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.)

Outside lunch at cafe Flickorna Helin & Voltaire

Enjoying giant kanelbullar at Saturnus

The pretty princess urinal got the thumbs-down

M&R in Stortorget

Art/art history majors from MWC...like a mini college reunion!

The non-traditional way to don a silly hat

Pensively non-trad

Riddarholmen bonfire, overlooking the water and Stadshuset

Hooray!

First outdoor fika of the year

Woohoo for 4-day long weekends (for Stu from his internship, not me...there are no real holidays for the unemployed!) And it is GORGEOUS in Stockholm. So many people are out, and lots of tourists. I guess all of Europe celebrates a lengthy Easter.

We finally had a proper fika outside of a konditori in Gamla Stan. Well, not proper: who drinks light beer with their lemon meringue pie? Stu. blech.

Glad påsk!

March 17th

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Again, I was the only one on the subway, as well as the only one in class, wearing any green whatsoever. It makes me feel *so* American (oddly, not Irish!) But any American kid has it banged into their brain that you must wear green on March 17th, or face the consequences...you will get pinched. And kids pinch hard! They are going for black & blue to shame you for your lack of green. I guess it has stuck with me, because both Stu and I left the house with plenty of green on this morning.

This year, we are skipping out on Irish pubs. We learned our lesson last year. Instead of going to a bar, though, we are going to barTEND. We are helping out a friend at an art opening event sponsored by Absolut Vodka this evening, so Stu and I will be slinging Cape Cods instead of swigging guinness. If you happen to be in Hammarby Sjöstad, stop by! But be sure to wear green, because I am American. And I will pinch.

Dec 25, 2010

Day 7

Merry Christmas. The climate here doesn’t feel too Christmas-y but the funny thing is it’s closer to the real thing, eh? Watched the TV coverage from Bethlehem, and went to the Swedish-owned restaurant that had a Julbord. Oddly, for dinner we ate at KFC (we can't get the Colonel in Stockholm. Merry Xmas, indeed!)

We’ve been answering the question “Where are you from?” with “Sweden” becuase it’s true, and because it just seems easier than dealing with however they may feel about America. Not that most people here can tell, as many of the shop barkers (touts, in our guidebook) are yelling “Finland!” hopefully at us.

Arabic Santa (stuffed with pillows) and a very happy Russian sunbather

Snow-dark-snow-dark

Snow-dark-snow-dark, so on, so forth.

That's basically how the days have been passing, not day-night-day-night. It is so dark, from 3:30pm one day until 8am the next. And it is SO COLD in Stockholm right now! There was a warning yesterday for a small winter storm hitting our general chunk of the country, and the weatherperson actually said something to the effect of "Time to put on those gloves and hats!" Really? Just now?!?

I haven't left the house without hats and gloves since the end of September, thankyouverymuch. I sometimes wear them *inside* the house, it's so cold. 

Maybe it's just another showing of how Swedes are hardcore, and I am a wimp.

So, it took me nearly an hour to get home tonight with all the bus delays (and there were airport delays, as well, but apparently not due to the weather but because of illness!) Because the 65 bus never even came to pick up me and the rest of the hoard of people waiting just after 5pm, I walked 2/3s of the way home on the ice. But I got to see the NK windows all done up, which means the holiday season has officially begun! The theme was jultomten in exotic places. One of which was Egypt! That made the dismal, frigid walk home a little more bearable.

Me & Stu on our little magic carpet, flying over the pyramids...and a tour bus?!?

I looked over the last few posts, and realized that nearly every one shown on the homepage of our blog mentions our trip to Egypt. Can you tell I am excited? My life has become measured in the change-over between snow & dark & snow & dark. I'm frickin' excited.

Auld Reekie

First thing's first, I was slightly disappointed to read today that Brad Pitt was not in fact cast in leading role for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Instead, Daniel Craig will play Mikael Blomkvist. Admittedly, he is a better fit to the role, but I was looking forward to some Brangelina sightings in Stockholm this fall.

Anyway, I thought I'd write a little about the trip we just came back from. Stu & I spent one week in Edinburgh and one week around Germany with his mama Jinni and cousin Judi (with a day or two of our friends Emre & Patti thrown in there for good measure.)  I guess we fit the stereotype that Americans are obsessed with our genealogy--I had a friend who had to count on two hands how many countries she could say she was "from," including being 1/18th American Indian--because we planned the trip with the idea of scouting out where Stu's mother's side of the family came from. Including Saint Andrew's in Scotland (of course with a family name like Smith, its hard to say exactly from who & where!) and a tiny town in southern Germany (more on Deutschland in another post.)

