Costco Cuckoo

In middle May, my crazy friend Nhu and I were invited to have a nice dinner and visit with Gorm and Stefan in their Copenhagen home just a short bicycle ride away from where I live.  One of the things we talked about was what a nice time Nhu and I had on our last visit to Stefan's home in Sweden in the country side.  He invited us again and we all agreed on a weekend in the middle of July.  

Nhu just bought a fancy new electric car and she offered to drive.  Pretty fancy car I must say and at a very reasonable price.  Very modern, comfortable and high-tech.  Nhu lives north of the city center, I live south of the city center and Gorm lives in the center.  Nhu was going to pick up Gorm and then pick me up after that.  Unfortunately Gorm wasn't feeling well, so he canceled at the last minute. 

At dinner, Nhu was telling us that she needed to stop off at Costco on the way.  Costco? Really?  Stefan was very interested to know what Costco was all about.  So since Nhu has a membership card, we all agreed to meet at the store just before it opens.  Who knew Costco had a store in Sweden?  

It turns out that Costco in Sweden is exactly the same as Costco in USA.  We walked up and down all the aisles looking and looking at all the items you never knew you didn't need.  And of course when you look at all that great food, by the time you hit the check-out counter, you're starving and the smell of the hotdogs and pizza lur the customer almost in a hypnotic trans to spend more money and eat.  So of course we had no choice but to follow the scent of cheap greasy food, order, chow down and eat American hotdogs in the culturally and historically rich country of Sweden.  Yes, a bite of heaven, actually.

After our big shopping tour, we went to the German shop LIDL - which is also a fun store to look around in - to buy more ordinary market groceries so that we had what we needed for dinner, breakfast and lunch.

Then back into the car and off to the potato patch.  We lost Stefan.  But luckily Nhu had previously punched in Stefan's address into her GPS.  "You have arrived" it showed. Wrong!  We were literally in the middle of nowhere.  I knew we had gone too far.  "Turn around," I said to Nhu.  We drove back about 2  minutes to the dirt road closest to the motorway.  "Turn here!"  I pointed from the asphalt road, "There! There's his house!"  I could see it way off in the distance.

We made it. Parked in the garden, unloaded the car and I mixed us a welcome drink.  Stephan dumped chips in a bowl and he set up a few chairs under the "palm" tree, as he calls it.  I thought I misunderstood him but he said it again.  "Gorm and I call it a palm tree because it gives so much shade."  It really does.  It is a huge beautiful walnut tree loaded with green balls that will become delicious walnuts come November.

We had a lot of fun sharing the latest updates with each other.  

It was so warm late into the evening.

Apparently Stefan and Nhu had a lot more to talk about because Stefan gave me the job of grilling the burgers, sausage, and veggies - which of course, I was sooooo happy to do.  Plus Nhu and I had quite a personal chat in the car from Copenhagen to Costco, Sweden.

Years ago, Jens and I visited Stefan shortly after he built his terrace - which is huge and amazing.    At that time, all the planks were wood color.  Years later, the wood has turned silver and the flowering vines have made it really cozy.  The grill was proudly parked on the terrace along side of a huge patio table.  But we ate dinner under the palm tree with tiny green coconuts.  It was so nice and no bugs for all this amazing nature.

The burgers and sausage are almost done.

After dinner it was time for dessert.  Stefan baked

amazing brownie and layered it over vanilla ice-cream.

And we topped that with fresh Swedish strawberries.

Eventually the wind started to pick up and I decided to put on my jacket.  It was still warm but the wind was very cooling.  My sister Jay grows her own potatoes, so I snapped this photo for her to show her that Stefan actually lives in the middle of a potato field.  Well...... this year.  Next year it will be a different crop.  But it is all just wonderful.

The next morning was perfect.  We could feel the day was going to be warm and it did get very warm.  But we started our day on the terrace with a very tasty breakfast and a much needed cup of coffee.  

Eventually the rising sun creeped over the peak of the roof making the shadow shorter and shorter until we could no longer move our chairs into the shade of the house.  So Nhu and I got up again to walk around Stefan's huge garden to admire all the flowers, fruit, trees, shrubs and bushes growing.  The amount of rhubarb was wild.  "Take all you want," Stefan said to Nhu.  "How much do you want," Nhu asked me.  "Gimme 6 stalks!"  I came home with a dozen.  Nhu took even more.  There was so much rhubarb, we didn't even make a dent in the patch.  

Rhubarb in the foreground.

There are several kinds of berries and roses, cherry trees, a pear tree, herbs, wild flowers, amazing vine hortensia in the garden and these Hollyhocks that I snapped for my friend, George.

Then there was this Christmas tree that I gave to Stefan some time ago. 

It used to be a tiny thing on my balcony.

Eventually it was time to pack it all up and make our way back to reality.  We had to cut our trip a bit early because Nhu got a last minute appointment with psychotherapist but I think it's way too late for any sign of  hope.  Costco Cuckoo can be a very serious mental disorder.

As we drove home, I quickly snapped these photos of the pylons of this fascinating bridge between Denmark and Sweden.

Why is it a fascinating bridge, you ask?  Because it doesn't go anywhere.  It just ends in the Baltic Sea.

Thanks for a great weekend Stefan.  Such wonderful hospitality.

Thanks for a great weekend Nhu.  So kind of you to drive and offer positive support.