Mikico

On Thursday we just spent a few hours in Oslo, the capital of Norway, before going home to little Sävar. Here are some pictures from one beautiful and sunny day.

First off was the opera.

Ingenious! Just purely magnificent! Not even sure if I can discribe with words how truly brilliant it was to watch Muse live in Oslo. Their not only musical geniouses, but they also f*@^ now how to put on a show!!! You know that a band is good when their just as good live as on the record.

Mind was blown!

MIND WAS BLOWN!!

Tuesday was my parents 25th anniversary, which in Sweden is called a silver wedding.

We got to celebrate their 25 years of marriage in an extreamly beautiful place called Trollstigen (the troll trail), see some fjords, and had a scrumptious and freash dinner to end the day with.

Happy anniversary again mom and dad!

 

Sorry for the abcense, but we made a trp through Norway this week to see Muse live in Oslo.

On Monday we past Åre in Sweden and their famous chocolate factory. 

I love that store because of their authentic and rich chocolate, which you can watch being freashly made through a window in the little store.

They make everything as fare as chocolate goes and we even got to try their caramel and chocolate saus when we stopped there for some delicious ice-cream.

So this morning I decided to surprise my honey with some freshly bakes scones.

I got up at 8 am, trying to be as quiet as possible not to wake him up.

Then I got to work and had 45 min later made a beautiful breakfast for my baby and me.

The scones only needs 10 min in the oven, but since I was barely awake when I got up it took me a moment to grasp what the cook book was trying to tell me as I was reading the recipe.

After that I awoke my sleepyhead and we could both enjoy breakfast infront of the TV, watching an episode of Wilfred.

 

 

      On Wednesday we went to have a BBQ party at my friend Robin and his girlfriend Sofia’s apartment. Got to invite some other close friends too, so now Daniel has officially been introduced to Hanna, Johline, Matilda and her boyfriend Robert, Robin and Sofia, and Tobias. Meeting so many of my Swedish- and on top of that closest friends for the first time must have been quite nerve-racking, but the evening turned out beautifully and my friends all loved him, and Daniel himself seemed to enjoy himself tremendously.  So in other words, I’m happy! ^^  The day after we  paid a visit to my friend Hanna and her summer house. There we went out with her boat and went out to a little island, made homemade meatballs, picked blueberries and made a blueberrypie and watched Harry Potter and the Half blood prince. Around 1.20 am we decided that it was time to go home and I drove all of us back home to Sävar.

God it feels good to drive again!

      On Monday night we had a Taco night. Swedish Taco night that is, with grind beef, none-real traditional salsa, garlic dip, cheddar dip, chopped up veggies, guacamole, nachos, hard breads and tortillas… TexMex style. I love it, but I don’t think Daniel was very impressed even though he still thought it was tasty. But you know, we do our best seeing that we’re a long way from Mexico. At least this gives him a reason to make his own homemade salsa and some taquitos. Yum.

 

Today it happened. Waaaaay earlier than expected! Daniel got a letter in the mail with his 4 last digits in his social security number, which means that he now finally can start searching for a job. They said it would take at least a month, but it only took two weeks!

So today I took Daniel into town so we could go to Arbetsförmedlingen, the Swedish work agency, and get him signed up there. After that we went to REX where Daniel had a beer and I had a cup of tea since I was driving. We also bought som delicious candy. Natural as well as the sugary kind, which we later shared with mom and dad.

Got another meal of some delicious fish today as well. Breaded and spiced with curry, along with fried banana and potatos. 

Even Daniel could tolerate it.

But mom had also made quesadillas with cheese and ham, and goat-cheese, ham and ruccola, which was more popular.

Perhaps someting to write down in my book of recipies?

      The next day we went hiking up on Satsfjället. We had very shifting weather that day which caused a lot of rainbows to appear. It was a truly beautiful and magnificent day and the weather conditions, the company and the majestic nature seemed like taken right out of the Tolkien stories about Frodo and the Ring. Once we had reached the top we stopped for food and beverage, and a sip of water from the well on the way down. 

This past weekend we went to my mothers parents out in the middle of nowhere, completely surrounded by beautiful forest and mountains.

On saturday we made a trip to a waterfall that played a big part in Astrid Lindgrens movie about Ronja Rövardotter.

A story deeply rooted in many hearts of Swedish children.

So welcome to the Swedish beach! It may not look like too much for the eye, but Daniel loved the fact that it is completely surrounded by forest.

July 1st Danni finally got to see more of Stockholm than the inside of Arlanda Airport.

We started out by taking a trip to old town where he got to see the guard exchange by the royal castle, "Röda torget" the red square where Gustav Vasa's (the first king of Sweden) father was executed and the famous Saint Göran and the Dragon. The knight is suppouse to be Saint Göran, the dragon represents Denmark and the fair maiden is Sweden. He also got to see the canon ball that's stuck in one of the buildings since back in the days. 

