Honey to the G

My last visit to Göteborg was very brief, it was merely a pit-stop to get to Jönköping. But when Agnes and Linus offered a day of second hand shopping and fika (kind of swedish for a coffee date), i couldnt resist, even knowing that Anya, Perri, Jess and the French girls had a shitty time a few weeks ago while I was in Stockers.

Mykolas agreed, in his tipsy state the night before that he would join me on ths adventure, since he hasnt left Jönköping for a while. So I woke him up for an early train to G-borg C. Agnes (my vännen), met us with her usual sparky manner, with these sick-dog sunnies on, which confused me as we are in Sweden, but apparently it was gonna be a sunny day. We started by walking through a new part of town I hadnt seen before, there was this awsome walk-through mall on the street, followed by another one (the biggest in Sweden), furhter down the road. It was also nice to see trams, a little taste of Melbz.



After looking in H&M (there was seriosly about 20 of them, wtf) we headed to this little indoor market (Saluhall). There was very few stalls but the foods looked good. We had some tradish swedish lunch at an old faux pub looking thing. Panbiff och potatis was goody. Hey while its on my mind how good is my Billie Piper inspired title of this entry? So G-burgs shopping was pretty exeptional. This one store called Myrorna ("The Ants") took the cake for sure. Imagine Savers but 4 storeys and eveything is actually decent. I found a jacket, some shirts and fake Giogio Armani jumper. But when we ventured to the top floor, It was the best. There was colour coded sections and only the creme de la creme of the vintage stuff. Not to mention that there were heaps of incredibly well dressed and attractive Swedes crowded around the corner of the room where the Swedish indie/hip-hop band was playing. hahah, it was too much. The band, 'Elefant' wer pretty good actually, for a stubmle-across gig. They had brass, guitars and this blonde guy rapping about how he wants to be "her superman". Sexy.



Linus was in town to see his childhood friend Mia and she was with her boyfriend Tobias. Linus is a really funny guy, whos into Eurovision, performing arts etc. Its refreshing when the other Swedish guys I meet are only into snus and talking about pussy. He also serves as a good dance mate at Aka.


They took us to this castle thingy ontop of a hill, the climb was "a good workut for your ass" according to Linus. There was a gorgeous view and people up there relaxing and basking in the sun (it was an on and off day), looking up at the great big golden crown in the sky. After this we went for fika. Actually there was several fika breaks during the day. fika goody. Agnes is such a good tour guide / being. She, unlike some swedes, talks to randoms and asks about stuff. She went on a mission to find G-borgs American Apparel, which doesnt exsist. I mean obviosly it doesnt exsist (hello H&M). But shes just a good spirit to be around, and she improved my Swedish slightly.



After all this excitement and adventure, we had 6 more fikas. Linus and his friends departed us and we head back to to mall, and then on the bus to J-köping. We got back and ran to Agnes' apartment as not to miss any more of Melodifestivalen. Melodifestivalen (haha its fun to say) is the semi-finals of the Eurovision song contest. So basically, Sweden is obssesed with Eurovision so they have a 4 show series in which the Swedish public vote for who they want repping them in the big contest. Agnes and I and Mykolas watched this over a vattenpipa. One of those water pipe thingies, Huka, Shisa, whatever you call it, you know. With tutti-fruity flavoured tobacco, tasty. The best competitor was this hot little thing called Agnes (yeah but not the Agnes whos place we were at, this one is on TV). This Agnes just one Swedish Idol and now shes got her sights set on Eurovision. But shes hot.. check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOGr9lzh0g0



So as you can see she has great fashion sense (anything tight gold and sequeny is goody in my book) and looks like a cross between Leona Lewis and Delta Goodrem, shes got my vote! Ah. So we said our goodbyes and tipsily walked to the bus and back to Råslätt. Anya told us to come to the 84 common room to check out this African party which was organized by Yaw.

Yaws a good friend of Jelena and Myk, and he and an organization he works with made this amazing banquet of African food, music and beer. That was goody, but we were too fucked to go out to Bongo Bar afterwards as well. So i just watched DH and fell asleep. Ah my addictions.

Anyway im off to ice skate. I am soo glad that its the last day of winter. Get in my belly Spring.

Hej Då, Snö

Spring is allllmmooossttt here. The snow is melting rapidly. Its all slushy and gross.

Ah. Im sitting on my bed in my newly fung shwei'd room, listening to Lazee. Reppin' for my Swedish pride. Hes just this mad rapper from Malmö. Im booking trians and buses for my Göteborg trip tomorrow. Its just a day thing, some shopping with my STV pals Anges and Linus. These guys are mega wicked. even know they didnt record the valentines day STV broadcast! Nah I aint pointing fingers.

