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17th June 2011
Stockholm/Hudiksvall
Matt and I have been in Sweden now for a week, arrived last Thursday. It’s been a great week, really relaxing and we’ve even had time to catchup with family and friends on Skype, have a few sleep-ins and take in the beauty of the country. This is by far our favourite place so far, and somewhere I would not hesitate to come back to (and hope I do!!) in the future.
We have spent the week with Robert, Jenny and little Irma (their 10 month old daughter), who is a real little cutie and a lot of fun to be around. After the busy month of travelling on the Vodkatrain, its been amazing to have a rest and relax in one place for longer than a few days. Not to mention we have had great hosts and we have been really well looked after – spoilt!
We have been to the Vasa Museum (a historic Swedish battleship that was commissioned by the Swedish King – Gustav Vasa almost 400 years ago). On Vasa’s maiden voyage she sank 20 mins into the trip as she was too top heavy with 2 gun decks and insufficient ballast and many of the passengers died. Vasa sat submerged in the harbour for 300 years. Because the water around here is less salty than usual seawater, the ship was not damaged by shipworm and was able to be recovered in the 60’s in very good condition. She was put into her own museum – very interesting.
We’ve been for a picnic in one of the local parks (where the princess of Sweden lives currently), explored the city with the beautiful old cobbled streets, caught up with Matt’s school friend Rickard (which ended up being a huge night in Stockholm – loads of fun), visited the old castle at Voxholm (which was also used as a war prison), and just yesterday took a road trip from Stockholm up to Jenny’s mums place in Hudiksvall (about 3 hours north of Stockholm). The place here is absolutely beautiful, we have our own private chalet literally right on the water, there is a private beach and dock with jetskis ready to go, and its really private. It feels like we are staying at some sort of 5 star resort – very lucky!! We are having a big midsummer’s festival here tomorrow, so have been avidly checking the weather forecast with our fingers crossed for sunshine (apparently the tradition is that it rains on midsummers day here –its raining today but we have an alternative plan in case of rain tomorrow
Misdummers day festival is a traditional pagan festival, celebrating the summer solstice (or the longest day of the year). The main celebration takes place on the Friday (tomorrow) and seems similar to new years eve in NZ – the biggest party night of the year. The celebration includes raising and dancing around a maypole, wear crowns made of wildflowers, eating the year's first potatoes, salted herring with Chives and Sour Cream, drinking Beer and Schnapps and enjoying the first strawberries of the season (moose meatballs are also on the menu). Drinking songs (Snapsvisor) are also important at this feast!! Because Midsummer was thought to be one of the times of the year when magic was strongest, it was considered a good night to perform rituals to look into the future. An old Swedish tradition is that young unmarried women should pick bouquets of seven or nine different flowers and jump over seven fences and then sleep with the flowers under their pillow in the hope of dreaming about their future spouse. Nowdays the maypole isn’t as common, and neither is the flower tradition, but food, drinking, singing and spending time with family and friends seems to be what it’s all about. We can’t wait!!
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