The timing of our trip to Sweden was based on the Summer Solstice (June 21), which in Sweden is called Midsommar. Summer solstice is the longest day of the year, and in Northern Europe, that's cause for a real party. The Midsommar pole is the national symbol for the holiday. You might notice, if you look closely at the flowers below, that the Midsommar pole looks kinda phallic. That's not a mistake; more to say about that later.
Here's a pic of a full-sized Midsommar pole in Uppsala, Sweden, just to give you an idea:
I did a little research on Midsommar celebrations and made connections, via Couchsurfing.org, with some hosts in the area of Sweden known for the most traditional holiday festivities. Lena and Ralf (along with their four children and Lena's generous mother) were our hosts. In exchange for four days of free food and lodging, Nick and I helped Lena and Ralf dig up (from a friend's farm) and then plant lots of gorgeous perrenials. Lena and Ralf's yard had been recently torn up when they installed geothermal heat, so between the apple trees and vegetable plots there was a lot of opportunity for us to get creative with perrenials.
Their town, Hedemora, is in central Sweden, known for the painted horses, and is generally adorable. There are many lake homes in the area as an escape for the people of Stockholm. We love traveling around small towns, to get the real flavor of a country.
Iconic Swedish homes are painted rust-red (with paint made from iron ore and copper, which preserves the wood) with white or green trim.
The iron and copper comes from a deep mine in Falun, Sweden, which we visited. It has been mined since at least the 1200s, and some historians believe the Falun Mine has been in existence for 1000 years. That's remarkable; that was before Europe was even civilized enough to form into towns or municipalities. It's open for tours and we went in, against my better judgement. In this photo below, the support walls are made of timber felled in the 1600's -- and yes, sections of the mine have collapsed a few times. We made it out alive, covered in red dust. Nick thought the tour was great. I learned that my safe University job is great, and that I'm incredibly happy not to be a miner.
The highlight of our time in Sweden, and probably the entire trip to Scandinavia, was the Midsommar festival in Borlange. Midsommar is a celebration of fertility since Neolithic times, and it's advised to conceive children on this day because babies born 9 months later will arrive in the spring, after the harsh northern winters are over. (More about that later.) Hundreds of Swedish people gathered for the celebration in an area known as the "Swedish Alps", high on a green hill. We were probably the only tourists there. Many people wore their village folk costumes. Those participating in the raising of the Midsommar pole wore matching costumes and played music. Women and girls carried garlands to wrap around the pole, or hoops to put on it. (Yes, seriously.) Men carried the massive mast.
The shaft - er, pole - was decorated, blessed by a Christian minister (hey, it's a Christian nation now) and then manually hoisted up, with lots of heave-ho cheers from the crowd. Here's the giant rod for all of us to dance around.
And dance we did! Hundreds of us, young and old, formed circles around the Midsommar pole, held hands, and followed the leader for hours of traditional dances on the high hill. We had such fun as part of the crowd, many of us figuring out the dances together. It's one thing to observe a cultural event, but it's something entirely different to participate. I felt that this was my favorite day as a tourist, ever.
Here's a picture of our lovely, generous host family after the dances.
Then we went home famished, to eat a Swedish Smorgasbord! I was surprised to learn that I enjoy herring in all of its forms. This plate contained two types of salmon and four types of herring, with American au gratin potatoes as my humble contribution.
And then! After hours of eating, Grandma mentioned that she still had Lena's violin up in the attic somewhere. Lena hadn't played it in 40-some years, but they found it, Nick tuned it up, and we enjoyed traditional Swedish tunes played by an American violinist trained in the Suzuki method. Best holiday abroad, ever.
The next day we gave a fond farewell to our host family on our way to the old university town of Uppsala.
Our hosts in this town, Erica and Cris, are friends-of-friends. Erica is a Buddhist-Unitarian who does research on complementary medicine, so we got along really well. They took us to some amazing sites in Gamla (old) Uppsala, including this 12th Century church which has some pre-Christian rune stones in the church yard.
We visited Carl Linnaeus' botanical gardens in Uppsala (you know, the botanist/zoologist who created the binomial nomenclature for plants and animals, so like, named us Homo sapiens).
Uppsala was pretty, but it wasn't really set up for tourists. They don't have a usable bus system and it's really hard to get around without a car, so I'm glad we only set aside one day there.
On to Stockholm! A folk village on an island in Stockholm gave us insights into traditional dwellings and costumes of the Swedish people. This peasant home had low doors, stone and rough-hewn walls, and a thatched roof. Many homes in Sweden have grass roofs, even today. Green, and surprisingly insulated. Maybe we should try this in Minnesota?
And traveling around the country, we saw other fun stuff, of course. This sign is common throughout Sweden, and means Exit.
This sign is common on roads, and basically means that the street is going to get more narrow.
Stockholm is a gorgeous, modern city on the water.
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