I had a good Akademien experience this week! Yeah, for once no drama went down at ol' Kåren (what the swedes call Akademien). Mykolas got incredible drunk and fell down the stairs and broke a few beer glasses. It was entertaining. I hung out with G a bit too, and danced with the Romanians.

Hey the other day my quite Tanzanian roommate locked himself out.. naked! Well he had a towel, but i dont think that makes it any better. He used my phone to call the Råslatt people, and they were over within 20. But it was still pretty funny as this guy has made no effort to even talk to me and Myk. And last night he stole some bread from Myk. It was actually hillarious, maybe its the lack of sun getting to my head?

My Swedish teacher broke her arm, so now I get some hot little soccer mum looking babe. Shes like making jokes about how old she is and stuff. She wants me bad. So anyway, im gonna go make lunch.

I Could Say

That these last few days have been excellent. Jönköping has been covered in snow for weeks, and Spring is just around the bend. I finally have a decent Digital Camera, which I got from this cool electronics store here called OnOff. Mykolas and I threw a dinner party the other night that was awesome. Jelena, Jess, Olga and her boyfriend Yaw, showed up, with Anya and P-dizz as well, for some Thai chicken curry and apple pie. Prepared by me (even though Myk tried to steal the credit). It felt like old friends gettin together and havin some nice foods, which was goods.
Myk, P, and A and I had a rad night of watching Notting Hill and pizza the other day as well, so the dinner party things are flowing.

I broke my ealrier promise to not go to Akademien last wednesday, but I was glad I went, I had a change to chat with G about where things are goin. I also had an akward moment with some Latvians. haha. After a fun pre-party with the Latino's at Skeppsbron, it was an ok night. Still so much drama. Marion has boy stuff, Me and Anya were trying to help her, plus disccuss our own stuff. Theres just a lot of stuff.

Ive been domestic recently, bit of cleaning, bit o watching Desperate Housewives. The other day I went to Skepps again for some Dahl made my Perri. Which rocked. Its definalty into the main part of the exchange now, things arent that super exciting anymore, but the friendships etc are getting stronger and solid. I am looking forward to my Lithuania trip heaps, we are planning to make a film there.. its just like Lurhmans "Australia".. only.. "Lithuania". Its gonna be wicked we all know.



Had a craaazy night with the gang last night. We pre-partied at Marions apartment, after a walk around the lake in town. Then we were all off to Olivia's housewarming party. Olivia is a good friend of Mykolas, shes Swedish but orginally from Ghana, shes a lot of fun. I spilled wine all over myself and was temporarily blinded for a bit. Danced to swedish hip-hop and made empty promises about becoming a model for the up-coming 'Spring Inspiration' fashion show. Myk will model! Infact, hungover, I was woken up today with "..Hey.. get dressed faster, we need to go to modelling school". haha.

Olivia's was awsome, met some more new people and shit too, and her apartment was awsome. We then hit Bongo Bar. A place that I am familiar with (refer to 'Sp-rung!'). And more drama unfolded. For some reason all of the crew decided to make-out with eachother constantly, and My jacket was taken from the public cloak. After a treck home in someone elses ginormous jacket, it was time for bed, Perri crashed on my floor.



So the partying has continued. My swedish class is going well.. i think, and my web design class has been non-exsistant. I miss home, but I have made a second home here and I am in no rush to come back.

Lemme know whats going on.

Le Stockholm

When I was a boy my Dad told me that in France cows go "Le Moo"

My weekend in Stockholm was planned 2 days before we left. This meant that the accommodation we got was the scraps of the weekend. Well that's what we thought but the strangely named 2kroner hostel was surprisingly nice! So I had to ditch the STV project early. I don't know if I've mentioned it but I joined the student TV station here, we have a broadcast tonight! So anyway, I ditched it at the break so I could meet Guilian and take the bus. After 5 hours of pretending to sleep we arrived. Stockholm at night was beautiful, things were lit up and there was a Melbourne style pace to the town, not too quite, not too busy. We met up with Jeremy (refer previous blogs, yeah i had a lame crush on him) and his girlfriend. This is where the French speaking began.

I cant blame them, its a hot language and I have learnt many things about the French now. They love to sleep, which explaines their "too-cool" lateness, they love ketchup, and wine. So thats enough ethnic sterotyping for one blog. Now. These guys were keen to eat so after we found our cute little hostel (in the old town or 'Gamla Stan') We head off to this little gay friendly cafe for some dins. Guilian was shocked at the drag queen that was sitting at the table next to us. I was then re-affirmed by them that France is more conservative than I thought, especially in Lyon.

