freespirit82

I am probably going to take down this Livejournal in the next week. I just don't have the time anymore to update and I'd much rather communicate with you through e-mail or a phone call. I'm just less and less happy with Livejournal and Facebook as means of communication, and more and more interested in communicating with people on a more real and personal leve.  I am curious as to who is still reading this. I know there are likely a few of you who read without commenting. It woudl be a shame to lose touch with you. So, if you've been reading my ramblings, drop a message in the comment box, or if you prefer, send me a an e-mail (sblumhagen@gmail.com)

The End.

That's the average annual rainfall in Olympia. Fifty-two inches per year. That's roughly an inch of rain every week, although it doesn't come like that. It all comes in the winter with July and August quite dry. Carrying an umbrella, however, marks you as an outsider, someone not from 'round these soggy parts. I need to get a good rainjacket.

We stayed at a hotel in Nybble, Sweden that was run by a Dutch couple, Thelma and Arnoud. Arnoud's parent's who spoke only Dutch, also lived at the hotel and helped out. One morning we woke up to discover that the hotel had been burglarized in the night. Although nothing was missing, several windows were broken and we coudl see where a door had been forced. The local police were called, and although they didn't want to come at first, Thelma and Arnoud contacted a friend of theirs who was a local official and the friend persuaded the police to come and file a report. While they were filing a report, we went out and looked at the police car and Arnoud's dad thought it would be funny to pretend to arrest me. He grabbed my shirt collar and hauled me off to the police car...and we have the photograph you see below.

I have a tendency to shoulder the blame when things go wrong. Realistically, the idiocy or oversights of others are NOT MY FAULT. I will now stop kicking myself and let it go.

Not one, but two people stopped by while I was gone to leave treats and ensure I wouldn't return to an empty kitchen. I have the awesomest friends!!!
Thoughts upon opening my car door..."Why, it looks cleaner in here than it did before.....wait, why are the naughtiest pages of The Stranger strewn about?"
Like I said, awesome (but strange) friends.

After god-only-knows how many hours stuffed inside a winged tylenol capsul, my feet are on the ground in my beloved Olympia. I've never been so happy to see Mt. Rainier as I was when we landed at SeaTac.
Stockholm was nice, although Andrew was quite sick for our first day there, so I spent most of that day wandering the cobbled streets of Gamla Stan, the old town, where the King's Royal Palace sits. Friday evening I wandered along the canal at twilight and came upon a red and white makshift tent with a handpaintd sign in front that looked like a menu. As I tried to figure out the Swedish on it an elderly gentleman in a well-worn suit came up and began talking. I explained I didn't speak Swedish and in slow careful English he explained that he was telling love stories and children's tales and this was his menu of stories. He was an actor, and out of work at the moment. Business had been slow that day and because it was a lovely evening, he said, he would sing a Swedish lullaby to me for free. The lullaby had something to do with a troll that had long ears and a tail and a woman with eleven children who tied them all together to keep them safe, then sang them to sleep.
Other trip highlights include horseback riding on the beach at Derrynane, (I learned to post!) and a boat trip to Skellig Michael, a huge rock of an island that has the ruins of a monastery at the very top and over 500 stone steps leading up to the monastery. It's a beautiful, windy, isolated place. And of course Dublin was wonderful. We met up with two of Andrew's friends from the SCA and wore ourselves out running around Dublin visiting St. Patrick's Cathdral, Christ Church Cathedral, The Book of Kells at Trinity College, Dublinia Viking museum and the Guinness Storehouse.

I write this from the Nordic Sea Hotel in Stockholm, a touristy hotel with a blue glassy sea theme and furnishings that make me feel as though I'm sleeping in an IKEA showroom. This hotel is also the home of the famed IceBar,a  pricey tourist attraction bar made entirely of ice....even the glass your drink comes in. Stockholm is bustling and expensive. We'll explore the castles and Viking ship museum tomorrow, but for now, my friend, school mate and travelling companion, Andrew, and I are exhausted from the flight over from Dublin and are chilling out in the blue-walled, Swedish designed hotel room.
This has been the longest holiday I've taken in quite some time. We began with five days in the Swedish countryside. We stayed at a hotel run by a lovely Dutch couple who cooked us traditional Dutch food every night and basically gave us the run of the place since we were often the only guests there. Sweden was, on the whole, closed for the season. Their tourist season runs from June 21 (summer solstice) through August 15, when the kiddos return to the classrooms. We tried to visit Alfred Nobel's birthplace,...closed. Lacko Slott, a fabulous castle....also closed.  We tried to find some traditional Swedish food......non-existent. All we found in most towns was pizza and kebab.
After our frustrations in Sweden, Ireland was a welcome change. The people were extraordinarily friendly and chatty (not so in Sweden) and prices were cheaper. The rental car however, had the steering wheel on the right side, and we were driving on the left side of very narrow, pot hole filled country roads with stone walls and hedges on either side. I should say, Andrew was driving, while I was sitting on the left hand passenger side being jostled by potholes and covering my face with my hands. We met Andrew's Parental Units in Waterville, a lovely seaside village on the southwest coast. They'd rented a spacious sunny cottage that served as home base for the four of us for over a week. I hiked on the Ring of Kerry, did the obligatory tourist shopping, walked on the beach, and went horseback riding on the beach with Andrew's mom, We stopped at the local butcher shop and picked up some cuts of beef and lamb as well as lamb stew meat and carrots, parsnips and potatoes, all with local sandy soil still clinging to the roots. A dry erase board announced that this week's beef came from the farm of John O'Connell ande was butcfhered on August 17. "We have an abattoire just upt the road" said the butcher when I asked about the locality of the meat. The meat and vegetables were all obviously quite local, yet there wasn't a single sign in the shop extolling the virtues of the slow-food movement or the environmental benefits of eating locally grown produce. Rather it seemed they were simply doing things the way they'd been done for years and years. .....and I'm posting this before it crashes again.

Ireland's been so far lovely. I have not heard any good Irish music yet, but am hoping for some tonight in the pub. Today I took a boat tour to Skellig Michael, an ancient monastic site on a rocky tiny island off the western coast. Yesterday we went horseback riding on the beach. I also went hiking through sheep pastures filled with gorst, scotch broom and heather. It was muddy and stunning ly beautiful. The people we've meet have been really really friendly. They'll all but do back handsprings to make stay pleasant, and I'm sure if we asked they'd do back handsprings too. Sweden was a wash. The people are shy and reserved and the country pretty much shuts down mid-August. We go up to Dublin in a couple days and then after that we'll go to Stockholm for three days. I return home the 21st.

Any suggestions on how to converse constructively with those who are ideologically polar opposites to you?
I'm about to go on a really great trip to Europe, but my travelling partner and his family (who will be there) are the sorts of people who rant about the "horrible socialists" and "crazy liberals." I happen to be one of the people they are ranting about. I'm concerned I'll spend all three weeks saying, "Hey, can you lay off a bit? Your comments are hitting close to home." or just gritting my teeth in silence. I want this trip to be fun! Plus I'm stoked to be going to Sweden, one of the most progressive countries in the world, and considered by The Economist to be the most fully democratic country in the world. (Sweden ranks first in their democracy index. The United States ranks 18th.)