Tag Friends and family
Last week one of my best friends got married so of course I had to fly back to Sweden to be there for him. Renegade Wife and I spent the week before the wedding in Göteborg meeting up with old friends in lots of different constellations which was great fun. In fact, I had too much fun chatting with them to remember to take photos.
Anyway, the wedding was on Saturday last week. The ceremony was a bit unusual compared to most Swedish ones I’ve been to since the bride has polish ancestry, but beautiful all the same and the couple looked very … Read the rest
The night bus arrived in Hanoi around four in the morning. Still groggy with sleep I rode my bike to the hotel which was completely dark. I rang the doorbell hoping someone would answer. After a few minutes the hotel owner, who I must have woken up, let me in and quickly ushered me to a room. I slept for a few hours then took the motorbike out to the airport to pick up Renegade Wife. Since she was tired after her early morning flight, we took it very slow during the day, just wandered around the Hoan Kiem lake … Read the rest
Since Yini and I had to go to work on Monday, our goal for Sunday was mainly just to get back home. We did have all day however, so we decided to take the long way around i.e. the coast road, stopping along the way whenever we felt like it.
Our first stop was rather random, just some large flat cliffs stretching out into the sea where Albin, Oscar and I walked around for a bit looking for crabs.
The beach 
That freak wave looks really evil
Next up was the sandiago lighthouse where the boys could get a bit … Read the rest
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