This was a day just for Kaleb. Liseberg, right in the heart of Göteborg, Sweden, is Scandinavia’s biggest amusement park. On a typical summer day, it would be hot and overcrowded, but our God had mercy on us today and it was overcast, cool, and slightly rainy at times so the lines for all the rides were pretty short. We were able to everything we wanted within eight hours and had no need for a two day pass. I was so thankful. Actually, I was most thankful we all survived and walked out alive. I used to love those thrill rides, but now the only way to get through them is with my eyes closed. If I eliminate one of my senses, it seems to help. There is nothing I can do about the butterflies in my stomach, but at least I don’t have to see what is causing them. Kaleb insists I go along with him - he says he likes to hear me scream. I’m not sure what that says about our relationship, but I keep reminding him that only a mother’s love would get me up on those things. Uff da. Kory loves the thrills, but is so protective of his back he won’t go on most of them for fear he’ll do some damage. I have no such excuse. (We had our raincoats along so we stayed dry all day.)
Kaleb took on a few of my mothering skills and became overly concerned about the plight of my glasses. He insisted I take them off for every ride as he was sure they would go flying off my face and then I’d be in another panic. I thought that was sweet of him, but after a while it was annoying. It was no problem to take them off because I had no desire to see anything clearly anyway, especially when it involved a ride that looked like death might be staring me in the face again. The best part of the day was seeing Kaleb’s face after every ride. There was an energy to it I don’t often see and it was priceless. Fortunately, he was tall enough to go on all the rides so Kory and I were happy to stand around and watch him go on the most nerve racking ones, or ones I wouldn’t do again even if I do love that boy.
We realized just how big this city is when we walked from our hotel this morning all the way across town to the park. (Our hotel is located in the top left corner of the photo – all the way in the distance. I took the photo from the highest tower at the park.) We wanted to see the town, so we left early this morning to go on an “explore” before arriving at our destination. The receptionist said it was a 45 minute walk. She was off a little – it took almost two hours. We were tired before the day even began, but fortunately, we weren’t too hot because of the cloud cover. Göteborg is a pretty city but the best thing about it is all the walking and bike paths – they go absolutely everywhere. The city isn’t set up to handle cars so much so people take the bus or tram, bike or walk. We were hoping to catch a tram back to the hotel but we got tired of waiting for it so we hopped on a bus. We assumed it was the same payment method as the tram – insert coins – ride tram. We made sure we had enough change for the tram, but as soon as we altered our mode of transportation we had a problem. Even though we studied the map well enough to know the number of the routes we needed to get back to the hotel – the map didn’t say anything about how to pay for the bus. As it turned out, we needed a special bus card as the driver doesn’t take cash. When we got on, the driver realized we had no clue about their system so he told us we could pay with our cell phones. We scratched our heads over that one until he pointed to a sign that showed the instructions on how to send an SMS message on a cell phone that puts the cost of the bus ride on the telephone bill. It seemed like a rather convoluted way to pay for a bus ticket, but with everyone carrying around cell phones I guess it’s one way to solve the problem. The problem for us was that neither of us had our phones with us. The driver very kindly let us ride the bus for free to the end of the line, but it was still about two miles short of our hotel, so we had to walk again – much farther than we wanted to after such a long day and eleven hours of being on our feet – but we had no choice. I guess we should have taken the tram – but then we wouldn’t have found out that it is possible to buy a bus ticket with a cell phone. Go figure.
We got back to our hotel around 8:30. Kaleb laid on the bed and looked through his new Pokemon book for a few minutes, then said he was a little hungry. Kory had already gone to the restaurant for a late dinner but I wasn’t hungry enough to eat so late. I told Kaleb I had some snacks with me and when I turned around to give them to him, he was sound asleep on the bed, still dressed. That boy was tired. I can barely move myself so I’m thankful this day is done.
Kaleb took on a few of my mothering skills and became overly concerned about the plight of my glasses. He insisted I take them off for every ride as he was sure they would go flying off my face and then I’d be in another panic. I thought that was sweet of him, but after a while it was annoying. It was no problem to take them off because I had no desire to see anything clearly anyway, especially when it involved a ride that looked like death might be staring me in the face again. The best part of the day was seeing Kaleb’s face after every ride. There was an energy to it I don’t often see and it was priceless. Fortunately, he was tall enough to go on all the rides so Kory and I were happy to stand around and watch him go on the most nerve racking ones, or ones I wouldn’t do again even if I do love that boy.
We realized just how big this city is when we walked from our hotel this morning all the way across town to the park. (Our hotel is located in the top left corner of the photo – all the way in the distance. I took the photo from the highest tower at the park.) We wanted to see the town, so we left early this morning to go on an “explore” before arriving at our destination. The receptionist said it was a 45 minute walk. She was off a little – it took almost two hours. We were tired before the day even began, but fortunately, we weren’t too hot because of the cloud cover. Göteborg is a pretty city but the best thing about it is all the walking and bike paths – they go absolutely everywhere. The city isn’t set up to handle cars so much so people take the bus or tram, bike or walk. We were hoping to catch a tram back to the hotel but we got tired of waiting for it so we hopped on a bus. We assumed it was the same payment method as the tram – insert coins – ride tram. We made sure we had enough change for the tram, but as soon as we altered our mode of transportation we had a problem. Even though we studied the map well enough to know the number of the routes we needed to get back to the hotel – the map didn’t say anything about how to pay for the bus. As it turned out, we needed a special bus card as the driver doesn’t take cash. When we got on, the driver realized we had no clue about their system so he told us we could pay with our cell phones. We scratched our heads over that one until he pointed to a sign that showed the instructions on how to send an SMS message on a cell phone that puts the cost of the bus ride on the telephone bill. It seemed like a rather convoluted way to pay for a bus ticket, but with everyone carrying around cell phones I guess it’s one way to solve the problem. The problem for us was that neither of us had our phones with us. The driver very kindly let us ride the bus for free to the end of the line, but it was still about two miles short of our hotel, so we had to walk again – much farther than we wanted to after such a long day and eleven hours of being on our feet – but we had no choice. I guess we should have taken the tram – but then we wouldn’t have found out that it is possible to buy a bus ticket with a cell phone. Go figure.
We got back to our hotel around 8:30. Kaleb laid on the bed and looked through his new Pokemon book for a few minutes, then said he was a little hungry. Kory had already gone to the restaurant for a late dinner but I wasn’t hungry enough to eat so late. I told Kaleb I had some snacks with me and when I turned around to give them to him, he was sound asleep on the bed, still dressed. That boy was tired. I can barely move myself so I’m thankful this day is done.
