The End.

All of the sudden I miss everyone.  I hope to see you again.  Thank you, especially to those I love.

-Michael

Love can no longer turn me on

Bringing fika back

Rather than longing for things that are not part of my life anymore, I either chose to forget them or plunder the best things and make them my own.

The barrage of smiles and handshakes accompanied by the inevitable "welcome back" elicits one of my predetermined token responses.  Either that or a long sigh and an awkward pause (for them).  How was the last year of your life?  Wait, don't answer that - I don't care.

Fear of the Dark awaits

Joel mentioned how Sweden would ruin coffee for me.  He was right.  Coffee is pretty good in Scandinavia.  Even the burnt crap from Restaurang White Shark that I would begrudgingly pay ten crowns for is better than most of the piss I drink here.  Coffee becomes pretty important to a straight-edge gap lifer such as myself.  First world problems.








Now it is raining outside and the cool breeze blowing in from the open window at my back feels almost comfortable.
New question:  If someone steals your identity, can you make up a new one?  Say "fuck it" to your credit history, student loans, car payment, child support, alimony, fears, etc. and become the person you were always afraid to be.  What would it take for you to let go?

Say hello to Max Power - the name you mustn't touch

Break our bones in half

It smells like dust and fire here.  It smells like West.  I walk outside in the mornings and breathe thin air.  My morning jog is terrible, but I suffer through.  The weak air is never enough.  I am never satisfied.  Like usual.    

rubber and asphalt

My skin is burned and cracked.  Last night my steamroller and I turned my lungs inside out, which took a lot less effort than I remember.  There was electricity in the air, which happens on occasion.  At that moment, I was exactly where I was meant to be.     

The sun rises late and sets early.  That bothers me.  I do not miss the shithawks calling my name all night.  Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night disoriented and wonder which direction the bathroom is.  I always find it.  

New digs.  The black cloud.

Last of the Independents

True Romance

The match that lights the fuse that blows your mind

Cross the sea with his secret plan

Words fail me when trying to describe the Stockholm Archipelago.  I heard some statistic that there is somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 islands - depending on who you ask and what they consider an island.  Of course it is beautiful and awe inspiring to sail through.  There is a grey area where people exist with water and land.  Growing up under the assumption that water starts where land ends is not necessarily that clear cut.

The largest bed I've slept in for months

Finland is not considered Scandinavia.  While it is indeed nordic, the language and customs of it's people differentiate it from neighboring countries.  After arriving in Helsinki, I understood some of the distinction.  100 years of Russian occupation defined much of the architecture, although the people seemed to flourish under the repressive regime of social-democracy.  Similar to Scandinavia the trains (or trams as it were) ran on time, licorice was plentiful and the weather was crappy.

Finnish design is promoted heavily through various tourist outlets.  While iitala and marimekko didn't reinvent the wheel for me, I somehow felt drawn to purchase expensive textiles and glassware.  These brand's success is probably perpetuated by snobs such as myself that have grown accustom to expensive household products.  If I wasn't traveling out of a backpack, I would have purchased a 12 euro espresso cup.

Suomenlinna was the highlight of Helsinki.  While the city itself is nice, walkable and interesting, an island fortress that you can explore without a guided tour is better.  I'm not sure if you are technically allowed to poke around in the various munitions cells, but we did anyway.  At times the flash from the camera was needed to find where the hell we were.  

European Hatavirus 

Fatigue and sickness resulted is relative early nights.  I felt like a little kid falling asleep before the sun had completely set.  With that said, the sun set around 11:30 pm.  I'm sure I have mentioned this before, but it is a region of extreme opposites at times. 

What has 6 letter and four of them are "U's"?  

I find the Finnish language beautiful.  It is subtle, technical -and when spoken with a proper accent - can enchant a regular American dumbass.  A native english speaker has a hard time picking out the subtleties   in the language.  Not surprising when the only tool we have in our linguistic toolbox is a sledgehammer.  I leave you with my new favorite foreign word:  Uutuus.  

