Hey Everyone,
Back in Paris again, and I have to say that the thing that I am most looking forward to is a Canadian keyboard! The letters are all funny over here and I keep putting in Q instead of A and it one of the most frustrating things in the entire world; that is at this moment when clearly the entire world is centred around me and other more frustrating could not possibly exist...
So here is the gist. From Nice I went to Carcassonne, with the intent of seeing Lastours, one of the Cathar Castles, but neglected to think of the possibility of snow in the mountains... oops! So instead had a beautiful but quiet, and extremely cold!, few days wandering around the completely deserted medieval city, thoroughly exploring the castle and ramparts, and trying out some of the local cuisine, such as cassoulet (which is like a stew, made with beans, and duck, and sausage). Brittany, being a braver carnivore than I, also ate blood sausage!
Next it was off to Bordeaux specifically to go wine tasting and hopefully to find some warmer weather on the coast, but alas, we brought the snow with us! Since we couldn't go no a tour until Saturday; and didn't particularly want to hang around a big city all day we hopped a train over to Arcachon! It was definitely a highlight of the trip. We initially just wanted to put our feet in the Atlantic ocean, but were tipped off to take a short bus ride over to the Dunes of Pyla, which were these amazing sand dunes and almost completely deserted (until we got to the top ans saw all the other people who probably thought it was completely deserted too). Arcachon was a lovely little break from everything, it was very quiet, but not in a deserted way. We decided to walk back along the beach, and it was so beautiful to be by the water, and the sun even managed to poke itself out for the day!
After seeing a few wine Chateau's and not really refining my taste at all, we took the train back down to the Mediterranean to a little spot called St. Raphael. This place kind of had a small town wants to be a big city vibe that was more than a little confusing at times. For example the church bells that rang repeatedly but not on any kind of schedule, or all the cars that never seemed to want to drive around the block, rather they would back up on some main street to go back to their turn... strange! The real treat was a day trip over to St. Tropez, and despite the tourist office saying we shouldn't walk 5km to the beach, we did, and again found ourselves on a white sandy (maybe seaweedy) beach with only one or two other people in sight. St. Tropez was an afterthought really, our initial plan was to head into the middle of France, but after facing so much cold and snow we wimped out and went back to the coast, but it turned out to be a fantastic detour.
Now I am back in Paris once more to finish the trip off with the fireworks finale of Sacre Cour, Versaille, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomph, and the Eiffel Tower. Today was spent wandering around Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, Les 2 Moulins, and, thanks to the flip a coin way of walking, seeing the Sacre Cour twice without even realizing we had done a circle... I am still in shock over this. Tonight I am going back to Moulin Rouge to compare the lights to the daytime blandness... it surprised me really how unglamorous it looked in the daytime.
In any case, back to Copenhagen on Saturday and then Canada on Sunday. See you all soon I hope!
p.s. Happy 50th Birthday Mom (I tried to call this morning but no one was home!)
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
St. Raphael & St. Tropez
After all day spent on the train we arrived in St. Raphael. This was exciting for two reasons, the first being that the train ride was so long, and the second is that we spent the last at least 30 minutes having to watch the lady ahead of us picking her nose, and I don't mean just picking, she was like digging for who knows what, but she made it bleed!!!!!!!! eeeew. Anyways, St. Raphael is cute, but kind of has this big city wannabe vibe, so we took the bus to St. Tropez where we walked (even though the tourist office said we definately needed a car) for about 5 km to a local beach, which was completely deserted, but beautiful to sit and relax and read on. I have noticed that being in places that are completely deserted, but you know would be busy in the right season, gives you this funny feeling, like you are one of the only people left on Earth.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
The Dunes of Pyla
This to me sounds like the title of a fantasy book, however it is a real place and one that I visited yesterday. Currently stationed in Bordeaux, we took a day trip to put our feet in the fidgid waters of the North Atlantic, to a little town called Arcachon. It was beatiful, and a short bus ride away, but rather long, yet beautiful walk along hte beach back were the Sand Dunes of Pyla. They are massive and have been growing steadily over the years to reach their current hieght of 117m, 3km long, and over 300m wide. Possible one of the most amazing things was that we took the less populated route and it wasn't until we were at the top that we realized we were not alone on this beautiful creation, but that there were in fact at least 15 other peaple, who had climbed the cheater way to the top by taking the short side up, while we had climbed up the side facing the ocean. I will note that sand is most treacherous to climb up... But the view from the top was beautiful!
