An empty room except for the guest bartender and he only speaks Swedish and so I really can't engage in much conversation but he has a Swedish/English Dictionary and so I am able to get the point across that I could really use a cup of coffee and so we play checkers while we're waiting for it to brew and he beats me 9 games to 4 and he shows me a painting that he appears to have brought with him and there are Valkyries fighting with slingshots, marshmallow skewers, and potato spud guns, against a 3 headed giant and several Knights that used to say "nyeekh" and I'm just about to shrug it off as kind of meaningless (uncultured bodhránai that I am) when I realize that in the backgroung there are all sorts of images such as guitars and squirrels and flowers and I get lost in all the beautiful colors and the ingenius hidden portraits and landscapes and there is a map of Kerry in the fur of the giants tunic and....the coffee is ready and I really don't even want it now as when I go home I am going to bed, but I really oughta have a cup, seems how he made it on my account, and so I'll have just a wee bit and .....MMMMMM it's the best coffee I've had in ages so I sneak a peek at the burlap sack the coffe came out of and it says (curiously enough, in English) Scandinavian Christmas Blend and so I celebrate a little bit of Christmas in October and although we have no tongue in common, coffee and paintings are languages that anyone can understand but I've been here long enough and so I'll take my leave of my new found friend with a hearty hug and you guys REALLY should have been here!

Rich