Rewind to right around Thanksgiving 2009. I was living in Hawaii and had just ended a two-year term as the designer of a startup in Downtown Honolulu. I was freelancing, and had just completed my WordPress theme, Tasty. A customer shot me an email via my contact form. Seeing the name and recognizing it from a purchase receipt, I figured I’d be doing a bit of light troubleshooting and never talk to the person again. Boy was I wrong.
Flash forward to the end of February of this year and I’m jumping on Delta 1554, a flight to Atlanta that will eventually lead me to this mystery customer in the land of hot blondes and designer furniture. I was headed to Sweden!
This is where I introduce Marcus, the mystery customer who sent the contact email, asking if I’d help him with a website redesign. Arbesko makes all kinds of safety and occupational footwear. They work with clients like McDonalds, Volkswagen, and a bunch of other big names in Europe. When Marcus asked if I might lend a hand with their site, I couldn’t say no.
Over the course of the last few years, Marcus and I have not only managed to breath new life into the digital presence of Arbesko, but we’ve also become really good friends. Below are a bunch of photos from my trip, enjoy!
Here’s the first picture I took in Sweden, the sunset as I was leaving Stockholm.
Here’s the first beer I had, pretty tasty!
Marcus snapped this of me wandering around ICA, the supermarket there. Jetlagged.
Lots of hotties in Sweden, this was taken my first night out
There is a FANTASTIC crepe place in Örebro (where I was staying) called The Creperiet … I went there very often because it is so radical. This is a savory crepe (made with meat and such, not the common Nutella and fruit). Also, Loka (or other mineral waters) are very very popular in Sweden. Healthy eating isn’t difficult over there.
Another delicious treat from The Creperiet!
At Arbesko HQ, I had my very own office with a name tag. That surprised me for a short month long contracting visit!
I went skiing for the very first time at a cool place called Romme Alpin. It was my first time ever, so I sucked pretty bad. But I learned enough to want to give it another shot. Beautiful day too!
At one point we went out to a very nice dinner at a delicious French restaurant called Brasserie Rendez-Vous. In this shot I was enjoying some tasty caviar and some kind of pancake. Delicious.
At the same place, I enjoyed the best plate of meat of my life. Ox filet!
Moar babes. This lovely lady had some intense red lipstick going on, so for the rest of the night people were asking me if I knew I had a big kiss on my cheek. Duh.
This was by far the strangest thing I saw in Sweden. They have food in tubes. You name it, they have it. Shrimp in a tube, bacon in a tube, anything goes.
At one point we went up to Mora to do all kinds of fun winter activities. This is where I got to break in my new Arbesko 1695 boots. I’d been wanting a pair of these ever since I had laid eyes on them through my computer screen at a desk in Hawaii.
We were staying at Marcus’ friends place up north in Mora. At ICA we decided to pick up some beers and drinks. I was worried we’d need to wait a while for them to cool down and expressed my concern to Marcus. He looked at me like I was a retard, then the light went on in my head haha. The entire state was a fridge! So, Marcus showed me how to make a Swedish ice chest.
Here I am with a colleague from Arbesko, Celine, and Marcus’ daughter on an awesome snow raptor contraption. We mobbed all over the backwoods in this thing. SICK! It had a Hello Kitty sticker on the hood and a giant LED light bar up top to light the way. #winning
Balto! Not really but close enough. We went DOG SLEDDING in Sälen!
This is me at the peak of our sled ride with the dogs, where we took a quick coffee/snack break.
Marcus and myself chilling (literally, it was pretty cold outside) at the top. The benches had these giant reindeer furs on them to keep you warm. Shockingly soft.
I saw this pig that night when cruising around town. Being a VW fanatic, I had to take a pic. It’s a beast mode Touareg with snow tracks. Vasaloppet was that weekend, so there were all kinds of things going on up there. Stunning Pippa Middleton was there competing! I didn’t see her but you better believe she’s in my dreams.
Speaking of VW’s… I got to see the sexy big brother to my MK6 GTI, the Golf R. It’s got all-wheel-drive and a bit more ponies under the hood. Fortunately, my darling Eve is modified into oblivion and running APR’s Stage II software, so I could smoke it head-to-head. Europe gets all the cool cars.
Marcus made a habit of capturing me in the wild with my attempts to seduce the Swedes 
And he makes some delicious meals. This took 15 minutes.
I learned a small bit of Swedish while there during my month long stay. This is a perfect example of a Fika, or an coffee/desert break with friends.
I got to play with some cute Ferret’s while I was out there too! Interesting creatures.
Swedes eat pretty healthy, but they also have their gross/delicious hangover-cure treats. This is a gyro pizza. BOMB!
Getting ready for a night on the town with some of Marcus’ tasty drinks. He was a bartender for a while so he can whip up some mean cocktails.
This is be pretending to be a badass, not smiling. What a tool. Haha. The cutie on the left, Emelie, was a cool nurse from Uppsala.
All-in-all, I had a marvelous time in Sweden! I really cannot wait to go back.
