On Lead Sails, Trains, Sunlight, Beer, and Old Friends

Right. This song (Lead Sails and a Paper Anchor, by Atreyu) is what I've been listening to over and over for the last few weeks. Have a listen, and enjoy the blog. :)

I posted the other night from an obscure location in Hessen, Germany (Rodenbach, I do believe.) about how wonderful I felt. I posted it from my phone, since there was no internet connection, but I think that the general Wonderfulness was conveyed properly. Due to miscommunications and such, I wasn't able to go to the Czech Republic, but I did get to spend one of the best weekends of my life with some of the most fun people around.

From Cookie's house, we went up to Rodenbach, which was an hour away from their house, which is, ironically, in a village called (...Wait for it,) Rodenbach. (Hey! It's like we never left!!) and spent Friday to Sunday up in a ski lodge cabin enjoying the quietness and awayness that an area that is so far up in the mountains can be.

There were five families in the lodge. And a lot of children running around between us all! 9, in fact. I have to say, I enjoyed being eighteen and only responsible for myself in that moment. Of course, I played with the kids, but seeing all the children running around babbling and falling down and getting into all sorts of trouble made me very happy to not be a mother. Someday that'll be me. Not today. (Phew.)

So Friday night, we had a barbeque and made sausages and steaks. And drank beer.

Oh, wait. Mom, I have something to show you!

Beer, beer, beer. And a bottle of a vodka mixture to celebrate one of the guy's birthday. (Turns out I can hold my liquer.) None of the beer was there come Saturday night. Hahaha.

Lots of children running around in various points of undress. We let the kids play with the cars, because they were so fascinating, and we were so high up, no one could hear us and complain! Some of the younger ones learned how to honk the horn, and every hour or so there would emit a series of honks from one or more of the cars.

Saturday morning, I went fishing! We caught thirteen trout and grilled them for dinner.

This is the guy whose birthday it was. (God forbid, I remember people's names. I must work on that!) The first time he cast out (and the following five times after that) he caught nothing. Then Michael told him to give me the rod, and I cast out and got a fish within a minute. After that, he demanded another go, and finally caught one for the team.

We barbequed the fish that night and I even ate a little of one that I caught. See? I can have my fish AND eat it.

Sunday, we hung around until about 3, at which point we went back home. We sorted things out at home, and Irepacked, and such, and then Cookie, Michael, Jana and Lilli took me to Frankfurt to my train to Sweden! On the first train I took to Berlin, I managed to sit in one of the compartments where the A/C wasn't working. But the only good thing was that after night fell, it wasn't stinko hot, and nobody wanted to sit in the compartment, so it was practically empty the whole journey. Then I got on another night train (this time with 6 beds instead of three like last time. Same general setup, though. I managed to sleep from about 1 until 7, on and off. At about 3 or 4 in the morning, we got on the boat to take us across the North Sea to Sweden and people came a' knockin on our door to check our passports. I'm surprised that I could even find my passport, because I had been fast alseep. Through my delerium, I think that I heard it was a 3 hour and 45 minute trip to the other side. When I woke up, we were rolling back onto land (a very loud process, I assure you).

There followed another train ride, during which I didn't find a seat, and so had to sit in the little area by the doors. There were little fold down seats that were vacated at some point, so I did get a seat. I managed to write a lot in my journal (stories and such), and that kept me occupied more or less for the whole 3 hours.

So I won't bore you with much else, except that I have weather and a beach to rival my mother's. Might I also point out that I think Schweden is much more better than New Joisey? ;)

I got to Emma's house this afternoon and was immediately fed. This pleased me immensely, because up until that point I had consumed all of half a soda, a latte, and an apple. Then Emma suggested that we go to the shore and swim. So we did!

Check out this view.

And I actually did swim. See? The water wasn't that cold. It was warmer than Barton Springs (which is brrfreezingcold) and colder than our pool (which is likely boiling right now in the Texas heat.)

And lastly, the final part of the blog. (Loooong blog...) A few years ago I met an English girl online who became a fast friend. We chatted every night on MSN (cause we're uber cool like that) and spent hours writing and editing each other's fanfiction stories. While I was in England four years ago for christmas, we met up and spent the day walking around London (Parental supervision existed. We were only 14.) and then 3 years ago, I saw her again when I was last in England. After that, stuff happened and we lost contact. But on the offchance that she would get the email, I sent a message to her the other night telling her that I would be in London... and now I get to see her again! I'm so excited about this. We're going to go shopping and maybe see a Shakespearean play at The Globe. (the Geek in me rejoices!!) I'm really excited to see an old friend at last.

And now, finally, I leave you guys. Will post more about Sweden soon!!

(Why is this so funny? I don't know. It just is. This was in the Swedish train station.)