The Last Blast - June 2008

After my mom's visit, things got really crazy. I finally found a job, and accepted, in the midst of visitors and travel plans. Jacqui and Jesse came to visit me, with Jesse flying in on the day my Swedish friend Stefan and I flew out to Stockholm to catch a Kylie Minogue concert. We only had a couple hours to hang out at the airport, before we had to fly off. In true bad-ass style, we had a smoke outside the airport. Where else can you do this?

Once we arrived in Stockholm; in front of the famous city hall...

Stockholm is a very pretty, clean, colorful city. I had a great time walking the streets, but from what I heard sometimes it's a bit too clean. The Swedes take great pride in the order they have created for themselves, and if you step outside the bounds, you are offending everyone's sensibilities. Still, it was a beautiful city.



The Royal Palace... We caught the changing of the guard.

We had dinner in this restaurant; food in Sweden is great.

More pretty streets and narrow streets...


Stockholm is situated across a few islands, so there are many boats, lots of water, and bridges.

I went to the Vasa museum to see this beautiful wreck that sank in Stockholm's harbor on it's maiden voyage in the 1600s. Originally, the sculptures all over the ship were painted in bright colors, so it was very spectacular. However, it's not a surprise this ship sank; it's design was very flawed. The proportion of the ship above water to that below water was too high, and the ballast weights were round, so they rolled around. The ship sailed out during a storm, and with the first tip, it failed to regain it's balance; water got through the windows, and it sank.

A random courtyard off the main shopping street...

And the main reason for our trip, the Kylie Minogue concert on her X tour. We could have gone and seen her in Rotterdam, but the good seats were sold out, so we thought we'd go to Stockholm instead. She's an amazing singer live, and her sets and costumes were over the top. She went through about 8 costume changes during the show. The flaoting skull that she entered on was my favorite.



I also decided to make a day trip to Drottningholm palace, the royal family's residence that is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The best way to get to the palace was by steamboat. The scenery to the castle was very similar to those on Canada's island cruises.

The actual palace...

And the guards booth, with no material guard present.

The Chinese pavilion was a summer residance for the queen.


The guards tent outside was actually made of wood, but it was designed to look like a Turkish guards tent.

Back in Amsterdam, the excitement rolled on. We hung out at the coolest coffeeshop, Hillstreet Blues, on multiple occassions.

The girls of Pad22 had their reunion here.

All the travel and excitement of my visitors happened right before my first day at my first permanent, full-time job. I even had a minor freakout at a coffeeshop, but I survived, and had my last blast...