Leaving Stockholm

About an hour outside of Stockholm I realized I left my power converter back in the hotel.  Kaleb had been using it, so it didn’t cross my mind to double check the plug-in in the room.  I was not a happy camper after that, as my laptop will soon become useless without the ability to charge its battery.  (If I don’t post any more blogs, that’s WHY!)

We had a leisurely morning before heading north out of Stockholm.  The sun was shining and we decided to take another “road less traveled.”  The freeways here are so similar to America that there’s nothing special to enjoy about being in a foreign country, since even the buildings look a lot like American ones.  We wanted the small town feel, so we opted for a road along the coast, even though it nearly doubled our time to our next destination and we never saw the coast.  It’s incredible how much unused land there is in Sweden.

Today I was actually in search of thrift stores, since I heard that Sweden is crazy about thrift stores, garage sales, flea markets – they have it all.  They call them “Loppis” so I was intending to use this day as a major shopping day – stopping whenever I could find a reason.

Nearly every town had one or two “Loppis” signs and I followed several of them, looking for Swedish treasures that would outshine my Norwegian finds.  I was sorely disappointed.  For one thing, the prices are even higher here than in Norway – I guess because there is a market for old things.  In Norway, everyone throws stuff out and no one wants to buy them, so things are super cheap there - yet in Sweden, the prices are nearly what they are to buy something brand new.  Crazy.

The other thing I was bummed about is that in Norway, most of the thrift stores are run by charity organizations so a bunch of little old ladies keep things dusted and well organized.  They also have high standards as to what they will put in their stores.  The Swedish places are just like junky old garage sales where you have to sift through all the stuff that should be thrown out, in order to find something worth keeping.  I hate thrift stores and garage sales in America for this very reason, and here in Sweden, the stores we stopped in were disorganized, dirty and with no bargains to be found.  Sniff sniff.  I did find a few things – Norwegian made – that were in the “acceptable” price range (under five bucks), but I lost my taste for stopping and checking on future ones real fast.  I saw lots of cool old stuff I’d love to have, but not for the price they were asking.

We stopped a lot today looking for different things – food items, electronic kitchen things, old stuff and household items we need and were hoping to find cheaper in Sweden.  We scored on a few things – like an alarm clock for only ten bucks – as everyone I’ve brought from America won’t keep proper time here using a power converter – go figure.  I also got an immersion blender for $25 brand new that is exactly the same as the one for $150 in Norway, so that cheered me up.  But for the most part, it was just a stop and go day with lots of driving in between.  We didn’t hear a word out of Kaleb as he was sulking in the backseat over me yelling at him for leaving the power converter behind.  He even stayed in the car when we left to go shopping.

The sun was just setting when we arrived at our hotel for the night in the town of Sundsvoll.  We didn’t know what to expect here, other than it is on the Baltic Sea and we are hoping for a nice enough day tomorrow to dip our toes in a body of water we’ve never touched before.  It’s a bigger town than I thought, very European looking and the best thing is, all the stores are open on Sunday, so maybe I can find a power cable for my laptop and my stress level will go down.

Tonight, just after we got cozy in our room and watched an episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos, the hotel fire alarm sounded.  We rounded up our most precious things (electronics!) and headed down to the lobby.  It was caused by someone smoking in their room (in a non-smoking hotel), but I thought it was funny we left everything behind but our electronics.  Several days on this trip we haven’t even turned on the hotel TV, as we each have our own electronic gadget to surf the web, read the news, play games or communicate.  Kory has his I-pad, Kaleb has his Nook and I have my laptop.  If my laptop dies, I’m not sure I can go on.  I need to find a power source!

( I didn't take many photos today as there wasn't much that caught my eye... just a few scenes from the road :)  - Now my laptop battery has only a few minutes left on it.... aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhggggggggg.