I am not into kitschy tourist souvenirs, and many of the Spanish chainstores are in Sweden as well. Spanish Inditex owns Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, and Uterqüe and they are in the rest of Europe as well, so I have not bought much at all.
So far I have purchased a t shirt, socks, deodorant, a book, and some local skincare products (I love testing local skincare in countries I visit). I bought a facial cleanser, some conditioner, and all-purpose skin cream. aloe vera and bananas grow everywhere here. In South Africa they have a different kind of aloe, aloe ferox, which is available in local beauty products.
My husband bought me an absolutely stunning brown and teal summer dress which is going to be a staple in my wardrobe when Sweden warms up again. When we were on Mount Teide, he bought me a ring with volcanic stones in it (olivine and obsidian). It was nice to choose a ring with volcanic stones in it while standing on an active volcano!
I also saw these pens in a shop nearby our apartment and I really really liked the look of them.
I didn’t query any further about the pens as I have my Gillio pens with me, collected over the years.
In the evenings we both sit and read, and my reading selection has been not very ‘me’. I could not find any English books that tickled my fancy at the Airport in Stockholm, so I grabbed the John Grisham and Lee Childs books in desperation so I would have something to read on the plane.
I enjoyed The Sentinel more than Camino Winds but neither were really my cup of tea. When I finished them I could not find a single bookstore here, so I grabbed the Dicker book off a dusty shelf in a small Spar supermarket. It was one of three books in English and the most appealing. I am actually really enjoying it, though I am only a third of the way through. It was translated from French and the translation is actually really good. It reminds me of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. I tend to be a binge reader. I like to read a book from start to finish, not three pages here and there. But I am trying to make this one last as long as possible.
