Middle-landing in a sunny Stockholm

It was not easy to close the suitcase this morning. I repacked it yesterday evening and sorted some stuff out to get it to work. There is a double zipper on it and when I tried to use both, one of them did not close properly, but instead separated, and then both me and my mum panicked for a short moment. It is a 400 SEK suitcase so I guess I cannot expect a too high quality, but still, please let me use it once... I succeeded to close it using only one zipper and then we put two belts around it to secure it. It weighs 5 kg too much, but I am hoping that they will see through that. I guess it depends on how fully booked the flight is. If I have to pay some extra, so be it...

I left my parents place in a cab at 5.30 in the morning. The cab driver was very friendly and talkative and since he saw that both me and my mum were very emotional when he picked me up, he asked where I was heading and for how long. I started telling him about it all, moving over how I met Yoram through the aikido and over to the Israel/Palestine conflict. He started out by referring to the story about Babel's tower where the people got different languages and was spread out over the world. Then he shared his opinion that people that are of different origin with different cultures and religions can never get along. When we turned around the last corner before the central station he said that Hitler was crazy but probably very close to the truth. You might think that this was a blond blue-eyed Swedish nazi jerk, but no. He was an immigrant, from Balkan somewhere, I think. He kindly carried my heavy suitcase up the stairs of the main entrance and finished off by saying that he would never want to live in a country like Israel, not even for a holiday, because it is way too dangerous. His basic attitude had nothing to do with any of the parties being more right or wrong or the normal stories you otherwise hear. He was simply convinced that these people cannot live together and there will never be any solution. It felt strange to leave him there in his whole context. A South-European nazi living in one of the most multi-cultural Scandinavian cities. He must be very discomforted living there.

As soon as I sat down on the train I felt that my body is about to develop something. All duties are over and now I only have to see to that I get all the way down to Israel and home go Tivon and then I can crash as much as I desire. My poor man will pick up a total wreck at the airport tomorrow...

Now I have carried the heavy suitcase four stories up to a friends huge apartment on the roof top in Gamla Stan and it was nice to relax for a while. The weather is great in Stockholm and I will suck up some Swedish summer by meeting up with a friend in Hagaparken for a nice stroll in the sun. It is after all the last day here for a while...