Sun and water: this is where I want to be

Today I wore shorts

Sundown in Lilla Sunnersta

That's right, all you guys who have been posting up pictures of cherry blossom-lined streets in Vancity, and making me horribly envious of what's happening in beautiful B.C.  Yet, today marked the first time since September that I wore something that didn't completely cover me from head to toe.  In fact, I had to look long and hard for my shorts and running shirt, since they've been slowly moved further in to the back of the closet, gathering dust, over the past seven months.

But today was special.  Sun, a nice breeze, and a blue sky.  A 14 degree kind of day, believe it or not!   It was such a perfect day in so many respects, and I realized how much I've missed warm weather.  Having spent 5-6 months in snow, I've really learned to appreciate days like this, and today called for a walk along the river towards Lilla Sunnersta with Elvira and Robert, followed by a late afternoon run through the forest with Elvira, and finished off with Robert's waffles + whipped cream + maple syrup in the corridor.

Before we get to far ahead of ourselves, it's apparently supposed to be colder later on this week, maybe even dropping down to -10 and a bit of snow.  Still, this brief appearance of a warm spring day made me very, very happy.

In other news, today I learned something very important: bälle (pronounced in the same way as "ballet") means a man's private parts.  So don't say something like, "I love ballet!"

Also, just one week til my St. Petersburg trip!!

Ordinary Traditional Swedish Mealtime, Week 2

Trust me, it's tastes better than this pictures make it look.

Like almost every other European country, Sweden also has its own version of a dumpling.  In this case, it's a dumpling made of potato and flour.  The version that I made is called pitepalt, and originated from the northern part of Sweden in the town of Piteå (pronounced "peet-ay-oh").  It's very similar to another Swedish potato dumpling, kroppkakor, except that this is made with raw potatoes instead of cooked potatoes.

Traditionally, this dumpling filled with salted ham, boiled and served with butter and lingonberry sauce or jam (lingon sylt).

It's really easy to make, and the most time-consuming part is grating the potatoes, while trying to avoid grating your fingers.

Peel and grate 1 kg of potatoes, then squeeze out the liquid.  Add 1 tbsp salt and 5 dl flour, creating a dough.  Form the dough into large balls (just a bit smaller than a tennis ball) and fill with small pieces of salted ham or bacon.  Drop these balls of dough into boiling water and cook for 30 minutes or so.

The boiled dumplings can also be cut into small pieces (like gnocchi) and fried in butter; I think it's even tastier that way.

Once again, only a couple of my corridormates has ever tried this before.  It's not half bad, and tastes like home-cooked comfort food.  Be sure to have with a glass of cold milk, as all good Swedes do at every meal.

Of vikings, rune stones, and copper teapots

An ancient church ruin in Sigtuna

So cute!  I couldn't stop repeating this as we strolled through Sigtuna, the historical town located just south of Uppsala, only about a one hour bus ride away.

Linnea told me way back in September about this little gem, that I absolutely had to visit during my stay in Sweden.  She also described it as being "cute."  So finally, a few weekends ago, when the weather was feeling bit spring-y (as in no longer in the minuses), Sarka, Arnola, and a few other friends packed a lunch picnic, and headed to Sweden's very first town.  

According to its tourism site:

In AD 980, Swedish King Eric the Victorious stood here, pointed as to where he wanted his new city to be erected and built the first Christian city in the country.

Today, a thousand years later, Main Street (Stora Gatan) still remains intact – with its very same stretch and curvature. And, like King Eric the Victorious, our current king H.M. Carl XVI Gustaf, often graces the ancient stretch. In this way we are all similar. Once having set foot here, it is hard not to return. Again, and again – and again.

Viking rune stone!

Sigtuna is really special, as it hasn't changed much over its history, and so many of the Viking rune stones can easily be spotted when touring the area.  The town hall is apparently the smallest one in the country, and "maybe in all of Europe."  You can easily get through the entire town in just a couple of hours, and there are some cool church ruins and stone architecture that were built thousands of years ago.  You can even visit the old mint, where Sweden's first coins were minted back in the day.  

:)

Surrounding the town is Lake Mälaren, and when we came, the lake was still frozen enough to see kids and adults skiing, skating, or just taking a careful stroll in a loop.  There's a nice dock, and I bet it would be perfect to sit and stretch the legs with an ice cream in the summertime.  We found a nice area to enjoy our picnic lunch and people-watch near the lake.

