Mikico

      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.

 

      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. 

 

 

  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.

On the top!! Lets make it even higher!!

TROLL!!!!!!!!!

 

 

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 ^^

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.