24 of December, this year’s Christmas was like no other. Woken up 3 hours later than any other day with a live Christmas carol and served the typical Swedish “tomtegröt” with lots of sugar and cinnamon the morning couldn’t get any better.

Though being on a different continent it was hard to ignore the fact that I wouldn’t be able to see my family this year. But thanks to the Wi-Fi spot 3 minutes away from Gunilla everyone got plenty of time and opportunity to call home. I can tell you that the Wi-Fi spot was never empty.

At one o’clock the kitchen served Swedish “lussekatter” which is tradition to eat on Christmas in Sweden but of course none as good as moms lussekatter. At home its 6 degrease celcius and the sun is up about 4 hours, in Cabo Verde its 26 degrease celcius with the sun index at 8 in the middle of the day leaving me with no other choice than to go to the beach at Christmas. Me and some friends went to the beautiful, clear blue beach, 10 minutes away from the boat. We took a swim in the ocean and then laid in the sun for a couple of hours till it was time to go back. Arriving at the boat some had put together a play. It was three different plays from the famous “kalle ankas jul” which shows up on tv only every Christmas at 3 o’clock and all in Sweden watches it. Everyone on the boat had a big laugh watching the play and I would say I prefer the play rather than the usual tv at home. Now it was time for the big Christmas table witch I had waited for the whole day. There was lots of food to serv so everyone had to help for the courses to get on the table. The Christmas table was huge, it had everything you could ever imagine on Christmas. We were going to eat leftovers for the rest of the week, but I wasn’t complaining. There wasn’t a single person I didn’t see take a second plate of food. The main ingredients on the table was the typical herring, lots of meatballs and small sausages, ribs, potatoes, salmon and eggs with toppings. It doesn’t sound so good when you think about it but you learn to like it.

Now all we had to do was to wait for Santa Klaus. Our captain Torben had told us that we were going to get a special visit and for all our surprises there comes Santa stomping in the “stora mässen” with a huge bag of presents. Everyone got a least one present each and I as many others got candy. It wasn’t just any candy; it was Swedish candy and I don’t think I’ve every been that happy for candy. It was a well needed present. Sadly, captain Torben missed Santa since he was out buying milk. Before bed we all gathered up in stora mässen and all watched kalle ankas jul on my computer. It was an unusual Christmas indeed but there is no Christmas without kalle ankas jul.

Hedvig Bonde