After a couple of days exploring gothenburg, ryan and I had a very rare and extremely exciting weekend planned. My cousin anna who is an incredible soccer player, was recently recruited to play for a swedish team, mere hours away by train. It worked out perfectly for us to hop on a train and head to central sweden for a weekend of soccer and catching up with family across the globe.
(left to right: our train from gothenburg to karlstad / the Östra bron bridge which is the largest stone bridge in europe / a beautiful church we stumbled upon / goddess of peace; the most well-known statute in karlstad)
Ryan and I took a train to karlstad; a larger town 30 minutes from where anna lives and plays soccer. She met us for the evening as we explored the charming city and had a very delicious dinner at kitchen & table, a restaurant by marcus samuelson. It was ironic and truly amazing to meet up with family in another country. Anna stayed with us at our hotel for the night and we all fell asleep talking, laughing and telling stories about her adventures in sweden over the past couple of months. It was honestly one of the top highlights of the trip.
(a beautiful building in town / one of the many european styled buildings in karlstad / dinner at kitchen and table / the covered patios which lined the city center in town)
Anna had a soccer game on sunday which we could not miss so, after a yummy breakfast at our hotel, anna headed out early to get ready while ryan and I spent the rest of the morning taking in the sights. We made our way to karlskoga just in time for the game. Ryan had never seen her play before, even though I had talked to him about what an established and good player she was. Only a couple minutes into the game ryan says to me, 'wow, she is really good' and I don't know why but I felt so much pride watching my cousin running up and down the field. Anna scored 2 of the team's 4 goals and had an assist too. Their team walked away winning 4-1 and anna was named the day's m.v.p.
(a bunch of shots from anna's game)
Sadly we could not stay long after the game because we had to jump on a train back to gothenburg. For our ride back, ryan got us tickets in the first class section which was a real treat; we had a private pod to relax in as we took in the gorgeous swedish countryside and even visited the bar cart which had live music. It was the perfect ending to the weekend; a 2-day trip that I will never forget either.
(waiting for the train back to gothenburg / our first class digs on the train / one of the very small quaint towns from our trip / beautiful scenery / ryan and I traveling the swedish countryside)
I have one more post to share on our sweden #babymoon so come back here monday.
And because I am a very proud cousin, here is some really cool compilation footage of my cousin college soccer career.
How cool that you have a cousin playing professional soccer! Can we expect to see her playing for the national team in the next World Cup??
ReplyDeleteIt is so cool, thank you Phil. I think Anna's hope, along with mine, would be for her to get into a national team. Let's cross our fingers that it happens!
Delete- Jaime