(Our wedding in 2008, getting in touch with the Scottish roots!)

But we also went because I felt a little cut-off from the librarian world since moving to Sweden and wanted to attend the UK art librarian conference ARLIS/UK, held in Edinburgh. So while I conference'd (which was definitely a nice  meeting, and led to some great networking!) Stu, Jinni & Judi got their family-history on in Saint Andrews. During the British Open. Whoops! The town was flooded with golf enthusiasts and news reporters. They nearly had a Tiger Woods sighting, but the afternoon they were there, the winds caused his rounds to be postponed. Ah well. There are pictures in the slideshow below.

We also took a trip through the Highlands, seeing Loch Ness on the way. Wow, the name of the area is right on...you feel like you are so much closer to the sky. The clouds just seem to hang lower, scraping the bens (peaks) and hovering heavy in the glens (valleys.) It is really beautiful country. The history is fascinating, especially coming from a ruddy Scot with a chip on his shoulder and a thick accent. And a note, Brave Heart is apparently guilty of gross inaccuracies on many fronts...William Wallace and Robert the Bruce never even met!

But Edinburgh was a real treat. I have this little problem where I go to these beautiful European cities and fall in love and start plotting to move there. I had this happen with Edinburgh. It has some great architecture, super museums, good shopping, surprisingly good food and AWESOME pubs. The old and new cities are surrounded by crags and hills and trees and nature. What more do you need? Okay, so the weather leaves something to be desired, with rain coming out of nowhere, and since they are on a similar latitude to Stockholm, it's a dark winter (though mild.) But I could live there. Who couldn't love a city that has the constant lulling music of bagpipes drifting through the air?

We hiked up Arthur's Seat above the town, we walked ourselves silly all over the Royal Mile and between old (aka medieval) and new (aka 1760s) Edinburgh, we ate ourselves silly with fish & chips, neeps and tatties, even haggis. Saw lots of kilts. Stu generally used a fake Scottish accent for the entire week, inspired by the surroundings (and probably the alcohol.) We did a whiskey tasting. Well, the ladies and Stu did a real whiskey tasting, and I kept the training wheels on.  And beer. Lots of beer. We even made a new friend, "Jack the lad" at the pub, who took a particular liking to Jinni (we made a hasty getaway in a cab to save her from his partying!) All in all, a great trip. And we left lots undone, so we have an excuse to go back! Or, you know, move there.

Swedish National Day!

Hooray for Sweden! Today June 6th is Swedish National Day. Not quite on the level of craziness as when in the US they celebrate 4th of July--no fireworks for example, or thrown rocks. But then again, Swedes have Midsummer to look forward to. Maybe they are just better organizers.

We went out to enjoy the last day of Smaka på Stockholm and the first day of Love Stockholm 2010. (Maybe we're not such bad planners?) For some reason, even though we are students and have a lot more free time, we decide to go out to events like this on the weekends when they are most crowded. Today wasn't full-scale elbowing people out of the way crowded... But it had it's moments. In any case, we are experiencing some of the best weather of the year so there was a definitely Live and Let Live vibe. For those of you playing from home, Stockholm in June feels like DC during the Cherry Blossom Festival. And it's perfect.

We took a long walk today. From about noon until 5pm we were out of the house and in the festival grounds. Mostly, it was just bluer and yellower out doors with Swedish flags everywhere. But I didn't notice too much overt celebrating... That is, except from... Anne. She proudly wore her yellow and blue t-shirt with a plaid dala häst that of course we bought in Seoul Korea. Naturally.

Smaka på Stockholm was a wonder food fest. And it was great people watching with all sorts of people there from soccer hooligans in jerseys to Indian families in saris. Anne went for a mango chicken wrap but I was happy to have the grilled meat from Aftonbladet. With lemon pepper. I also like that you can order a beer without anyone having to forget that you're an adult (even though Anne did get carded). That is, no silly armbands. I could just order and enjoy responsibly. Also, I liked the irony of being able to choose a Budvar. Americans are used to Budweiser, but Budvar is the real deal.

wikipedia it, go ahead. You know you want to. I'm just feeling too cheeky to paste a hyper link. Ok, I'll do it. See what I mean? Amazing irony, because Anheiser Busch does not taste like that beer, but its usually all Americans can get at large outdoor sponsored events requiring armbands to order beers. And they call Sweden Communist. I digress...

