CouchSurfing - Round Two

Emma and Christian are my new CouchSurfing hosts. They are an energetic, fun loving, and happy couple who live just outside Karlstad. We met each other downtown this afternoon, chatted for about an hour, then went shopping for food. When we got back to their home, Emma and Christian made dinner. And I chopped the onions, since that's the full extent of my culinary skills. They did not hold my lack of skill against me. Our dinner consisted of tasty meat patties made with whiskey cheese, potatoes, mixed veggies, and a wonderful brown sauce. Emma made everything from scratch and it was one of the best home cooked meals I've had in a while.

We sat around the table discussing a variety of topics from books and movies to Swedish society and, of course Melodifestivalen. The young couple are also avid readers, so we enjoyed talking about the books they have read and want to read. Christian is a fan of fantasy books and buys them often. Emma studied interior design, so she has several books on the topic here at home.

The pair are open to hosting visitors from all over the world. They have hosted a few people from France recently and will take in another CouchSurfer tomorrow in addition to me. He is a photographer for Melodifestivalen and will stay with us for a day or two. He has a lot of work to do, so we might not be able to chat for long. Still, it should be an interesting experience hearing about the contest from many different people.

Thursday means a visit with Pia, a representative from the Melodifestivalenklub, a 400 member strong group  who celebrates the contest year round. Pia will give us the scoop on celebrating the six week contest from a club perspective. Emma and I will also attend a CouchSurfer meeting in Karlstad later in the evening, so we'll get to meet more faces who dare to open their homes and lives to people around the world.

Emma has planned a little outing on Friday. We will find some nature reserves and enjoy the brilliant blanket of snow covering the area. We might also be able to try some Nordic Skating. That's where you strap on a pair of blades and skate across the ice as far as your feet will take you, or at least until you run out of usable ice.

Once Friday comes to a close, I'll take a little detour. It's off to Örebro, a city a few hours to the East. There, Jenny Berggren, my favorite artist will perform songs from her solo album, "My Story", at Ritz Nightlcub downtown. I couldn't miss the opportunity to catch the performance since it is so close to Karlstad. Jenny also coached Terese Fredenwall during Mello this year. Maybe she will have some things to tell us about her role in the contest this year? We'll see.

I will be up early tomorrow to get to the arena, a place named after one of Sweden's most beloved coffee brands: Löfbergs Lila Coffee.