Hotell Varend Växjö

The time came for the highlight of our busy day, the Hyttsill Dinner at Kosta Glassworks! The Hyttsill celebrates a traditional Swedish dinner that the locals used to prepare in the same glass blowing ovens that were used to make crystal pieces earlier in the day. Because the ovens kept the place very warm, the vagabonds would come in to share in the dinner, tell stories of the road, and play traditional Swedish ...

... gift for the patient. :) We also discovered after some searching that the local campgrounds had some laundry machines that we could use, and seized the opportunity to do a couple of much needed loads of laundry in the morning.

After that was all wrapped up, we headed out towards Kalmar, Sweden. Here, a popular site called Kalmar Castle had a 2:30 pm tour ...

... including swedish meatballs and lingonberry sauce. The kids were getting bored and squirrely at this point, so we decided to skip the tour and head out of town towards Kosta, where we will be spending the next two nights.

The hotel is in a rural area of Sweden called Smaland, where the main glassworks factories and shops are. We decide to check in and ...

... we were met at the Recreation Center by the Rotarians and a wonderful horse drawn carriage. Luggage was loaded into the cars and off we went to an unknown destination... here it is. We spent the next day with our hosts enjoying the inner offerings of Tingsryd. For example, Eric's host pulled his 1985 911 Porsche from his barn and let the engine warm up for a ...

... Ask us about the babies on our flight from San Francisco.  The Rotarians transported us to a lovely hotel and we each had our own room!  It was very nice and thoughtful.  After we were all checked in we had to check out our first place.  Who needs sleep.  Then, we had our first significant Swedish experience.  I'll let someone else cover that.  Hej då (good bye) for now.Wendy

So I really am not the best blogger but I would like to get better with this. I have lived in Sweden for 6 months already and every day has been a beautiful and great time. I have a lot of catching up to do with my traveling blogging so bare with me :P

... students from the US here this semester. Seating was assigned at the dinner and we were placed next to our "Swedish Buddy." All the international students were assigned a buddy before we arrived. This is someone that met us when we arrived and it is someone that we can turn to when we need help or have any questions. My buddy's name is Linda and she is very cool ...

... direction for a long time and weren't quite sure when we were supposed to get off once we got on the right bus. We eventually made it there and it was a fun evening. The cheapest bar in town... 20 kronas for a beer which is about $2.50. The next two days we had orientation all day and learned a lot of helpful information. The typical orientation: boring but neccessary information. On the second day we had a ...

... just arrived in Krakow, Poland. We spent 5 days there. Had a great time, ate perogies and vegan food, checked out a castle, walked around, drank coffee and found an english bookstore. We really enjoyed it. We had a private room in the hostel (which we always have) but this one was equipped with bunk beds so we spent 5 nights sleeping with our matttesses on the floor because it's really hard to share a single bed with anyone even if it is the baby (who still likes to ...

... so long ago! Now I'm back in Stockholm. Kit flew home today and I'm waiting for Codi who will arrive tomorrow. She and I will tour the museums of Stockholm then take the train to see one of the Swedish sisters in Norrköping. After a couple of days there it's on to Vadstena to stay in a converted convent by the 2nd largest lake in Sweden.