So, it was a beautiful day, and there were horses. The city's getting ready for the royal wedding which I think is silly, but Anne is all about it. But it was cool to see a parade. Made it feel like a real national day to me. Without a parade... It'd just feel wrong.

So, here's Anne demonstrating poor purse awareness, like they warn you about with the looming yellow hand in the posters in the subway. Sorry, but it's my post, dear.

And, that's all. We had a beautiful day!

Memorial Day!

It ain't no a holiday here, so I have to work. But enjoy the day off and have a burger for us!

Cold snap

Its cold and crappy in Stockholm! Its May 10th (and a belated happy mother's day to all the mammas) but its so cold I wore my jacket and scarf all day at work today. Where? At work at the Fotografiska, the half-built museum that opens in a week+ and doesn't have fully-functioning HVAC yet. Not to mention flooring. Or toilets for the public.
After helping lug in 22 GIANT framed Lennart Nilsson photographs from a delivery truck in the freezing cold (because the loading dock isn't done yet? Or they haven't hired professional art handlers. Or both.) the other interns and I started hanging a very large wall of Annie Leibovitz photographs that will be pushpinned under glass (like this or this.) We got about 25 pictures hung when we ran out of pictures, while still having quite a bit of wall left. Why? Because we hung them on the wrong effing wall. The workmen were still building the wall we were supposed to use. Oops! We had to take them all down, and will start again tomorrow. This has certainly been a learning experience.


But thankfully its a short week! Thursday is Ascension Day, or as it is called in Swedish Kristi himmelsfärds dag, or as Stu calls it in typical Stu-pid fashion, Christ Farts in Heaven Day. Once again, this secular country shuts down for a random religious observance (I say random because its not an observed holiday in the US, and I had never heard of it before moving to Sweden.) But most of Europe celebrates it as well, and that includes the Dutch, so Emre & Patti are coming to visit Stockholm for their long weekend! (Volcano willing.) I don't quite know what we'll do to show them around, but if this cold weather keeps up, so many of the things we like about this city just won't be as pleasant. Seriously, its May 10th. Hurry up, Spring!

Glad Påsk

Today is really sad. It was beautiful in Stockholm today...the kind of weather that really makes you think "I love this city!"  We managed to get out for a little bit, but I have some funny stomach bug or something, so most of the day, I've been sitting on the couch, feeling sick, having a mini-marathon of old Lost episodes. And Stu's so super for taking care of me...I'd want to go run around outside if I were him. The worst is that we're traveling to the Netherlands tomorrow to visit Emre & Patti, and with this bug, I won't be able to eat nearly as many stroopwafels as I had been planning! Ugg.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a little about what we've learned about celebrating Easter (Påsk) in Sweden. First, everyone is off. Off from school, from work, and stores all close for several days. Its like Christmas. Basically, everybody clocks out Wednesday afternoon, and most don't go back until Tuesday (Easter Monday is also a holiday.) For a country that is not particularly devout, they really love their Christianity-based holidays!

Second, it didn't originate as a Christianity-based holiday as one might think. Easter, in fact, was thought to be when witches flew up to Blåkulla (the Blue Hill) to meet the devil. So to honor this old tale, little kids dress up as brightly-colored witches and go door-to-door for candy. Yes, they basically celebrate Halloween on Easter!

Third, Easter is a feasting holiday here. But, you know, Swedish feasts, so a smörgåsbord of sill and pickled herring and ham, potatoes and eggs. And candy! So. Much. Candy. The Swedes eat a lot of it anyway, but Easter is like a free for all. And of course, door to door. And they wash it down with påskmust, a spiced cola made just for the season (at Christmas, we drank julmust...trust me, it's better with rum.)


I think there are more traditions, egg hunts, hanging eggs from tree branches, other strange food possibilities. But we're flying to Holland, so maybe we'll get a better taste of Dutch Easter traditions?

Alla Hjärtans Dag

Happy All Hearts Day!

aka Valentine's Day.

Mine started off with fluffy American pancakes for breakfast made by my sweetie.

Its not a Swedish 'holiday' by any means, but Valentine's Day has definitely popped up as a commercial excuse for candy and flowers here. The restaurants in our neighborhood looked busy tonight, and we had planned to go see Where the Wild Things are at the movies, but there were a whopping 8 tickets left to the 5:30 showing, and none were sitting together. Those Swedes plan ahead for their romance!

I particularly liked someone's drive-by-hearting on all the cars parked along our street:

Last night, we celebrated Stu's birthday with a few dozen friends (see photos below), stupid party hats (also below) and a completely from-scratch birthday cake made by yours-truly.

