Walpurgis

Whew, its been a ridiculously busy week. It still is, technically, but I met all my deadlines for the rest of the week, so I finally caught up on my blog reading (its amazing how many things you miss in just a few days...I had several hundred posts in my Google reader!)

And its May! We have officially hit spring here, and the sun shines and its fairly warm every day. And, to contrast with just a few short months ago, we now have over 18 hours of daylight in Stockholm every day. Its been earned.

Friday was April 30th, with two big celebrations in Sweden: the king's birthday and (honestly, more importantly) Valborgmässoafton. We didn't really bother to acknowledge Carl Gustaf's bday, though I read that he does pop out of the castle window like the Pope and waves to the people below. Or something.

We were definitely planning on celebrating our first Valborg the proper Swedish way (aka Walpurgis.) A group of friends were taking the train up to Uppsala, where they have a giant all-day party with drinking and picnics and boat and raft races and champagne-soaked people and bonfires. Its a huge deal here.

But we wussed out just a few hours before going. There was just too much school work this weekend, and they had called for afternoon showers. Lame, I know.
But Skansen was opened for the season on Friday, and happened to be free (its not cheap, so go when it is!) So we went for a few hours. It was a nice afternoon, and we got to see some of the concert, drank beer in the sun and saw the GIANT pile of woodstuff that would later be a GIANT bonfire. We didn't stick around for long enough to see it burn though.

Swedishy Blue & Yellow flowers

Bageriet är öppet, and it smelled like heaven.

A view from Skansen 

The giant Valborg bonfire

I Love this. I looooooooove this.

Next year, we'll do an Uppsala Valborg. Just looking at our friends' pictures on Facebook was enough to make us jealous. Maybe not about the soggy, champagne-y mess that they all seemed to be. I'll be sure to bring a poncho.