| road trip | char grill | family | quality time | early mornings | beach | relaxation | warm | sunshine| restaurant visits | beer | walks | ocean | chats | sunsets | fireworks | laughters | olympic games | goodbyes |
the beach and usa, i love you ♥
Stay tuned, a beach week video is being posted tomorrow!
| family | roadtrip | craft beer | coffee | day trips | pet snuggles | nature | exploring | hotel bed |pizza | plants | views | ocean | rv | adventures | harbor | storm | rest |
family, i love you ♥
| mexican food | airbnb | friends | patti smith | williamsburg | brunch | inspirational | creativity | independent stores | coffee shops | bars | sunsets | views | williamsburg bridge | parks | heat |summer | noises | walks | sunsets | shopping | hidden gems |
i love you nyc ♥
I’m back in Sweden after an amazing month in the USA. We’ve done so many fun and exciting things, and I can’t wait to show you some snippets and a video or so from our time over the pond. Liz has done some amazing documentation, divided in several blog posts, so instead of pretty much repeating what she has written and shown, I’m gonna figure out another way to share our adventures, so stay tuned. But until then, go over and check out Liz’s blog here.
Liz and I celebrated a little bit the other night. Why? Because we can, but perhaps also because Liz started her vacation, and we were in the middle of our preparations for our trip to the US, which starts TODAY!!!
We’re taking off around lunch time (Swedish time) and arriving in NY in the afternoon (American time). If you would like to tag along a little bit more, I’ll try to update my Instagram and Snapchat accounts as much as possible.
You’ll find my Instagram here or search for my nickname, liersees, and my Snapchat nickname is, lier84.
I’m back in Uppsala after an amazing week in the archipelago together with family and friends. I’ve been rowing a boat, canoeing, taking a dip in the cold (at least to me) ocean, laughing like crazy… I’ve been singing, playing Hanabi (a new, again, to me, fun game), walking in the woods with my dad, staring at the endless beauty of nature, talking both about fun things and sad things, gotten sad news, and gained more confidence that I one day will be healthy and free.
This is what it looked like. It was a detox for me when it comes to Internet access. Pretty much zero reception there, so I didn’t carry my phone around and therefore, don’t have that many pics.
Today, Liz and I are doing laundry, organizing, and running errands. We’re off to the US in just a few days!
Hope you’re having great summer or winter (wherever you are!) ♥
It’s the time of the year when I’m gonna head out to the place that is the closest to my heart, the archipelago. A place I’ve spent a week during almost every summer, throughout my whole life. I’m gonna sit on the dock and look out at the beautiful scenery. I’m gonna have endless conversations with family, relatives, old friends, and new friends. I’m gonna row the boat out to an island and watch the sun set. I’m gonna sit up late at night, playing board games, and laughing so much stomach will hurt. I’m gonna listen to podcasts, music, and read books. I’m gonna walk in the woods and breathe in the fresh air of the Swedish nature. I cannot wait.
I’ll be back next weekend. Until then… ♥
Music by Dana Boulé, found here.
What I’ve learned during the Paris trip
→ The French language is beautiful and I can understand more than I first thought. I even ordered in French once. Heck yeah!
→ Middle aged Parisian women are beautiful.
→ Parisian guys are, in general, pretty tiny and short.
→ French people are not that great at English, but you do get far with a smile and simple phrases. Fake it till you make it, basically. I came pretty far with Bonjour (hey) and Merci (thank you), and then add a smile in between.
→ French food is delicious (had bad experiences as a kid being there..) and the croissant I had for brunch one day was amazing.
→ French people do really go and buy baguettes and carry them around. It’s freaking true, and I love it.
→ If I want a good cup of coffee, cappuccino will be my safe card. The other stuff is too little or too strong for me.
→ The places I loved the most were the ones with fewer tourists. Once you get away from the most famous landmarks, you’ll find the locals, and also the best bars and restaurants. Says Lina, who’s been there pretty much once. But that was totally my experience during the whole trip.
→ I felt like the Parisians were all so good at living in the moment, enjoying life there and then. It’s like they’ve all taken a Mindfulness class or something. People hung out in the parks, from couples to big groups with like 20 children. A man tasted red wine at 11am, along with some cheese. All the coffee places, bars, and restaurants, were open pretty late so you could enjoy it longer.
MOMENTS & PLACES
Liz is doing an amazing job, documenting the trip on her blog, day by day, so if you would like a more detailed version of our trip, I recommend you to check it out here. Also, stay tuned, because there will be a movie coming up in the very near future.