Oh by the way I have no camera as it broke whilst creating Bertie that horrible snow man, so i'll update this blog with photos once G puts them on facebook.

That night the 4 of us hit up some dodgy bar and called it an early night. It was hard to stay awake at this point after the bus trip. So 2 more of G's friends, Lisa and Tiphaine turned up at the bar to see us. Lisa is studying in Finland, same deal as us, so she came over for a while with her friend Tiphaine who is living in London (didnt stop her speak french). It was cool, these girls were pretty fiesty. So after this G and I retired to our luxury suite in 2kroner hostel. On Saturday we were supposed to meet Lisa and Tiph at the royal palace at 10:30. This is when the French lateness kicked in, and we ended up meeting them at a cafe in Gamla Stan at around noon.

We head off in the freeezing cold (much colder than Jönköping) for the Museum of Modern Art and Architectuerere (hat that word). It was really awsome as there was this sick Video Art exhibition, and you guys know how much I dig Video Art. There was this one video by These Swiss guys. Check out a snippet here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVDJTLAyTNw

I think for me, this trip made me think about my communication skills. My humour is a big way I reach out to those around me, and without the use of cultural references, slang words, and story telling this can be difficult. The english level of these guys was only enough for me to have basic conversation. Unless I dare use my amazing french which Uni High blessed me with for 4 years (thanks Ms. Bozyk). I think I made it through though. I adapteded, did what any good comedian would do and just go with the flow.

After a quick eat at Max, mmm I love Max, We went for a nap in our hostel, after being attacked my white masked performance artists in the city. There was this crazy on ice dance performance in the center, for free. If it wasnt so cold we would have watched the whole thing. So after G got his much needed sleep, we headed out to a traditional Swedish restaurant. It was interesting. Some kind of "Sweish Idol" program was on a plasma screen on the wall, which contrasted with the old school fixtures and fittings of the rest of the place. After some cider and a good Swedish meal, we went to find a bar. Clubs are too expensive in Stockers, I mean you could do it maybe once, but im trying to budget and save for future trips. We tried one club and they said "Ok, first you have to be 23, then you have to pay 100:-, if thats ok, then come on in". We kept walking for obvious reasons.



We ended up finsing this hillarious place called 'the Axess'. I recomened it to anyone who visits Stockholm. You enter past this fat guy dressed as a pirate. then you go down stairs via heavy rock music to this cave like place with only candle light. The cups are big clay flagons and the bar tenders are piratey. Its kind of viking/pirate, but its a great vibe. We took lots of snaps so i'll show you when they're up.

After a bus trip back, I quickly got into my Cheap Mondays that I got from the original Weekday store in Stockers, mm they were $A20! Be jealous those in Melbourne. For some reason they were having a 75% off everything sale. I then ran over to Anyas appartment for Perri's 21st party. Ah it was amazing. Only a few select people, nice food. And Moet. me and Anya gave some weak speaches and Anya performed some songs on guitar, it was a really nice way to come back to Jönköping and celebrate the 21st of a new, but good, friend.

Apparently there was much drama in my absence. this little town moves fast! I'll fill you in later. haha.

WTF, Mate.

Ah I begin by saying. I really don't know who is reading this blog! But its becoming kind of this Gossip Girl style thing for me. I should really stop being a fucking gossip, hey. Ah who can blame me? This town, as Anya once described, is like a fishbowl. There's people analyzing your every move and everybody knows everybodies business. The tragic bush fires in Victoria are really affecting me at the moment. I feel as though I am too far away to do anything except read about it. People have been asking me if my family is ok, and I answer, 'ofcourse'. But maybe someone I know isnt to lucky. Or friends of mine that may have lost someone. Its definaly a mind fuck.

Akademien last night was a bit sucky. Guilian fell asleep so he didnt make it, and I think if he did it would have been different. I seem to never have a really good time at Akademien though. Something always happens, or in my drunken state I amplify things.

I am going to Stockholm for the weekend with G. Its gonna be good to get away for a bit and get to know him more. I will miss having Perri, Anya and Mykolas as my cheering squad though, they are always there if shit happens.

Commonwealth Bank sucks. I mean its gonna take me months to sort out this international money transfer bullshit, and I'm sick of paying fees to withdraw here. Argh. I think I sont even understand my own money situation and its frustrating. I am such a blonde right now.

