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Took a quick spin through the park last night, mostly so family could see some of the holiday stuff. Obviously, the park was very busy, and we knew that getting on/in any of the attractions would be out of the question. The walkways were mostly accessible with just a few areas of heavy congestion. The curfew was in effect, which is always a good thing. It was also very cool to see Xcelerator finally back up and running again. Lines were pretty much all spilling out into the walkways, with bigger attractions averaging 120-180 minutes. I'm preaching to the choir here, but the week after xmas remains the craziest time to attend.

Now we come to the first of three parks that Smisty and I had actually been to before. On our trip to Liseberg with TPR in 2019, I didn't exactly fall in love with the place. There are lots of things I could "blame" for that, some of which were within the park's control, and some of which certainly were not. I'll spare you the full details, but I will say that I was looking forward to going back and reassessing it under (hopefully) better circumstances. Would Liseberg win me over this time? Or will Erik remain steadfast in his grumpy contrariness? Read on to find out.... 16: Godiscupcake To begin with, we had two full days in the park, and three nights at their brand new, very on-site hotel. This meant that we could head back to our room whenever we pleased in between exploring the park and riding stuff, so that's already a pretty big plus--especially if you're old. And what a hotel it is! The Grand Curiosa was fun, beautiful, and weird (in the best way). It was also very American-friendly, with proper in-room air conditioning, and ice machines on multiple floors. Amazing! On a different note, is it more impressive to say that I photoshopped Misty into this picture, or that I didn't? The hotel also features both a children's carousel and a cafe/ice cream parlor in the lobby. Sadly, Bert did not get to ride the carousel. But I did get to eat the ice cream. Multiple times. There's also a buffet, open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pretty sure we had all three at one point or another. The building on the right is the hotel. So, as you can see, it's not exactly a tough walk to Liseberg's newly-redone back entrance. Rather than opening at, like, 10:00am and doing staggered openings for a couple of hours (like the last time we were here), the park opened at noon and closed late. Normally I wouldn't be a big fan of a noon opening, but it seemed to work, with the park not really starting to get busy until after work hours--and I did like that everything opened at the same time. Liseberg doesn't really have themed areas, but the rides grouped together here are all named after Norse mythology. No "Thor's Hammer" though. Instead there's a Max Burger. We like Max Burger. My feelings about Balder haven't changed. It's objectively good, but I just find it repetitive and uninteresting. We're literally the only ones who feel that way, though. These guys were all still riding after we went to bed. Didn't stop me from drawing a penis on it. Kållerado is named after the Norse god of skiing and being proud of your flag. The rapids ride runs ride up alongside the park's walk-through (and upcharge?) haunted house, Gasten Ghost Hotel. These two Swedish girls were scared and wanted us to go with them. Which was fine. Except that we had to do the conga line thing, and they were in back and sort of pulling me backwards while the scare-actors kept yelling at us to go faster. Listen, girls, you need to understand: I am a rule-follower, and you are making me look bad! No notes. Below the Gasten Ghost Hotel is the Gasten Ghost Bar and Restaurant, where you may be eaten by a scary monster if you are a chocolate brownie and pear ice cream dessert. This place proved pretty popular with our group. So it's weird that I also liked it. Parts of this park are very pretty. And by "parts" I mean most of it. Ooh, a car ride! And the award for best terrain goes to Liseberg, in that they're blessed with a long decently wide flat section abutting a long hillside. My favorite part of this photo is the sign portraying a drunk man fighting a forklift. Smisty is all in. While the children are distracted, we sneak by to try out the new dark ride. The indoor queue is well themed and leads to an "elevator" preshow. See, the bunnies make ice cream, but a guy who looks like a magician but isn't doesn't like them for some reason and tries to send their mining carts off course. It's a little weird, but we rode it a lot. Um...okay, it's a lot weird. One of the bunnies is a magician, incidentally. I don't know why. After three trips to Europe (and an entire life of being alive somewhere), I finally found a stuffy worth buying. Of course, it did fit in my backpack. I'm not an idiot. Liseberg doesn't have a proper fun house. But they do have a house-like thing that you can have fun in. I mean, kind of. Really, it's more for kids to just kind of run around in and explore. But I appreciate that they let me check it out. While some people travel the world and never find their name on anything (*cough* Elissa), I only need to go to Sweden. I actually have a disturbing amount of photos from this trip of stuff that has my name on it. We actually spent quite a lot of time in the kids area. I'm sure the dark ride helped. Still didn't ride the kiddie coaster, though. An enchanting game of tossing carrots into buckets in order to both feed and win horses. Mo' bunnies, mo' problems. Stampbanan. Which apparently means, "the stomping ground." Scary stairs down from the, uh...hang on... "Kaninlandsbanan." Also unchanged is my opinion of Lisebergbanana, seen here about to leave the station and head up the long never-too-far-off-the-ground lift hill. It's fast and janky and great! This and the log flume are the park's iconic workhorse attractions. Nude gardens and lush statues await you at the front of the park. Let's head up the hill, shall we? That's not a good caption. How about this: The name "Liseberg" comes from the phrase "Lisas Berg" or "Lisa's Mountain." Some of the pathway's up around here are a bit dicey and feel a little "back of house." There was a concert going on in the park one of the two nights we were there. I have no idea who it was. But here's a view of it from the Ferris wheel! You can also see some construction off to the left. Liseberg was (and is) in full expansion mode. Speaking of which...those who were interested got a construction tour of the new indoor waterpark. Pretty cool. Have you ever climbed to the top of a mountain only to find that you could've just ridden a roller coaster up there instead? Oh, I guess I could've also taken escalators. I wasn't too keen on Helix last time, so I was content to just watch and take photos whilst Smisty rode over and over during ERT. But then the ERT just kept going. And everyone kept talking about how much better the ride was running than in 2019. So I gave it another shot. This time I sat in the middle-back, rather than the front, and rode much more defensively. And...it was pretty good, actually. Never let it be said that I am incapable of changing my mind. Right out of the station. Balder, Valkyria, Lisa Banana, Flume Ride, and Helix. This pathway is an absolute photographic wonderland. And Liseberg's operations keep the kinetic energy buzzing, inviting you to just stick around and see if you can get one more train in the photo. Adding even more movement to the area is the park's new family boomerang, Luna. This area has been rebranded as "Luna Park," and some of the older flat rides have been swapped out for new ones. Sadly, Smisty's favorite tilt-a-whirl was one such victim. I don't mind so much, because now she can't make me ride it. The park even added a new air conditioned bathroom up here, complete with fancy statue-man sink. Liseberg's Flume Ride is unique in terms of both its layout (lift hill, cruise around a bit, lift hill, drop, drop, drop) and in that the park's website claims the logs to be "laughter-impregnated." There are rumors of removal, but I just can't imagine such a crime. Hopefully, it's a rehab instead, if anything. An interesting vantage point for Valkyria as we head back to the hotel. My opinion of this B&M dive coaster hasn't changed either. (It's good!) The hotel also has a full service Chinese restaurant, the Mei Rose Rooftop Bar & Bistro, where you can (and should) have your dessert served to you ON FIRE. Every floor of the hotel has a slightly different sub-theme. We were put on the amusement rides floor, for some reason. The view from our room. One last shot of...whatever this is. So, did I like Liseberg more this time? Decidedly yes. Erik's Score: 10 Tune in next time, when the pendulum swings back hard the other way!

