Växjö

Caught the train to Växjö. the trip was quite nice, beautiful country side which is thick full trees. i couldn't get over the fog in some spots it was so thick you could hardly see. When i got there i noticed how much colder it was, it least a few degrees colder at least. anyway, i found a phonebooth to change into my superman costume (only kidding) i called Andreas to let him know i was here so he could pick me up from the station, but the number he gave me had the country code on the front so i couldn't get through to him becuase i wasn't sure which numbers to drop so i went across to a music shop across the road and the man in the shop was so helpful, he didn't just explain to me which numbers to drop he actually let me use his phone. how nice!
when i spoke to andreas, his wife Christine had the car so he could pick me up in an hour so i spent the time walking around the town, which is quite small but very pleasent.

Andreas and Christine have a home just a short bit out of town in a nice area, they only just moved into there house recently and are in the middle of renovating. they brought it with there good friends Lars and Linda and they have divided the house, which is quite big, into 2 apartments. Lars and Linda and there 2 daughters live down stairs on one level, and Andreas, Christine and there 1 and a half year old Alve son live upstairs. Alve is a cute little kid, always smiling and talking to himself, he's such a little terror at times getting into everything and pushing boundries, but he's just at that age.
when he's not touring, Andreas is a stay at home dad, looking after Alve during the week and then he works a couple of days a week at a local TV station as a web programmer, he took me to see his work and got a bit of a tour of the studios etc. the part where he worked was where the designers were and had a pinball machine and a nintendo wii, it was really fun to be in a creative environment again, and it make me think of how much i kind of miss working and being creative on a daily basis. Christine works full time helping disabled people, which i think she would be very good at, she seems like a really kind, patient person.

While i was here we just mucked around and chilled out a lot of the time. we took Alve for walks around town and check out a few things like a local castle and a big water tower, that is designed in a way that when you stand directly under it your voice bounces around and creates an amazing delay, which was pretty cool. we caught up with the other guys from the band also and had a couple of drinks at there houses. Thomas (the drummer) and his girlfriend have also just moved into there new home, which is really nice. while i was there they played music from a few different Swedish bands, which was cool, i think i knew some of the songs. Thomas teaches drums his girlfriend is a nurse. another night we went to Pierre's, who is the other guitarist. he is still studying and lives on campus in a cool little student apartment. i think he teaches music also.
we all chatted about Sweden and Scandinavia in general, they were telling me that in the winter it gets realy dark here and that a lot a people get depressed because of lack of sunlight and its quite common for people to go on anti depressants. they also told me about the swedish royals and how when i get to copenhagen to watch out, they're not a great drivers and have a reputation of running people over! also childrens author Astrid Lindgren who wrote 'Pippi Longstocking' came from around the Växjö area and so did the guy who created IKEA.

it was really nice to chill out and do, in a sense, nothing for a bit. traveling constently does kind of get to you after a while. also to have some home cooked meals i was so sick of eating cheap rubbish food or my own cooking. it was so nice of everyone to have me stay at there place and hang out with me and show me around they are all really great people, it was kinda sad to say goodbye to them. off to Gothenborg next, more soon.