Jelana and Mykolas and I made a drunk feast of köttbullar, pasta with avocado and potachos! Potachos remindes me of when me Travis and Lachie had a boys night at Travs place (as manly as you can ge with Trav). It was awsome coz we went to this Mexican restaurant near his house to get nachos.. but they only had potachos (there just like nachos but with fries instead of corn chips). But last nights potachos were more like lithuanian fries. Thinly sliced potatoes fried in oil until there half bunt, half under cooked, covered in ketchup and hamburger sås. I love that the Swedish word for sauce is sås. (pronounced excatly the same.)

Ah life. So. Im getting into Desperate Housewifes. Who would'a thought? Well maybe I can furfill my stereotypical duties this way, but it seems to be popular with the others gays in Jönköping.. and Mykolas!

This entry kinda sucks. I'll wait until more drama unfolds for your viewing pleasure next time. But guys. You still love me, right?

Sun

So.

My last post was very unsatisfactory. I didn't fill you in on the details of the past week. But to be honest it has been a blur. Jönköping has been delivering and I have been receiving. Sarah came to stay for 4 days and as you can tell by these photos we had a blast. The snow and sun have been in sync which makes for a perfect Swedish winter. My boy dramas are getting good too but more on that later. Ha.



So anyway, after our IKEA adventure, I took Sarah out to Bongo, the only plcae in Jönköping that place decent music for free entry (desipte the locks on the toilets being a bit faulty). So! We went to Martijns birthday party in Råslätt, it was feelin pretty dead so we head into town. Bongo was pretty packed and they were playing some good stuff. It wasnt long before I had befriended some awsome Swedes. Markus and Tommy! These boys took to my anti-Danish humour and were quick to try and impress me. They kept buying my shots of Swedish absithne and Chimay beer (mmm) (not to mention the pack of smokes Markus bought me). Then we danced. Then Markus helped improve my Swedish (so missing that Swedish class the other day wasnt that bad after all!). After snow fights, with the bloody battle injuries to show for it, and 3 hotdogs from Mimi the awsome street vendor (people love Mimi so much someone snow-balled one of her competitiors!), we headed back to Råslätt.



Me and Sarah coulnt just leave it at that! How could you when it was bucketing down with white joy (I totally mean snow). We made a snow man (Bertie), and even though he was a bit sad, we still adoptededed him as our own. Man my english sucks, its pitiful actually considering the multi-lingual nature of the Swedes and other international students. Off track sorry. So me and sarah poured strawberry syrup on the snow to make some tasty treats (my parents werent impressed via Skype).





The next day we recovered, and ment to Marions for a French feast. Her and Lara served up quiche lorraine and chocolate pears with ice cream. Mmamammam! Anya, Sarah and I put ourselves to a much needed sleep to some TV.

Today I just chilled, waiting for txt messages from my French fling. Yes he is very lovely and i'm not juts into the accent. After thursday nights fireworks I had been missing him a lot as he spent the weekend in Copenhagen. My and Mykolas just watched Desperate Housewifes and made a dent in my free pack of cigarettes. We are also planning our trip to.. get this bitches.. LITHUANIA!

So. Was that ok? I feel as though I could blog 5 times more than I currantly am. So much happenes in a day, even when I am just chilling. Long story short though. The sun has been shining and It is lifiting my spirits. I hope it sticks around.

The City Of Passion

Jönköping has a.. well its probably just a tourism thing or somthing.. but a slogan that is "Jönköping, the city of passion". I thought it was hilarious when I first heard it, but its been mulling in my brain and after the events of the last few days I have been converted into a beliver! Praise the lord!

I have a visitor! The lovely Sarah Williams, a friend of mine since forever has been lodging with me since last night. Shes been in Austria as a maid lady after teaching english in Vanuatu, an extended GAP year. This bitch has lifted my spirits immensly as I havent seen her for a while, and we are actually drinking cider spiders right now. Well i am, shes in the toilet. But she'll have one when she gets out. In Melbourne she lives like 30 seconds away from me.

Me and Anya went for a really nice play in the thickest snow i'd seen since been here. We wrote "Hej Hej!" on an un-used tennish court. I think snow tennis would be quite shit really. So anyway, it seems like the whole of builing 90 has seen it, as it was on Jasper's Facebook (refer to photo). Mmm this cider is good. So anyway. Then we bought icey-poles coz snow makes you want to eat it and then you need a substitute.

