After dancing for three hours, a two-hour drive is not pleasant. For his last class, on June 8, Jeremy decided to stay overnight in a hotel. Ideally, a hotel with a hot tub where he could soak his post-hip-hop soreness away. He invited the three of us to tag along.
I knew that the US women's soccer team played Sweden that night in Gothenburg, but decided it was too much trouble. And we aren't big soccer fans, anyway.
Taking the elevator our hotel, I overheard a man speaking American English. Although everyone here speaks English, it's a bit of a novelty to run into other Americans. I said hello and asked him where he was from. He said, "North Carolina, but I'm here with the soccer team." It didn't occur to me that he was talking about the US women's national team.
Later, I realized what he meant. And then I realized that if he was staying in our hotel, likely the whole team was staying at our hotel.
I immediately posted my suspicions on FaceBook. As one does.
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| Cousin Allie is #20. (Just kidding. No relation... that we know of!) |
After his class, Jeremy took the girls for a soak in the hot tub then went downstairs to look for the soccer team. (Actually, he went downstairs to eat dinner. Do you know how hungry three hours of dancing makes a grown man?)
Soon he confirmed that a large group of super fit, red-jacket clad, young American women were eating dinner together in a private area of the hotel's dining room, surrounded by security guards to keep out the stalkers (I include myself and Jeremy in this category).
When he came upstairs, Jeremy said, "I think some of the players are on our floor. Go out and look!" I left the room in my pajamas, phone in hand. While doing a lap around our floor, I saw a very fit, red-shirted, freshly showered, young woman. I said hello and asked if she was with the soccer team.
It turned out she was one of the coaches, and her room was right next to ours! We chatted for a bit. She asked what had brought us to Sweden and how long we would be here. She mentioned that the team would be leaving Sweden the next day.
I said that I'd seen they'd be playing Norway on Sunday, in a town called Sandefjord. I told her that there's a ferry from our town (Strömstad) to Sandefjord and that we were so excited at having been at the same hotel with the team, we thought we might go to Sandefjord to see their next match.
She said, "Oh, let me leave you some tickets then!"
Wha-Huh?!!
She went in to her room and came back with a pen and pencil. I wrote down my name, and she said to add my phone number, so she could text me if she was able to leave tickets for us.
I thanked her a million times and went back into my room feeling like I'd just met a celebrity. I told Jeremy the whole story in a whisper, trying not to let our neighbor hear my starstruck account. And then I posted it all on Facebook from underneath my covers, so as not to wake the (totally still awake) children.
At breakfast the next morning, we saw the private area for the team's breakfast, but since we were up early to get Jeremy back to work at a decent hour, we left the hotel without seeing the players come down. I felt disappointed, but glad to have shared the hotel with them and excited at the possibility of seeing them in Norway.
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| Barely awake, but SUPER excited! |
A couple of days passed, and I didn't receive a message from the coach. Jeremy and I were reluctant to book a ferry trip and a hotel stay without knowing if we'd have tickets. We were also hesitant to buy tickets, in the event that there might be some waiting for us.
By Sunday morning, the day of the game, we'd given up hope. Laying around the house, trying to decide what to do with ourselves on a grey, drizzly day, I grabbed my phone to look something up.
And there it was!
A text from the coach saying we'd have four tickets waiting for us at the stadium in Sandefjord!
We swung into action. I booked a ferry trip. Jeremy found a hotel. We all packed overnight bags and headed into town.
I can't believe anyone ever thought, "Hey! Let's build a giant boat and drive a bunch of cars onto it. Then we'll take the boat somewhere and the people will have their cars!" Because that's a crazy idea.
Like Daftöland, the Color Line ferry is something that we've been driving past almost daily since arriving here. It's on the main road leading into town. The ferries are massive, with two decks just for cars. We had planned to take the ferry over to Norway someday... and although the weather was terrible, that day had arrived!