This afternoon we will be going wine tasting at Chateau Merdoc and Le Maison du Bordeaux.
This afternoon we will be going wine tasting at Chateau Merdoc and Le Maison du Bordeaux.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Is That Blood Sausage?
Currently in Carcassonne, the namesake of a well loved game. Was hoping to visit a site of one of the Cathat Castles called Lastours, but unfortunately discoereved another reason not to travel around France in the winter and that is snow? Apparently they have snow in the mountains so the castle is closed. After being on the beach in Nice, the thought had not even occured to me. Oh well, another adventure will present itself I am sure. Last night, when we arrived here in Carcassonne, we had to walk over a bridge and up into the medieval city and all three of the walls were beautifully lit, it really was like alking into a fairy tale. Amazing! After checking into our hostel we went to find some dinner, and being very brave Brittany order Bedouin... we asked the waiter what it was andwith my limited understanding of the language we got that it was sausage, but I did not cath him pointing to his arm, neaning blood... oops!
(I had chicken)
(I had chicken)
Friday, January 19, 2007
Surfing & Muddy Lanes
Okay...
So I did make it out of Copenhagen, but I later found out that all the train traffic and the bridge did close shortly after I left, so the wait at the airport was worth it after all. My flight was great and short into France and despite the general warning I got about the Metro, it was fine and after walking up and down one street twice I did find my hostel in Paris and Brittany's smiling face was there to greet me!
The next day we decided to explore Paris and both of us were up for some walking, so we decided to walk downtown, this took us about an hour? We were looking in places and exploring a bit so I can't say for sure, but eventually we did get downtown and I got my first sight of the Eiffel Tour! We didn't make it over there because we spent the next 5 hours (at least) in The Louvre. It was amazing to see these things so up close, and as everybody says, yes the Mona Lisa was a bit smaller than I imagined, but I will also say that I can't believe how big the biggest painting was... it would fill a movie screen! So then it was pretty much time to walk back home again, which we did, and maybe our feet were swearing at us when we finally got back to the hostel, but nothing that a good nights sleep didn't fix.
We decided that we would explore the rest of France and come back to Paris, so the next day it was the train for us and onto to St. Malo which is in Bretagne. This was a unexpected delight because after checking into the hostel we took a walk over to the old city and on the way found surf!!!!!!!!! Which we took advantage of the very next day. The first day was spent exploring the city and then the next day was taken up with surfing and the decision to go to another little village called Dinan. We got up very early to do a sunrise surf, but when we got there found that the water had come all the way into the wall and the surf was pounding against it, and after deciding that if we went in, it would probably be our bodies pounding against that wall, we waiting until the tide at gone down a bit and the sun was up. So then the surf went good, despite the rather short 6'7 board.
After a few roadblocks, like trying to pack all our bags, two boards and wetsuits to the rental place, and then having to wait for half an hour because the lady had "car trouble" we booked it to the bus station to catch our deal of a bus, at 2 Euro, to Dinan. Once in Dinan we booked our train to Nice for the next day, and it was a good thing we did because we found that the train we wanted to take was full, so we had to take the 630 AM train instead....
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the beatiful medieval town of Diana, finding a wonderful boulangerie.. mmm and exploring a castle that wasn't actually open. Oh, and we jumped a fence or two to get down to the River Rance and walked, along an extremely muddy trail, to another small town called Lehon, where again we jumped a gate to get into some ruins to look at a viewpoint of the whole city.... it's not our fault the tourist season is closed... :)
Anyways, we made it back to Dinan, caught our train to Nice and now am in the Mediterranean. Today it was 17 degrees here, so I'm looking forward to some sun tomorrow. Can't Wait.
So I did make it out of Copenhagen, but I later found out that all the train traffic and the bridge did close shortly after I left, so the wait at the airport was worth it after all. My flight was great and short into France and despite the general warning I got about the Metro, it was fine and after walking up and down one street twice I did find my hostel in Paris and Brittany's smiling face was there to greet me!
