Stockholm
Love! This place! So I really thought that I was suppose to Skype you when it was your morning not mine... So that's why I didn't Skype you till then! But I love your reasons more! :) so this morning I woke up really loopy,(drugs loopy, good loopy) but I went to the doc again for a check up because when I went yesterday he told me to come back in the morning and he would tell me if I could go out to Sweden or not. But I was feeling really good, and I was only partially pretending because I really wanted to go out! :) (oh ps this morning when I woke up, I was talking with Selina and she made me laugh, but when I laughed something like a lugi came out of my throat. I found it on my arm, it was white a bloody, and I said "guys I just laughed up my tonsil!" and it was kind of funny because then I went into the bathroom, I looked at my tonsils and only one was super swollen! So that was the joke of the day!) moral of that story my tonsils are not nearly as swollen as they were! So the doctor cleared me and I got to go! Also I slept through the whole night last night! :) it was so great!
Um so in Finland all of the girls got their passports stamped, yeah they didn't stamp our passports in Sweden :(. so we left and went toward the temple. It was so easy to find! I didn't get a blessing, because I really am doing just great! And the only reason I would get a blessing is to say I got one in the Sweden temple :) so the reason wasn't a real good one! But still it was so nice to go to the temple! It was lots smaller than I thought! But absolutely beautiful! We took the train there. Before the cruise we took a pic of how we were suppose to get there on my iPad so that I would hopefully be easier to find... (we wrote directions down to, but still just in case!) buttttt I left my iPad on the ship :) so we didn't have the pic. But it worked out because we were able to see if from the train! So once we got off it was basically right up the street! It was way cool! Everything just went to smooth! Also (hehe) as we were on temple grounds there was this guy that was walking to go into the temple and I turned to Selina and said "there is my future husband, should I go to him" hahaha! It was pretty funny! (don't worry I didn't!)
I love Swedish people! Love love love them! I love Sweden! I may have just been deprived of men the past couple of months but the men in Sweden are very very good looking! Very good looking! And they are so smily and happy! :) we met this kid out side the temple who served his mission in Finland (don't worry I wanted to marry him on the spot!) but then he told us about his girlfriend who was from Australia.... Boooo! But he did inform us that the reason that the swedish all know English is because Sweden is such a small country, and Swedish is a small language, so to get by in the world they need to know English. We never put those two together so we thought that was pretty interesting.
Also, everything in Sweden is super expensive! We found this grocery store that was by the temple, which is outside of stockholm so it was a little cheaper, but they wouldn't take my card. But they showed me an ATM, and I still wasn't sure the Krons to dollars ratio (well we did but one crown is 15 cents, so the math isn't so fast) and so I ended up taking out 500 Krones :) which is 75$ :(. And I knew this was the only country I would be able to use them in, so I knew I had to spend all but a few (to keep as a souvenir) so I ended up buying everyones train tickets and a few souvenirs for people and they are just going to pay me back (in rubels, or dollars). So anyway. We got some swedish food and it was good and then we headed back to stockholm.
In stockholm we went to some sweet places! I love that city! I can't tell you everything we went to for two reasons. One, I can't spell them because they are in Swedish. And b, I'm not exactly sure what they are called! :) but we did go to the palace and we went to the church that is in all the Sweden pictures :). Funny story about the palace. Their guards are really cool looking, and have these rockin machine guns! So I wanted to take a picture so I told Selina to stand there so I could pretend to take a pic of her, but really take one of a guard :). And then Chelsea just straight up said to a different guard "I know you can't move or respond, but I'm going to take a pic of you" so I figured since she did it, I could take one to. So as I'm taking it, we are standing there talking to this palace guard that cannot respond. Don't worry we left for a min to look as some other things and when we came back we were all looking at him and he totally smiled! He had to turn his head to try and stop from smiling! It was so funny!
So after we did a little bit of sightseeing we went shopping and I found these key chains that were really cool! They were all 39 kr. And me, being the smarty that I am, was like "whoa that's like a dollar a piece!" thinking of rubels because thats only a dollar in rubels! so I had one picked out for all of the adults in the fam. And then it hit me and I was like wait... That's like 5 dollars.... So no one got anything from Sweden but me :) sorry :). But it was kind of funny!
So after we went in a few more shops, and i may have gotten a swedish soccer jersey :). Which i did put on my credit card because my debit wouldnt work. (i was having such a hard time with it in Sweden :() and then we tried to find some food, because again we were so hungry :(. So we go in a couple places and then we find something in our price range, and we decide to eat there. As we are trying to order we ask the dude what the most authentic Swedish dish is, and he said none of them.... So we ended up getting pizza :), but it tasted like they put a little bit of curry on it, it was interesting.
Also it was dark at 4! Four pm!!! It was crazy! But it wasn't to bad for two reasons. A. Sweden is not scary at night. And 2 we had to catch the bus back to the boat at 5. So we just walked around for a little while, took some pics, fell in love with Sweden, and headed back.
It was such a great day! I am sooooo glad I got to go out!!
Love ya!
-Hailey Dawn
This was an email I sent my fam... so I don't remember everything it says but that pretty much sums it up!
