I found some friends to drink beer with in the midst of insanely cold Stockholm!
SKÅL
Author: majkiboy
Playing games with mah freinds
Both video games and card games were the focus of this small cozy event. Hmm, I’m lying, it was actually just to hang around nice friends. What we did was just an effect of all the niceness.
We streamed everything we played on twitch. We played The Resistance, Coup, The Yawhg and Amnesia. It was a great day!
The Resistance went great actually, it is about trying to find out who the spies are, but only the spies know who the other spies are. There are three in total and you have 5 rounds to try and figure that out by talking to each other, sending people on quests and seeing the outcome of said quests. The quests have no story relevance, because there is no story. You just talk and try to figure out who is which role and vote accordingly. We had great talks and we actually managed to hone down the spies through our fantastic abilities to spot lies! Dirty lies!
Then we played some Coup. Well. I didn’t. I managed the stream and chilled out. I kinda don’t remember the rules. So whatever. But it looked fun 😀
Aaand then the super duper atmospheric The Yawhg. It is a short, kinda role playing game about saving a town from a great storm like thing called the Yawhg. I won’t tell you much about it. You just have to play it, but not by yourself, play it with someone at least! You will have a great time trying to save the town or save yourself or… role play like you want. In the end you have created a story! A damn good one, it could be happy and dark at the same time. And the music is great!
Finally, Amnesia. Scary game! Play! Do it! 😀
I slept for 15 hours after all of this. My body is crazy. Now I have to clean the place up and I’ll try to fix my headphones as well. I mean. it IS Monday, I guess I have to do, a thing at least.
Sick days
I’ve been looking for jobs, looking for stuff to do but also being really terribly sick the last couple of days. I’ve gotten some kind of flu where nothing wants to stay in my body. So I haven’t really gotten any sleep and not really any food to talk about. So, the blog has also fallen behind. But well, now I am up and running, I am really hungry and I am in a hurry to get to the store, they close in about 30 minutes and I have absolutely nothing to eat at home 😀
Here you go in the meantime, news about Sweden in English, it is a pretty nice site actually. You should check out this little article from a former staff member living in Sweden for four years, he learned some things about us Swedes ;D
See you!
Hugs ❤ !
Minitourist in Uppsala
Today I was a minitourist in Uppsala with my great sister, her boyfriend and their daughter!
We had a very relaxing time drinking tea before noon and then right around noon we took a walk around town seeing the old Cathedral and the surrounding area. It was very nice, we bought some Swedish pastries and thai food!
The thai food was good, I mean for being made in Sweden. I had some Tom Yam Gai (Chicken Soup), it didn’t taste anything like what I had in Thailand, but still good. 
And well, this is how a Thai restaurant looks in Uppsala.
And a Semla, they are very good and very Swedish, but they can be very overwhelming!
Regarding me being a “minitoruist”, I’ve been around in Uppsala many times, but I haven’t really seen that much. Or I think I have but maybe not really realizing how beautiful it is. My perspectives have changed a bit since my big trip, I now feel a bit like a tourist in my own country. I see things a bit differently, partly because I know that it might actually be interesting to my new friends abroad and partly because I’ve been in such a different culture that coming back makes it a bit interesting again. Just walking around and seeing the town is for me like a new experience. It is like I’m still in travel mode :D. I intend to keep this mode turned on! It is so much more rewarding to see where you are, to stop, look around and engulf the atmosphere instead of stressfully going from point A to B like some kind of robot.
After some chill and tired time at my sisters place I spontaneously met with a long time friend who just moved to Uppsala. We of course had a “fika” and talked for an hour or so. I had passion fruit tea, it was really good actually. 
Merry new year and happy new birthday to me!
A couple of days have passed and I have been busy doing nothing and stuff. The nothing is not that interesting, it is mostly me sleeping way to long but the stuff has been nice.
For instance me and my friends having some deep conversations pre-new years and making tacos, the swedish staple food for when you don’t know what to eat.