A quiet Sunday afternoon in downtown Sigtuna

Pretty, no?

Like I said, it's just cute!  Maybe it's because of the families that dominate the population, or little Stora Gatan, with its little shops and cafes, or the small trail we found that led us to a beautiful view of the area.  

Tant Brun and Sarka

A special cafe is the one called Tant Brun, apparently named after a famous cartoon character.  This cafe is located in a really old house, that's so short and squat that I could even touch the roof!  It was nice little old copper teapots for serving tea and coffee, and famous "applemunk," apple doughnuts.  A perfect ending to a perfect day in Viking Land.  

London

So most of you already know I went to the U.K., and probably already saw my pictures.  But for those who didn't know....

I took advantage of the break between class changes to take a trip with Martina and Anatoli!  After my last class for Watershed Management (no re-exam needed for this course, woohoo!), I packed my things, destination: London.  One of my best trips thus far!  Overall, here are my impressions of London:  huge, crowded, rushed, crazy metro system, down-to-earth people, posh accents, and an awesome selection of Broadway musicals.

We spent four nights in London, choosing to stay in the city since we all had so much we wanted to see on our lists of things-to-do.  For me, I wanted to see all the usual touristy sights, see Wicked, and eat British food.

Trafalgar Square

Our first day was a bit of lost day, since our flight was delayed by a few hours and so we didn't arrive to our hostel until past midnight.  So the next day, we started exploring.  We saw Trafalgar Square, which is home to the National Gallery, the Olympic clock, and some cool statues and monuments. 

Just a few steps away were the London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey.  Unfortunately there was a huge protest that day, so a lot of the sights were hard to access and get close to, due to the huge presence of police barricading the streets.  

The Queen's digs

The smell of springtime!

And of course - Buckingham Palace!  But you know what, it's a bit disappointing when you see the building in real life, and it's definitely less grand as it appears on tv and in pictures.  It's smaller than you think, and I personally think Stockholm's royal palace might be nicer.  The most exciting part in this area was seeing signs of spring and life everywhere.  We were so happy to see and smell so many flowers that are not yet out yet in Sweden.  

Asian tourists

Later in the day, I reunited with Kushal! Haven't seen him since the U21 summer school finished last summer in China, so we had a good time catching up while checking out Tower Bridge and Tate Modern museum. Later that night, we tried to relive our memories by dining in Chinatown.

Over the rest of the trip, we walked around the city, randomly running into Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay institutions.  We also visited JO's favourite market, the Borough Market, which is heaven in my eyes.  Market vendors everywhere, specialty cheeses and sausages, fish, breads, pastries - everything you could ever want or indulge in.  Later in the day we visited Soho, the equivalent of Davie Street in Vancouver, and also walked through Hyde Park, smelled the cherry blossoms and checked out Oxford Street (major shopping district). The weather was so perfect here, probably 12 degrees or so, so obviously it felt like summer and we could stay outside as late we wanted without freezing to death.

Since museums are free to enter in London, we also visited the British Museum, which is a huge museum that you can easily get lost in. It basically showcases items taken from countries across the globe (or "stolen" as our friend said).  This includes the famous Rosetta Stone, and some Parthenon/Greek artwork.  In the main foyer, I saw something very familiar...totem poles from B.C.  We also saw the Natural History Museum, which I think I preferred over the British Museum; it had way more educational/sciency stuff to see - kind of like Science World, but much larger.  It even had a section on soil management and climate change, which we (soils nerds) spent quite a bit of time going through.  

Wicked!!

We managed to see two musicals, Lion King and Wicked. Both were amazing.  That's basically all I can say. The musical version of Lion King might even have beat the movie version, with its amazing dance sequences, set, and costumed.  Wicked was also perfect.  If you go to London, I highly recommend seeing a Broadway show.

I think London is a really great place to visit for a few days, as there's so much to see and it seems you could never get bored here.  The underground "tube" metro, the oldest underground railway in the world, is the most complex system I've come across, with lines going everywhere.  But, London is expensive, over-crowded, and has a big city feel - as in it feels as if everyone everywhere is in a rush, going from places to places, with no time to breathe or even take a fika.  Maybe I wouldn't be able to live in such a city, but I still really liked it, and had a grand old time with the girls.