Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Be careful what you wish for...

Well, I had been slightly worried about the lack of work, but then, javisst (of course), there is an avalanche. Phew! My voice is going to be tired from all the phone calls. But at least it means extra dough for the expensive trip to Canada.

Today, it is beautiful and sunny and everyone is in a good mood. I've been doing laundry which is actually a fair bit of exercise. The laundry room is around the block, but under the building, so you walk through all these crazy tunnels to get there. B. has to duck a lot so he doesn't smoke his head. I really like the group laundry concept though. It seems to work really well. Only problem with the new place is the lack of an iron and board, so we had to get an iron and will be using the dining table as a makeshift ironing board.

I've also been making semlor which are sweet buns that are filled with almond paste and whip cream. We treated Robi to some during his visit - but this is the first time I'm attempting to make them. Traditionally they were only eaten in January and February up until Shrove Tuesday (the buns are also called Fat Tuesday Buns). But now they seem to appear in early January and there are still semlor in every bakery you go to.

So my Swedish fact for the day: The Vasaloppet, the largest cross-country ski race in the world, was just completed last weekend. Over 50,000 people participated in the race and every year they race 90km in a day. Now a brief history lesson, in 1520 Christian II of Denmark, invaded Sweden and killed the ruler of the time, Sten Sture the Younger (Sweden, Denmark and Norway were united at this time under one crown in the Union of Kalmar). He granted full amnesty to the follower's of Mr. Sture, but he was really just tricking them as he then arrested 82 of them and tried and then massacred them in what became known as the Stockholm Bloodbath. The spot of the Bloodbath, Storatorget in Gamla Stan still exists. This started a rebellion under the leadership of Gustav Ericsson Vasa. The link to the race is that this rebellion almost never took place. Vasa had not been able to gather enough supporters so he was fleeing for the Norwegian border when two very tired skiers caught up with him to tell him that the people had changed their minds!!! Now this legendary journey is recreated every year in the Vasaloppet race.
An aside: back in 1520, the skiers only had one pole, how long do you figure it took for the two pole concept to catch on?

Gustav Vasa became the King after Sweden exited the Kalmar Union in 1523. He was crowned on June 6 which is now the country's national day!

Jag måsta tvätta nu, så hej då!

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