Eurotrip - Stockholm Day 2

It's day two in Stockholm. I awoke at 7:30, 6 straight hours of sleep for me is good! I went to back to bed until 8:50, showered and then hit the city market right next to our hotel. It was CHILLY out! The overnight low was in the high 50's, it felt great! [I noticed it was around 100 degrees in KC the day before].

I made the mistake of buying some cherries from some Middle Eastern vendor. They were good but the guy tried to sell me every other variety of fruit in his stand in addition to a few cherries. Back off dude, I just wanted a few cherries. He was offended when I departed with just the cherries, he’ll get over it.

I made the mistake of buying some cherries from some Middle Eastern vendor. They were good but the guy tried to sell me every other variety of fruit in his stand in addition to a few cherries. Back off dude, I just wanted a few cherries. He was offended when I departed with just the cherries, he’ll get over it.

Pete, Joe and I had agreed to meet around 9:15 so I took stroll a few block around the hotel. Found 'Wayne's Coffee' (http://www.waynescoffee.com/). From the looks of the place, décor, the signage, fonts etc. you would have thought you would have thought you were in Starbuck's. The only difference is their primary color was navy blue. Is there a lawsuit here somewhere?

After meeting Pete and Joe we decided to visit Wayne's world for breakfast. [observation: nobody smokes. Well except Pete]

Finished a light breakfast and it was off to the Gamla Stag. For those of you who have not been to Europe this was your typical old town area; cobblestone streets, in this case completely pedestrian. It was familiar to us at first, and then we realized it was the same pedestrian street we tried to drive down last night as we were mis-directed while trying to find the hotel! Good thing it was deserted at that hour!

Our travels were limited but what we saw of Stockholm it is very cool; clean, well kept old buildings etc.. I could have walked the streets for days with hundreds of small shops, eateries and more. The exchange rate makes shopping for

gifts quite favorable. I was able to get Brad and others tee shirts etc. for around $10. I only wish I had more time to look at more Swedish items.

We made our way to the area where the Stockholm Jazz Fest was being held. Nothing was happening at the time, the shows were at night. Sting was playing on Friday, would have been fun but England calls. We had a nice lunch at an outdoor café; an awesome bowl of fish soup and a hearty garden salad with smoked salmon!

Around 2:00pm we found ourselves back at Jarva for another round. I vowed to play better, I didn't at first. I threw a 37 on the front but a +1 29 on the back including a birdie on the very tough 18th.

We attempted get directions to a nearby course, Lilljon's. It took us about an hour to find it, we even had to ask two other Swedes for directions. It turns out the last kid was a few hundred yards from the park entrance and did not know it! In the end what we found was disc golfer heaven. The course was beautiful. Dispersed through a forest of granite out croppings, ferns, hundred foot pines, birch and other trees. It was spectacular! There were short, tight holes through the trees. There were longer, more open holes through meadows. Uphill, downhill on and on, it was priceless.

We were greeted at the first and second holes by campers. Their tents, though not in the way, were pitched right in the middle of the fairway! The lady on the first hole apologized as she stood in amazement. She had no idea she was camped in the fairway, it was apparent she had no idea what disc golf was! The campers on hole two were friendly as well but they tried to recruit Pete and get us to attend their religious services that evening. We continued on avoiding being rude.

Proceeding without a map, it took us quite sometime to get through the first round, perhaps three hours. We went back to the car for water and a light snack.

It was almost 8:00pm at this point but the course and 18 more holes were calling! Joe lit up the last round shooting a blistering -8 (50). I was up and down, good shot, bad shot etc.. Fatigue caught up with me, a premonition of days ahead.

We made our way back to the hotel, dropped off the car and headed out for dinner. It was a little after 10 but we found our way to the 'Bar Calonia'. The menu claimed a Mexican cuisine, it was good, but far from the Mexican we are use to in the Midwest. We washed the meal down with several local pilsners again and headed back to hotel around midnight.

Tired, but surviving on the adrenalin of the day, we nuzzled up to the bar at the Hotel Rica. Pete was working his magic again on the lass at the front desk, Joe and I spent the time getting to know each other a little better. In retrospect listening to him was like listening to myself at 22. He's a great young man, has his head on straight and has a charming personality. We talked about school, disc golf (of course), love, life etc. it was an inspiring conversation.

One thing to note - I couldn't talk about me, cancer, Mary etc.. I'm not sure if Joe asked or if it the conversation just migrated to the subject but as I tried to speak, the emotions exploded. As many of you have witnessed I can talk about this all day. I can talk about my case, the need for testing, on and on, an on. Most times I can get through these conversations with very little or no emotion. Tonight for some reason I couldn’t talk about it. Joe understood, we moved on to other subjects.

Between the conversation and the constant use of the hotel's internet terminal the next thing we knew it was almost two o'clock. Pete and I had made separate trips to 7/11 for a few Heineken's and I gave up a little after two in the morning. A long overdue call to Mary and I shut down at 3:00am. I can't remember the last time I stayed up passed midnight much less 3:00am.
[Tomorrow morning I must find a gift for Mary]