When you reading this, Liz and I will be sitting on a plane to Paris! This is huge in so many different ways. We had a trip booked to Paris back in May 2012, around my birthday, but had to cancel it since I had been admitted to the hospital (by order of the law) and was too sick with Anorexia to go. I still remember the day when we were supposed to go, and how I was lying in the hospital bed, sobbing, and feeling like the worst person and wife ever. It was horrible. The first and the last time I was in Paris, was in the beginning of the 90’s (when the picture above was taken – I was greeting and talking with the wax figures at Madame Tussauds).
So, Paris, it’s about time for us to explore you, and I’m over the top excited! Be prepared for a bunch of pictures from Paris once we’re back!
Happy Midsummer!!
Good memories that I will always keep close to my heart. Håkan Hellström at Ullevi, Gothenburg, June 5th, together with 70 143 other people. Amazing. Liz made a video, which you can find here (or further down in this post!) and she also wrote an awesome post on her blog. It’s little bit tough right now, so today, I’m gonna play his music and remember the magic that took place in Gothenburg just a few weeks ago.
Jag tror ↔ I believe
När vi går genom tiden ↔ As we go through life
Att allt det bästa ↔ That all the best
Inte hänt än ↔ Hasn’t happened yet
Bought some Lilies today, to cheer up my Monday!
Liz and I headed to Stockholm right after my day in treatment Friday afternoon. It had been a crazy day there with a lot of tough things that had happened, which I will not get into here as of right now. Anyhow, we hopped on the train to Stockholm, checked into our hotel, and headed to my sister in law’s sister. The sister had turned 40 and we were invited to celebrate her, among with other family and friends. It was so much fun with a crazy crowd of interesting people! How I love to talk with new people and I always feel so fortunate to learn more about areas and subjects that I might not know that much about. So cool. It was a great evening and I managed to follow the plans that were made up for food and drink. So far, so good.
We came back to the hotel pretty late in the evening, went to bed, and slept. Saturday morning, I woke up, and my body pretty much shut down. Again, not gonna get into details, but I was not hung over (I wasn’t drunk Friday night and I felt physically ok during Friday evening). But my body pretty much physically collapsed and we were almost questioning whether to call an ambulance or to just figure out other strategies. We made some phone calls, and talked with a nurse who’s a friend of mine, who gave us some good tips. I was not in shape to doing anything more than lie down in bed. It was horrible and I’ve never ever experienced anything like this before.
We had to check out, after Liz had extended the time some, and took a cab out to our friends’ home. They were also the ones we were gonna go to a concert with on Saturday evening. I crashed on their couch and got up close to when it was time to leave for the concert, which was also the reason why we stayed in Stockholm over the night. I thought that the concert was gonna be something good for my soul to experience and just gonna be something positive, especially after the collapse, so I was determined to go and to not cancel another thing in life due to my eating disorder. I made it through the concert and our friends were so kind and drove us to the train station afterwards so we could catch the train back to where we live.
Sunday, was all about relaxing on the couch and trying to get some strength back. My main nurse at the hospital has also told me to not be physically active in any way as of right now, in order to let my body get as much rest as possible.
So the Stockholm weekend, didn’t exactly turn out the way we wanted, but I’m feeling a bit better now, and I have people checking on me at the hospital, so there’s no need to worry right now. It just turned out to be too much to handle, I believe, with the Friday madness at treatment, the dinner and being social Friday night (which was plenty fun, but it sucked out a lot of my energy at the same time), and then being away from home, and the stress that comes with that. Too much for my body to handle.
I wanted to share some pictures from Stockholm (or mainly the concert) with you all, but will do that in another post instead. This turned out to be so long. So, there was an update about my weekend..
Love to you all, my amazing readers and supporters ♥
Liz and I have stayed in Sweden during the summer, which has been really good for us, I think. I/we needed to just be. Here. Try to land a bit after some hectic months in our lives. We love to travel, explore new places and cultures, but this time, it was good to stay home (we also didn’t have a choice since Liz’s passport was at the Immigration Office due to her application to become a Swedish citizen + we have a cat to take care of).
We took a few shorter trips to surrounding areas though. The archipelago and Stockholm a few times. Norrköping a few times, Sigtuna – the oldest city of Sweden which is about an hour from Uppsala, and then stayed in Uppsala some as well. It is amazing nature here in Sweden and there is a great law that gives everyone the right to go wherever. Love it. We also have had a few visitors who have sparkled our lives with their presence. ♥
Let’s check it out – pictures taken with my phone and mostly posted (if not all..hehe), on Instagram. I’m liersees there by the way.
