We all bid a sad farewell to Josh, Reyna and Sue, who left early Sunday morning. It was a little difficult because not only were they leaving Stockholm, but all three were off to different parts of the world; Reyna went back home to London; Sue was off on a four-week tour of Asia; and Josh was heading back to Los Angeles. Sniffle! Parting is such sweet sorrow! With the sense of our time winding down, the 3 Swishers left took the next couple of days very easy, with lots of comfort food and conversation to wrap things up.

After Fredrik stuffed us with silver dollar pancakes, made from an old family recipe (okay, it was from the 1970s, but still), we spent Sunday afternoon roaming around Gammlastan, which is Stockholm's enchanting Old Town, an island smack in the middle of the city. It was the original Stockholm, before the surrounding areas were developed and grew into the bustling city it is today. We hadn't really spent any time exploring this area of Stockholm, and spent hours wandering over winding, hilly cobblestone streets filled with tiny cafes and shops. It started raining pretty early on Sunday, so we ended up spending most of the day running from one cafe to the next having drinks.

In between our cafe-crawl, we walked past a church that was hosting a gay mass. Not quite sure what this entailed, we tiptoed inside and caught the last ten minutes of beautiful choir music. There were two protesters outside, wearing ugly yellow shirts and glaring at everybody, while holding an enormous sign that was so preachy and boring Linda lost interest while translating it for us later. No one paid them much attention, which is exactly as it should be.

At the end of the service, the choir launched into "Freedom Is Coming," a traditional African spiritual that really makes your heart flutter (for a snippet of the song, follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpHP8TcpDc0&feature=related), and sang it out the front door of the church, with the congregation following closely behind. Then something amazing happened…the congregation began to slowly pack the side street in front of the church. There had to have been a thousand people inside, and as they filed out, they simply made room for one another on the tiny street, all joyously lifting their faces to the sky and singing that song with everything they had. Even people walking down the street paused for a moment to join in. The song must have gone on for fifteen minutes, with the choir and pastors in rainbow-accented robes out in front, until the last person made it outside, and then everyone burst into cheers and applause. Sundays are so hectic in New York preparing for the Pride march that we don't usually have a chance to get our church on, so it was quite a pleasant surprise.

The evening was spent relaxing at home, watching Clerks II, which is actually an incredibly sweet, funny movie – we recommend it wholeheartedly.

On Monday, our final day, we went back to Gammlastan one final time. We spent a couple of hours dragging Fredrik to all the tourist shops to buy Swedish tchotchkes for our friends and family back home. A little beer stein, a couple of tomtar & trolls, a Pippi Longstocking doll (who, by the way, is sort of a Swedish feminist icon, by the way) and a moose bookmark were purchased (Surprisingly, no one came home with a viking helmet)! We had drinks at Torget, the most famous gay bar in Stockholm and Laszlo read aloud a QX article about how foreigners tend to view Stockholmers. It was pretty dead on, from their stylish dress to their wild cultural habits. Torget is a cute, tiny place with chandeliers and mirrors and pillows on the benches outside the windows, where you can sit and enjoy your drinks as you watch tourists and residents shuffle by and give you funny (or envious) looks. We also went to the main square and enjoyed a little fika in another cafe, reminiscing about our trip and experiences.

On Monday night, we went out for dinner at Kungsholmen, a trendy restaurant right on the water that was designed to look like an American food court, for some reason. It was a special celebration because we were all leaving, and it was also Linda and Fredrik's second wedding anniversary. Lisa and Anders came along for the festivities, and we had an absolutely lovely dinner, complete with wild drinks and wild Anders (who is straight) sticking his tongue down Laszlo's throat. Later that evening we watched some video of Fredrik and Linda's engagement (on the Robbie Williams show!) and wedding (on a stage with a smoke machine) over a celebratory bottle of Veuve Clicquot, finished packing up our suitcases, and hit the hay for an early trip to the airport Tuesday morning, where Jamie got recognized again in the boarding line!

And so ends Swish's Swedish Sin Spectacular in Stockholm (say that five times fast). A trip like this is supposed to change you in some fundamental way, and we believe that it has. All of us were bewitched and romanced by this amazing city and its people, and we have brought some of that feeling back to the States, and hope to keep it going forward. And although there were limited instances of violence against gays during Europride (we didn't see it, only read about it), what we experienced there was as close to perfect as you could hope for: our gay and straight friends and lovers, fags and hags, boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, just being, doing, living and loving together. It is what we hoped for, and what we fight for, every day.

We hope you enjoyed reading our daily adventures. Picture slideshows and video will be coming soon! A million thanks go out to Linda and Fredrik for putting up with us for twelve days, and never once complaining, or not making us feel 100% welcome, Lisa Carlsson for putting up Josh and Reyna, Linda's friend Johan at TV4 who set up our interview, Anita Hillerstrom Vagli from Stockholm Pride and City Hall for inviting us to the Europride reception, Linda's mom Anette and stepfather Bo for pampering us in the archipelago, all of our new friends in Sweden, and last but certainly not least, the Swish members and supporters who helped get us there. You are the wind beneath our wings.