The Katla volcano in Iceland.

Continuing on my theme of what I’ve enjoyed about living internationally, here’s part two. And in case you missed it, you can also check out part one of fun things I’ve gotten to do thanks to living in Sweden. Even the process of pulling together these photos makes me realize all over again just how lucky I am to have the opportunity to live abroad.

6. Thanks to my job on Scanorama magazine, I traveled to Reyjkavik, Iceland. This volcanic island is a land of extremes, from its landscape to its people to its light. Waterfall, geysers, hot springs, mud pots and the continental divide, this land simmers with underground activity. The Blue Lagoon is my vision of what a spa on Mars might look like – it’s both magical and odd. It was only after Robert and I had been floating in the murky waters of the lagoon for about an hour that we realized that everyone around us was getting a lot of action. Some sort of aphrodisiac  must have been in the air or water?

Vineyards in the Moselle valley.

7. A German friend from Swedish class got married to a Swedish man in the German wine country outside of Mannheim. And lucky for us, we got to go along for yet another special event. The ceremony was at a historic town hall and then immediately afterward, they sawed a log together to signify the tough work they would need to do together in their marriage. There were homemade cakes and champagne and then more later when we got to the hotel. It was a crazy hot day and the day after was even warmer as we did a sparkling wine tasting in a vineyard by ancient Roman ruins. We went to a few wine festivals and yes, we drank a lot of wine. It was such an amazing trip in a beautiful part of the world and we were lucky to get to see the sights with the locals.

Enjoying the archipelago view from the front seat of a helicopter.

8. I’ve gotten behind the scenes tours and done food and drink tastings at all sorts of interesting locations around Stockholm, from castles and palaces to the city hall. But one of my very favorite press trips ever was one that I did for Volvo. After cocktails at the luxurious Grand Hotel, I was picked up by a yacht directly outside the hotel. We drove out to our very own archipelago island and got to swim and use the sauna. After a spectacular meal outside, we were picked up by a helicopter to go back to town. We landed on a helicopter pad on the water right by Gamla Stan (the old town). I’ve never felt quite so much like a rock star.

Dog sledding at the Arctic Circle.

9. I’ve travelled to the Arctic Circle four times, twice in the winter. Summer is amazing thanks to the 24-hour light. But winter, now that is something really special to experience so far north. (Actually, I am partial to going in the spring when there is still plenty of snow around, but the daylight hours are long.) Snowmobiling, ice fishing, dog sledding. Reindeer hanging out on the roads and cooked up for dinner as well. What’s not to like about being in a winter wonderland?

10. Thanks to Robert’s work, we travelled to Shanghai, China and stayed for two weeks. It was so different from anything I expected. And I loved it. People were curious and friendly and asked to have their photos taken with me. Shanghai was this crazy mix of old world vegetable carts being pulled by hand on busy highways next to giant skyscrapers. Because I missed my flight home, I had to spend two days in Beijing on my own. Even after all the exploring I had done on my own in Shanghai, it was a little overwhelming at first. But I hiked the Great Wall of China by myself. In the snow of November. And that was awesome.

Stockholm's beautifully rocky and serene archipelago.

As far back as I can remember, I have loved being on the water. Every year, my entire family would take a summer vacation at a cabin on the shores of Houghton Lake in Michigan. We spent our holiday fishing, boating, playing in the sand. It inspired a lifelong love of the the water in me, be it  lake, ocean, sea or river.

So I guess it comes as no surprise that I love being on the water in Stockholm, particularly on the archipelago. My guest post about one of my favorite kayaking trips on the archipelago can be found on LiveShareTravel.

Here’s the second part of my favorite travel and life adventures of the year. And in case you missed it, here’s part one.

Hanging out in Stockholm's archipelago. And guess what, this photo was taken at midnight. Look at that light!

July: A summer house in the Swedish archipelago. We kicked off the month with an island getaway with friends. Not only did we have a great house, we had our own island. We even had to take a boat to get groceries. How cool is that? As our island was small, we spent a lot of time hanging out, eating good meals, drinking wine and just sitting in the sun. It was the most relaxing holiday I’ve ever taken. And the scenery was gorgeous too.

