Inverness and Isle of Skye weekend!

Been relaxing too much in the crap weather.

It was high time I explored Scotland!

I planned a 3 day weekend trip up to the Highlands and the Isle of Skye to the west with Steph and Linnea, who were visiting back in June. I managed to plan this trip in an afternoon, and it all turned out excellently. Here is a recap of our epic Highland adventures with some complimentary photos!

We got up at 7:00 am to get ready and pack our bags. Hustled our butts to Buchanan St. bus station... but cut it a little too close. We tried to find our bus, which I found, but I couldn't find the other girls in time. Bus was full anyway, and left, after I argued with the guy working there (who was a total jerk). We managed to get on another bus that connected to an Inverness bus in Perth. So we chilled eating Pocky and taking dodgy pictures of my Professor Layton figure.

We got to Inverness at about 2:00pm and were dropped off in the city center. We ate at the Riverside Cafe which was recommended to us by the Lonely Planet guide. It was alright. I had a gammon, brie, tomato and onion salad, but it had tons of red peppers. :(

Got a cab to our first hotel - The Kingsmills Hotel - which was considered 4 stars. There was friendly service and they showed us to our room down some cool halls, and there was a crazy birthday party/wedding going on outside. We tried to decide what we were gonna do around Loch Ness. The boat tours had already closed pretty much, but our concierge found a way for us to see Loch Ness... a tour taxi! It was perfect! The company is Tartan Taxis Inverness, and our guide's name was John and he was a total bro, gave us lots of info about the area, gum, a good chat and we listened to the Killers. He took us to some great look out points of Loch Ness, a really beautiful garden place with a maze of beautiful plants and trails, Urquhart Castle, and then the Loch Ness Exhibition center. He also took us to a place where we could dip our hands and feet in the Loch! We were super lucky as well, because it was a completely GORGEOUS day, barely any clouds in the sky, and apparently that is EXTREMELY rare. I got some souvenirs from the Ness store, but I lost the bag during the trip. I am a derp. :(

After our awesome tour, he dropped us off at a Turkish restaurant that was quite near. The food was good, but the service was awful. We had wine, Halloumi and Hummus, Olives and bread to start, lamb and rice grilled with a tomato, and we each had a different dessert. (Chocolate pudding, baklava and honey yogurt pistachio walnut creation.)

Taxi'd back to the hotel where we filled out what we wanted for breakfast and had tea time with Layton. :} Then went to sleep in the most COMFIEST BED I have ever slept in! In the morning we had showers and picked at breakfast which I wasn't charged for. (yesssss) Then got a taxi to the bus station where we got our bus to Portree on Isle of Skye.

We passed through the Highlands and OMFG the sights! So beautiful, never have I seen such images. The photos we took do not convey the largeness of these hills. They towered over us, over everything. We had to look straight up in the sky to see them/the tops. In combination with the sky it was just so nice. After getting to Portree, we got picked up by a nice guy who ran a car rental business. We got a car sorted, went back into town to get info, food and some books.

We traveled all the way to a nice spot outside of Portree to eat on the side of the road looking out at the hills. When there are no cars, it is SO quiet, you can hear the blood in your ears. The only thing that was crap was the midges (tiny flies). Other than that, cheese on buns, blueberry muffins and smoothies were had. Backtracking, we went to Edinbane where the Lodge was for our Bed and Breakfast. Greeted by a very friendly older lady who took us right in, made some jokes, took us up to our cozy room which was just awesome, and apparently haunted. We didn't stay long as we had a adventuring to do!

We drove to Dunvegan castle first. Most of it was getting renovated from the outside. We went inside and weren't allowed to take pictures, but there were some incredibly lovely paintings inside. And some cool things like a cramped dungeon and a post boat! I got Heather a bracelet from the shop.

