It's you I'm dreaming of

The weekend was a blast and a blur. A blur when we sped off in our Renault Mégane Scenic and X DJed, and...time seemed to evaporate and I wished that our mini holiday wouldn't end so soon, that every second would last just a little longer. The kind of blur that hits when love does. And time did somehow live a little longer.

On a completely different note, our rented car didn't have a key-operated ignition switch! As I picked up the rented car and was handed a card with a few buttons on it, my little brain drew a blank and thought "Where the fuck is the key?" How do I drive that white, brand-new thing? Well, if using a button to start and stop the car felt bizarre, try my not being able to find the reverse gear! What a moronic headache that turned out to be. Even checked the manual, where a picture of the gear stick was captioned "Pull the ring". What ring? I didn't see any ring. Wait a minute. What's this gnarly round thing hidden underneath the stick, clad in leather? Ah! I pulled it upwards, yanked the stick to the far left, then up and presto, it worked. Woo! And away we went.

No mercy by Makthaverskan on Grooveshark

Makthaverskan, Lykke Li, Broder Daniel and Arcade Fire propelled us along miles and miles of the E4 motorway. Hypnotised by the lull of the road and our quite silent and very new car, we sang loudly along and naa-naa-naa'd to choruses. Yes, seated dancing was performed. We saw cows, dark clouds, rain, the sun shining through our windows and onto the glittering trees as we veered past caravans of vacationing Swedes and people who were actually trying to cross the road as we were pushing 110 km/h (70 mph).

The hotel glares over water and the main drag, which was empty of people; could be because the biggest music festival in Sweden - Bråvalla - was underway, but I mainly blame the general industrial holiday for the emptiness.

This city is just too beautiful. It's a mixture of sprawl, culverts, twisted metal and brick buildings that seem untouched by time since the start of the last century, and what has been added to the city since is quite tastefully done; there are a bunch of brick buildings that are built in the last decades, that don't bear the hallmarks of newish, drab, dated architecture that doesn't fit in with the past. Norrköping is really a city lost in its own space and time.

Let's not forget there's a bridge where lovers leave their mark on locks.

Even though the first day in Norrköping had its share of rain, it was fun. I didn't even care about the rain. Just walking hand in hand with X, holding her near...well. I felt oblivious to anything bad at that point. It felt as though nothing could harm me. And I was happy. In bed, the hairs on my arms stood on end a few times. A hailstorm may have passed by or not.

Later in the day we met up with Marcus, X's younger brother! Together we cracked open a bottle of cava. It was great meeting him again, as we haven't for a while. We went and talked for ages, had some wine and absinthe were given olives, snapped some polaroids and had lovely time. Even checked out a pub with the dubious name of Cromwell where soccer flared on the walls but we only spoke of one footballer, prone to biting. Oliver, olives, the midnight snack, modelling... And yes, the hotel bed was jumped on both before and after.

Day two, we had a little photo session down by the water; her eyes, a kiss and off we went onto a raft on the water's edge, sat down and meditated.

We walked more. The sights! My Kaweco fountain pen was used for graffiti. If he knew, William Schaff would probably be proud of X's achievement upon a wall near the Norrköping harbour. Walking around that area was wonderful. Big cranes lifting stuff, plenty of boats and everything was calm. People don't stress much in Norrköping, it seems.

We walked farther, past dilapidated buildings and into an industrial complex where a long wall was covered with graffiti, completely legit. Paint was everywhere, even slapped and sprayed onto the ground. I took everything in; felt the harbour air, saw and heard the seagulls flying and screaming, X pointed out little hills of of black slate that hovered over the graffitied wall:

I had to rid myself of a jacket and sweater as the sun poured down. Took loads of pictures. X used a paint roller that she happened to find. The seagulls continued their squawking as no cars went as far as we had. We could hear the tssssht from some who were painting walls on the other side of the wall. Silence. A bit of music. I took a few steps on the slate as X deleted pictures from her phone to make room for more. We hugged and walked to a little café that we happened to walk past; it was almost hidden and turned out to be just wonderful, in patches of grass. They even had a flea market inside of their little compound, and made their own delicacies. And we met Marcus there again.

Norrköping, you charge my batteries through a series of sparks and constant energy.

A feeling of sadness enveloped both X and myself as we left. I mean, leaving Norrköping isn't fun. However, we left for something good, which was to visit Linda in Nyköping, which was fun! That town is different from Norrköping, yet similar; both places have winding roads, is fairly convoluted by water and loads of green spaces. The pink hand and hat in the water stood out in a bad way, but walking through green areas, next to a castle, onto newly minted, flat cobblestone streets onto a boardwalk, that's some trip! The houses in Nyköping mostly had flat surfaces - as far as I saw, anyway - and most of them stood out to look quite new, which to me mainly is what is different between Nyköping and Norrköping: Norrköping is Berlin and Manchester intertwined, while Nyköping is 1950-ish newly built and bright. I love me some dirt.

Having lunch right next to the water was sweet. We then left for home in our car.

Just Like a Dream by Lykke Li on Grooveshark

X's feet on the dashboard. My hands strumming the wheel, or rather one hand as the other one was in X's lap. Singing along at full neck while the car inched slowly forward on a crowded highway, and I wouldn't have traded it for anything else. Even if the sun had gone down and the rain had started falling, or if lava would have flooded the fields next to the road, I wouldn't have been bothered much. She kissed me. A quote from the Beastie Boys hit me: "to tell the truth I am exactly where I want to be."

There will be more driving soonish. And I can't wait to get back to Norrköping.