Meatballs Made Easy

I have had the meatballs at IKEA and from that, my open of Swedish food was pretty good even if I am expected to assemble the meatballs myself with a single small alan wrench and illustrated directions. That said, my experience at the 40 dollar buffet aboard our romantic... I mean, Romantika... cruise was not quite what I expected. Fifty varieties of pickled herring, shrimp staring back at me with lonely eyes begging..."don not eat me" and some type of smoked fish that I am pretty sure smoked Marlboro Reds because he had black lung or something else black... all served by the most surly people we have met thus far except a guy in Russia that shut down a conversation with Jen saying "I have already told you." Incidentally, I ended up eating the meatballs... no assembly required.

It is just Brian and I now and the laughs have not stopped. We opted not to go to the Tango lounge for dancing last night because we have become very concious of how this whole trip is starting to sound to the outside world. Trust us, we will not find it funny when we return to find our cubes decorated in rainbow colors and our photos on Gay Date.

Have you ever seen Night of the Comet, where a couple of teens wake up to find nearly everyone dead/missing? This is the port of Stockholm. There was tumbleweed blowing across the ferry terminal... of course here it is called töömbleweeden. Try finding a bankomat when you need one near the terminal here.

So we had lunch in a Chinese restaurant today. Brian is giving a bit of the debriefing but I want to mention a few things. There was a dog in the foyer waiting for its owner... we think... The chef, an older Asian woman that spoke no English but smiled big to us and continued to try and speak to us in Swedish went up to pet the dog. Afterwards she said something and motioned with her hands. I think she either meant she was going to wash her hands before making our food or that the dog was going to be our food... not sure which. Lunch was tasty so I will not question it. The name of the place was Lai-Lai and it made me a little nervous, was it a "lai" that my meal was actually beef?

We come across our second Depeche Mode themed bar in two countries now. Brian and I are convinced it must be because "people are people" no matter where you go. And for some reason, guys carrying purses just seem to look more at home with a little Depeche Mode music thumping in the background.

We had some lattes at Wayne's Coffee in the city center but realized only too late that we should have gone to Robert's Coffee a few doors down.

Tattooing is huge here in many areas but I have to tell you, I just don't trust my tatting to a guy named Sven with a fauxhawk. I prefer my tats the American way, from a guy named Bubba with the entire line of Harleys since 1956 tattoed up his arm in a shack just outside of Villa Rica, GA.

Speaking of the "American Way", we just passed a shop selling "American" foods. Curious as to just what it is that we as American's eat, we did some window shopping. I was disappointed to find French's mustard in the window... is nothing sacred? Apparently we eat lots of "Fluff" which I can only guess is a marshmallow like substance. There was a huge display of it in the window.

Oh and if you cannot tell from the running commentary thus far, the boat ride in was beautiful, and thus far Stockholm is gorgeous as well. We stood out on the back deck of the Romanticka and I think I noticed a tear in Brian's eye as we passed by very tiny islands with a single home. He may have been crying from the sheer beauty of this Baltic paradise or the gas fumes that were lingering on the Sundeck.

It is time to head back out into the misty rain and explore more of this pretty burg.

Dave