After checking out the pretty gardens, we drove up to Uig, where the fairy glen was. We found it without trouble even though there were no signs. This place was incredible, it honestly looked like something in a picture book or fairy tale. There was sheep poop everywhere and stone creations of fairy rings people made, the biggest being a spiral where there were offerings in the middle. We put a strawberry there. We climbed up to this rocky cliff hill that was pretty scary to climb because there was a steep, grassy drop on either side. We went to the top and ate strawberries and had probably the most peaceful moment of my life. It was BLISS. We explored the glen for awhile, climbing hills, looking at bunnies and discovering wild thistles.

We took the car back to our lodge, where we got a delicious dinner and dessert and drinks. We hung out in the lodge lounge, where we played dominoes and laughed at the TERMINATORS on TV. We retreated to bed, and about an hour after I entered into REM sleep, my phone all of a sudden went dead and vibrated itself off my dresser, very strange! In the morning, we lazily got up and had a mediocre breakfast (these Bed and Breakfasts don't know how to soft boil eggs it seems) and set off.

First, we checked out Edinbane pottery, where the stuff was cool but hella expensive. We drove all the way to Plockton, where we went on an hour long seal boat spotting trip! We saw so many awesome seals. They were fat and hilarious and the boat trip was just awesome and relaxing. Then there came the stressful race against time down narrow roads for Steph. It didn't help it was misty raining and cars were slow. We did make it back to the car rental shop okay though.

During the bus trip, we made a brief stop in Fort William where we got out and found a hill to sit and draw where I saw a dude with Sephiroth's hair. HAHAH. Pics happened and you better believe the trip home was epic!


Steph, Linnea and I in front of Loch Ness

In the Gardens

In front of the KingsMills Hotel :D

JUMP IF YOU LOVE LOCH NESS

This reminds me of a very clever puzzle...

PROFESSOR LAYTON LONDON PREMIERE

Just because I'm traveling, doesn't mean I have stopped being the complete awesome geek that I am! :D



I heard over at the Professor Layton Livejournal community that the Professor Layton movie that debuted in Japan in December was having a once only ever London Premiere! Me, being a huge Professor Layton fan, could not waste this opportunity, being only a hop, skip and a jump away from London. So I managed to get a couple of free tickets from the MangaUK's twitter, bought a train ticket to London and left on a Thursday to meet with Chris, who oh so nicely lets me use his couch every time I want to do something in London!

The 5 hour train ride to London from Glasgow was pretty uneventful. I managed to get a seat in the quiet coach, so there wasn't any screaming children. It was nice for a change! The only thing that I'm beginning to notice is that I am starting to get motion sickness from being on trains too long, and that's not fun. It's not just looking out the window, it's just the rocking motion that is stirring my insides. Bleegh. Managed to watch some Alf and Adam & Joe, then arrived at Euston London train station at about 5pm.

Met Chris at his work, which is the Wellcome Library. I had a very awkward meeting with his friend Tracy (who also worked at the library), because I couldn't work the card reader, and as she was telling me how to use it, I called her Annabell (who is Chris's OTHER friend) so she was extremely confused. I'm such a dork. Chris set me up with my very own library card that reads "Jakface McGee", because that is apparently my name now. When he got off work, I was famished and demanded we go to India India, where we got some deliciously amazing curry and pappadoms with many delicious chutneys :D (the spicy hot salty one with chunks of lime is fantastic!) We went back to Chris's house where we watched a bit of TV. The Grudge 3 (yes, it exists) was on TV, so we were watching it and making snide comments, until a part where the girl was going up the stairs because she heard a noises and she looks over the banister and SEES...... Mr. Potato Head. We LOST it. Andy reinacted it with Sackboy puppet style from behind the couch.

Chris had to work on Friday, which was the day of the Premiere, so I took Andy with me on Friday instead for adventures! We got up at about 8am on Friday, had crumpets and tea in the sunny backyard forest (hehe), and head out to find the BFI building. When we walked inside, it was great because there were some awesome Layton cosplayers, and the building itself was very inviting and modern looking, and everyone looked really excited to be there. We were given free tea/coffee/water and pastries before the showing, and then we went into a room where we all watched the completely fantastic film!

