Tag Friends and family
A while ago mom told me that the son of her friend was coming to Taiwan. I used to know the kid when I was young, so I suggested the wife and I could take him round to some interesting places. He arrived yesterday afternoon and I met him and his friend up in Taipei. We went to Taipei 101 to take in the view, then met up with my wife in a night market for dinner.
Sunset view from Taipei 101 
The two friends Albin on the left and Oskar on the right 
Having dinner in the night market
During most of my business trips my parents and I don’t bother to see each other but this time, since my wife joined, they couldn’t resist. So on Tuesday Yini and I took the train north from Napoli to a small town called Chiusi Chianciano Terme in Toscana where my parents picked us up in their rental car. The hotel is in another town not too far away from Chiusi but there are several picturesque little towns in the area so we stopped by a place called Pienza and strolled around there for an hour or so before going to … Read the rest
We left our hotel pretty early in the morning thinking we would reach the wedding ceremony in good time. When we were just a few kilometers from Sun Moon Lake however, we got stuck in a massive traffic jam. When we finally made it into town the main street was closed for cars so we had to go around. When we got to the other side, that was also blocked and it took us a while to figure out a way past; by the time we had parked the car we had already missed the ceremony. Luckily that is just a … Read the rest
Sunday was our very last day in Sweden but because we had several hours before our plane left we decided to make one last excursion in Stockholm. To make the most of it we left the hotel a bit earlier than normal and took the tram to Stockholm’s big outdoor museum Skansen.
We spent the morning and early afternoon walking around among the various old houses, farms and churches. There is even a small zoo with a few moose, seals, and Yinis favourite, brown bears.
Old house with thatched roof 
This old cart is pretty cool 
Yini’s parents posing in
Saturday was our last whole day in Sweden, so we planned to go to the archipelago. Our goal was to use the Hop On Hop Off bus to get to the pier where we could take the boat, but after waiting at the bus stop for a good thirty five minutes we found out the buses weren’t running properly, so we changed to the metro instead. When we got to the pier there was already a long queue so the boat got pretty crowded but still not too bad. We had a pleasant enough journey out to Vaxholm, the most … Read the rest
Thursday morning was spent preparing for our departure at a leisurely pace. We also rowed out to the little island nearby, and as we were landing I told Yini to take the bow line and jump ashore. From where I was sitting I didn’t see how far it was but apparently it was too far because poor Yini lost her balance trying to get over and fell in the water. Luckily neither her camera or her phone were damaged.
After lunch we packed up the last things, got in the car and drove to Västerås. There we split up, my … Read the rest
On Wednesday we didn’t make any longer excursions. Instead we stayed at the cottage making a few shorter outings in the nearby area. In the morning, Yini, her parents, my mother and I went out in the forest picking mushrooms. Despite the recent dry weather we found quite a lot. Yini and her parents really enjoyed it.
Cleaning the mushrooms
After lunch the Yini and I joined my brother to row across the lake to the golf course. We anchored the boat then got in the water and went snorkeling for golf balls. It … Read the rest
On Monday morning my dad and my brother went to pick up the van that we rented. We loaded up our stuff then headed north, with a short stop at the city water tower to look at the view. Around lunch we arrived at our cottage at the lake Haggen in southern Dalecarlia county.
The cottage is right on the lake and Yini’s parents seemed to fall in love with the view as we took a tour round the house while my mom prepared some lunch. After lunch the women went grocery shopping while I and Yini’s dad went fishing. … Read the rest
Perhaps I had a little too much fun on Friday night because I wasn’t feeling too good on Saturday morning. So, instead of going out sightseeing again, Yini took her mom shopping in the big shopping center Nordstan while I and her dad relaxed on the sun deck of the hotel.
When Yini and here mom were finished with shopping, we took our bags to the train station and got some lunch before we got going. However, because we had lunch at the station instead of bringing on to the train we missed the one we planned to take and … Read the rest
On Thursday we had already shown Yinis parents most of the places we wanted to show, but we took a short drive to the meadows at the far end of the village, and just strolled around taking in the view and breathing in the fresh air. There is a special kind of enjoyment in these simple pleasures.
After some lunch in the sun, we packed up our stuff and took the train north to my old hometown Göteborg. We found our hotel, an old ship that had been converted into living quarters, then went downtown to meet up my friends … Read the rest