The world

Tonight we have been to a friends 50th birthday party and I had made her this light house. Stole the idea from my sister – hers turned out great! I think mine turned out pretty good too. It has a solar cell on top so it lights up in the dark if it is placed outside to gather sunlight. I hope she liked it.

Tonight we are cheering on Sweden who is playing their third game in the group qualification round in the soccer European championships. Zlatan has announced that he is leaving the Swedish team after this tournament. If they loose tonight this will be his last game in the Swedish jersey. Fingers crossed they win – if they do the will play the eight final.

Time for midsummer smörgåsbord for lunch at work – took me a couple of hours to organize. But it was well worth it – I got loads of compliments which is always nice.

Dead tired after the long day – good that I only had to follow the arrow in the subway.. lol

When I got back home I had received a positive decision from Försäkringskassan. Yeah! Celebrating with M&Ms!

A good day back to work – I was jet lagged but ok. It felt good to be back and I am so glad we had such a great week last week. I would love to visit New York again some day now that I have learned some about the city and know a bit more about how to find my way around Manhattan.

Short week this week since it is Midsummer on Friday. I am also off on Wednesday due to a doctors appointment so no need to complain. Perfect start after the vacation.

Time to leave our spectacular view from the 19th floor overlooking 53rd street / 6th avenue. We had booked an airport shuttle that picked us up at the hotel around 11.45. Unfortunately it had to make several stops to pick up more people in town before we finally headed out to the Newark airport.

The flight home went without any problems and was quite pleasant since I had booked us in the SAS plus class – because we deserved a treat.

After a couple of hours sleep we spent Sunday unpacking and ended the day at my parents to see them for a bit since they are going to our paradise in a couple of days. My sis w/ family were also there so we brought the presents we had bought to give them to them. I think they liked our gifts!

Day five – last day and we still had a few things left on our to-do list. We started the day by taking the subway down to Penn Station for a visit to Madison Square Garden. It was a lot of fun to see the arena – I would have loved to have seen a sport event too but we decided not to.

While in the area we went to Macy’s and they had a one-day-sale with 30-70% discounts in the store. Yeah. We had lunch there too. Then we went across the street for the last must-see attraction – the Empire State Building – and took the elevator up to the 86th floor. We skipped going up to the 102nd since it wasn’t included in our passes.

After a fun day we went back to the hotel to relax for a minute and change into something nice to wear and then we went to a fancy restaurant and treated ourselves a nice dinner. I had my favorite – surf & turf – lobster & steak. Yum!

Day three – we decided to go on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour around the island. Strolled up to see the Tiffany’s store and then caught the bus down to Chinatown for a McD-lunch and a look around. Next stop – Battery Park – where we took the ferry over to Liberty Island to see the statue up close. After a stroll around the island we went back to Manhattan and walked up to the 9-11 memorial area. Then we took the bus back to the theatre district for dinner at Planet Hollywood. We finished the day taking one of the famous the Ride tours which was a bus tour around Manhattan where everybody was sitting sideways looking out of a big glass window that covered the long side of the bus. Two entertainers talked us through the city combined with different performances on the street that was part of the show. We enjoyed the Ride very much!

Day four – it was supposed to rain a bit this day so we bought tickets to go to an outlet about an hour outside New York called Woodbury Common. A little over 200 stores in one place with great deals and prices on their goods. We found quite a few things to buy – mostly shoes and shirts – and where all happy with our day, I think. Back in the city, we went to John’s Pizzeria for pizza. Yum!

Day two – a gorgeous day – so we decided to spend it in Central Park. First a quick visit to the Atlas Statue and the St. Patrick’s Cathedral – then a walk up to the park to have a fantastic lunch at the Boathouse.

Since it was so sunny and warm we decided to continue the day indoors so the American Museum of Natural History was next on our list. An amazing place with lots to see and do. After the museum we took the subway to Times Square and visited Madame Tussauds – which none of us was impressed by. Dinner at KFC to balance up the expensive lunch.

First day – after breakfast we walked over to pier 86 to take a cruise to have a look at Manhattan from the water. We picked the longest one – 2,5hrs – to relax a bit and enjoy the sceneries. The guide was very good.

We had purchased New York passes for the week so we could enjoy whatever we liked without having to pay for everything each time. So we continued the day with a visit to the Intrepid Sea Air and Space museum, then the Rockefeller Center to enjoy the spectacular view and finally dinner at Hard Rock Café.

Finally the day had come and our adventure could begin. Everybody felt ok, the pilot strike didn’t spread to the American flights and we managed to travel to New York – finally.

After we had settled in to the hotel on Manhattan we took a walk around the area to look around a bit. We ended up at Times Square and had a great dinner at Guy’s American on 44th street. Then we strolled back to the hotel after a very long day. Time to hit the pillow.

So far so good. The SAS pilots strike seems to be affecting the domestic flights and European flights only. Fingers crossed it will be ok tomorrow and that we will be able to go on our trip. I don’t look forward to the airport with all the thousands of people stranded there waiting for the aircrafts to take off again.

I have never ever packed the last day before going on a holiday before. I usually start almost a week in advance – to not rush into anything and pack with thought and care. But, this time circumstances didn’t allow me to do that. Feels ok though.