Sweden!

Well, I'm back from Sweden.

I *did* try blogging from there but for some reason or other, shozu has stopped updating from my phone to blogger.

Anyway, Sweden is officially awesome. I was there from Thursday to Sunday, and spent most of that time drinking. On that note, Sweden is no more expensive than dublin if you drink lager. Spirits are a different story. €12 for a shot of chartreuse being the most expensive I saw. No, I didn't order chartreuse, before you ask.

The hotel (Scandic Europa) was very comfortable, and was located very well, being close to tram/bus stops, the central station and a large indoor shopping centre. The breakfasts were superb. Best. Eggs. Ever.

Drunken Moments:

. Singing 'Danny Boy' at full volume in comedy Swedish Chef voices whilst very drunk indeed. We weren't very popular.

. Snowball fights various. I even caught one right in the eye. Blinking OVER snow is an odd sensation.

. Being accosted by a young man who spent some time telling us how he has the blood of SEVEN viking kings in his veins. Highly drunk.

. Watching two fellas being unable to operate a coin-op public convenience. Then going in together when they finally got the door open.

. Standing in the middle of a road arguing about wether its one-way or not. Very intelligent.

I've some photos up from the trip, mostly taken when drunk. Have a look at the slideshow or head over to my flickr account for a look.

We had snow on thursday! I love snow! Snow while drunk is even more fun than snow while sober, in case you didn't know.

The wedding, our de facto reason for going to Sweden, was a good'un. The ceremony, reception, dinner and afters were all held on board the Viking, a beautiful old sailing ship converted into a hotel. The ceremony itself was short and sweet, with absolutely no religious overtones whatsoever (big plus in my book), and took about 15 mins in total, even when including the fact that it was done in both English and Swedish.

The dinner was very good indeed, although I didn't personally like the starter (fish - blegh). The speeches were by turns funny, sad and quite creative.

Suffice to say that the afters were appropriately drunken.

All in all I had a wonderful time and I have to offer my thanks to both the Coffeys and the O'Briens for yet again making me feel a true part of the family.