Trip reports!! (Portsmouth / Stockholm)

So I was just gonna write a blog entry about life in general and then realised I never wrote one about Stockholm (nor indeed about Portsmouth) so I shall do that first. Cuz this shit matters, yo.

PORTSMOUTH was… well, shall we call it an adventure? I did cycle… until Chichester on the way out. The wind was incredibly strong and my knee already hurt even before Littlehampton (route here if interested), but I ploughed on for a while. Then I took a wrong turn as you’ll see on the route and ended up going in a frustratingly huge zig-zag and through Bognor which I wanted to avoid cuz it’s such a fucking dump. *lol* Anyway, I did have a ridiculously delicious wrap there to make up for it. Then cycled on to Chichester, caught a train, arrived in Portsmouth, texted the guy I was supposed to meet for my accomodation, went there, and waited. And waited. And waited. Luckily someone else let me into the house cuz he was almost 2.5hrs late and then tried to make me feel bad! Idiot.

The next day I did touristy stuff. Started by getting rained on but then it was nice the rest of the time. I visited their (cute) museum, cycled around a bit, then did the Dockyards (I had an all attractions ticket so went to see all the ships there were). I concluded that 1. yeah, war ships are kinda boring to me and 2. it’s still fascinating tho how as a seafaring nation the Brits are so obsessed with all that stuff. Theeen at 3pm I went to the unveiling of Neil Gaiman’s street. I even have pics: people, ceremony, posing author. After that I walked around Southsea, rested, then went to the Evening with Neil Gaiman thing. Which was entertaining enough, and then I waited for four hours to get my book signed and I am never. doing. that. again. Which shouldn’t be a problem since this was his last signing tour anyway. :))

And then it was well past midnight and I went to bed and the next morning I cycled back. This time, with the wind behind me, I managed the whole way (route) and was pretty proud. No hurting knees either, tho my back rebelled towards the end (but only past Worthing). And now I have cleats I will get even better at long distances! Next summer I’m totally doing Europe by bike! 😀

STOCKHOLM was somewhat more exciting than Portsmouth! The first time I went that wasn’t for a concert, and the first time in summer! And the last time in Vega’s old flat cuz they moved four days later! So, the reason I went was to celebrate our 25 year MJ fanship anniversary. We did do that. I also wanted to go on the Eclipse, which unfortunately I did not because when we were in Gröna Lund on Friday we walked around for ages deciding what food to get, then queued for ages to get food and then walked around some more and then were like “ok so Eclipse now… oh, it’s shut.” *lol* The reason it was shut was cuz of a concert by Magnus Uggla which Vega wanted to see. Along with thousands of other people. :))

Saturday I slept faaaaaaaar too long even tho I’d boasted to Vega that I’d be awake soooo early, so then we were kinda late again and had to skip the cute animal park where you can cuddle guinea pigs and stuff. 🙁 (I got to meet and cuddle Lily tho!) We did go to Indiska and Panduro but I didn’t buy anything. Theeeeeeeeeen I went for a run while Vega went to a family party, and then I met her and we had a long photo shoot until I was cold. :)) One day I’ll get to see the pics. 😀 (Vega has to edit her weddings first. And move house and decorate new flat etc etc. Tho I of course am most important! :)) ) Yes and that night we had our MJ celebration, tho we didn’t take it very seriously. 😐 Oh yeah, that night we were also locked out and scary guy from the first floor had to let us in. :))

Sunday we went into Central Stockholm and I attempted to convince Vega that it is pretty. Not very successfully, but we still had fun cuz it was sunny and all! Vega worked out that we walked 10km in total. We did some shops, and some pretty (IMHO) areas, and had coffee and sat in the park and stuff. And in the evening we did creative stuff aka Vega taught me how to tie friendship bracelets and I started a rainbow one which I’m still working on and when I’m done I’ll wear it. 😀

Monday I think all we did was Vega did my nails. They did last a lot longer than when I do them! Oh yeah, I was headachy again from Sunday and Monday was pretty sucky so I had to lie down again for a bit and stuff.

Then home, the end!!!!!!!