Hello World

Hello Sweden – Hejsan Sverige!

SuperBlogTime has been visited from our friends in the North.  Yesterday, someone stopped by from a town called Bromma in Sweden (apparently Bromma is a borough of Stockholm.)

Hello Sweden!

Now, I’ve shared stories about the other countries that have visited (here and here) so I’ll do the same for Sweden.  I’m fairly well traveled but I’ll eventually run out of countries that I’ve visited and the stories will, sadly, come to an end.  It hasn’t happened yet thought!

Actually, I was in Sweden for a few years and I have all sorts of stories.  Too many for this post anyway – this isn’t a travel blog after all.  Here are just a few highlights that I can think of off the top of my head.

• Most of Sweden is covered in forest and when I was staying in a town called Falun, I used to pick blue berries from the forest floor and make jam every weekend.

• Although I never saw the Northern Lights, at one point I was so far north that the sun only set for and hour or so.  The sky never truly got dark and I had to hang blankets over the windows to sleep.
• Being from Northern California, my experience with snow was minimal.  In Sweden, however, I got to feel the joy and terror of riding a bicycle over a frozen lake.  I of course thought I was going to plunge to my frozen death at any second but it was fun.
• I was there long enough to pick up the language and speak it pretty well.  There’s nothing like having a real live conversation with someone in the first new language you’ve learned!

So Bromma, when you stop by again, leave a comment and say hello!

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Pic by Jenschapter3

SuperBlogTime has Jumped Over the Pond!

Hello England!

Since SuperBlogTime is so new, I need to give a shout out to every new country that visits.  Yesterday we had our first international visitor from Vancouver, Canada.

Today, we had two visits from over the pond in England.  One person stopped by from Thames Ditton and another from London.  I shared a story about my adventures in Canada yesteday so I feel that it’s only appropriate to share one from England.  The problem is that I lived in Manchester for a short period of time a few years back and I have more stories than would fit anywhere on this blog.  Really – so many stories.  But you deserve one so here goes.

Blood in the Bar

The folks in England know how to drink.  I know that this isn’t news to anyone but living there really brings the whole thing home.  While I was in a bar in Manchester I saw one of the most disturbing things ever.  Really.  I’ve traveled a lot so I’ve seen a lot of stuff but this floored me.

As the bar closed, the house lights came on and the bar tender was asking everyone to finish up.  As I was getting ready to go, a guy walked out of the bathroom holding his hand and walked up to the bar.  The bar tender came over and asked him if he needed something and the guy took his hand away and showed the bar tender his index finger.  Well, what was left of it.  The finger was nothing but a bloody stump down to the first knuckle.  He said, “I think I hurt my finger.”  Yeah.  You think!?  The bar tender quickly grabbed the door man and off they went to hospital.  We all looked down on the ground and saw a trail of blood from the table he was at to the bathroom.  No on ever found the rest of his finger.  I’m guessing they spent some extra time cleaning up that night.

Ugh.

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Picture by El Casual

SuperBlogTime has Gone International People!

I looked at the latest report from Google Analytics this morning and SuperBlogTime has received it’s first international visitor!  Hello Canada!  Vancouver to be more specific.

I’ve been to Vancouver myself and I have very fond memories of the city.  Getting back into the U.S. was a huge pain though.  I drove to Canada from San Francisco and getting into to Canada was no problem at all.  I had no idea how different it was going to be driving back across the border into the U.S.

The line at the border took forever and I made the mistake of buying a super extra grande size soda right before I got in line.  Well – an hour later we finally get to the border crossing and I had to pee like nobody’s business!  As I pulled up to show my U.S. passport to the border patrol person, I was almost relieved when he told me to pull over so they could search my car (what!?  search my car for what?!).

I got out of my truck, walked into the little waiting area and asked them if I could use the restroom.  The response was an emphatic “No”.  When I asked why they said, “We don’t want you to dump anything down the toilet.”  Oh give me a break!

So I sat there for another 30 minutes while they ripped door panels off my truck looking for drugs I suppose (and weapons, and animals, and small children who were only being taken to an orphanage so that they could be loved and cared for – what was that all about in Haiti anyway?).  They finally let me go when it was clear that I didn’t have anything they were interested in.  The only thing they found was a moldy orange that had gotten stuck under one of the seats.  They said I couldn’t bring fruit back into the U.S.

So that’s my Canada story.  Thanks for stopping by Vancouver!  SuperBlogTime appreciates it.  Say hello back next time you’re here.

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Photo by Ian Muttoo