The next day we decided to explore Paris and both of us were up for some walking, so we decided to walk downtown, this took us about an hour? We were looking in places and exploring a bit so I can't say for sure, but eventually we did get downtown and I got my first sight of the Eiffel Tour! We didn't make it over there because we spent the next 5 hours (at least) in The Louvre. It was amazing to see these things so up close, and as everybody says, yes the Mona Lisa was a bit smaller than I imagined, but I will also say that I can't believe how big the biggest painting was... it would fill a movie screen! So then it was pretty much time to walk back home again, which we did, and maybe our feet were swearing at us when we finally got back to the hostel, but nothing that a good nights sleep didn't fix.
We decided that we would explore the rest of France and come back to Paris, so the next day it was the train for us and onto to St. Malo which is in Bretagne. This was a unexpected delight because after checking into the hostel we took a walk over to the old city and on the way found surf!!!!!!!!! Which we took advantage of the very next day. The first day was spent exploring the city and then the next day was taken up with surfing and the decision to go to another little village called Dinan. We got up very early to do a sunrise surf, but when we got there found that the water had come all the way into the wall and the surf was pounding against it, and after deciding that if we went in, it would probably be our bodies pounding against that wall, we waiting until the tide at gone down a bit and the sun was up. So then the surf went good, despite the rather short 6'7 board.
After a few roadblocks, like trying to pack all our bags, two boards and wetsuits to the rental place, and then having to wait for half an hour because the lady had "car trouble" we booked it to the bus station to catch our deal of a bus, at 2 Euro, to Dinan. Once in Dinan we booked our train to Nice for the next day, and it was a good thing we did because we found that the train we wanted to take was full, so we had to take the 630 AM train instead....
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the beatiful medieval town of Diana, finding a wonderful boulangerie.. mmm and exploring a castle that wasn't actually open. Oh, and we jumped a fence or two to get down to the River Rance and walked, along an extremely muddy trail, to another small town called Lehon, where again we jumped a gate to get into some ruins to look at a viewpoint of the whole city.... it's not our fault the tourist season is closed... :)
Anyways, we made it back to Dinan, caught our train to Nice and now am in the Mediterranean. Today it was 17 degrees here, so I'm looking forward to some sun tomorrow. Can't Wait.
Monday, January 15, 2007
The Louvre
Well after an arduous day at the Copenhagen airport I am finally in France! Today I walked downtown to The Louvre, not that downtown is particularily close, but it felt wonderful to stretch my legs. The museum was amazing, the Mona Lisa, depspite all warnings, was smaller than I expected, but the museum itself was a LOT bigger, so I guess that makes up for it. It was amazing to be seeing all these famous pieces in real life. Tomorrow we are off to St. Malo and then Dinan, which we have heard to be the jewel of Brittany, I will keep you posted.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
København
Currently I am in the Copenhagn Airport, and have been since 930 this morning, despite the fact that my plane does not leave until 1815. Why you ask? Well yesterday there were rumours of bad weather in the south of Sweden, and this morning the forecast is that the bridge between Sweden and Denmark may be closed due to weather and on top of that trains may not be running... it was sunny in Malmö. In any case, safety first, so I got on a train the train my mother was catching to get to her 1215 flight. So now after, out of pure boredom, waiting with her in the line up to security I am not finding creative ways to use up the next six hours that I have here.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
A Danish, A Beer, and The Little Mermaid.
Hello to Everyone!
Well this is my last night is Sweden. The week has been eventful to say the least!
Monday: I spent the day in Copenhagen with my mom and her cousin. We started the day with a danish, which I found appropriate since it is Denmark after all, but after spending the first hour getting tickets for and waiting, in the cold, and colder yet rain, for a bus (that would eventually never show up) we hopped a city bus and found our way down to the "Little Mermaid" to take a picture with her. To my mother's dismay I braved the cold Atlantic waters, or at least my shoes did, in order to get a picture sitting with this harbour lady. We soon decided that the wind and rain was probably worse down by the water and quickly found another bus to take us back into the city where we spent quite some time, which very much pleased my mother, in an amber shop. I should note that later on in the day we went into at least four more amber shops, three of which were different locations of the same store as the first. We went for lunch in a Turkish restaurant and later since Lisbet said that the Danish drink beer for breakfast, we of course went for a beer.
