Old Friend Reunion - Linköping

One reason for choosing Sweden was to take some time and visit my friend, Viktor, who studied at Blair-Taylor with me back in 08-09. I always promised I would come and visit him and what better way to do that, than study in Sweden for an entire semester. After a few weeks of both of us being busy, I finally had a chance to take the bus to Linkoping and catch up with him over the weekend.

Upon seeing him for the first time in over three years, I knew I was in for an exciting weekend. We both had to catch each other up on what has been happening in our lives. After a while, it was like we were not even apart for such a long time. It is crazy how best friends can be separated for so long, yet in just a very short time after seeing each other again, everything goes back to the way it was.

Over the weekend I saw him, we walked around Linköping for a little bit. There isn’t too much to see since it is not a very large city; it is similar to Jönköping in size. We went and had some kebab for lunch on Saturday and went shopping to make our “Swedish meal” for the night. We prepared salmon with goat cheese and honey, along with potatoes. It was very delicious. I also tried the Swedish winter drink called Glogg. All I can say is that it tasted like Christmas, if that is even possible. After an evening of watching an old movie called “Alive” and catching Viktor up on How I Met Your Mother, we were ready to sleep.

The next day we did a lot of the same, chatting, watching How I Met Your Mother, eating Swedish food (including a taste of caviar), devouring too much Swedish candy, and finishing the day off with a get together with some of his friends. It was great to meet some more Swedish people and get to know them. A few of them had been to the USA so we talked about that as well. We watched 21 Jump Street and shared a laugh. It was a great day!

I headed home the following morning and promised I would visit soon. It is crazy that after all of this time, we still can talk for hours about any topic. I received a different perspective on life over the weekend, since I usually prioritize a lot of other things before friends. Friendship is such an important part of life and without friends and family to share all of your experiences with, what do you have? (The answer is nothing) From now on I will put a greater focus on friends and put in more effort and keeping in contact with old friends.

I will see you soon Viktor, as you always say “Have a good one!”