My 25th

Yes, on the 11^th of September I had my 25^th birthday – a quarter of a century, oh my god! ;)

Due to different circumstances my family left on exactly that day and Maria, my girlfriend, arrived on the same day 5 hours later. Hence I have spent half of my birthday at the airport of Arlanda/Stockholm. But at the end, I have to confess, it was one of the best birthdays in my life! After getting my best birthday present (my girlfriend) we went to Stockholm by the car I had rented in Stockholm before to travel around with my family and to get to the airport.

Oh, by the way, it’s time for another “the universe hates me” – story: There was a horrible traffic jam. But that bothered me not as much as the fact that I have received a parking ticket on the airport (if you’ve read the last post you know how much it bothered me). There was a big blue “P” next to the terminal and beyond it “3 tim” (tim = hour). When I came back with a police officer, who was afraid I would kill him, he explained me the meaning of a word, that he showed me on a little sign next to the parking place and that I will never forget again in my entire life. “Beskickning” means “embassy”, hence only diplomats with special blue license plates were allowed to park there, but just for 3 hours (!). Funny! It hurt so much, because I have received another parking ticket the day before in Linköping! Oh yes! In Germany we are used to a Sign Post Forest, e.g. there are 10 signs that you’re not allowed to park here and there but in Sweden it is the other way round! If there aren’t 10 “P” signs (without “Beskickning”!) don’t park there! Oh I digress! Just realized how much I love complaining! :)

So after finally arriving in the city and fighting a little bit with the navigation system we decided to go to our hotel and get rid of the (useless and expensive) car. Well, maybe “hotel” is not the right word for our place to stay, but they call it like that. We had a double room on a boat called “Rygerfjord”. Well, “double room” is not the right word either. The cabin was as small as, er…a cabin on a boat! But we had a very nice view from our window and the location was just perfect! So after relaxing a little bit and getting some very special presents we made a walk through the city and have found a wonderful restaurant called “August” where we had a real good time. Too tired to go out we decided to end the evening on drinking champagne on the deck of our boat and enjoying the wonderful view on Stockholm in the night.

On the weekend we organized a little BBQ to celebrate my birthday and went to Flamman, “my” club here. :) At this evening I was very glad it’s so near to my place...

Pictures

• Stockholm
• Birthday