Tuesday: went to Ales Stenar which is the Swedish equivalent of Stone Henge, although not quite as big. This day started in rain and I can't say that I was lookig forward to the hike up to the stones in the rain, but by the time we got there, the rain had stopped and we had passed albino deer and pheasants! (randomly) It felt very mysterious to be up there just thinking about the magnitude of the job and wondering what they were for; seeing as all the signs were in Swedish I had very little idea, except something about a clock... The view was amazing! and bonus, I got to run out along a breakwater, which at the time was definately "breaking water" and despite my best efforts to listen for the waves I might have gotten slightly wet...
Wednesday: Went in to Malmö to do some shopping with another of mom's cousins Marie, and her very cute children Herick and Clara. Despite the "disastrous to the hair" rain and wind we managed to navigate our way through the downtown of Malmö and find the best places to shop and eat!
Thursday: Into Lund we go. Another of my mother's cousins, Martin, is one of the best hair stylists in Lund, so of course I had to have my hair done as well. My sister's both raved about the experience and it was good indeed. Also saw the Domekyrkan, the oldest church in Lund, where I marvelled at the architecure. It was made of sandstone, which is not found locally, so one wonders how in the 1100's they transport the amounts they did over the distances they did! Amazing! despite the slightly erie feel down in the crypts...
Friday and Saturday: more visiting, trying to see everyone one last time before leave. Definately spending some time with my great grandmother. It is sad to think that I most likely will not see her again, she is 92 right now, so wow, at least I have long life genes in the family.
Currently: hoping that my laundry wil be dry in time to pack it, enjoying a glass of wine and
dinner at Martin's and anticipating France! and I can't wait!
Well this is my last night is Sweden. The week has been eventful to say the least!
Monday: I spent the day in Copenhagen with my mom and her cousin. We started the day with a danish, which I found appropriate since it is Denmark after all, but after spending the first hour getting tickets for and waiting, in the cold, and colder yet rain, for a bus (that would eventually never show up) we hopped a city bus and found our way down to the "Little Mermaid" to take a picture with her. To my mother's dismay I braved the cold Atlantic waters, or at least my shoes did, in order to get a picture sitting with this harbour lady. We soon decided that the wind and rain was probably worse down by the water and quickly found another bus to take us back into the city where we spent quite some time, which very much pleased my mother, in an amber shop. I should note that later on in the day we went into at least four more amber shops, three of which were different locations of the same store as the first. We went for lunch in a Turkish restaurant and later since Lisbet said that the Danish drink beer for breakfast, we of course went for a beer.
Tuesday: went to Ales Stenar which is the Swedish equivalent of Stone Henge, although not quite as big. This day started in rain and I can't say that I was lookig forward to the hike up to the stones in the rain, but by the time we got there, the rain had stopped and we had passed albino deer and pheasants! (randomly) It felt very mysterious to be up there just thinking about the magnitude of the job and wondering what they were for; seeing as all the signs were in Swedish I had very little idea, except something about a clock... The view was amazing! and bonus, I got to run out along a breakwater, which at the time was definately "breaking water" and despite my best efforts to listen for the waves I might have gotten slightly wet...
Wednesday: Went in to Malmö to do some shopping with another of mom's cousins Marie, and her very cute children Herick and Clara. Despite the "disastrous to the hair" rain and wind we managed to navigate our way through the downtown of Malmö and find the best places to shop and eat!
Thursday: Into Lund we go. Another of my mother's cousins, Martin, is one of the best hair stylists in Lund, so of course I had to have my hair done as well. My sister's both raved about the experience and it was good indeed. Also saw the Domekyrkan, the oldest church in Lund, where I marvelled at the architecure. It was made of sandstone, which is not found locally, so one wonders how in the 1100's they transport the amounts they did over the distances they did! Amazing! despite the slightly erie feel down in the crypts...