The movie itself was an absolute charm. I wasn't sure what to expect, I was expecting something that was just like a very long cutscene, however I was surprised to be rewarded with something that reminded me a mixture of a Lupin the 3rd and a Miyazaki film. The scene at the beginning with Big Ben gave me shivers, and a lot of the music just excited me to the point of my hairs standing up on the back of my neck! I was used to the North America voice acting so listening to it in Japanese I had to get used to (I have a great fondness for the Professor's English voice) but regardless of that, I still enjoyed every minute of it. The style was true to the games, had just the right amount of action, emotion and humour. A+++ would view again!

Afterwards, we hung out with the Layton cosplayers a bit so I could get some photos of them, and we stuck the Luke girl on the carousel so we could get some photos of her on there. Got some great shots! After we said our goodbyes, Andy and I got some free enormous Starbucks drinks thanks to his coupons, and we walked around Piccadilly Circus and many parks, including Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, taking lots of pictures and bothering the squirrels with pretend food. Then we met up with Chris and Lap to go watch the Prince of Persia movie that came out that day. It was surprisingly better than I thought it was going to be! Though I wasn't impressed with the use of the Papyrus font... :|

On Saturday, Chris worked until 4 and then we were going to Cinnamon (an Indian restaurant again) to celebrate Roy's birthday. I stayed inside and worked on a comic, then headed out to meet with them. Dinner at Cinnamon was really nice, and we got free wine/drinks because it was on Brick Lane, which is a huge street just with Curry restaurants, and they have "Curry pimps" outside each restaurant asking you to try their restaurant, and if you go there they'll give you such-and-such for free. It's kind of awesome. Our dinner was really great, except for a couple tables down one person had an epileptic fit that scared the shit out of everyone. They had to be laid on the floor for 15 minutes and an ambulance came and everything! yaaaaay. :(

On Sunday, Chris and I met up (after me getting completely lost, me ftl) and had a downtown adventure before we saw the Layton Movie again (this time I had pre-paid for tickets so Chris could see it too, it was the only other movie-screening that was public for the Layton movie) but it didn't start until 3:30, so we took Roy the Duck and Sackboy with us to take pictures of them riding all the Art Elephants that were scattered around London. It was a ridiculously hot day, and walking around was quite nice. We walked through Hyde Park and walked all the way to the BFI theatre, and saw more squirrels and a duck that had a staredown with Roy the Duck!

The Sunday showing was showing in one of the larger screens of the NFT building. It was great because the screen was bigger, sound was better, and the audience, which had people of all ages, were TOTALLY in to the movie, laughing at all the right moments, and getting into the puzzles (You could hear murmurs of surprise when the Professor said the answers to the puzzles, it was great!) It had a cool screen that was all lit up with red lights! Fiery!

Afterwards we got some touristy photos of me, we found a Somerfields that was wonderfully open, got some ingredients for the BREAKFAST QUICHE we were going to make the next morning so we could watch series finale of LOST (which was aired in UK the same time it was aired in the USA, which was 5am for UK.. so we recorded it) and eat delicious breakfast quiche. Went home, received a Joei and a Lap, played Singstar, watched Joei play Street Fighter... then went to sleep.

Got up early Monday morning to make the quiche. It was quite the adventure, and we made a video out of it, so I'll just post it here with just a DISCLAIMER that there is some horrible English swears! You've been warned! DON'T SHOW KIDS!



The LOST finale was interesting. I enjoyed it but could see why people are frustrated because lots of questions are left unanswered! Oh well, that's life!

Afterwards, Chris, Lap and I went into Richmond, which is a nice town not far from where Chris lives. Lap had to go to work, so Chris and I walked around a bit around the docks after I purchased some comfortable sandals, since my feet were actually dying from all the blisters (17 to be exact). That's what happens when I forget my sole inserts for my army boots. :( We had some food at Revolution, which was a neat restaurant with antler chandeliers. And they had these SANDS OF TIME hourglasses that meant if we didn't get our food in 15 minutes we got it free. I had a Chicken salad thing that was pretty good and Chris got 2 for 1 burgers... Which he somehow finished. ahahah. We got some ice creams and walked around the fields and trails a bit, and found the "Thames Walk" which looked like a short path to the next pub where we wanted a drink. Turns out it was a 3.3 mile walk beside the Thames River, and my feet, even with my new shoes, were absolutely dying. Almost gave up a few times and called for an ambulance, but Chris was determined I could make it. We eventually made it back to the bridge where we first saw the Hippie Community from the bus we took into Richmond, and we were pretty much home already. It was ridiculous. So I spent the rest of the day on the couch hahaahah.

