Last weekend I flew to Stockholm last weekend to see my friend Sofia! Sofia and I studied together at the université catholique de l'ouest for a quarter when I was a junior in college! It just so happened that the weekend I chose to go to Stockholm was their midsummer celebration so I was in for a treat!
Saunas, apparently, are a big part of Swedish culture so we hit that up afterwards and then would cool off by jumping into the inlet. I made the mistake of dipping my toe in to see just how FREEZING the water was so I opted not to but now I kind of regret it!! For the record, they said that this midsummer was the coldest midsummer they've had since the late 1800's!
What is midsummer? I'm not really sure and the people I asked didn't really have great explanations, haha. From what I gathered, it is a celebration of summer (longest day of the year) and fertility. There's a huge maypole that people usually dance around that have two circles on either side...I'll let you use your imagination.
A legit maypole
Our makeshift one :)
I arrived extremely late Thursday night and was picked up by Sofia and henrik (her hubby) then went straight to their apt to sleep. The next morning we woke up very early and headed to the archipelago (near nörtalje) to Sofia's friend Johanna's family's summer house. Haha that was a lot of association going on there.
The landscape on our way to the cabin reminded me a lot of Oregon. Lots of trees and green. It was nice. Once we got there, Sofia, Johanna and I set out to find wildflowers to make the a garland for the table and for decorations in general. It was clearly not Johanna's first time doing this. With some twine and leaves we found in the yard, she was able to fasten together an amazing garland that we decorated the table with!
i was in awe
the finished garland is hanging above the table!
We had a traditional herring lunch which was actually quite tasty! Everyone kept telling me I didn't have to like it and that it was an acquired taste but I didn't mind it. The herring comes out of a can and is in many types of sauces. We had herring in mustard, garlic, vinegar, archipelago (no clue what this was but I enjoyed it) and vodka lime (yes this was a flavor). In addition there were Swedish meatballs Sofia made the night belfry potatoes, salmon and sambuca!
the herring is on the left!
our midsummer crew
After lunch we went to our makeshift maypole and danced and sang with some of Johanna's extended family. At one point there was the most absurd relay possible that we had to do. Each person had to run down to this station where we...
1. Scarfed down a piece of shortbread. Then...
2. Whistle! Then...
3. Chug either a bottle of beer or fizzy soda. Then lastly...
4. Nail a hammer through a piece of wood and into the ground!! Wtf right? Haha.
I struggled with this but luckily had a very lenient judge!
gorgeous surroundings
newly built sauna!
That evening we bbq'ed with her family and continued to sing songs for a while then just hung out for the rest of the evening. I kept looking outside and could not get over how light it stayed. The sky still was not fully dark at midnight and then rises just 2.5 hours later. Of course the winter is what you would expect if they have such long summers. They said it usually gets light at 9am and dark at 3. Perhaps that's why the swedes have the highest suicide rate...
this was taken in the 11 o'clock hour!
Saturday we headed back to a sleepy Stockholm minus the tourists since all the locals were away for the holiday. We walked through Sofia and Henrik's neighborhood (östermalm) to their old town and then over to södermalm in the south which has great views of the city. S
tockholm is a very walkable city.
narrowest street in stockholm
södermalm side
royal palace
We had some asian fusion food for dinner that night then went out for drinks with some of their friends. Everyone spoke perfect english which makes sense because the chances of other people speaking Swedish isn't big so if you want to communicate with the rest of the world, you're going to learn english.
i devoured this.
Sunday we headed to Sofia's friend Jennifer's for brunch. Just in town for a few days, Jennifer also recently moved to London so it was nice to have someone to commiserate with :) after that we hit up the Spirits Museum then it was time to head to the airport.
seattle represent!
Unbeknownst to me, Scandinavia is known for being quite expensive, and Stockholm was no exception. A can of coke with lunch was 36 kronor ($5.32) and buying two drinks at a bar with tip came in just under $50. Unreal. I don't know how they do it, because I don't think that the salaries are higher, and I believe the Swedes are taxed quite a bit. You know it's bad when your British coworkers say how expensive Stockholm is, haha. Denmark is apparently even higher, and still on my list of places to see...perhaps I'll have to keep that trip to a weekend!
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