Today I took Sarah to IKEA, and showed her what the City of Passion has to offer. Not a whole lot, but still enough to make La Fundwa hot. We got köttbullar for lunch and shit. It was funny when i went to pick up Sarah from the train station.. there may have been a French boy in my bed at home still. It was very sit-com. I mean I had had this amazing night of French passion, which ended in "oh shit i have to be at the train station at 9 in the morning". Bit of a buzz kill but bros before hoes, huh?

So as you can see the city has been giving back, as i gave it it. Oh god that was shitty. Well bitches were off to Martjins birthday party and then onward. TTYL

I ♡ CPH

This is the story of our weekend in Copenhagen (Købehavn).

The bus trip over was exciting. Perri, Anya, Jess and I were pumped to be leaving Sweden for the weekend and seeing what Denmark had to offer.. which turned out to be a lot more then we bargined for. Perri had been to Copenhagen once before, and has an excellent sense of direction in European cities, so we were lucky to have her with us.

Copenhagen has this strange effect on you. You feel as though you've been there forever but everything is still fresh and exciting. the streets give way to cyclists, the kings of the road, and cars are there bitches. No one locks there bikes up either, why would you when there is a trust system like no other and the feeling of this hits you instantly.

Alcohol is freely served to anyone over 16, and can be found in one of the countless 7-11's dotted throughout the city. But alcohol was the only thing we found cheap coming from Sweden.

We stayed at a nice little hostel called CPH Downtown. It was located perfectly near everything we wanted to see and do. It also had a bar / cafe where you could hang out in too. The first night was intense. We head off to grab some dinner at this little place called Atlas, it had a real rustic homey vibe, and like most of the shops in this area, requited you to walk down stiars, below street level. After a great feed we headed off to an awsome gay bar called Masken. The mood was hilarious. Older, younger, all types f gays and lesbians hung out here, and you could smoke inside too. they has this deal for 10 shots (in a pride rainbow of varieties) for 99,- (danish crowns). We stuck to beer that nights but we did a few shots of Jager.

So anyway, night one was awsome. We went over to the other hostel were a few of our friends from Jönköping were staying. Those bitches were up for a big night of partying, and thats what happened. after a quick explore of the city, and a few purchases at awsome op shops, we headed off to a club called Rust. Rust had an awsome DJ who pumped a re-mix of Lykki Li's "Dance Dance Dance" that me and Anya went crazy over.

The next morning was a drag. Its hard walking the cobbled streets of an amazing city whilst exteamly hung over. But it was nice to see the little mermaid and Marys palace. I felt her presence in the air. ahhh, what a Tasmanian mole. Then we visited a placed callede Christiania. Its like a cross between Amsterdam and Collingwood childrens farm (as I exlaimed to Perri). Christiania is a hippee commun that feels like a different world from Copenhagen, even the human world. There are people smoking pot, dog, and awsome painting and grafiti everywhere. There are also signs signifing that the locals dont want any photos to be taken. It inspired me to keep going on my trip. I mean. Well. Something about that place made a connection in me. I felt as though the rest of my stay in Jönköping was going to be ok, and that I should expect great things.

So the next night was heaps more fun. We had dinner at a cool mediterainan buffet called RizRaz. After filling up on cheap vegetarian food we met up with Peter and Lauri, these awsome Finnish guys we have made friends with in Jönköping. Lauri is a cool guy, who Anya has taken a liking to. Obviosly as he is more intriguing than good-looking, thich is difficult in this stance. QWe tooken the boys to Masken, where the atmostphere made thier bromance turn up a notch as they danced and even kissed eachother! We took advantage of the 99,- shot deal, and i also met a deaf prostitute who I was hitting on before I learned these interesting facts. His american riend was an arse. Looong story, ask me for more information.

We then headed to a club called La Hacienda, At this place you paid 15,- (or 75 if you have a vagina) to get in, and then beer, champage and this weird green drink were free for the whole night. My kinda place. It had two rooms, one with Euro-House and one with tacky Hip-Hop. The HipHop section had so shame in playing Lady GaGa's' "Just Dance" (which me and Perri re-named "Just Dansk") a few times in one night. Again my kinda place. The smoking area was impressive too, and there was a vending machince for beer. After flaunting our stuff on the D-floor, we headed to our favoutite Kebab place, which we had made friends with the owner. I helped the others finish there kebabs after finishing my own (bad choice as garlic was the flavour of the morning) and we crashed at home. Anya joined us later after having a D&M with Lauri at a different Kebab place.

Copehagen changed me. I felt good about myself, and I felt as though my next meeting with it would be even better. The trip home to Jönköping was long and pensive, but I catched some much needed Z's. I really cant desscibe my time there accuartly, so I will leave it at that.