Setting Out

Knowing that it would be a time-consuming process and that there would be plenty of partying going on in the final days of the season - I set about packing and cleaning early for once. A good five days before departure as opposed to my usual 5 hours. For the first time in as long as I can remember everything went smoothly. This is clearly a result of pure conincidence and I allow no connection to advance preparation.

Nalle Poh has been treating me well since I got him. A few misfires here and there and some strange behaviour at low-speeds, but nothing serious. My first real scare came the other week when I lent the little guy to a friend to drive to Östersund to go shopping. I got a phonecall just 30mins into the drive about the oil alarm going off. Shit shit shit, that´s it. All that money down the drain, the car, insurance, expensive petrol... all of it for nothing... After some time the light stopped blinking and checking that there was oil all seemed well. There was no way I could get the car in for a service as they were massively overbooked so I would just have to hope for the best and drive on. Besides, what´s the worst that can happen with a very old car driving 3,500km through various foreign countries while its oil light is beeping and flashing randomly. Well at least the battery is doing ok.

Emil was driving down at the same time and despite the fact that he left about a half hour after me he called from a few miles down the road as I was passing Gävle. We decided to meet up at a place called Dragon Gate an hour or so north of Stockholm. Emil stopped there for the Chinese buffé but the place it self was amazing. It´s like this giant Chinese temple in the middle of nowhere. A huge restaurant, a ginormous courtyard and a spectaular museum - complete with a complete replica of the terracotta army in China. A very surreal and bizarre place.

As I pulled in to Täby to meet up with Joel and Catha they had already fired up the barbeque for the Swedish day of Valborg (1st of May in Sweden, big outdoor party day here). It was good catching up and meeting some of their friends and just shooting the breeze. Eventually we headed inside to eat and have a few more beers and before we knew it the night had divulged into beerpong and music: always a good recipe for some laughs and a good time. For those of you who know me? (I swear this was Joel´s idea all the way.) After a couple of quiet rounds of beerpong we were getting on our way and starting to get in the mood for a Saturday night out. Suddenly we realised that we were low on beer and hadn´t nearly gotten the beerpong out of our system. And so Deathpong was born. A combination of all kinds of spirits, mixers, beer, wine: (essentially anything we could find in the cupboard) - complete with a penalty shot on the side - it was a dangerous combination that led to a very hazy night. Precisely why I can´t really tell very many details here. Yes, I was back in Stockholm and had finally set out on my roadtrip...