Tuesday, I was ready to go home to Glasgow! Packed up my stuff and headed out at about noon and met Chris outside of his work and got an iced latte tee hee, hugged and said goodbye to Chris, and was on the train, where I drew a crapload of stuff! Yay!

It's June! And adventure times are soon! Tomorrow starts the Glasgow West End Festival, lots to do and see, and in 3 days I get a Steph! And in a week after that, I get a Linnea! And then Sweden at the end of June! Many more things to happen, stay tuned!


Squirrel tricked by my hand that does not feed.

I am a tourist, yes, that is blatantly obvious

Roy and Sackboy Sitting in a Tree~

Layton and Luke!

Chris and Roy the Duck have a staredown.

God Jul + Happy New Year!

Not a day passes where I don't feel guilty when I don't post in this journal. Gomennasai!

So Christmas was a success! In Sweden they have food and presents on Christmas Eve. We had so much food, it was ridiculous. We started eating at 1 pm and it didn't exactly stop until about 8pm! We had different pickled herring dishes, ham, potatoes, leverpastej and bread, moose tongue, swedish meatballs and jam, cloudberries with cream for dessert, with random cookies and tea, Julmust (the awesome Christmas drink they have that tastes like coke, beer, and spices all mixed together) and glogg. We watched the Donald Duck christmas special at 3pm that everyone in Sweden tunes into, apparently! Hearing Disney in other languages was pretty cool! :D

I got some chocolate from Linnea's family, and Linnea got me a Portal shirt that says "THE CAKE IS A LIE" on it multiple times. It's a great shirt! I got Linnea some key earrings and got her mom and dad some chocolate, and her brother an iPod cover, and her grandmothers some blueberry glogg and strawberry honey! It was a good exchange. :D

Christmas day itself was more of Christmas Eve hangover where we ate leftovers and just chilled out. It was super grand! Linnea and I made a delicious Strawberry cream shortcake covered in chocolate icing and marzipan decorations, and bananas and whipped cream! It was DELEEESHOUS! Pictures below! And it wasn't a lie!

Boxing Day consisted of just CHILLING OUT (haha no crowd surfing for me!) and also BEING COOL (noticing my Mr. Freezisms?!) since Linnea and I went out into the freezing cold of the barren Swedish wastelands to try our hand at WINTER GEOCACHING. In case you are wondering how that went, it failed. We tried looking for one at this Church (the 70's prison one I told you about earlier) and we got stared at by people at the bus stop as we ran our hands all along this metallic pole looking for this tiny magnetic cache. Sigh. :( After noticing the police car parked across the road we decided to high tail it, and try our hand at one in a park, where we decided it was WAY TOO COLD and it was ridiculous because the GPS that Linnea got from her father was freaking out and would say we were 2 meters to reaching the cache, then would all of a sudden say we were 30 meters away.. SIGH. So after going up to a tree, molesting it until it had no snow left on it, we quickly withdrew and went back home for Fika and drawing times. Ahhhhh much better.