Friday and Saturday: more visiting, trying to see everyone one last time before leave. Definately spending some time with my great grandmother. It is sad to think that I most likely will not see her again, she is 92 right now, so wow, at least I have long life genes in the family.
Currently: hoping that my laundry wil be dry in time to pack it, enjoying a glass of wine and
dinner at Martin's and anticipating France! and I can't wait!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
How The Weather Was Supposed To Be
My Grandmother warned my last spring that "winter is a terrible time to go to Sweden, there are no flowers and it is always raining and wet (go figure) and cold!" While the first part of that turned out to be true I didn't quite believe her about the second part until today. I really hadn't excepted there to be any flowers, but I did expect rain and had been pleasantly surprised to have almost none. The last three days however, have not been quite as nice.
Monday was spent in Copenhagen, and after an appropriate start to the day with a danish while in Denmark we were going to take a bus tour to see the Little Mermaid. Now generally as I rule I don't do bus tours, but it was raining so my mother bought the tickets and on we went, her cousin Lisbet and myself , to go stand in the rain to wait for the bus. Well turns out that the bus driver got sick, decided not to go to work and there was no one else in all of Copenhagen that could drive the bus... brings me back to Africa! Anyways. So fine then, we take the city bus down to see the Little Mermaid anyways, I of course need to have a picture with this famous statue! The rest of the day was spent looking at amber... mom went into at least 5 different shops, 4 of which were different locations of the same shop, eating delicious Turkish food, and as Lisbet said that the Danish are fanatic beer drinkers we had to try that too. My conclusion is that it is better in Canada, although Denmark is in the top ten.
Yesterday was a trip to Ales Stenar, a stone henge type idea in the shape of ship. More rain although luckily only while we were driving, and today was spent shopping in Malmö with another of my mother's cousins and her two extremely cute children. I have only three days left and they promise to be just as busy as the rest of the trip and then off the Paris (say that with a french accent please its how I intended it)
Monday was spent in Copenhagen, and after an appropriate start to the day with a danish while in Denmark we were going to take a bus tour to see the Little Mermaid. Now generally as I rule I don't do bus tours, but it was raining so my mother bought the tickets and on we went, her cousin Lisbet and myself , to go stand in the rain to wait for the bus. Well turns out that the bus driver got sick, decided not to go to work and there was no one else in all of Copenhagen that could drive the bus... brings me back to Africa! Anyways. So fine then, we take the city bus down to see the Little Mermaid anyways, I of course need to have a picture with this famous statue! The rest of the day was spent looking at amber... mom went into at least 5 different shops, 4 of which were different locations of the same shop, eating delicious Turkish food, and as Lisbet said that the Danish are fanatic beer drinkers we had to try that too. My conclusion is that it is better in Canada, although Denmark is in the top ten.
Yesterday was a trip to Ales Stenar, a stone henge type idea in the shape of ship. More rain although luckily only while we were driving, and today was spent shopping in Malmö with another of my mother's cousins and her two extremely cute children. I have only three days left and they promise to be just as busy as the rest of the trip and then off the Paris (say that with a french accent please its how I intended it)
Saturday, January 06, 2007
January 6, 2007
Well, yesterday was the 13th day of Christmas, and apparently another reason to party in Sweden! I visited with more of my mother's cousins and my second cousins in Kristianstad. And today I have made the trip to Karlskrona to meet my Father's side of the family. They drove us around a bit and showed me the house and land where my great grandmother was raised, and also on a map the area where my family comes from. They can trace it back to 1658! I got to walk along the Baltic Sea, and even test the waters a bit, and tomorrow I am looking forward to going to a maritime museum here in Karlskrona. Driving in here the town looks like it is floating on the water, because it is so close to the sea. Apparently there is very little tide here so I guess everyone is safe until global warming sets in... Also have been chatting a ton with my third? cousin who just came back for a 4 month sailing trip on the Götenburg III from Shanghai to Singapore. Very Exciting!
In Which I Learn the Swedes like to Sing with their Schnapps!
Hello to everybody again and
Happy New Years!
