I’m continually told Sweden is a wonderful
place …in the Summer!
Today is Valborgsmässoafton
in Sweden ; The celebration
of Spring. We are going to a traditional celebration tonight, where a huge
bonfire is lit to frighten away demons of darkness and gloom and welcome the
lengthening days. We have been invited to a celebratory release of the cows
next week from their winter imprisonment! I wondered where the massive piles of
manure came from as I hadn’t seen a single cow! It will be a moo-ving
experience (thank you Karen). If I was a Student at Uppsala University I would wear a
white velvet cap today and sing traditional Swedish songs. (I think that’s why
my application to attend the university failed. I didn’t tick the ‘can sing traditional Swedish songs’ and
‘look good in a white velvet cap’
boxes)
The approach of Summer is a
massive deal here. Mostly, I suspect, because winter is so long and depressing.
I thought I’d try and capture the joy of the winter’s end and the celebration pending
Summer.
In the Summer!
There’s no vast white expanse
of snö and ice to light the endless darkness of polar winter
In the Summer
No need for arctic approved
thermals and being labelled up to the hilt in Northface gear (because Canada
goose is too expensive)
In the (it hits 20ºC if you’re lucky) Summer
No sour faced and bewildered
vodka soaked locals, unwilling to make eye contact
In the (let’s all put our party hats on) Summer
No irritatingly hyper fit
extreme cross country skiers in bright yellow, way-too-tight, 70’s ski gear
In the (what do we do now?) summer
No need for nature’s Aurora
Borealis light show to illuminate the night (allegedly in these parts)
In the (24 hours of daylight preventing any sleep) Summer
No need to fathom the
confusing winter tyre laws that make winter tyres compulsory but banned from
certain roads
In the (still speed cameras everywhere and watch out for wandering Mooses) Summer
Your first Swedish word of
necessity, to clean the car of the sticky black tar like residue from the roads,
isn’t Avtettning
In the (now what’s the Swedish for ‘I
don’t speak Swedish’?) summer
No need to stock up the
potato store to bunker down for the season
In the (it’s still potatoes for dinner because meat is so ridiculously
expensive) summer
No need open the local swimming pool when there’s a beautiful barely defrosted lake to swim in
In the (mosquito infested, midge plagued) Summer
Gone are the ‘Closed for
winter’ signs at all the little seaside souvenir shops
In the (we still sell lots of seriously overpriced shit and shut at random
times) summer
There’s a decent restaurant
that’s open just 20 miles away
In the (cant get a table because of all the tourists) Summer
Summer lasts a whole week in Sweden !
Well you have got to be quick so make the most of it. You would be ultra quick if you jumped into the lake today (or anytime ,I suspect)
ReplyDelete