Livet (Just) Lagom: Valborg

01 May, 2011

Valborg

Last year, I said we'd definitely spend Valborg 2011 in Uppsala, drenched in champagne and racing rafts.

I lied. We didn't. Our friends Mandy & Reid came for a long weekend from NYC, and it just seemed crazy to take the train to Uppsala for the event when they had such short time to see Stockholm. We got about 3 whole days with them, lovely weather, spent a ton of time in Gamla Stan and Djurgården, they saw the Vasa Museum, we ate A LOT, finally trying out Pubologie (good place! Just don't go if you're starving and want big portions) and introducing them to some of the good and the strange Swedish traditions and foods. We had a fantastic time with them here.

And we did celebrate Valborg! We were going to picnic with some friends and do the big central celebration and bonfire at Riddarholmen, but it threatened rain and we decided on a living room picnic instead (complete with cold fried chicken.) And someone decided there should be silly hats...kind of an ode to the silly hats for the British wedding and the silly sailor hats that new graduates in Sweden wear on Valborg, but since we had neither, we went with silly birthday cone hats. We missed most of the singing and poems on the island, but made it to see the bonfire just before dark...so beautiful. So many people. We stuck around long enough to listen to a troubadour singing Evert Taube ballads, and left just as they opened the mike to anyone. Specifically, we left the moment a young Swede popped up on stage and started singing Justin Bieber.

Now Mandy and Reid are heading to London for the week. Planned it smart---just missing the chaos of the royal wedding. Which I totally watched live (or tried to...BBC's live feed got overwhelmed and I found myself "watching" stills, but whatever.)