Yesterday (Friday the 16th) I bought a wallet from a Bosnian guy, I think. He was very nice. English was probably his third language. He laughed because regular American wallets can't fit big tall Swedish kroner bills! From there, I was his buddy. He told me just got back from holiday in Bosnia I think. He said his family had a beach house, but he lives 200 meters from the beach here in Göteborg, so he just likes to stay in the shade and drink. He said ppl were surprised he didn't have more color! He told me it's different now that he has a family. Thirty years ago, no one worried about Aids, so he would see all kinds of girls, from the UK, from United States (pointing at me) and you could fuck all them! (his words) Sometimes 3 per day! "I say, 'it's 8 pm, come back in two hours, I just fuck, I want to be with friends' and I am joking, and she come back in two hours! Crazy!" He had to lower his voice when new customers came in and said "hey-hey" and then resumed telling me about the good old days. He had nice color, and so many girls walking by the beach house. He was a lively guy and told me about the party across the city that is the Gothenburg Culture Festival. Really nice guy, but funny how readily he just told me about the sweet days before aids.

Unfortunately, because of the new wallet purchase and the great height of Swedish kronor bills, I had to give up my red duct tape wallet. It was a sad day, but I was proud that I could let go. If you love something, you gotta let it go. If it comes back to you, then you know it loves you back. Let's see if ol red will come back to me from a garbage can on the streets of Gothenburg, Sweden. Never forget.



After getting back to Hotel Allen (the hotel I stayed in on Wednesday night), I got a kebab plate at the same place I got it on Wednesday. It's totally not Swedish, but I really like it. It's a simple salad, Greek peppers (can't spell it now), french fries, and the shaved beef from the big beef kebab. It's super common in Sweden because there are so many legal immigrants. Apparently Sweden opened up their immigration policy a while back, and so you see quite a few middle eastern people. A fair amount of women in head scarves. The kebab plate was good, and as I was giving my empty dish back to the guy, he said "Excuse me, it come with one drink!" and help up his pointer finger. His tone sounded like he was chastising me, and so I said, "Oh, I just want to get water" thinking that he was not allowing me to refill my little water cup. But then he clarified, "No, meal comes with one drink" and I hadn't got my free soda. I didn't get a soda, and just peaced.

I then went to the Gothenburg City Museum. It spanned from ancient times of 12,000 years ago until about present day. Of course the best exhibit was the Viking exhibit. This stone weight has runes carved in it along with the letters for "Christ help". It was obviously during the change over to Christianity in Scandinavia.



This necklace or pendant has 4 miniature hammers of Thor on it.



Here are some "long swords". They looked pretty short to me, but I'm probably taller than they were.



This is the remains of Sweden's only recovered Viking ship.



For dinner I found a place off the main tourist drag that actually served Swedish meatballs! I got the extra large plate and the service was incredibly slow, but it was ok, it was nice to just watch the non tourist part of the city for a bit. Here is my meal (one meatball was consumed before the photo). It was served with lingenberries.



It was excellent, well worth the wait. Also, it was served with home made pickled cucumbers. I'm pretty sure I have yet to eat a meal in Scandinavia without cucumbers. They are served with everything and I always get them at the breakfast buffets. It's odd, but I'm glad, they are good! Especially those home pickled ones and the restaurant.

Part of me wanted to just go to bed after dinner because it had taken so long and it was now raining pretty steadily. But I changed my converse for my sandals again and went out! Would it be as unbelievable as last time the sandals were worn out? You should read on.

I walked an open stage close to my hotel with my umbrella. I've never used an umbrella as adult, but yeah, I didn't know what I was missing. They are super helpful. The band was just finishing up "heard it on the radio, uh oh oh oh on the radio uh oh oh oh!" that old post disco, pop hit. I can't remember who originally sang it. So of course, I had to investigate. I got there and saw mostly older ppl huddled under big umbrellas and totally loving every song. The band was huge. A new singer for almost every song, 3 violinists, (possibly 1 viola), drummer, guitarist, bass guitarist, and of course a synth man. They played a bunch of songs and I recognized "She works hard for the money" by Donna Summers but couldn't stop laughing because it was performed by a white Swedish woman with long died red hair who introduced the song in Swedish. And the crowd loved it! Middle aged Swedish women were two stepping to "She works hard for the money" at 11 pm mostly under umbrellas on a rainy night that was probably as cold as a Ventura winter's rainy night! I loved it! I had a smile on my face through all the other songs, but was out right laughing when "hard for the money" came on. Some songs after that, a different woman came out and sang "I need some hot stuff baby this evening!" again by Donna Summers and I laaaaaughed! It was awesome.

When that ended, I walked back to the tent that hosted the dance fight on Wednesday and found a folk/country band made up of 3 Swedish chicks. The one on my left played a HUGE stand up bass. And she was hella slapping the bass (see picture below). The one in the middle was seated so she could play banjo and drums at the same time. Of course, she also strapped on a harmonica for some songs. She had shortish hair, a kinda fedora on, and big legs. Nice. The one on the right played guitar and possibly sang the most (but all sang). She would rhythmically jump up on the big bass drum and kick and stuff. Very entertaining. They again spoke in all Swedish (except when mimicking a crowd member's request of "I will wait for you" by Mumford and Sons.) but sang in all English. They had some great songs and worked really well together. They did some singing in rounds to end one song that sounded recorded. It was superb and one noise sounded almost inhuman. There were a few too many long, tempo changing, showoff-ish endings, but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would considering the genre.




I was tired and cold (my feet were getting rained on at the 70s show) but very glad I decided to go out. I've already watched plenty of TV in the United States. Alright, so that sandals night wasn't as crazy. But it was still a blast. I also saw a guy peeing on a sign in the main street.