Stephansdom church in Vienna.

August: Mixing business with pleasure in Austria. We went to Innsbruck so I could attend the Travel Bloggers Unite conference for a little inspiration. We wandered around the old town, toured palaces and met a lot of talented travel writers.And of course, we ate a lot of delicious schnitzel and torte. We took the train to Vienna where the architecture and art are insanely beautiful and even the staircases were cool. Vienaa is one of the prettiest cities I’ve seen in a while and Innsbruck was charming too, what with the majestic alps surrounding it.

Hanging out on Kastellholmen in Stockholm.

September: Playing tour guide in Stockholm. My cousin Kara and her husband Jim came to visit, so I put on my cruise director hat and showed them around. I love doing that! On the itinerary was an adrenalin-filled fast tour of the archipelago, touring the old town, bicycling so as to easily island hop and share some of my favorite places in Stockholm. Of course, I had them try the local cuisine and beers too.

Looking across the rooftops of Dubrovnik.

October: Croatia – A summer paradise in the off season. Oh how we lucked out on this trip. Robert was speaking at a conference in Croatia, just outside of Split in Primošten and I, being a dutiful wife, tagged along. The weather was sunny and warm, our hotel was directly on the beach and our room overlooked the Adriatic Sea – this was off-season travel at its finest. We had some amazing local food and wine.  And just when I thought things couldn’t be better, we moved on to Dubrovnik. I absolutely was bowled over by the beauty of the old town and fell in love with a new part of the world.

In Cincinnati's Over-the Rhine, autumn color intersects with a holiday wreath.

November: An All-American Thanksgiving. For the first time in eight years, we had Thanksgiving in the US. I’d always felt like I was missing out on a major holiday while I lived in Sweden, even though we inevitably had a turkey dinner with friends, so it was good to be back in Cincinnati. For the record, we took part in sharing a 22-pound turkey with my parents, brothers and their families. On top of indulging in all that gluttony, I fell back in love with my hometown thanks in no small part to all the revitalization that has been going on over the last several years in the old neighborhoods.

Looking toward the holiday lights at Junibacken through the cafe windows of the Moderna Museum in Stockholm.

December: Spending the holidays at home. We were back in Stockholm by mid-December, just in time to decorate for and then celebrate our first-ever Christmas in Sweden after living here for seven years. As we look forward to where we will be in 2012 – and even whether we will still be in Stockholm at this time next year – it felt like the perfect place to be.

Gott slut as the Swedes would say, which means  ”good end” or have a good end of the year. In fact, there are a number of  rather perfect Swedish words for this time of year, also including god forsättning – or good continuation of the holidayys – either wishing you a continuing good continuation of Christmas from December 26th until December 30th or a good continuation of the new year from January 2-7.

A falu red summer house on Sandhamn, as seen in autumn.

I liked this stuga as it broke the "rules" and has a stylish turquoise door!

Even the really big houses are red.

In Sweden, most summer cottages or stugor are red.  Falu rödfärg or falu red to be exact. It’s a deep red paint that’s good for preserving wood and has been used since the 1600s. Thus practicality as well as tradition demands that this color be used on the typically box-shaped wooden summer houses of Sweden. And if they’re not red, then they are yellow. Both house colors are trimmed with white, by the way. It’s just how it’s done. Decision making is easy. And if you live in an apartment in Stockholm, chances are good that your inside walls will be painted Stockholm white.

Look at that cold gray water. I was definitely not wanting to hop in for a swim.

Even the seaweed had turned a nice autumnal orange.

I liked the mini splash of color by this old boat on the rocky shoreline.

I don’t usually associate being on the beach with any time of year but summer. But it was fun to at least walk along the sand on Sunday. Even though there was no way I was getting in that chilly water, it was good to see all the changes that autumn brings to the seaside.

Sandhamn's perfect little red houses.

Robert, Nici and Roger on our chilly walk.

Empty streets.

And a quiet forest path.