THE ARCHIPELAGO
STOCKHOLM
SIGTUNA
NORRKÖPING
UPPSALA
(Short summary in English, below)
För några veckor sedan var Liz och jag i Stockholm (eller ja, det har vi varit varje lördag de senaste veckorna), men vårt mål denna gången var att titta på de underbara körsbärsträden i Kungsträdgården som hade börjat slå. Jag tror inte att jag har timat det en enda gång tidigare i mitt liv, så det var första gången för både mig och Liz. Tycker vi tittar på en gång.
English Summary
CHERRY BLOSSOM TREES IN KUNGSTRÄDGÅRDEN
A few weeks ago, Liz and I spent our Saturday in Stockholm and checked out the beautiful cherry blossom trees.
(Short summary in English, below)
Hoppas att påsken har varit fin och att ni har firat eller bara varit, precis så som ni har önskat eller velat ha det. Jag och Liz tog tåget till Norrköping och mina föräldrar i fredags eftermiddag och tog det mest lugnt på fredagskvällen. På lördagen åt vi frukost länge och förberedde sedan påsklunch till släktingar som skulle komma lite senare. Tyvärr var min systerson sjuk och vi skulle egentligen åkt ut till min honom och reste av min systers familj på påskaftonseftermiddagen och kvällen för att fira hans 13-årsdag…men det blev tråkigt nog inställt så påskaftonskvällen bjöd på pizza med min moster och tre av mina kusiner, tillsammans med Liz och mina föräldrar. Mysigt och gott det med. På söndagen begav vi oss iväg till kyrkan och sedan åkte vi hem till min faster och farbror för att fira min kusin som fyller 25 år nästa helg. Så himla kul och mysigt att spendera massor med tid med släkten. En del av de vi umgicks med i helgen har jag och Liz inte sett sedan förra sommaren vilket är på tok för länge sedan. Liz och jag tog bussen tillbaka till Uppsala igår kväll och mötte direkt upp min bror (som hade firat påsk med hans fästmös familj) för snack och en drink på Radisson vid stationen.
Idag har vi bara varit hemma..eller vi försökte oss på att gå en promenad tidigare men det slutade med att vi gick till mataffären och köpte lite nödvändigheter och gick hem igen. Hehe. Ska jag vara riktigt ärlig känner jag mig en aning seg och otroligt emotionell just nu så allt jag vill göra är att bara vara hemma. Vet att jag borde komma igång med lite fysisk aktivitet för att bryta av i vardagen lite (har ju ett väldigt stillasittande jobb också), få bättre kondition och att ta hand om min kropp bättre, men på ett sunt sätt! Men det är svårt att ta det steget till att börja träna igen då man inte gjort det på länge pga. sjukdom. Är det någon av er som har en liknande erfarenhet? Hur har ni burit er åt? Dela gärna med er om ni vill…Har dividerat kring det hela väldigt mycket inom mig den senaste tiden..och ska nog försöka mig på att att komma igång med träning ändå. Ja, så får det bli. Någon gång under veckan ska jag köpa träningskort! Ok, det var ett litet sidospår…
Tog inte så mycket kort under själva påskhelgen..och utav dessa tre härunder, så får Liz photo credit för de båda med oss på!
Short Summary
EASTER WEEKEND
Hope your Easter has been fab. in the way you wanted it to be! Liz and I spent a couple of days at my parents’ in Norrköping with plenty of precious time with family. We hadn’t seen some of them since last summer…We came back to Uppsala late last night and met up with my brother (who had spent Easter with his finance’s family) for some drinks -cozy! Today, we’ve just been at home, tried to take a walk earlier, but ended up at the grocery store and then went back home..I have no energy, but I’m gonna try to change that very soon. Didn’t take that many pictures during Easter, and Liz gets credit for the two with us. :) Please try the more or less good Google translate, if you want to translate the whole text.
Yesterday, I showed you some famous landmarks/sites of DC..My love for Georgetown, a neighborhood of DC, is major so here come some photos from the time we spent there. Bubbles at a cozy wine bar and more bubbles at an Irish bar, the typical buildings and houses, some photos of stores, and absolutely gorgeous sunsets. If you haven’t checked out part I of this little Washington DC series, you can do that here.
