Food and Festivities

The traditional way to end summer in Sweden is with a kraftor-fest, in English, a crayfish dinner party. I believe summer in Sweden ended long before I arrived in the middle of August, I still wanted to try out the tradition, and had the chance to do so with my old Cornell Swedes (Maria #1, Maria #2, and Erik - Swedes are infamous for uncreative naming.) 

In order to properly enjoy crayfish, one must have themed plates and napkins. The crayfish on the plates are cheerfully gathering dill and lemons to aid you in eating them, while the napkin crayfish is lighting fireworks. The crayfish we consumed were not as lively, but they were tasty. The taste is similar to lobster, but the crayfish are cooked in a dill brine. We also ate shrimp, which come with their heads on here. The shrimp head contains some organs, possibly a stomach/brains. It is very flavorful though.

A large part of the tradition is singing songs and drinking liquor. The songs are all old Swedish drinking songs that come in a song book, with lots of variations that use basic nursery rhyme melodies. After each song you drink some snaps, with is a Swedish spiced liquor. I don't understand the songs, but snaps is nice. 

Also, I discovered a new fruit recently! Physallis, I don't think we had these in North America, but they are pretty common in Sweden, served as a cocktail fruit. It is sweet and tart, like a citrus-y strawberry. (It's hopeless to write about food, it's like dancing about architecture.) But it is exciting to discover a new fruit after I had eaten all the "big ones", it's like seeing a new color. 

I went on a cruise of the Stockholm archipelago recently on one of the few beautiful days this autumn. 

The boat we took was apparently 100 years old, but it was very well preserved. 

We left from downtown Stockholm, where the boat was docked in Ostermalm. This is the poshest section of Sweden. Here are some highly enviable apartments on Strandsgatan ("Beach Street", an optimistic name if there ever was one.)

We passed by a haunted amusement park which looked very Scooby-Doo. 

No children spin in the strawberry-octopus' arms any more, and so he sits by the dock forlornly. 

A large amount of the Stockholm archipelago looks like Canada, more specifically like the Thousand Islands on Lake Ontario. (But the Stockholm archipelago never lent its name to a dressing.) I actually took few pictures of it because I had a "seen-it-already" feeling. 

It is very much autumn in Uppsala now. The leaves are changing and falling (but not as beautifully as in Ithaca.) The days are also getting much shorter. When I arrived here in August, the sun would rise at 5:30am and set just before 9:00pm. Now the sun doesn't rise until at least 6:30am and it sets at 6:00pm. I've still got another 5 hours of daylight to lose though, so I'm trying to enjoy the sun while I can. 

And finally, a treat for all the Daniel Craig fans who have visited my little blog since I mentioned the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" movie that has been shooting in Uppsala. Here he is for you to enjoy. 

Maybe I enjoy it a little bit too. 

Movie Magic

This week I bring you exclusive photographs from the set of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo",  the soon-to-be international blockbuster, which just so happens to film some of its scenes in Uppsala. 

Of course they closed down several blocks of the city during the day for when the filming was being done, and I did not see Daniel Craig, the star of the film. But at night, they opened the streets up again, and it was possible to see the set and the changes they had made. 

For instance, the store above is not at all a "Mjolk Bar", but instead a convenience store. Similarly a DVD rental was transformed into a butcher shop ("Charcuiterie"). 

The scenes being shot in Uppsala are to be used in a flashback set in the 1960s. This was the reason for changing some of the store facades. The sign above is meant to evoke the '60s, because that was the last time food was so cheap. I'm not sure if this sign will actually feature in any way in the film, and the audience is unlikely to pick up on the prices if they are just in the background. Oh well, I'm not a director so what do I know. 

These facades are also fake. One sign here advertises a radio and TV repair, which is an entirely fictional business. 

The filming will continue next week for another three days. Perhaps I'll meet Daniel Craig then. I have only read a part of the first novel, I should read the rest but I feel embarrassed to read them while in Sweden, like it's too much of a cliche or some kind of kitschy tourism.