Yesterday, we took the ferry to Sandhamn with Nici and Roger, Although the day was gray and misty, it was lovely to be out on the Baltic in the archipelago, passing by island after island. There were just a handful of boats on the water and the sea was slightly choppy thanks to the wind. On Sandhamn, the autumn colors seemed to be at their peak, although many of the leaves were already on the ground. There weren’t many people around, as most sensible people were probably inside by the fire. So as we walked through the forest and along the beach, we were pretty much on our own. It felt good.

Ready for a fast ride – Kara, Me, Robert and Jim.

My cousin and her husband came into town for a four-day visit to Stockholm from the US. Given their limited time, we did a quick mini tour of Stockholm, hitting as many of the highlights as we could. And we really wanted them to have a glimpse of the archipelago, so it made sense to do a RIB tour. A RIB is a rigid, inflatable boat with big engines on it that enable it to go fast on the water. Thus we could leave Stockholm on a RIB and have a look at the inner archipelago on a boat in an hour and a half.

Sunday was a sunny autumn day – perfect for a boat ride. Our tour left from the dock by the National Museum and we headed out on the water past Skeppsholmen, Kastellholmen and Djurgården, checking out the Vasa, Gröna Lund and Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde along the way. Then it was on past Gamla Stan, Södermalm, Nacka and Fjäderholmarna before we could really take off on the boat.

I’d never been on a RIB boat before and I was surprised by just how smoothly the boat glided over the water, not pounding it as I expected it might. It was fast, of course, and our driver did some tight turns to give us a few thrills along the way too – I wouldn’t have minded a few more! We made our way out to Vaxholm before turning around and heading back into town via the Djurgården canal. For a fast look at Stockholm’s inner archipelago, a RIB is a great way to go.

Our boat eye's view of Vaxholm.

And the Vaxholm fortress.

As well as sailboats.

Stockholm's archipelago is rocky and when you're sailing, you have to stay on the lookout for them.

The rocks are ancient, formed about 25 million years ago, and thus smooth and worn.

As you make your way out into Stockholm’s archipelago, one of the first things you notice is how many islands there are. Formed of granite and gneiss, there are somewhere around 30,000 islands, but only about 170 of them have a permanent population living on them. So it makes it easy to pull up on a kayak or boat and have your own private picnic. For our holiday, we rented a place midway up the northern part of the archipelago, south of Blidö, north of Ljusterö and near Östra Lagnö. It felt like our own mini paradise.

Looking down at Robert and Giorgio, on the jetty after a swim and sauna.

The sauna house.

Another view of the rock on our island.

One of the many uninhabited islands by our island.

That's a midnight sky behind us!

We spent a lot of time in the sauna, then jumped into the Baltic from this jetty.

We got back into town from the summer house yesterday. I miss the island already. But it feels like I did what I needed to while there – namely, taking time to watch the sunsets, read, swim, drink wine, hang out with friends. I even just laid in the sun on a lounge chair. I never do that. What I didn’t do: check mail or blog every day. It felt good.

We ate a lot of good meals, complete with desserts.

And we danced on the jetty. Kathleen and MB bust a move here.

Friends came to visit via boat from their summer houses.

When the weather was nice, we swam. And just floated.

And best of all, we took the time to watch the sunsets.

The sauna house.

I can’t remember the last time I did so little. On our island, it’s just us. No shops, cafes, bars. So we’ve read, chatted and ate. It’s been so relaxing that I’ve found it hard to force myself to get on the computer.

Our July 4th bbq. Notice the layers of clothing. But we still are eating outside.

Eating has been a major part of our entertainment. When we’re eating lunch, we talk about what we will have for dinner. Our Italian friend Giorgio has been spoiling us with his cooking – pasta al forno, homemade pizza, tiramisu and a custard/meringue with smultron – tiny wild strawberries that are growing all over our island.

At least we had sun on Saturday!

Since the weather has been gray and chilly the last three days – around 18 degrees c – we’ve also spent a lot of time in the sauna getting warm and then jumping into the Baltic to cool off. Yesterday, we had our first visitors. Debora joined us for an American-style fourth of July bbq – complete with hamburgers and baked beans – then Theresa and Torsten came for dinner. It’s really been lovely. Although we wouldn’t mind a bit of sunshine again.

Today it's again gray. But it's still beautiful.