Before my parents headed home to Sweden, we all went to Washington DC for some days. I lived there back in 2003, and even though it was a tough part of my life, I’m at peace with the city again, so I was excited to show my parents a few glimpses of it. I could spend weeks there just visiting museum after museum – there are a ton of them and with free admission! Perfect. We stayed at a hotel right next to Georgetown, so by just crossing a bridge, you entered that part of town. And how I love it! Liz and I headed over there every now and then to just walk around and take pictures. Well, we stopped for some bubbles and some window shopping (at that time we couldn’t fit anything more in the moving boxes and were strictly forbidden to not buy anything!). Anyway, we toured around the city and saw all the typical sites/memorials, and I think I need to split this post up in two due to all the photos I wanna show you. So here comes part I, some of the typical sites of Washington DC, tomorrow it’s all Georgetown. And because I love it so much, it gets its own post. Extra: If you let the mouse scroll over the photo, you get the information where/what the photo is taken of.
Last time I wrote here was on January 14 and we had gone to the movies in Asheville to see Selma. Well… our lives are a bit different now. We spent a few more days in Asheville, before we moved out, drove up to NJ, and flew to Sweden. Yep. That’s where we are now and have been for just about a week now. It’s been a true emotional roller coaster for many weeks now, and I feel like I’m still in this weird bubble of, in someway, just existing without breathing. Don’t take me wrong, I’ve really enjoyed being here, seeing friends and family, but we’ve also been working hard on figuring out our lives in a practical way. Like where to live in Uppsala. I haven’t functioned lately since I’m the kind of girl who needs control or to know what’s about to happen, etc. I haven’t had a clue. But as of about a few hours ago, we finally, thanks to a friend, found a place to live in Uppsala. It’s just for some weeks, but it will at least give us some more time in order to find another apartment where we can live a bit longer, before we buy our own place. Phu. I’ve also talked with my brother, who I’m gonna work for, and it all feels so good! I’m so excited to start working again, and to do what I’ve been dreaming of doing!
So the past week of being here in Sweden has been great and stressful all at the same time, but I feel I can breathe some now, and hopefully enjoy the last week before I start working, even more now, since I can relax a bit more!
Sweden has been, and is, beautiful with its magical winter look. It’s all white and bright. I had somehow almost forgotten what it is like having snow on the ground for a longer period of time. Love it.
As I wrote a few days ago, I was going to write about the rest of the trip we did to Atlanta a few weeks ago. We started off, as I wrote about → here visiting The Walking Dead filming locations. We then headed to the World of Coca-Cola Museum since Coke was founded in Atlanta, GA. Such a cool museum. Let’s check it out.
We then met up one of our friends for a beer in Little Five Points, and after that headed to her and her wife’s place since she had gotten of work then. I totally forgot to take any pictures the rest of the evening..but we all went, together with another friend, to eat dinner. And we ended up on the couch watching the very first episode of the Walking Dead, in the spirit of our little trip earlier to the various locations.
The next morning we basically hung out in the kitchen together with all their amazing pets for hours. Ate a delicious brunch and chatted about everything and nothing. It was such an amazing and relaxed morning.
We also took a walk around in their cozy neighborhood. The weather was perfect and so fall-ish.
Such a good get-away short trip, and to be able to catch up with our dear friends lives there.
Liz and I love the TV series The Walking Dead and a few weeks ago we took a mini weekend trip to Atlanta, Georgia, where we know some friends, but also where they film the series. Before we met up with our friends, we drove around to different film locations – oh, yes, we’re that nerdy about this show. We used the Walking Dead Location Website, check it out → here, and we also used Google maps with the different locations marked out, which you can find → here. You can also read more about the whole series on imdb, → here.
Downtown Atlanta!
South west of Senoia, GA is the roadside bar where Merle has a drink and uses the loud music from the car to lead the walkers toward the Governor’s ambush site. (Season 3 Episode 14)
Really close to the road side bar (like 2 min by car), is the prison. Unfortunately, you can’t see anything of the building since it’s now Filming Studios as well, and you had to pass to get in because it was private property…But this is the fence around the area, which is where they have been filming (sort of).
This, my friends, this is Woodbury, or Senoia which is the real name of this town. This is the town of the Governor. (Season 3)
They even had a store where you could buy the Walking Dead merch. The cool thing, once you walked downstairs in the store, they had several things they used in the series!
Daryl’s bike!
The doors from the hospital in the very first episode when Rick wakes up…
Some of the prison cells!
This is the house where Carl finds some chocolate pudding and sits on the roof eating it.
The entrance to Hershel’s Farm. Guess they’ve had a few visitors since they’ve now closed the road for the public.
The railroad tracks that are supposed to lead to Terminus. This place is when Glenn and Tara are entering the tunnel. This is also the same area where Tyreese, Carol, Lizzie, and Mika find a Terminus sign.