On the 27th, Linnea, her friend Åsa and I went shopping and had some Fika at a really tiny cafe where I had a chai latte (which sucked, needed like, 5 spoons of sugar) and a thankfully delicious piece of gingerbread cheesecake. :D I managed to score a rad scarf I had wanted before Christmas at this store called Monki (has a lot of really adorable clothes!) and I got it at 50% off and it was the last one! It was meant to be. Also got a rad purple touque, a slinky soft bunchy grey shirt, and a pink tank top with a hippie pattern that goes perfect under loose fitting casual tops :D

We also went to see Avatar, which would have been so totally boss all the way through, except the fire alarm went off 20 minutes into the film, where everyone was confused and tried to evacuate, then when the alarm went off and everyone went back to their seat still confused, the lights went off and we had missed 15 minutes of the movie. :| Also, the subtitles for the Navi language were in Swedish so I had to ask Linnea to translate it. And there were huge yellow Swedish subtitles in the way of everything so it would have been so pretty if it wasn't for that. I think I have to see it again without the interupptions, but yes, Fern Gully in Space with Smurfs of the Future = awesome. It just was missing a Hexxus. That American military guy did not live up to Tim Curry's sexy voice. :|

I've been having trouble with SharkRobot.com in getting the geek shirts that I had ordered way before Christmas, but they finally arrived on the 28th (Except for one, I'm still dealing with that right now) so I took a bunch of pictures with me in my awesome shirts! :D I'll upload it for you all to see!

Linnea and I were also around for DeviantArt to reach it's 100,000,000th deviation, which isn't SUPER exciting, but we were just waiting for it to be a picture of naked lady, yet we were hoping for a stick figure or a furry. XD It turned out to be a gay themed prose though, which was pretty cool.

The next couple of days before I had to leave consisted of Linnea and I hanging out and watching movies, Japanese/Korean dramas and finishing Ouran Host Club, drawing our Christmas comic, and having lots of Fika. I kept being spoiled with amazing food from Linnea's family. I don't think I ever disliked anything I ate! It was all tastylicious. :D

On the 30th, we got up early and I had to say my goodbyes and leave Umea, Sweden, I started my long 3 plane journey back to Glasgow. At the end I was extremely tired, tired of going through security and immigration and customs lines, tired of getting turbulence scares, tired of walking and being hungry... I finally got back to Glasgow where Kody had picked me up (<3) and brought me back where Caz and their friend Kurt was waiting and we ate Cheesy Fries and Buffalo chicken. OMMMNOMNOM. We watched a Harry Hill DVD which was hilarious, and we laughed all the calories away. The next day we prepared for H-Con, HOGSMANAY! Which is New Years in Scotland :D Sounds like something from Harry Potter... But yes, people trickled in all day, we were playing Halo 3 and Worms, eventually the party got started and much fun was had. Met all of Kody's awesome friends and made a lot of great friendships :D Got a bit tipsy, ventured out with people in the Silent Hill fog outside to find a food place that was open (the only one was a 10 min walk away and I had the best sausage and chips I've ever eaten, probably because I was drunk, oops!) , enjoyed Kody lopping the tops off of champagne bottles with a katana, drank champagne and sang Rock Band songs, and watched gorgeous fireworks amidst the fog! All my pictures from H-Con you can find on my Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43711291@N02/sets/72157622990842243/

The last few days have been New Years Hangover™, which consisted of the stragglers - Loki, Mika, Junpei, Kurt - and me, Kody and Caz, all hanging out and just sitting around eating, watching stuff... in fact I don't even know where the time went, but whatevs! We braved the outside more than once, on the slippery icy sidewalks, surprised no one did a faceplant! We did go to Dim Sum where I was ripped off, however we did enjoy some freaking awesome dessert! Mika showed us a visual anime horror novel he was translating, which we promptly dubbed awesomely, and he showed us his skills in Bullet Hell games.

Yesterday consisted of ordering pizza, watching Father Ted, dropping off Mika at the train station, Kody and I going to the hardware store in the middle of nowhere to get bits to fix the shelf I destroyed under the TV (ahahahah sads) .. now hopefully I will be more productive if I finally manage to update this thing. Hooray!

Soon I will be planning for my Edinburgh trip so keep updated for that business! :D

And here's a random bit of info about what's going on in creative-enhancing land!

Shows I'm into/watching/watched:
__________
Glee
Ouran Highschool Host Club
Hagurashi
Father Ted

Current Music Playlist!
_______________
Kwoon (new album)
Chopin
Vocaloid
Me First and the Gimme Gimme's
The Knife
Pogo
Neverhood OST


Linnea and I!

