The Day of the Dim Sung

Yesterday was pretty much a wash. I wasn't interested in doing much as I needed to fix my shoes (or buy a new pair) and was just in the mood to read and chill out. So after sleeping in til about noon, I got up and headed out with my bro. We went to a nearby shopping center where I picked up some new Timberlines. I'll be sad to see the old pair go as they were comfy. Plus I got them in Amsterdam when the shoes I had exploded. Cest la vie. We also stopped by an Asian buffet for lunch, then headed back so that the kids had a way in the house.

I spent the day reading and later on at night me and Craig headed out to check out the view from the Gothia towers. Its a bar a lot like the Portland City Grill, so expensive drinks but with a cool view at the top of the tower. Cool, but just not someplace to spend a lot of time. So we headed down to Adra Lanngattan, a kind of semi sketchy place but with a number of cool hipster bars. One of them had twelve beers on tap, so we had a couple beers and then cruised down the street. We hit up Wandas and Maxim. The first being a semi (as much as that exists in Sweden) high class strip club. We had a beer and watched a gal dance, there were three of them and they were pretty sexy - but all three were very "enhanced". Definitely turned down any lap dances, the price to get in was about ten bucks and the lap dances were about 75 per. Nah. Then we hit Maxims where the price to get in was twice as much. What the hell, I was on vacation. Not even close to being worth it going in. We where told that they had seven gals (unlike the three from the last place), but it was a really sketchy place and the gals were natural but a bit scary. We left there in a hurry.

This led us back towards the car to go home, though with a brief stop to get a kebab burrito thingy at an all night cheesy joint by the tram/bus stops. All in all a fun and entertaining night.

This morning was another relatively late morning. I needed to see if I could find a mini-SD to SD adapter so that my bro could have some files off my phone, I also needed to find some band-aids and more blister packs as my new shoes were tearing up my hamstring. So we headed out for lunch and to hit Gothenburg a bit.

We started out looking for an Indian restaurant Craig enjoyed but instead found a brand new Brazilian restaurant. I had a fish stew with rice that really was outstanding and finished with a latte and some kind of chocolate thingy with a baked cookie like center.

Afterwards we hiked up a local fortification that was built in the late 1600s to protect the city. It was a local landmark and gave a great view of the city.

It was a kind of cool little park in the middle of the city and with a great view. We wandered around for a half hour or so and then hopped in the car to check out various parts of the city. We had to head home to pick up Filip and take him to his soccer game, so we didn't have a lot of time. We did stop by a cool place that was a local flea market building, now closed. The cool thing was that it was covered in street art.

So we got back, picked up Filip and dropped him off at his soccer game. We tried to find a dirt cheap flash drive 4GB but couldn't. We did manage to get the blister pads and the band-aids. Craig had a flash drive that he had gotten from mom, so this worked out as I could download my photos onto it. That way I could send them back home with the rest of the touristy stuff I was carrying around.

Tonight was the night I promised the kids I would take everyone out, so we hit a nice Dim Sung place and ordered a ton of little munchies. The food was good, but I took quite a while to prepare. It was worth it. The restaurant was in an industrial and sketchy part of town, but not really that bad. I also got to talk to Marriane, Lovisa's mom. She is a cool gal and she owns the place I stayed while in Stockholm. We talked and some of it was that she was glad I was making an attempt to be in my nephews' lives. She didn't want them to know Frank as the only other Schiavone brother, and I don't blame her in the least on that one. Having a sane uncle is a good thing. When they get old enough to want to travel, they will have a place to stay and an uncle to look out for them in the pacific northwest. She did warn me about St. Petersburg though. She said that I stick out as an American and she was worried that someone might take a knife to me. From what I've read Russia and Belarus have chilled a ton in the last decade. They are making a lot of headway in making it easier to get tourist visas and they are actively trying to get rid of their bad reputation. Which makes sense. Tourists mean money to the local economy. Mugging, getting ripped off by the police or natives means more bad press and less tourism - which is simply not a good thing in any way. So crossing my fingers and diving in.

It sad though that I'm halfway through my sabbatical already. But good news is that there will be a full moon for my ship cruise to Helsinki. Sweet.