Spelling out what you know is best, everything is just a mess

Water and bridges, water and bridges

I feel guilty not seeing Stockholm sooner.  Although I've been to the city before, it has been over five years.  My memory has faded.  Stockholm has never been accused of being an ugly city.  The seamless interconnectedness of the urban landscape and water (due to the fact that the city is built on several islands) is something I appreciate after studying a similar subject in school.  With that said, the city has a strange flow due to the unique character each neighborhood (island) has, which is something I'm not sure I like.

Nice view of the cranes

After such a fun time in Gothenburg, Stockholm had the odds stacked against it.  Unfortunately the insane asylum turned hostel where we stayed was about as nice as it sounds.  Strike one Stockholm.  That, coupled with the fact that the location of the hostel was incredibly far from anything exciting meant that we had to buy travel cards at quite a high price.  Strike two.  But with those being the only two major complaints of the city, I would say we came up ahead regardless.

Monument to failure

By far the most interesting museum I have ever been to is the Vasa Museet.  Housed inside a dark and cold building lies the massive warship Vasa which sunk in Stockholm's harbor in 1628 after sailing for 1.3 kilometers.  This is a memorial to a monumental failure.  While insanely interesting and cool, I think it is also funny that people flock to see a ship that couldn't even sail.

We continued our travels with our new found German friends that we first met in Gothenburg.  Julia and Florian were rad people to get to know.  After waiting patiently for a fisherman to catch something for Florian to examine, we decided it was best to call it a weekend.  Stockholm taught me a few things:

• Beware of street signs
• I need a new pair of shoes
• Metalheads are the same everywhere.  Fat, drunk and smelly. 

Inside my head the coast is clear

sköldpadda - my 2nd favorite Swedish word

At the risk of sounding "uncool" and following the trend, I will agree that Gothenburg is a great fucking city.  Gothenburg's industrial and working class roots has led to a pretty defined character that sets the city apart from the posher and seemingly snobbier older brother, Stockholm.  Tattoos and band t-shirts abound, which is a characteristic I can appreciate.

Floating dry dock, which sounds like a perverse sexual position

The older I get the less I identify with the "straight-edge" lifestyle that helped to define most of my twenties, but I still tend to follow the majority of the dogma spit forth by the sXe apostles.  In regards to traveling, this means that my days are not dictated by the next bar stop.  Although I find this generally convenient, it means that you are forced to fill your days with admittedly touristy activities.  A canal tour is actually one thing I would recommend to anyone.  You get ferried around on a boat, see the sights, and usually have a cute local girl narrating the city's history to you in an endearing accent.  Not a bad thing.

Derp

Another bullshit time drain that I wouldn't necessarily recommend (due to the high risk of being seriously disappointed) is visiting the local-strange-shit-behind-glass-museum.  Gothenburg's Naturhistoriska Museum houses the most extensive collection of taxidermy in Scandinavia.  To rephrase that sentence, the Naturhistoriska Museum is home to a bunch of dead animals that seem to have died with absolutely absurd and hilarious expressions on their face.  If, for what ever reason, you are in a deep state of depression and haven't cracked a smile in months, I would drop the cash on a plane ticket to Gothenburg and check out this ridiculous museum.  If you don't laugh at the silly faces on the animals then there is no hope for you.  Just kill yourself already.

Snail - Swedish style

 Maybe it is because I was raised by recovering hippies, but I always find botanic gardens pretty rad places to spend the afternoon.  They are generally cheap (or free) to enter and have a noticeable lack of people meandering around and getting in your way.  I sometimes wonder how the hell botanic gardens stay in business, but I'm afraid that if I draw too much attention to the lack of patronage then the city (or whoever the hell subsidizes it) will get wise and shut the whole thing down.  Regardless, Gothenburg has the best gardens I have had the privilege of lurking.
Other highlights

• nicest hostel I've ever stayed in
• great evening with new found German (and Swiss/Canadian) friends
• rock and roll bar that played local metal