skating adventures
one morning we woke up and decided to go ice-skating on Lake Siljan in Dalarna, Sweden. we bundled up, grabbed our skates and headed out to the lake.
"long färd skridskor" is popular in sweden - directly translated it would be "long distance" skating. you put long ice-skate blades onto specially designed boots. i've tried it in the past, but i don't own a pair. i had regular hockey skates, but almost everyone else had the long-distance skates.
my mom and jakob - he has the long-distance skates, and special poles, they both have ice-pick thingies around their necks; in the event they fall through the ice, they dig the ice-pick in the ice and don't drown... good to keep around :)
we skated alongside the shoreline... probably a total of 6 miles.
it was such a fun time and good exercise! we kept warm despite the chilly weather...
my amazing mom and me: ice-skating on a cold winter morning
beautiful views of a frozen dock from our ice-skating trip
close-up shot: my brother phil and me
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gallivanting in stockholm
walking the streets of downtown stockholm in the winter...
drottninggatan, stockholm
it's a "people only, no cars" street in stockholm that stretches for about 1 mile
there are fabulous stores on both sides of the street
drottninggatan, stockholm
i love the christmas chandeliers - so festive
my friends: emma, henke and petra
petra and emma goofing off in the street
henke...
it was soo chilly out...
i had a hard time taking pictures...
my fingers were FREEZING!
close-up: emma, petra, sara
goofy shot: emma, petra, sara
we met during my sophomore year in sweden. it's great that we still keep in touch.
emma, if you're reading this, i'm still sending you the converse :) xo
emma, petra and henke all live in stockholm, so it's great to be able to catch up w/all of them at once.
we spend the afternoon at a café - "fika" is what the swedes call it - basically taking time to drink coffee, tea or hot chocolate, eat a sandwich or yummy bum and catch up with friends. such a good word, wish it existed in english :)
we walked around stockholm while they helped me pick out a few wedding presents for friends in the states. then we decided to grab some dinner.
we went to a fabulous italian restaurant, that i can't remember the name of... henke, petra, emma, do you guys remember?
anyway, you walk into the restaurant and you are given a plastic card. you find a table, order your food, eat, spend time w/friends. when you're ready to leave, you bring your plastic card to the hostess. she checks you out and you pay. it's great for friends getting together - no one has to worry about splitting up the check. you each pay for what you eat.
the downside... you lose the card, you pay $100...
so there's another peek into my vacation that i WISH hadn't ended...
