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On Sunday morning we slept in late before one by one appearing on the balcony for a late breakfast with eggs, toast, yogurt, & amongst other things, cucumber. Yes, the cucumber (or gerka, as the Swedes call it) seems to be a very popular thing to munch on pretty much any time of the day or night, particularly strangely at breakfast time. They eat it on toast with cream cheese, which, while strange to me, is not that far I suppose from a cucumber sandwhich a la high tea…anyway, I love observing all these little cultural differences. Oh, & they drink very, very strong, black coffee! I guess if you wake up pitch black every day for more than half the year you probably need it to find the will to live! :P
After finishing up at breakfast, Tjell took us out on the boat for a ride all the way round the island. It's very long & thin, which means that pretty much every house in the island has ocean front views…which I guess they kind of have to, because every person needs a boat to get there, hence every person needs a dock at which to leave their boat. At the opposite end of the islands you can peer through a couple more islands in the distance to see the open ocean. As we sail past we see many people waving from their balconies, beyond the Swedish flags flying on their docks, because everyone knows everyone on this island.
When we return Martin is just arriving home after picking up some of Marilyn's friends from the ferry who have come to join us for the day. There is a Swedish born man & his wife, as well as an American couple who have come to visit them for the week. And they have two of the most gorgeous dogs with them that I've ever seen! Snickers is a tiny little terrier-like guy with a lotta attitude, & Fang is a gorgeous King Charles whose name is in complete contradiction to her nature. They bound up to the house & Elliott is not amused. He is even scared of Snickers, who must be one tenth his size! Poor Elliott! So much commotion & so many newcomers…he hides under the table :P
Everyone spreads out to relax & chat & do their own thing…the young Swedish people head down to the deck again to tan & I slather on the SPF50+ (which they simply cannot understand the need for…isn't SPF10 enough?? :P). Fortunately one of the American ladies & I bond over our easily burning skin - she is from New Mexico & totally understands the white à burn à freckle à white cycle ;) She has worked as a clinical psychologist & has a really interesting career history so we sat & chatted about that for a long time. She reassured me that the fact that I feel in no way qualified to begin working in my profession pretty much ever is a completely normal feeling when you're starting out! Phew…
We had another lovely lunch on the balcony before trekking through the woods to a clearing where the Midsommar celebrations were being held. I have never seen so many small, tanned, extremely blonde children in one place in my life!! There were a group of teenagers gathered at the front of the crowd with various musical instruments & garlands of flowers in their hair. They were standing in front of a large Midsommar maypole & playing traditional Swedish songs to entertain the crowd. Soon after we got there the festivities began, with children & adults dancing around the maypole singing Swedish songs with various accompanying actions i.e., pretending to be frogs! Hmm…crazy Swedish people! There was lots of singing & I just sort of clapped along while Tess explained to me roughly what was going on in each song. After all the singing & dancing we each lined up to get a plate of cookies (& a slice of cinnamon bun!! :D) & a cup of lemonade. Then the games began! Hulahooping competitions, tug-o-war etc. First the kids & then the adults!
After much Midsommar fun I wandered back through the woods to the house & had yet another glorious afternoon nap - is there anything better?? When I woke up many of the youngsters had left & it was pretty much just me, Jessie, & the Bojlers left on the island. They made us feel like part of the family :) Actually, before Marilyn & Tjett's friends left the island they said I could take Fang home with me if I wanted to (as I'd taken quite a liking to her) & it took some serious will power to say no! haha All afternoon we relaxed & lay around & read books before eating leftovers on the balcony in the evening. Marilyn got the fire going again just as we were watching the sun melting into the ocean.
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