Kulturens Julstök
Tonight was the Julstök at Lund’s culture and history museum, the Kulturen. It seemed like the whole city showed up to wander through the open-air part of the museum, where historical Swedish buildings create a cozy little village.
The entrance was a bargain – only 20 kronor for students (3 dollars) – and we got a glimpse at some authentic (and local) Swedish Christmas traditions, which is probably why both our Swedish professor and our UC advisor urged us to check it out.
I drank some delicious glögg, listened to the Östgöta Nation choir sing carols, watched Swedes pig out on hot dogs, including the local skånsk knake sausage, and ooh-ed and aah-ed for some talented performers including some jugglers who tossed flaming torches back and forth.
The museum was all lit up, and with darkness falling well before 4PM, it was a really wonderful holiday atmosphere. I thought the highlight of the night was buying a pig-shaped pepparkakor cookie which was then personalized with MY name.
My mom’s favorite stop would have been the herring buffet. You could try all kinds of pickled herring or “sill” for only 20 kronor. I headed for the lussekatter (saffron lucia buns) instead.
With only two weeks left it’s going to be hard to find the right balance between enjoying the little time I have left in Sweden and getting all of my school work done. Speaking of which, I have a paper to write!
Have a great week,
Linnea
Sunday, December 02, 2007
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7 comments:
Hey, next time I'm going the stay through the first Sunday in Advent! Loved the Skanksa Sillaacademien. It was pretty special to be back at Epworth though. Being away makes you really appreciate home.
Personalized cookies! You are easy to please.
Can we make Lucia buns again this year? I miss having those.
Looks fairly warm over there if you're not wearing gloves or big coats. It hit the low 20's last night and I almost froze with about 15 layers on. Got our first snow over the year last night too.
Christmas in Sweden looks amazing. It's beautiful--less capitalism involved too?
See ya soon kid. I'm back on the 19th.
I know, a cookie. Cheap thrills.
But you've got to understand that if I was in the States, if I wanted a cookie with my name on it I would:
A) be unable to find such a cookie,
B) probably have to make said cookie myself, or
C) if I happened to find a cookie-name-personalizing operation and I told them "my name is Linnea" they would say, without fail, "what? how do you spell that?"
Which hasn't happened in Sweden -- not once. I love my name, but WOW, it's been a luxury to not have to worry about people saying or spelling my name wrong.
Also -- I second the lucia buns. I think it's in the Christmas plan.
And it's warmer here again! Lots of rain, temps between 35-45 everyday. I'm mad because right when I got used to the cold it had to warm up again. :-(
Did you eat the named pig?
absolutely!! (Pretty much immediately, in fact.) It was one of the best pepparkakor cookies I've ever tasted, too.
We had the best Swedish breakfast outside at the French Hotel last week. Pickled herring, flat bread, swedish cheese and butter. We wore our swedish aprons, and even had swedish linens on the table. People walking by were amazed. Wonder why?! We were quite a sight!
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