Lots of drama ensued between the purchase of the tickets and last night, when the final piece of the puzzle fell into place as Carina found our lost passports (I had already purchased a new RFID-enabled passport when I was unable to locate my old one). Other drama was caused by Carina's employer, but that was solved when she accepted a new job offer.

So, in mid-December we'll be flying to Sweden for a little over a week. After that we fly to Kiev for Ann's wedding. We're tentatively planning a trip to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone while we're there.

If anyone reading this is in Sweden or Ukraine (or anywhere reasonably close) and would like to get together, please let me know! I'd love to meet you.