And Christmas flavored beers!
Then it was new years, we had nice food made by our great hosts, standing next to me in the picture.
There was fancy drinking glasses with unfancy beer drinking techniques
There was a dog
There was bål (A concoction of alcohol, fruit and soda)
There were social games
The effect of me taking pictures instead of joining the games
And then there were fireworks, I kinda don’t like it, it is unnecessary, but it is what it is.
(A big industry, and bad for the environment and pets)
Then there was the day after. It was actually very nice. The party wasn’t crazy so I want really hungover. And the lovley hosts made breakfast, omelet and bacon!
And then I had to find my way home, this is pretty much a common map located at bus stations with all the bus connections in north of Stockholm pointed out.
There were actually no problems, and the buses were empty.
And for some reason, I was born 29 years ago yesterday. So me and two friends hung out. We shopped for some fruit and tea, played some ocarina, I showed some pictures, we ate passion fruit and I made some food. The passion fruit were ok, a bit sour, and the food was ok, a bit to much seasoning though 😀
One mango is about 20 sek (100 baht, craaazy) but the passion fruit were nice, it was 20 sek for 6.
I like mah pants!
We remember
When the tsunami happened ten years ago I knew no one in Thailand. I was 18 years old and everything regarding this was so far from me. Sure it was one of the worst catastrophes in our modern times, I knew that. But I did not feel what you felt. I could not feel what you felt. I couldn’t imagine what you were going through.
So with this I want to say that I now feel great sadness but still an immense greatfullness for being able to experience Thailand in my own way and meeting so many great people. I want you to know that Sweden is with you in remembering. I hope that it means something to you, that we so far away actually care.
Merry Christmas, in the name of Jesus?
In Sweden we celebrate Christmas on the 24th, on Christmas eve instead of Christmas day. Don’t ask me why. I’m not actually christian. No one else in Sweden for that matter. So our customs are pretty weird. We celebrate nothing but buy a lot of crap. I guess we celebrate commercialism and capitalism but we think we celebrate some guy being born more than 2000 years ago. I don’t know. But hey, whatever the reason, we actually celebrate in a cozy way. Just remove all the unessesary presents and I’m fully on board!
It is very common to have a special christmas breakfast with your extended family in Sweden. I like that very much. Especially if it is with very nice and intelligent people with whom you can talk to about a lot of different things. Just like it was for me this time.
Geography, politics, traveling, racing and swedish culture from 50 years ago were some of the subjects we touched on together with mulled (pirate) wine. “Pirate” because rum was the main ingredient in one of the varieties.
Ham is the swedish staple during christmas times. Together with porridge, pickled pieces of herring called “sill”, bread, meat balls, potatoes, beet root sallad, red cabbage and for our family, ribs. For the breakfast today we had most of that but not meat balls and ribs, would have been to heavy for breakfast.
Our breakfast took place in Kristinehamn. A lovely little town. My mother wasn’t with us because she is working all of the Christmas holliday. So it was only me and my nice step father with his family. And this was actually my main official celebration of Christmas. Because my mom is working we had no big dinner or anything. But this was just perfect and enough for me. The hollidays are for relaxing. I can do that here. I celebrate by relaxing with my family.
Later in the evening I took a bath in the jacuzzi and sat in the sauna for a while.
Man do I love bathing in bath tubs and saunas!!
I said cozy. And it is mostly cozy. Relaxing, drinking mulled wine, spending time with your family and eating god food. But many people for some reason celebrate in front of the tv. Swedish people swear by the tradition of watching DONALD DUCK at three o’ clock (the picture is not from that, because I didn’t watch it, it is from when I watched Beverly Hills Cop in the evening). Yes it’s crazy. And then we continue with seeing commercials for new disney movies. It is so stupid. I mean, we are supposed to celebrate christian values or something, but instead we enforce our commercialist values.
