Sweden Flag
In order to cross a country off the list, one stipulation (among others) is that you must visit its capital. Stockholm had evaded me once before. A Ryanair flight for ten pounds would redeem that.
On the back of doing another of the scandic nations: Iceland; a trip fully financed by busking Beatles in the street, it was time to check how generous the Swedes were.
Gamla Stan
Stockholm is known as the Venice of the north, and spread over 14 islands and with countless bridges joining them, it lives up to its name. Old town "Gamla Stan" takes up one of the islands and is full of 13th century churches, old buildings, the Nobel museum and has the Royal Palace where the monarchy officially resides.
Street busking proved relatively unsuccessful, later explained to us by the rest of Sweden as: "Stockholmers are too snobby". Instead we resorted to night busking outside all the clubs on Stureplan, preying on the drunks. It worked!
Swedish Football Fans
Our timing in Sweden was no accident. Firstly we wanted to soak up the atmosphere of Sweden's world cup campaign, including a fixture against England. Secondly, MIDSUMMER. This is no half- arsed affair in this part of the world. The friday nearest to June 21st sees the whole nation celebrating as we would a New Year.
Queueing up for the Beer Shop
By great fortune, a guy I met in Ecuador invited me and my friends to spend midusmmer with him at his mansion by the lake. What a dream this place was. 
Eric by his lake and as dark as it would get
Me, Jude and Seamus were involved in the preparations. We were asked to help construct a Maypole. A 2 meter high cross, covered in leaves and with two round hoops to go over the arms. So we went into the woods, I was designated tractor driver, Seamus, with saw in hand branch cutter (later hoop maker); while Jude was helping a 6ft Swedish model with the decorations. 
Seamus helping with the decorations
Jude pretending to help with the decorations
Later we danced and chanted ancient rites and played games running around the pole, in reverence to the ancient God of Fertility (take another look at the picture of the Maypole, see if anything phallic is resembled).
Our creation - The Maypole
Raw herring was the main dish, though all the shnapps and beer took up most of the tummy space. Festivities continued with swimming in the lake where the waters proved delightfully warm. Over a final barbecue feast we enjoyed the sun setting over our private lake, though being high latitude Scandinavia, it never got dark. 
The Mansion
It was sad to say goodbye to Eric and his wonderful family, but our long 470 km hitchhike to Gothenburg lay ahead of us. It took us 2 days and en route we passed the huge lake Vattern.
Saying goodbye to the Eric's family
Another friend Matthias I met in Brazil put us all for a couple days. A chance to have a shower and catch up on old jokes. Busking in Gothenburg proved so lucrative we soon understood what everyone meant about the snobby Stockholmers.
Matthias from Gothenburg
On the Way to Halmstad
Further down the coast, we were to hook up with another Swede I met in Rio. Lotten, the coolest girl in the world, lives in a town called Halmstad. It's famous for having nearby beach Tylusand, supposedly the best in the country. Whilst busking outside the clubs in this town, recently eliminated Freddy Ljunberg walked past and heard us blaring our Beatles.
Lotten
A crazy Macedonian who works in Sweden was doing a non-stop 36 hour drive from Gothenburg to Skopje (in Macedonia) on diet coke alone - Not even Red bull. At least while he was fresh, he gave us a lift on the ferry to Denmark. We stocked up on duty free beer which we went on to forget in our lift to Copenhagen. We were distracted by the hole in Seamus shorts caused by sitting in a patch of leaked battery acid. The driver couldn't stop laughing. So Seamus spent most of Copenhagen with his arse hanging out. It was so acidic, it even burnt through his knickers. He gets out the car screaming: "guys what the hell is the matter with me. I was scratching my bum all the way from Helsingor". 
Copenhagen "Park Hotel"
Most of Copenhagen is spent busking at night, even in front of hot dog stands for free hot dogs. The nights are spent in various parks, the first from which we were violently ejected by the Ranger, the second surrounded by gays looking for their late night fix (Remember me and Peter in Munich). How cozy two tents must have seemed, thankfully no one came knocking. 
The Scene of our Break-In
Roskilde is rapidly becoming one of the biggest music festivals in Europe. Half an hour from the city, its a week long festival with such headliners this year as: Bob Dylan, Roger Waters and Morrisey. We arrived for the last day, yet they were still asking for 70 Euros. I know everyone says that these days its impossible to jump over the fence to these things, but that's exactly what we did. I later got caught and kicked out, but managed to sweet talk my way back in - if only I was this charming to girls!!!
Roskilde Regulars
We missed the music, but got to endure a night of wild partying among all the other campers. One guy kicked my ball away when I was having a kick-about so I got into a major fight. My usual 1 per year Quota. The three of us are definitely going next year for another midsummer and this time to catch the whole of the Roskilde Festival. Costs around 100 pounds, I advise you all to think about coming with. 
Me after the fight - you should have seen the other guy!!!
We hitched another ferry ride to yet another country. This time to check out the world cup action in person. First stop Hamburg, just in time to catch a screening of the Italy v Germany game along the ReeperBahn. We were feeling all festive, but soon we would be surrounded by millions of unhappy Germans. So much for soaking up the atmosphere. Now both England and Germany were out, I saw no reason to go to Berlin for the Final. So a couple more German cities on the way home. 
Sick of carrying our bags around Hamburg
The most impressive of these was Cologne where I was finally able to visit the tallest cathedral in the world. At 157m, it was something I'd been dying to see ever since I heard about it when I was last stood next to the second tallest in Vienna. 5 years it took me to get there.
Cologne Cathedral
We made over 100 euros busking in Cologne, so we afforded ourself a romantic river ride from Cologne to Bonn along the mighty Rhine. Bonn the ex-capital of the BRD proved a charming place indeed, most famous for being the birth place of Beethoven. 
Beethoven, Ludvig Van
Me and Jude said our farewells to Seamus as he made his maiden solo hitching voyage. He was off to Berlin to catch the final. We were off to France for a family reunion at my parents. Amazingly it took us 3 days to hitch across Germany, Belgium and France; where we arrived in the early morning with a fresh baguette we had just bought with the very last Euro we had left over from the whole trip.
So, after all it was another 3 week trip around western Europe at a grand total cost of: Zero. Thank you Scandinavia and Germany!!!
Danish Plate