We had lunch at "Grå munken", the Grey Monk, which has a cellar all the way back from the 15th century.

It's one of my favorite places in old town and the food is absolutely scrumptious.

After our little trip to old town we drow through Stockholm to the Vasa museum.

The royal ship Vasa sank back in 1628, got rescued from the bottom of the ocean in 1961 and is today one of its kind.

 

The last day with Karin, Elisa and Leo before they went back home to Italy we went to visit a castle.

A castle where they apparently have masquerades on request.

Truely beautiful and they served delicious cakes, tea and scones for "fika"!

So here are some photos from our summer house and how a normal day can look there.

Including a traditional meal inside of the Härbre, the brown log house seen in these pictures.

The day after we went to Åsgårdarna for a guided tour. It's a collection of some of Dalarnas oldest traditional homes and buildings, which have all been moved to Säter where we have our summer house.

Among these was a pottery and a church.

June 25th we had the big honer of celebrating my grandmother Ulla on her big day.

So much happened that day that I will keep it short and let the pictures tell most of the story.

 

We began by eating lunch at Karlfeldtsgården, the family home of Erik Axel Karlfeldt, a Swedish famous writer/song writer.

 

 

  Trolls, fairies, goblins, elves, mystical ladies like the “skogsrå” which front side of a beautiful naked woman would lure young men into the forest and turn into a tree when she’d made the poor souls lost enough. “Näcken”, a sad, young man in the middle of the river who’s mischievous flute would lure babes into the water and drown them. These are all creatures from old folklores which belong in the forest of Sweden and Scandinavia.

This is where we took a hike one sunny day to climb up on the mountain Bisbergs klack, not far from our summer house. And Daniel, he was constantly looking out for trolls. So lets see if we had indeed entered a real "trollskog", which means troll forest.

Here we have the flower Linnea which walks with her head turned from the sun. In a line behind her, her sisters follow. This was the swede Carl von Linne's favorite flower. He is the founder of the "flora", or in other words the science of plants and herbs, which he named and put into different categories.

This is probably one of Swedens most famous places. At least it used to be the reason why Sweden had the world’s largest export of copper and also gave birth the famous Swedish sausage "falukorv", Falu-sausage.

Down in the mine we got to learn about the lady of the mine, who according to legend would appear in a white dress if she wanted to reward the minors the mine, or a black dress if she wanted to punish them. Usually a cave in would occur if anyone had seen the lady of the mine in the black dress.

We also got to see the golden engravings of old Swedish kings or queens and European royalties, but maybe most excitingly we got to hear about the legendary Fat Mat. A minor who many hundred years ago got trapped and died in the mine. Not until many years later a pair of minors find his body preserved exactly as when he died and the only one who could identify the young man was a 70 year of woman who claimed him to be the childhood sweetheart.

The most amazing part about this story is that it is 100% true!!

Our guide even turned the light of so we would get to experiance the true darkness of the mine.

Also took some pictures of our morning walk around Lerviken where we have our summer house and our dinner. BBQ Swedish style ^^

The day after midsommer we went to visit the former home of Anders Zorn in Dalarna, a famous Swedish painter that lived and worked during the late 19th- to early 20th centuary.

He was a poor farmers boy that grew up to paint among many, the president of the United States, and many other famous paintings. 

We also saw some works and scetches made by Björn Berg. The illustrater of "Emil in Lönneberga", a story written by Astrid Lingren, the aouther of Pippi Longstockings.

Welcome to my blog that for the time being will be written in English, due to my boyfriend’s visit here in the land of my ancestors. Sweden.

We have now spent exactly 3 weeks here in the little country of "lagom". 

(Which basically means: not too much and not too little. The perfect amount!)

Historically it's a word that goes all the way back to the time of the Vikings!

Let’s take it from the beginning:

So we arrived on Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, Sweden on June 20th. Thank God all the stops on the way went well for both me and Daniel. Around 11 pm my family came to pick us up and we drove to our summer house in Lerviken, Darlarna.

The day after, despite the jet leg, we celebrated the Swedish tradition midsummer!

First of all we went to a place called "Vikmans hyttan" where we did the traditional dance around the midsummer pole "midsommar stången", had a "fika" (which is a traditional Swedish snack with coffee or tea you may eat at any time of the day), and listened to a band play traditional Swedish summer tunes.

After that we went home and had dinner.

Fish is traditionally on the menu

... which made me so proud of Daniel who doesn't really like fish and who still chewed down a whole big piece of salmon cooked in the oven!

We also drank "nubbe" (a really strong liquor) and sang nubbe-songs.

Over all a very nice way to be greeted home.