It is tireing. And then people complain about not getting enough money for Christmas. Well just stop with the madness? “Oh but we have to for the kids. They will be so sad if they don’t get anything.” Will they really? And who taught them that? Yep you and the society. So just stop. That is my only wish for Christmas. How do you think people in other cultures get by with not celebrating Christmas or even birthdays? They are pretty happy I bet.
And what do we do when Christmas eve and Christmas day is over? Everyone goes out to buy new electronics in the “in between days” as we call it. Everything is cheaper because the stores are selling out the crap that couldn’t sell before Christmas. Yep, in honor of… Jesus.
A small little rant from me :). I really felt that I wanted to express my feelings towards the weird things about swedish Christmas. But I had a great Christmas eve. I usually do have a great one, I love celebrating with my family in our own way. And most people do, they celebrate in their own way and they enjoy it. Most people are very happy with how they celebrate, although many complain about the stress of arranging dinner for their family or about getting presents. And as I said, I wish that could change a bit. But it is how it is.
I’m very happy and I hope you are as well! Happy holidays!!
To Karlskoga
Traveling again!! But this time it is within my own country’s borders. And the goal is Karlskoga, right smack in the middle of the country. It is very exotic, I promise.
But first I have to get to the bus. It feels pretty weird traveling with public transportation in Sweden again. Maybe I’ll write something about that later (both good and bad)
The central station entrance in Stockholm above and the bus terminal across the street below (woops, only the road outside and the interior, the picture of the exterior vanished)
But whatever, it’s pretty functional and easy to find what you need. And it is now even easier than ever, they spruced up the place with more information boards and a big information desk. Very good for tourists! Something I’ve been wanting for a long time in Stockholm in general.
You board through gates like this, it is to keep out the fumes. That’s nothing new though. I just wanted to show you it. People stand in line nicely and very quietly waiting for the gates to open.
Apparently you can now by priority boarding as well…. I guess it is a nice way for them to get people to pay more for something they actually don’t need. You kind of might need it boarding a plane, but not boarding a bus. One guy did though. I hope he felt it was worrh it. I got the seat I wanted anyway, in the front and I didn’t see the guy anywhere, maybe he picked the luggage compartment as his seat.
The weather is perfect, sunny and warm and with a clear horizon…
And I finally have my headphones! It is pretty much needed when sitting by grympy ladies looking angry and asocial. Which my seat buddy seemed to be. I talked with the women behind me though, I have become a bit less Swedish (I think it is a big city thing though and not applicable generally to all of Sweden), I really wanted to talk to someone 😀
The bus ride is more “comfortable” with less bumpier roads and more room than in Southeast Asia, but I actually like it less than the minibuses in Thailand. Because with a smaller vehicle it feels more personal and it is much easier to stop somewhere for a snack or a break.
Anyway, I arrived and later I found a new hat. And apparently low price underwear.
I was shopping with my mom and found my new hat, and thai food!
Apparently we have thai shelves in stores here. That means I can cook thai food for my mom! I mean, I want to use my two food classes I took in Thailand before I forget everything. It will be my my present for my lovely mom.
LOVLEY MOM!
LOVLEY HOUSE
LOVLEY STREET
LOVLEY FIKA
And extremely crappy TV shows… “Farmer wanting wife”
Exotic! Just as I promised!
Exclamation mark
…
It’s great to be here anyway. Even though we look at crap like this and listen to really bad music all the time.
…My mon never turns off the radio. And the local radio is really terrible playing fantasticly terrible christmas music… I actually despise Christmas music with all my heart.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Starting new
Today I tried to learn to play my ocarina a bit. It is reaaally hard. Especially when I don’t really know anything about notes or making music on other thinngs than a computer 😀 But I will continue trying!
I also learned three thai characters!
The groke hurrying = a = อะ
The groke with a simple hat = i = อิ
The groke with a hat with a feather = ư [ɯ] = อึ
Majkiboy 