IKEA adventure

So Tom and I made a trip to the original IKEA store the other day.  We got off the tunnel-bana (subway) around 1 pm and tried to find our way to the store.  Considering the fact that all we had was a re-drawn google map on a piece of paper, and both of us are effectively illiterate, we are lucky we made it.  After about 15 minutes of wandering around, we finally found a street name that we recognized, and were on our way.  About 3 minutes later we saw it, and our adventure begun.

We began the stop at the IKEA restaurant.  We had heard about the restaurant from others, and were told we needed to give it a try.  So both of us ordered the meal with 15 swedish meatballs ( w/ gravy and cranberry sauce), potatoes, salad, a roll, chocolate mousse, and a drink for only 59- SEK.  Looking back this seems expensive ($9.26 USD), but looking forward, this meal was dirt cheap, and really, really good.  I haven't been able to find a restaurant here where you can get your entree ( not meal) for under 150- SEK, so relatively, this was a steal.  Because of this Tom and I have decided to go to IKEA every Wednesday for lunch while we are here in the country.

After we ate, we began the journey.  IKEA is 4 floors of madness.  If I were to describe it, I would have to say it was a madhouse.  We started out at the top, and began to make our way down.  The top three floors are mainly room setups ( kitchen, bed, bath, living) and you can't actually pick anything up on those floors.  If you want something you have to write the tag number down and get it later.  So, at this point I was getting frustrated because we had been walking around for 45 mins and didn't have anything in our bags.

Finally we made it to the lower level, the mecca of anything usable.  I had never seen so many household items in one place at one time in my entire life.  Costco who?  Wal-Mart what? This store is off the hook.  I really can't describe it other than everything you could ever want or need fro your house or apartment.  So, after walking through the mecca, Tom and I found what we were looking for, and were on our way out.  For only 318- SEK apiece, right about $50 USD, we felt like we made out like bandits.  I thought IKEA was cheap in the US, but this is a whole new level of cheap.  It seems like they were giving their stuff away, and everyone was willing to take it.  Basically, it was awesome.

So after paying, Tom and I made our way back to the tunnel-bana without a hitch and were on our way home.  We both bought Sony Ericsson Walkman cell phones (cheap for the features), and they were well worth it.  On the way home some drunk bum was either trying to get money from us, or just wanted to chat, but either way both of us put our headphones in as to tell him we weren't interested.  Worked out great.  The picture quality on the phone isn't so hot, as you can see from the pictures, but otherwise the phones are sweet.  Until next time...