I am still enjoying Sweden, and we have been lucky as far as weather goes. My grandmother insisted before we came that this was the worst time to go to Sweden because it rains all the time! But so far I was happy to report (knock on wood) that while it has rained a little bit, not while I have been out walking around.
The Christmas Season was definitely full! They basically celebrate it three times, little Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, and Christmas day (which although is not as big a party, still has its fair share of fish) I thought I'd share some of the foods that I've tried since being here: reindeer, eel, pickled, fried, and smoked herring, caviar...in a tube and out, cheese in a tube, home made mustard (which I did myself!) anchovied scalloped potatoes, sweet cheese (pudding type thing), lutfisk, and lutfisk pudding (lutfisk is made by soaking fish in lye for a while and then in water...giving it a rather slimy, and I though unpleasant, result), fried cabbage, jul ol ( a Christmas beer), julmost (a Christmas soda), and glugg (a Christmas hot spiced wine). Another exciting first included meeting Santa Claus who came to our door on Christmas eve complete with a sack full of presents for the children, of which I am still included.
Since I last wrote I have finally made it out of tiny Eslöv to Kristianstad (pronounced kri-wans-ta) and also to Gothenberg (pronounced ye-ter-boy) I know crazy! Anyways, Kristianstad was beautiful! I visited an Great Aunt of mine, and we went out for lunch and looked around a beautiful church. They have this tradition of lighting candles for loved ones who have passes, so we light a candle for my Morfar (grandfather on mum's side) and placed it in the special holder with all the others. (which is basically this round iron ring with a large candle in the middle and spots for others around it) Anyways, this aunt of mine, Ija is here name, is a little odd... her apartment looks like a museum though with antiques everywhere, its gorgeous!
Next off to Gothenberg where I connected with a couple, 80+ years old, who are quite possible the most energetic of anyone here. They drove me all around the city, and out walked my grandmother (who is ten years their junior...) We went to the Universeum which follows a Swedish stream from Northern Sweden. It was great because I got to see all the wildlife and fish from up there. And since I won't get to that part of Sweden this was much appreciated! We also went to a place called the Feskekyrka (which means Fish Church). It has no biblical ties, other that the fact that it is built like a church on the outside. The inside however is a fish market! Beautiful fish, and every kind imaginable, including eels! and humongous Arctic Crab! We had lunch here, where I got a shrimp sandwich which definitely came with more shrimp than bread...
Too soon, back to Eslöv for New Years Eve. New Year's is huge here, everyone plans way ahead of time and goes to all sorts of fancy parties and such, and me, who just crashed in on everyone, of course didn't have any plans.... so I spent the evening with my grandmother and my great grandmother! woo hoo! But actually it turned out all right. I got a little nervous when they opened the champagne at 10 in case they couldn't stay up till midnight, but they both made it and we were given a fantastic fireworks show! Literally the most amazing show that I've ever seen. Everyone over hear just stocks up on fireworks and shoots them all off at midnight. Well actually they were going off right away when it was dark, but the real show started at about quarter to midnight, and lasted till everyone was burnt out. The sky above Eslöv was alight with hundreds of fireworks, 360' around me all I could see was colourful lights raining down. It sounded like a war had broken out, but it looked amazing!
Today I spent finding some of my grandmothers memories, including a duck pond... and a rock which apparently used to be able to have 100 men standing on it, but now holds maybe 5... We also drove all around the countryside, and despite the fact that I was repeatedly being told how beautiful it is in the summer when all the fields are full of flowers and the trees are green and everything is beautiful, I enjoyed it anyways, and fully appreciated the only barely "rolling" hills of the countryside. The fields were green and the hundreds of windmills were blowing and the sky was even blue! (like I said, I've been lucky with the weather, because later than afternoon the storm clouds rolled in and everything looked more than a little grey.)
So now I am looking forward to a trip back into Copenhagen to pick up my mother from the airport. She will be joining us here until I depart for Paris. It will be excited to have someone else who speaks my language, and I will have the added bonus of having her complete the generation gap. I now will have have my great grandmother, grandmother, mother and me here in Sweden!
Hope everything is great with everyone of you and I wish you the best in this New Year!
Happy New Years!