I can. It hurts when I wake up and when I sit down for too long. It also becomes unsteady. Kneeling down on it is out of the question. Even sitting with my legs crossed hurts it. I've had minor trouble with my left knee for the last 20 years. I think because of it, my stride has gotten steadily worse. When I hurt it this past time, I was hauling ass into the boards trying to beat another skater to a puck. I lost, and we went head on. I'm not really sure where the knee was in the equation. I couldn't skate on it the rest of the night, which is not like me, even when I get hurt. I tried to hobble on it for a couple shifts about 30 minutes later, to no avail. I had to crawl down the stairs when I got home, and even had a lot of trouble pushing the clutch in on my car. I woke up the next day and it was fine... wtf. Then, a couple months later it started developing worsening symptoms and here we are... Treadmill running for any longer than 5-10 minutes really agitates it. I would not be comfortable sprinting on it, whatsoever. I've found that stretching it daily before icing it 10-20 minutes helps. Keeping it strong and doing light resistance training on it makes the biggest difference. I can't do traditional squats or free weights at my home gym because of this, so I've been going to a local Planet Fitness once or twice a week for leg day. I can do the stair climber and use the lower body machines, being very careful to apply an equal amount of force in both legs, pushing much less weight than normal, and cautiously using proper form. This has taken a lot of the pain and instability away for everyday function. Completely dropping my lower body resistance training and resting made it feel worse than anything. I was very unstable and each step hurt. Stretching and making sure that leg doesn't lose strength seems to help a lot compared to not using it. But, it just gets to a point where you can only do so much to fix it yourself. I've still been playing hockey once or twice a week, but at a much slower and cautious pace. My knee is very loose until it warms up. Once it does, I don't have nearly the speed and agility I used to. Guys who I used to skate circles around can now either keep up, or catch me. When I quit playing for a few weeks it almost felt worse. Inactivity has always amplified my injuries. I heal drastically better just by reducing the frequency and intensity of workouts, until everything is back to normal. Sorry for the narrative. It's kind of consuming me, since I'm a very physically active person. I'm religious with exercising 5-6 times per week. Hockey is a big part of my recreational life. I organize a first responder team that participates in, and hosts charity events. I also hosted weekly pickup games, but all of that has been on hold since the beginning of November. It took me well over a year to fully recover from my rotator cuff repair in 2020, and here we are again. I'm really hoping it's a meniscus tear instead of an ACL. A severe strain/sprain is unlikely, given the month I initially rested it not helping, and the noticeable loss of strength. It would be the miracle I'm hoping for, but the doctor said he thinks it's my ACL. That's what my MyChart after visit info said, as well. They do all of the work for the STL sports teams, including the Cardinals and Blues. They repaired my rotator cuff, which is only about 75% of what is used to be, with frequent pain. I hope they're wrong about the ACL, though.

I had a bad hockey collision a few months ago. I've been nursing my knee since then. Yesterday, I had an appointment with a sports medicine orthopedist. He's pretty sure I tore my ACL. I'll know next week when I go back after my MRI. Fuck.