Sweden part 2

Now to go on about some of my adventures here in Sweden. Today we went to Bjarred, a town on the coast directly west of Lund, where they have white sand beach, a long dock, a lot of swans, a beautiful sunset and views to Malmo and the twisting torso and Copenhagen. We then ran and caught the bus to go to Malmo to get lunch/dinner and for me to buy some sriracha sauce. Wahoo! Now there are two important points in that last sentence. The first is obvious, I now can cook delicious spicy food with sriracha sauce, which I searched for quite a bit in Spain and did not find, Spaniards not being known for their appreciation of spicy foods. The second important point is my use of the word 'run'. I haven't written since my tragic accident on the 11th of December. I have found my achilles heel, it seems. My right pinky toe was the victim of someone's cleat in a maul at rugby practice. 2 minutes before practice ended. The worst of luck.

There was no discoloration and little swelling, so I figured in a few days I'd walk it off, lalala tough guy routine. Here I am 3+ weeks later and I am finally starting to notice some improvement. When I get back to Spain I am finally going to go see a doctor about it, but for now all I have is theories...torn ligament? A sprain? A fracture? So the great news is that I ran to the bus stop, albeit putting most of the strain on the ball of my foot and my big toe, but it doesn't feel any worse! And we ran for about 4 blocks. Hopefully this means that I will be able to start running again soon, or I might go crazy.
This is bringing up doubts about rugby though...should I keep playing and risk other injuries that would stop me from doing the marathon? Or hope for the best and do both? I don't know.

This evening we went and saw the Hobbit, which was great, although whenever the elves or the white giant spoke their subtitles were in Swedish. Also interesting is that there is assigned seating at the movie theater.

We spent New Years in Goteborg, a three hour train ride up the West coast of Sweden. Beautiful views of rocky beaches and islands and farm lands and flat flat flat. There were really cool clouds too, and one formation that looked like a dog head with it's tongue hanging out, ears back and a big smile on its face. I decided it was Red, young again and traveling with me in Sweden. Reunited again.

Goteborg is cute, the second biggest city in Sweden, with street cars and lots of old brick buildings, lots of fireworks (Red likes them now, they don't stress him out anymore). We shopped, I got some new shoes and a Swedish sweater so I fit in. Sweaters are big here. Also notable, SO MANY TALL PEOPLE HERE. I feel short all the time. It rained the whole time we were there so we watched a lot of x-factor and cooked delicious things.

Another interesting tidbit about Sweden is all of its alcohol sales are done through the government, including beer and wine. So any alcohol you want to buy is at specific stores with limited hours, closed around holidays, which as you can imagine is very frustrating to those of us who didn't plan ahead for holidays. As a result, we didn't drink too much for NYs and woke up fresh as daisies to catch the train South again.

I've eaten delicious Persian food, with lots of dried mint and a delicious type of pepper. Walked around Lund and seen their University and their churches. Gone on walks and seen Vera's old school and house and visited her old work places. She used to be a bartender bar manager and going out with her in Malmo was like going out with a celebrity, eeevvvveeererryyone knew her, and we got discounts and free entrances and free coat checks...deals. It was great. She was written up in a magazine as one of the top 6 bartenders in Sweden...I'm close to fame. We walked the streets of Malmo and saw the turning torso, a twisted building with very cool architecture.

It is now far too late, so I am going to sleep. Good night!