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| Rainy day on the upper deck. |
We drove our car onto the ferry. Super weird. Inside, we had reserved seats in the restaurant so we wouldn't have to scrounge around for an available seat and so we could eat on the crossing. Getting food at the buffet was like a competitive sport for the (mostly Norwegian) passengers. We struggled to keep up. I started to get seasick almost immediately, but some tablets from the ships gift shop did the trick.
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| The car deck. |
Two and a half hours later, we arrived in Norway. Sandefjord had been described to us as the Norwegian equivalent of Strömstad, but it seemed much larger.
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| Beware of angry Norwegian swans. |
A giant pair of whale jaw bones stood just outside our hotel. Nearby, we passed a fountain with a statue of a man on the bow of a boat, aiming a harpoon at a whale. And the coat of arms of the city is a silhouette of the harpoon-wielding man. We made a lot of jokes about how proud the Norwegians are of their whale-murdering. (Sorry, Norway.)
The first thing I saw inside the hotel: People who were clearly associated with the Norwegian national team. Not as much fun as having the US team at our hotel, but pretty cool nonetheless. Then, as we left the hotel for dinner, I saw a massive pink bus with paper signs in the window reading "USA"... so, BOTH teams were staying at our hotel? How did Jeremy manage that?!
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| Women's team gets the pink bus. Girls rule! |
After a delicious dinner (Indian food. Sorry again, Norway.), we drove to the stadium. Somehow we found the Norwegian equivalent of Will Call and with our tickets in hand, we made our way into the arena.
The crowd was mostly Norway fans. Go figure.
Many of the fans were children, and most of them seemed to be dressed in their own uniforms from their soccer teams. Kids had "NORGE" painted across their foreheads and Norwegian flags painted on their cheeks. They were the most adorable soccer fans ever.
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| Norwegian stadium selfie |
We sang along with our National Anthem and listened to the unintelligible but lovely Norwegian national song. I had a little cry over the Norwegians singing their pretty song all together, because I'm a big sooky la-la.
Just before half-time, with the game still tied nil-nil, the girls and I went to fetch a snack. There was just one small concession stand that reminded me of something you'd see at a high school football game.
The Norwegians all ordered waffles. They were served with no toppings, but freshly made on a small napkin. Most people folded them in half and ate them like delicious, filling-free, sweet tacos. We decided to do the same.
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| Norwegian soccer waffle, I mean, football waffle |
Having exactly zero Norwegian kronor, I asked before ordering if they could accept a credit card. Given the amateurish look of the concessions, I wasn't optimistic. But they said yes, and brought out a card reader. We ordered 4 drinks and 4 waffles. After much fuss and trouble with the card reader and consulting with his co-worker, the man behind the counter told us he could not in fact take a credit card. But we should take the waffles anyway.
Score!
And then, just after half-time... SCORE! The American team scored on the Norwegians and the game stood at 1-0. We cheered along with the 5 other American fans.
Despite a big push from the Norwegian team, the score remained the same and the game ended with the American team on top. I had mixed feelings about the recent US win over Sweden, because I feel some loyalty to Sweden as our temporary adopted home. However, I feel no loyalty (and a mild opposition) toward Norway, so I was unabashedly happy about this win. (Sorry, not sorry, Norway.)
Back at the hotel, it was my turn to do the evening stalking. Jeremy stayed up in the room with the girls, while I hung out in the lobby looking at my phone, waiting for the team to arrive. There was a group of four women who were clearly soccer superfans waiting for the US team with shirts for them to sign. I saw the coach who had left us the tickets walk by. I was too embarrassed to call her name and thank her again.
When the team arrived, the beefy security dude told me and the superfans that the players wouldn't be signing anything or taking pictures with anyone, but we could take pictures of them as they walked by. I took some truly horrible pictures. And then posted them on Facebook.
We had to get up at the crack of dawn to catch the early ferry. This time, our seats were at the very back of the ship, up against a window. We waved goodbye to Norway as we crossed back to Sweden. Of all the strange and unexpected adventures we've had here, this one takes the cake!
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