I pat myself on the back for making my first layer cake, with only one spring-form pan. Those things leak. And it was edible!

And Stu wore the pony hat.

I am not skanky enough for Stockholm

That is what I have decided, anyway, as I am standing here doing lunges in my black stretch pants that, after the Christmas carb overload, don't seem to stretch enough to avoid pantylines and a muffin-top. Like I mentioned, we were invited to a New Years party with a bunch of Swedes we don't know. Because we are poor students, we didn't buy new outfits for a party with strangers, and I am digging through my piles of already-owned clothes trying to find something to impress said strangers.

You know how Halloween is really just an excuse for girls to dress up like skanks, Mean Girls style? I really think NYE is kind of the same thing. But Swedes in general dress in, uh, less than I do (or most sane people do when its -8c outside!!) Stu has some Swedish classmates that only seem to have spandex mini-dresses and super high heels in their closets. They pull it off, for sure, but it leaves the curvier of the species (like me) feeling like an old married woman because I really, really like wearing jeans and keens, and would feel like an idiot wearing anything spandex. Don't worry, they aren't pleated jeans (yet.)

And I don't seem to have anything in my fake closets even close to New-Years-skank enough. What did I wear the last several New Years Eves? Granted, we have spent the last few at our friend Dan's penthouse parties with a gaggle of gay guys who don't care whether I wore a parka or a swimsuit, so maybe that's why? Maybe there was no pressure? These are STRANGERS, so I am not sure why I feel any pressure now.

So I am doing squats and lunges to get these pants to loosen up a bit. And I have to find something low-cut enough that I won't freeze in. Preferably sparkly. Pictures later, if I manage to pull off "Stockholm skank" successfully.

What are you guys doing for New Years? More importantly, what are you wearing?!?

Reading our blog, you: a) are probably in Sweden, so you know there is snow, or b) are in the DC area, which just got the biggest blizzard since 1992 and you have plenty of your own snow (and hey, I heard the federal gov't is closed today. Surprise.) or c) don't really care about snow that much and might be sick of seeing pictures.

I'm sorry, it's still a novelty to me, so this is more pictures of snow in Stockholm. Make Stu post something different...you never know what is going to come out of his brain.

The lovely blue concert house downtown. These statues just look hungry in the cold.

You can buy your Xmas tree on the street. Literally. Its a pop-up tree shop on the sidewalk.

I mentioned how slippery the streets were (snowtires, of course! They are mandatory!) But this "Don't Walk" signal says it better:

Our first Christmas tree. I couldn't get reasonably priced Eddie Izzard tickets for Saturday night ($200 is a lot for 3 hours of well-dressed comedy! We'll buy the DVD) so we spent $25 to see the movie "9." It was pretty good. And bought a tiny tree from the Sergels Torg market, and hauled it home. 100:- well spent because, lop-sided though it is, its perfect. Our landlady left us the straw ornaments.

And we had a mini beer tasting...I bought all the Jul Öl I could carry home from Systembolaget. I drank a little too much wine on Friday night with Swedes, so the idea of holiday-spiced beers was more appealing. And Sweden has SO many! Like I said, I only bought what I could carry:

The winner. Jul Mumma? It tastes like Christmas. Or maybe Julmust with beer mixed in.
(Julmust is a Swedish holiday necessity: spiced cola. Its really a bit of an acquired taste, but rather palatable if you add liquor to it!)

A few days from Christmas. Mom-in-law arrives early tomorrow morning, and we are forcing her to adjust to the time change by going to a Swedish julbord (pictures of sill to come, I am sure. Blech.)

Pictures in the snow

We had a bit of a blizzard yesterday! I took a few pictures of our courtyard during the swirliest part.


A picture of the traffic in front of Handels (Stu's school.)
I am actually amazed at how terrible the roads are, even today, when nothing has come down from the sky but sun. Maybe I am used to the fact that DC uses a chemical bath on the streets to make them usable? There is plenty of gravel and I assume salt laid out on the sidewalks, so they are not too bad (I haven't fallen, anyway, so that's saying a lot!) But when you are on the street at the crosswalks, its treacherous. The pedestrian has the absolute right of way in most of the crosswalks in Stockholm, meaning you can literally run in front of a whole mess of fast-moving cars and they HAVE to stop for you. And they do, its brilliant! But with it this slick, I have only been crossing at lights, since I don't know that most of these cars *could* stop safely. Not to mention, I am much more likely to fall on my butt in the street and they might not see me.