Atlanta skyline which you see several times in the series.
The Terminus building, which is located in Atlanta!
Will post more about our trip to Atlanta within a day or two, so stay tuned!
My brother and his fiancé live in Uppsala, a major college town just north of Stockholm. I used to live and study there about ten years ago, and fell in love with the city in a heartbeat. Liz, Paige, and I took the bus up last week, and spent two nights there. It was such a cozy time…
Here come some photos from our trip!
Paige and I on the bus ride to Uppsala,
drinking our drinks through Twizzler straws.
First evening in Uppsala and we went out for some beer with friends
The next day, touring Uppsala
Sitting on the statue of the book character, Pelle Svanslös (Peter-No-Tail), which you can read more about here.
Uppsala Cathedral which you can find more info about here
Uppsala University and its auditorium
A newly built kids’ playground with Peter-No-Tail theme. So cute!
Checking out the castle from the outside.
It was hot that we dipped our feet in to cool off.
We decided to grill out in the park one evening.
A beautiful evening
Photo credit to Liz (belovelive.com), Paige (fortheloveofwanderlust.com), and me!
Here comes the third, and last part of the archipelago pictures, the nature! You can find part one, about the camp, here, and part two about the people, here.
Photo credit to Liz (belovelive.com), Paige (fortheloveofwanderlust.com), and me!
Here comes the second part of the archipelago pictures, the people! You can find part one, about the camp, here. 
Photo credit to Liz (belovelive.com), Paige (fortheloveofwanderlust.com), and me!
It’s less than a week left in Sweden now, and a bittersweet feeling inside of me. I truly love Swede, all my friends and family here, but at the same time, I miss my American home, friends, and family. A couple of weeks ago, we spent a week in the archipelago (at Skeppsgården), and I believe I’ll have to split the post up a tiny bit because there are so many photos I wanna show you all – my favorite place on earth.
So here we go, part I, the camp:
Photo credit to Liz (belovelive.com), Paige (fortheloveofwanderlust.com), and me!
The first part of our Sweden visit was a short trip to Gothenburg, on the west coast of Sweden. Let’s check out what it looked like.
Photo by Liz
Photo by Liz
Photo by Liz
Photo by Liz
About to leave the States!
Not a huge fan of flying SAS…
Leaving Newark.
Paige’s first train ride in Sweden. Leaving Stockholm in this picture.
Buying candy like a true Swede.
A view of the river in Norrköping.
We kidnapped my sister and surprised her with a bachelorette party!
(Photo by Tina.)
(Photo by Tina.)
(Photo by Tina.)
Other than that, I’ve had an amazing lunch with an even more amazing person, eaten good breakfasts with mom’s home-baked bread, yummy cheese, and yogurt. We’ve riden the tram downtown, walked around a bit, have had fikas, and today is the big 4th of July celebration at a friend’s house! But first, I’m heading downtown to see my amazing massage therapist for a massage and fika. A lot of “amazing” mentioned in the post…but you know what, it is because it is truly amazing right now. Our days are filled with laughter, and awesome reunions with friends and family, all the time. Love it!
Tomorrow morning, I will grab these two ladies’ hands, and go to Sweden for a month! I’m over the top excited!
⋅ beach ⋅ laughter ⋅ family ⋅ warmth ⋅ sunshine ⋅ walks ⋅ life ⋅ food ⋅
Liz and I headed to the beach yesterday, which is about a seven hour drive, from Asheville, and this is where we’re gonna be for a week. Our days will be filled with beach life, sunshine, warm water, time with family, a lot of laughter, and yummy food. I truly love it here, and the house with its view is AMAZING! I’m sitting in the living room right now, eating breakfast, after spending some time on the porch, drinking coffee, and chatting. Gonna head down to the beach pretty soon and just relax! Hope you all have a great Monday! ♥
Two weeks left, and I’m in Sweden! Can’t believe it’s been almost a year since we moved to the States. Really excited about going there and having the chance to hang out with family and friends, eat Swedish food and just soak up the beauty of my home country.
However, before we’re heading to Sweden, the annual Reynolds family beach week is coming up! So. Much. Fun. Liz and I are heading to the beach on Friday and will stay there for a little bit more than a week! Since Liz’s aunt and her family don’t live at the beach, they have rented a house, where Liz and I are gonna stay too. Can’t wait for coffee on the porch with the endless ocean as a view, days on the beach, game nights, eating at our favorite restaurant, a lot of laughter, and craziness. Love it! 
The view from the house’s porch.
