Sweden / Gothenburg / Freeport Outlet Village (boo) & crazy Swedish graduation rituals

I am about to experience one of the biggest disappointments ever. We have come to an outlet mall and I am expecting discounts that will allow me to get rid of the change and coins in my pockets.

Didn’t happen! 

The prices were super high and the variety was super low. Somebody get my hippie butt to a flea market NOW!

As always, there is something fun in everything and I got to take some photos of some particularly yucky items.

Eeew!

Barf!

OMG shampoo! WOW! How exciting!!! 

(I call it ‘sarcastic’, Jeffrey calls it ‘sarcasmic’. I think the latter is cuter.) 

Good thing here #1: The merchandising in one shop was nice.

Good thing here #2: Ice cream – we had some, yum!

An outlet mall should make you want to buy everything screaming, “Oh my GAWD – what a good deal!”. Freeport definitely didn’t and there was nothing free about it.

Tip for Sweden

Whatever you do, do NOT rent a silver Volvo to get around: You will lose it amongst the other 1,453 silver Volvos in the parking lot.

Swedish Graduation Ceremonies

These Swedes are very calm.

I bet they don’t even scream when they are having babies!

But they *do* go crazy when they graduate.

This one of the most awesome traditions I have come across anywhere. When finishing high school these kids get dressed up as sailors, rent some trucks, decorate them with all sorts of things and drive around the city for hours, dancing and making a LOT of noise. (I am also told the night usually ends up with everyone getting throw-up drunk.)

It was really super fun to watch and actually filled me with a wholeloada weird maternal love towards these kids that I have never even seen before, thinking how they are in the start of their path of this long and beautiful life… *sigh*

(My cheesiness nauseates me too sometimes, it’s okay.)

Hadn’t even noticed the Turkish flag until now. Go boys!

Yeeeehaw!

We return to meet up with Jonas and lovely Malin in Ritz and have some food. Great spot almost in the middle of everything, but far enough from the noise – perfect for people-watching.

Will never get bored of this!

Full day ahead tomorrow.

We will visit Jeffrey’s mother where she sleeps and say a little prayer for her.