Mid-Summer and Swedish meatballs

When I started this blog, I figured it would be pretty hit or miss with the updates. Apparently, it's been more miss than hit, but I wanted to sit down and update you all on my adventures from the past few weeks.

Mid-Summer is a holiday the Swedes have to celebrate the longest day of the year. Apparently, everyone leaves the city for their country homes, leaving the restaurants and shops closed for the weekend and us with very little to do. Luckily, we heard about a festival being held at Skansen. Skansen is this outdoor museum/zoo (think Renaissance Fair meets zoo). For those of you in Massachusetts, it's a lot like Old Sturbridge Village. Our Point sponsor Jeff had invited his two friends from Munich, Tilo and Johanna, to enjoy the weekend. So we all headed over to the park to enjoy the festivities. All the events center around a giant may pole set up in the middle of the park, where kids and adults alike dance around. With the clouds in the background, it looks pretty ominous, and to tell you the truth, it wasn't the prettiest of sites.

The rest of the afternoon we spent going through the zoo. I saw my first reindeer (which happened to have a pretty red nose). There were elk, brown bears, and some other "nordic wildlife." Because it's spring, there were tons of baby animals wandering around the pens, so that was cool to see.

That evening, we went to this place called "Berns." It is this asian style restaurant housed in an old hotel lobby. It has a 1920's art deco theme. You walk and to the right is a two story mirror that reflects the entire scene onto the wall. There is a balcony the wraps around the entire area where people congregate as the night goes on--there are five bars upstairs alone, so it becomes the hot spot after 10pm. We enjoyed a delicious meal and then headed upstairs to one of the bars and had some drinks. It seemed like within a few minutes the entire restaurant and all the bar areas were packed and there was a huge line waiting to get in. I was in the hottest party in town...for the first time in my life.

The next day, Tilo, Johanna, and I rode bikes around the island that Skansen is on. It was a really nice ride, following the coast line. We saw a few of the Sail boats from the Volvo race doing some test runs, manuevered through the canals of the inner island, and found our way back to the apartment (some how). Since it was Jeff, Biv, Tilo, and Johanna's last night in town, we decided to go to a really easy dinner and just enjoy each other's company. We trekked over to the Old City (Gamla Stan). I scanned the menu as I always do, trying to figure out the menu in Swedish, before resorting to the English italics underneath. As a made my way down the menu, my eyes hit the magic words: SWEDISH MEATBALLS! When I first heard about the Swedish internship, the only thing I knew from Sweden was meatballs, so to finally see them on the menu was overwhelming. My decision was made.

Swedish Meatballs are much different than we make them in America. For starters, in America we tend to serve them with like a pasta dish, kind of as a nordic equivalent to Italian spaghetti and meatballs. However, true Swedes will eat Swedish meatballs as its own dish...they stand alone without the pasta. My meal was meatballs, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. The second difference I noticed was in the taste. Swedish meatballs in America tend to have a very ground beef flavor to them, the same way an italian meatball might. However, from my experience with Swedish meatballs, they taste a lot like corned beef...but in that unique ball form. Overall, I was really happy with the meal. (Ashley, this one's for you!)