Trip to Portugal, Spain & Sweden 2011-12

Part VI

Wednesday, Manuary 4^th

This morning brought a healthy breakfast that did not involve brandy or cigars.  As dull as that sounds, it was probably for the best.  The rest of the day was lazy.  I read.  I caught up on my sitting.  I think I walked in the woods for a while but I can’t be sure.  The purpose of the day was the evening when the decadence was eaten, drank and smoked.  To ease our digestion, “Broken Flowers” was watched on TV.

Thursday, Manuary 5^th – 8^th

Here we met the owners, the lovely glass blowing couple known as Helena and Espen.  Espen asked CB and I to sit down while he made a glass bird right in front of us.  As he crafted the bird, he instructed us on the process and even asked me to help at one point which made the experience feel like my wildest, most opulent Science Channel fantasy come to life.

With the exception of the glass blowing and “Broken Flowers”, the next few days were like another Bill Murray movie, “Groundhog Day”.  Each day, I was like a plane joyfully caught in the same flight pattern that consisted of nothing but clear skies, zero turbulence and jazz winds (tail winds).  I’m still not able to discern where the cigars began and the brandy ended.  I think Nelson even got buzzed on some whiskey at some point.

One thing I must comment on happened on my final night.  As Margaretha, CB and I were sitting in the living room, pickling ourselves, CB heard footsteps in my bedroom upstairs.  CB thought it may have been a ghost since he believes the house to be haunted. 

On the way up to investigate with CB, I looked for some sort of weapon in case this ghost was a burglar that could experience pain.  I settled on a cane with a metal handle since I like to attack ghosts with the one thing they’ll need most when I’m through with them.  As long as the ghost didn’t have a crossbow or bigger cane, I felt confident I could handle him or her in a fight.  But my chance to prove myself in ghost battle would have to wait for we encountered no life forces in the bedroom.

CB also told me that when their daughter Pernilla slept in the same bedroom, she sometimes heard someone chopping wood in the middle of the night, 15 feet away in the attached barn.  And while I slept that night, I dreamed that I was doing exactly what I was doing at that moment: sleeping in the bedroom.  But in my dream that now began to blend into reality, I felt and heard something crawling onto my bed.  I struggled to pull myself out of the dream but felt paralyzed as the presence drew closer.  Finally, I summoned all of my will and woke myself up to find nothing. Was this a ghost’s revenge for my potential cane attack?  If so, it worked marvelously since I never fell back asleep and took in about four hours of sleep total that night, giving my body a feeling the next morning that was squirrely at best. 

So when the sun did rise on the 8^th, I began my journey back to London where I stayed one night before flying back to the USA.  As I landed in Tampa, Florida, I realized that I had not been to the states in 11 months which made me feel like a drug czar trying to sneak back into the country to attend his child’s confirmation or something. I chose Tampa so I could visit friends there and then seamlessly move on to see my parents near Jacksonville.  On the 21^st, I finally made it back to Boston where I began the grim task of figuring out what next to do with my life.

As CB drove me to the train station that final morning in Sweden, he told me that he once awoke in the middle of the night and saw what appeared to be two ghosts, an old farmer and wife, watching him.

“You must have been freaked out!  Were you awake the rest of the night?” I said.

“No,” CB replied. “I fell back asleep.”

“Well these ghosts sound like perverts to me.”

“Yes but Margaretha and I were not doing anything so it was alright.”

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