I'm so excited about this Retarded Snail cake we made.

GOD JUL!

Whoa, you mean this cake isn't a lie?! Boss!

Cheeses, breads, cookies and cakes! Delicious Fika time!

A kiss for Russia on H-Con eve!

Silent Hill fireworks ring in the new decade!

AW MAH GAWD AWESOME SHIRT!

MORE AWESOME SHIRTS WOO!

Until next update! Love! <3

PLANE ADVENTURES and HELLO SWEDEN!

Long time no talk!

So I was in Irvine for 2 weeks visiting my friend Leslie, who's also an awesome artist! She has a 2 year old boy named Aiden and a husband, Brian. It was quite nice to visit with her and talk with her, even though we were tired a lot from looking after Aiden! She's also pregnant again as well, so we got some art in, as well as a Fushigi Yuugi marathon and I showed her all of Hetalia!

Unfortunately, on my last week there I got really sick. I got tonsillitis with a little bit of a fever, so I was confined to the house for a good little while! I managed to get to the doctors after coughing up some blood and got myself some antibiotics. I'm all okay now! :D

Also I read this totally awesome book called "Skinny Bitch" which is basically like a no nonsense book about the truths of eating meat and non-organic foods, and how much our government lies about the garbage we put in our mouths. Also had some really scary horror stories about what goes on in slaughterhouses. Makes me want to give up meat for the most part. D: So needless to say we had a lot of great vegetarian dishes. :D

Leslie's mom lives in a Caravan park half of the year during the summer. I think it would be so fun to have one of these. It's just like a larger, wider motorhome amongst other Caravans. We visited it once at night time and it was directly opposite this large abandoned brick building which is HAUNTED! Apparently paranormal investigators confirmed hauntings there, like slamming doors and weird noises! I wasn't allowed to go in there though. Poo. :{

Also, on a really windy day, we went to the beach where there's a bit of a walkway that goes in between the crashing waves. There's no barrier on either side though so you could totally fall in, and it's only about 5 feet wide across. So because of the gale-ish winds, we were being pushed back from going forward to the very end of this walkway, with the waves crashing all around us. I actually took a video of it. Bluetooth's not working right now so you can get it later.

After the 2 week vacation there, I went back to Kody's for a couple of days. During that time I hung out with my old coworker Alan, because he's originally from Glasgow and he came home the same time I was in Scotland. So we shopped around and hung out, and we also went to this amazing Scottish restaurant called the Bothy, which had great food and a great atmosphere. The whole place was decorated like a beautiful tavern/inn with lots of foliage decor that was christmas themed, and all the seats were big and cushy, and everything was made of wood pretty much. I had this Chicken Bonnie Lass or something.. and it was chicken with a bacon mushroom wine sauce with potatoes and other veggies. Soooo good. *___*

So you might have noticed I am keeping up with my tea counts... it's been tough because sometimes I don't have access to tea, and being sick drinking hot drinks hurt. However, I've been keeping up since I've arrived in...

SWEDEN!!!!

That's right. My super awesome online artist buddy Linnéa, better known to others as Mirre, is letting me stay with her and her family for 3 weeks in Umeå, Sweden. Getting here was a whole different story..

I took a plane from Glasgow to London, which was fine. I got to London at 9pm and my string of 2 flights to get to Umeå was at 7am the next morning. I was going to spend the night at the Heathrow airport, but Chris texted me and gave me the option of spending the night at his place and getting up very early to catch a tube into Heathrow, because it was not very far away at all. After much debating with myself, I decided to stay at his place overnight so I could park my stuff and get some sleep.

After getting up at 5am and getting myself out the door, I walked briskly to the tube station and waited there for a good 35 minutes before I realized that there was no train coming, and when I went upstairs to the main area there was a sign that said "Trains not running to Heathrow, signal failure."

>:|

Unfortunately for me, stress levels then skyrocketed, as I frantically went around trying to find a cash machine so I could take out some pounds to pay for a cab to take me to the airport as "fast as he could" (which was less than the normal speed limit...) Long story short, I ended up getting to the airport through the doors to my check in counter at 6:30 am, 30 minutes before my flight, and they stopped taking bags at 6:15.

