Radisson Sas Plaza Hotel Västerås

... was time to leave) but we got off to a pretty good start. Our guide was very knowledgible, able to answer any of the questions that people were asking. We started off at Tourist information and headed down Skeppsbron and Cramérgatan to Almadalen where we got a quick overview of the history of the island. After that we wandered to the wall and saw a few different interesting sites before making our way back to the church. It was ...

... point) and each one is more beautiful than the next. I can't complain and we have a great conversation as well as a few more drinks... see the trend? We all head over to a rooftop bar/club and dance a bit before heading back to Malin's boyfriend's apartment. It is at her boyfriend's place that I run back into the guys from the boat and marina that are ALL THERE!!! They are even drunker than earlier in the day ...

... drunk, and age meant nothing with people of all ages mixing at every table, locking arms in melodious song and dance! A few of Malin's friends meet up with us as does her boyfriend and I quickly realize that she knows everyone who passes by when we head to an outdoor bar/restaurant post after work festivities... A few hours at the outdoor venue, and a much needed bite to eat, and we walk back to the same bar that the ...

... they float off into the night air. Gentle snow falls and the scene looks like a fairyland. The milonga is held in a beautiful little hall - the DJs have been organised in shifts - you can dance as much as you want, stopping for meals, sleep, etc if you wish to. The first night I dance until 6am, get a couple of hours sleep, then meet Janne and the others at the swimming-pool at 8am, which Janne had organised the night before. We get into our bathers, expecting to have ...

Wanting to see more of Sweden, we planned a few days driving north of Stockholm, however the car decided to have a broken timebelt which we only fixed in the nick of time so we ended up with one day to drive. We decided to head for Västerås to see some viking stone ship settings. The weather wasn't great but it was very interesting and we managed to fit in a couple of caches. (www.geocaching.com)

... network of border posts existed around the continent which disrupted traffic and trade--causing delays and costs to both businesses and visitors. Then came the 1985 Schengen Agreement which is an agreement among European states (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden,) that allows for the abolition of systematic border controls between the participating countries ...

... been counting I have been here 123.5. Thus making me a Fugitive!.......Ooops! Now, inquiring minds might want to know, why I didn't foresee this problem from the safety of the soil of the motherland and I plead negligence! To give myself some credit, I did do some research before traipsing of to Europe for a year. I looked at a number of EU countries embassy websites and saw that each country granted an American an automatic 90 days within their country. Therefore, I assumed ...

... Schengen countries; Sandra has stayed 123 days...and counting) But Schengen laws are made by Europeans and carried out by Europeans and Europeans are imperfect. Sandra Morrow is innocent! .....well not exactly... Guilty!... if you want to get technical. (Penalties include: hefty fines, reentry denial, deportation, the scorn of the french and a black mark as a 'persona non grata' barred from all Schengen countries for up to 7 years) What ...

two weeks later, Lexy and Megan came to visit me and I got the opportunity to show them around Uppsala and Stockholm! In Uppsala we visited Gamla uppsala's viking burial mounds, the cathedral, my school, the uppsala castle, the carolina rediviva library, and the center of town (where we got distracted with shopping a few times). In stockholm I toured them around Gamla Stan to see the old squares ...

... harder, but as the wood is quite dry once you shake excess snow off, the pine we were using actually burnt quite well. Before long we had a rip roaring fire going, a beer in hand and a hotdog attached marsh-mellow style to a specially selected green spruce stick (so it wouldn't burn). Not long after that the hotdoggies were coming off ...