I am still enjoying Sweden, and we have been lucky as far as weather goes. My grandmother insisted before we came that this was the worst time to go to Sweden because it rains all the time! But so far I was happy to report (knock on wood) that while it has rained a little bit, not while I have been out walking around.
The Christmas Season was definitely full! They basically celebrate it three times, little Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve, and Christmas day (which although is not as big a party, still has its fair share of fish) I thought I'd share some of the foods that I've tried since being here: reindeer, eel, pickled, fried, and smoked herring, caviar...in a tube and out, cheese in a tube, home made mustard (which I did myself!) anchovied scalloped potatoes, sweet cheese (pudding type thing), lutfisk, and lutfisk pudding (lutfisk is made by soaking fish in lye for a while and then in water...giving it a rather slimy, and I though unpleasant, result), fried cabbage, jul ol ( a Christmas beer), julmost (a Christmas soda), and glugg (a Christmas hot spiced wine). Another exciting first included meeting Santa Claus who came to our door on Christmas eve complete with a sack full of presents for the children, of which I am still included.
Since I last wrote I have finally made it out of tiny Eslöv to Kristianstad (pronounced kri-wans-ta) and also to Gothenberg (pronounced ye-ter-boy) I know crazy! Anyways, Kristianstad was beautiful! I visited an Great Aunt of mine, and we went out for lunch and looked around a beautiful church. They have this tradition of lighting candles for loved ones who have passes, so we light a candle for my Morfar (grandfather on mum's side) and placed it in the special holder with all the others. (which is basically this round iron ring with a large candle in the middle and spots for others around it) Anyways, this aunt of mine, Ija is here name, is a little odd... her apartment looks like a museum though with antiques everywhere, its gorgeous!
Next off to Gothenberg where I connected with a couple, 80+ years old, who are quite possible the most energetic of anyone here. They drove me all around the city, and out walked my grandmother (who is ten years their junior...) We went to the Universeum which follows a Swedish stream from Northern Sweden. It was great because I got to see all the wildlife and fish from up there. And since I won't get to that part of Sweden this was much appreciated! We also went to a place called the Feskekyrka (which means Fish Church). It has no biblical ties, other that the fact that it is built like a church on the outside. The inside however is a fish market! Beautiful fish, and every kind imaginable, including eels! and humongous Arctic Crab! We had lunch here, where I got a shrimp sandwich which definitely came with more shrimp than bread...
Too soon, back to Eslöv for New Years Eve. New Year's is huge here, everyone plans way ahead of time and goes to all sorts of fancy parties and such, and me, who just crashed in on everyone, of course didn't have any plans.... so I spent the evening with my grandmother and my great grandmother! woo hoo! But actually it turned out all right. I got a little nervous when they opened the champagne at 10 in case they couldn't stay up till midnight, but they both made it and we were given a fantastic fireworks show! Literally the most amazing show that I've ever seen. Everyone over hear just stocks up on fireworks and shoots them all off at midnight. Well actually they were going off right away when it was dark, but the real show started at about quarter to midnight, and lasted till everyone was burnt out. The sky above Eslöv was alight with hundreds of fireworks, 360' around me all I could see was colourful lights raining down. It sounded like a war had broken out, but it looked amazing!
Today I spent finding some of my grandmothers memories, including a duck pond... and a rock which apparently used to be able to have 100 men standing on it, but now holds maybe 5... We also drove all around the countryside, and despite the fact that I was repeatedly being told how beautiful it is in the summer when all the fields are full of flowers and the trees are green and everything is beautiful, I enjoyed it anyways, and fully appreciated the only barely "rolling" hills of the countryside. The fields were green and the hundreds of windmills were blowing and the sky was even blue! (like I said, I've been lucky with the weather, because later than afternoon the storm clouds rolled in and everything looked more than a little grey.)
So now I am looking forward to a trip back into Copenhagen to pick up my mother from the airport. She will be joining us here until I depart for Paris. It will be excited to have someone else who speaks my language, and I will have the added bonus of having her complete the generation gap. I now will have have my great grandmother, grandmother, mother and me here in Sweden!
Hope everything is great with everyone of you and I wish you the best in this New Year!
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