We took a field trip to the Nordiska library around 3pm in the blizzardiness. Damn museum was closing early for some fancy party, but we got there in enough time to get a book and schmooze with the librarian for a few (who had heard of me, apparently!) Then we ended up in northern Djurgården. It was deserted and dark and creepy and awesome. There were places where the drifts had gotten so high, I stepped in past my knees! And my boots don't come up that high. So, the walk back sucked, except for the stop at Valhalla Bageriet, which might be one of the best bakeries I have EVER been to. Cold coffee, but amazing breads and sweet things.


Requisite snowangels... nice, huh?



And, because its Christmas, the postal service has JulPost boxes out for Xmas mail. And I kind of love them.

School is officially out until next year for both of us...we are 1/4 of the way through the whole education thing. Its a nice feeling!
And getting ready for Christmas, maybe getting a tree this weekend, a little, teeny tiny apartment-sized tree? And Stu's mom comes in on Tuesday! We are so excited!

Shredded wheat & cranberry sauce

Why not? Today was my last day of classes until January 12.

Hot Xmas gifts for 2009?

 

For a non-Stockholmer, this subway advertisement might seem to be showing off products from the local S&M shop.

Nope, Teknik Magasinet is like Radio Shack.  I bought my European computer plug there. But apparently, they think everyone you know should be getting a Spike mat, a Clone-A-Willy or the Orgasmatron for Christmas this year. If I had the cash, I'd absolutely send you all back home one of each.

Full disclosure, I own 2 out of 3 of these items. I'll let you imagine which ones...

**Addendum: Stu made the good point that I didn't explain what any of these things actually are! You can guess what a Clone-A-Willy is (Swedes are an open, liberal people! The black logo next to it says 'Give a hard package'. )  The Orgasmatron is a head massager...its heavenly. And the spikmatta is some type of acupuncture/acupressure mat, with little plastic treads that stimulate or relax, depending on the placement. So there you go.

Must be December...

 I stole this picture from a random person's Flickr page.

I was in ÖoB  (okay, so 'getting sun' also meant stopping into the Swedish version of Big Lots for wierd things to send back to my family.)  And while I was in line, 3 (THREE) different people popped in to ask the cashier if they had saffron in stock.  Of course they'd go to ÖoB for it...its the world's most expensive spice! Might as well try to find a deal.

Countdown: 10 Days 'til Santa Lucia.  I am not attempting buns. Saffron is too expensive for my baking ineptitude. Besides, you can get them at 7-11.

Glad advent!

Can one say 'Happy Advent'?

It may have been all turkeys and football on Thursday, but we also jumped full-force into Christmas this week. We had the first glögg of the season and our first Lussekatter of the year Saturday, and went to umpteen Christmas markets. And this evening, we lit our first candle for advent.

We observed a lot of Swedishy traditions in my house growing up, and we had these pretty candle holders, but lighting the advent candles was never one of our things. Its probably because we weren't a very religious household, come to think of it. But in Sweden, every window has a 4-candle holder, and I had to look it up to find out more why.  While it is definitely a religious tradition, its also a countdown to Christmas, in a way, and on the first Sunday, people light the first candle in the Advent candlestick during the evening meal. Each following Sunday until Christmas, another candle is lit, until all four candles are glowing on the 24th.

Our evening meal was popcorn and leftover pumpkin pie, so it maybe didn't have the magic it was supposed to. But in the dark, it is lovely to see all the other windows on the street with lit candles and glowing stars.

Tacksägelsedagen

aka Thanksgiving!

Because you wanted to see pictures of a turkey (I call him Stu.)

It was our first-ever time being in charge of making a large, gibblety game bird edible. We ordered the thing 2 weeks ago, but it wasn't until Monday that the grocery store told us they *might* not get our bird, so JLP & I spent Monday scouring grocery store freezers and the butcher counters. We got one, conveniently, at the turkey store in Östermalm (who knew they had a store dedicated to turkeys in a country that doesn't seems to eat them!?)  It set us back about $90, but we walked out with a giant frozen 7.3kg (thats over 16 lbs!)

We had 14 in our tiny apartment for dinner.  Someone lent extra chairs and someone brought extra forks. It started an hour and a half late because turkeys take longer to cook than the Butterball website tells you (lesson learned.) Thankfully, it was potluck. But there was all the reminders of home:

turkey, green bean & sweet potato casseroles, stuffing, jelly & fresh cranberry sauces, Coca-cola, rolls & gravy, punkin and apple pies, hooooly, we stuffed ourselves silly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the best on record. We are thankful to have gotten to spend it with some great friends, new & old, in lovely little Stockholm.