Liseberg, a slumber party, and a change in the weather

Liseberg, 'tis honestly a very, very wonderous place. No, it may not be the "Happiest place on earth" for Disneyland stole that headline, but it's not far off. Liseberg is home to the largest and highest rated wooden rollercoast in the world, Balder and is also the biggest theme park in all of Scandinavia. Not to mention it's in Göteborg, which is very, very close for me.

Jill, Hallie and I met in the train station on saturday so that Jill and I could take our over night stuff to Hallies before we entered the park. We planned to stay the night because we lived the furthest away of the entire exchange student group (Varberg, where I live is 40 minutes south of Göteborg and Ljungskille where Jill lives is an hour north) and we were planning on staying in Liseberg until it closed at 11 and neither Jill nor I wanted to ride the train so late at night.

We met the rest of the gang inside the park at around 3 and along with the regulars, we also had Anidelia, the exchange student from Mexico who just arrived because she had problems with her visa and Shawn's host sister, who is a year younger than me. Sorry I keep telling you all so many people's names, it's hard enough for me to remember everyone, and I've actually met them, it must be impossible for you. Anyways...yeah, we met inside and were there until closing (I'd go through all of the details, but I personally don't want to and it'd take a heck of a lot of time, I'll just give high-lights). The top three best rides had to have been

1.Balder, the huge wooden rollercoaster I talked about in the beginning (observe picture below). Yeah, it's insane, and freakin' fun!


2. Kanonen, a huge purple steel rollercoaster that shoots you off like a cannon (hence the name) from the beginning at which point you reach 75 kilometers an hour within the first 2 seconds and go through multiple loops and upside-downy things. It's intense, but amazingly good!
3. Top-Spin, you choose one of the seats in a row where you're then straped down and swung upside down and around for the duration of the ride. I think the picture explains better than I ever could.


Following a full day of amusment park goodness Hallie, Jill, Ashton and I went into Göteborg hunting for a café where we could fika before heading back to Hallie's house. In the midst of our hunt, the rain storm that had been brewing all day finally decided to rear it's ugly face. And boy oh boy did it rain. We ended up sprinting for a covered area which ended up being under a hot dog vender's umbrella. Jill and I decided to share the cost of a hot dog so we wouldn't feel guiltly stealing his dry space. We remembered passing a Café named Frank's in our mad dash, so we headed back and made refuge in there while enjoying a steaming cup of varm choklad med vispgrädde. Realize that the time (in the story) is now 12:45 at night; I think the lateness really added to the adventure.

Once Frank's closed (at 1) we all headed for the bus stop to get a lift back to Hallie's or as close as we could come with the bus. Luckily the rain had let up some, though we were already soaked (I mean the wettest I have ever been whilst still wearing clothes), so it didn't matter a whole lot either way. After the bus ride and a short walk, we arrived back at Hallie's. Wet. Cold. And tired. We preceded to fika once again (this time with vanilla tea and bread with butter and cheese and an entire chocolate bar) after changing out of our wet clothes and sat up talking 'til 4. Very cozy, I must say.

The next morning we woke up at around 11, made a really good breakfast at 1 and then headed into Göteborg, met up with Shawn, scoped out a few shops to head to on our next shopping trip (it was sunday, so everything was closed), fikaed and then we all went our separate ways as I took the train back to Varberg, Jill to Ljungskille and everyone else went home.

School this week has been pretty ok. Nothing extra special to report or say. We've actually started taking pictures and using the dark room in my photography class, and I have to say...I LOVE IT!! Photography is so fun it's crazy. So, yeah, I may have a new hobby when I come home :) Oooh, other good news. I've officially been invited to a party (well, technically two parties, but one is kind of by default). Yes, exciting I know. Tomorrow (friday) a girl from my photography class is having a party and Pontus, Julia, Amanda, Frida and I are headed for it around 8. On saturday I'm meeting up with the exchange students for a Rotary organized trip through the Göteborg archepelago on a rescue boat, should be fun and we're planning on fikaing afterwords (if you havn't noticed, the swedes and really transformed us and I can't go through a day without a fika or two, even at school. We have a little café in our building where you can buy anything that your heart desires...coffee, chocolate, other goodies, sandwiches, soda, ice cream, fruit. 'Tis a very good thing). Saturday evening is my class' party held at Martin someone's house for everyone in NVES2. It should be fun. Yes, slowly but surely my social life is picking up and you don't even know how happy that makes me :)

Oh and if you wanna see more pictures from Liseberg, check my pictures section. Though I have to say, I didn't take too many pictures and the ones I did aren't too good. One of these days I'm gonna take my camera to school so you can see it as well as my friends, classes, etc.