*sigh*

After almost breaking down in front of hundreds of people, I made my way to the SAS counter to buy myself another ticket on the next flight, which luckily was the same day at 2:05pm. However, 250 pounds later.. I had to wait around for almost 8 hours uncomfortably at the airport, starving and not wanting to leave my stuff. My 3 flights into Umeå. started from London, then to Copenhagen, then to Stockholm, then to Umeå. Copenhagen Airport in Denmark is a really pretty airport. Everything was dark wood decorated and it was very easy to find my next gate. Stockholm was a maze and it was too big. My flight to Umeå was pretty cool. I sat beside a huge muscular guy probably about my age who was a thai kickboxer I think.. or UFC style fighting? Anyway he won the Austria championship for his division and he was going to Umeå for his next round. How cool. He couldn't speak much english, but we communicated enough to talk for a bit. We were in the very last seats of the plane squished together, it was pretty funny. He liked my artwork. :}

So Linnéa was waiting for me in Umeå at the baggage roundabout! I gave her a big hug, it was great! :D After getting my stuff and driving back to her house and remarking how they drive on the RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD *cough*ukfail*cough* I came to her awesome house, and met her parents and her brother, Torkel. We had "Fika" which is like teatime, had some delicious tea I've never even smelt/tried before, with some banana cake Linnéa made and gingersnaps. They even decorated my room, it looks so cool in here! It's cozy, I have a couch, a bed, a leather armchair, a tv, with lots of really moody lighting and christmas decorations!

Speaking of Christmas Decorations, everyone in Sweden seems to have those light up paper stars in their window, or a 7 candle electric candelabra. It looks really magical, way less tacky then millions of colors of Christmas lights and weird decorations on lawns! It's super cool to see a huge apartment building on the horizon over the water and see every window with one of these!

The sun sets early because of how far North we are in the world, so it sets around 1:30pm. We don't get much sun, however it just means we get sunrise/sunset for the most part! 2 days ago, Linnéa and I went clothes shopping and I got a few things for myself since a few articles of clothing I bought didn't suit the weather conditions. We also had a really nice lunch at a café, and I tried "Portello" which is a soft drink kind of like cream soda. For dinner, we had a traditional Swedish dinner called 'pytt-i-panna', which had chopped up ham and potato, fried egg and pickled beets (which weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be, ahha) with some strong cheese on flat unleavened bread on the side. Later that night during Fika, I got to try glögg for the first time. It's like a hot mulled spiced wine that you drink with almonds or raisins in it with a tiny little spoon for scooping them out with. We also had Saffron buns, which is another Swedish christmas/Jul tradition with more Gingersnaps.

Yesterday, Linnéa and I went to a Swedish Christmas Market which was held at a farm. It was great fun, there were shetland ponies and pigs that we saw, and there were lots of stalls were people were selling crafts, homemade baking, jewelry, socks, candy etc. I bought a big jar of honey and took some great pictures. The way to walk around was lit with these large candles on the ground. It was so very pretty! After we looked around for a couple of hours, we went back home and had dinner (homemade pizza!)

Afterwards, Linnéa's best friend Åsa came over and we went disco bowling! Many lulz and awesome photos were had. Afterwards we went to a huge candy store and loaded up, went home and played some mega-yahtzee (with 6 dice) and card games, and chatted til about 2:00am when we decided to call it a night..

Today Linnéa and I have been baking Gingerbread cookies! I made an army of little piggies. Mwahahaahha!

So that's it so far. I'll update more because I'm sure we'll be doing lots of fun festive things. It's about -5 degrees and it snowed a bit!

ENJOY SOME PHOTOS AND BYE FOR NOW!

Linnéa and I are the best bowlers.

MAKIN' PIGGIES!

Outside! IT'S SNOWING!

Beautiful sunset! Oh yeah it's like... not even 2pm here.

Candy at the Christmas Market! Yummm.