smörgåsblogg
A big box showed up on our rainy doorstep today.
Here's the nifty apparatus for dropping it to street level.
We've got some work to do, but at least our place is no longer empty!
Göteborg has an amuseument park, Liseberg, and in the sidewalk in front of the entrance there are stars in the pavement, just like the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Most of them seem to be Swedish names I didn't recognize, except for, of course, ABBA:
But there was a rather eclectic group of non-Swedish names as well:
I thought they were all music related, until I saw Albert Eistein.
Here we go again. What is this a picture of?
Answer to last week: That was a piskställning. Literal translation: whipping/beating place. No, no, not a torture device; people hang rugs on them in order to beat them clean. I've never actually seen anyone doing it, but these contraptions are located outside of just about every apartment building around, and it isn't surprising to find one in the backyard of a house.
Kanelbullar, aka cinnamon rolls. We found a good bakery down the street. Yum!
We've been out exploring everyday and there is quite a bit to see in the neighborhood. One thing we didn't expect to find was the World's Strongest Dog. Don't let that cute little face fool you; he was throwing that concrete lion around like a rag doll. I think next time, the owner better tie him to a spårvagn.
It's your birthday! Hope you have a happy one.
The container full of our stuff has been delayed, so the place is still empty. We've only got this one borrowed chair.
For those of you who may be dismayed at US gas prices, just remember it could be worse. Fuel prices here are well over the equivalent of $5 per gallon.
Crayfish are considered something of a delicacy here in Sweden. We had the good fortune of seeing how they are caught when we stayed with some friends out in the countryside a couple of weekends ago. Crayfish are to be trapped the night before the big feast. Here is how they do it...
First, you bait the traps with fish parts.
Next, close up the traps.
Pile the traps in the boat and row around, strategically placing the traps in the water. The traps are attached to strings, which are attached to floating wooden blocks so you know were to find them in the morning.
After collecting the traps in the morning, each crayfish must be measured (we caught almost 150 with 30 traps).
Those larger than 10cm are kept (we had 86 keepers); smaller than 10cm are released.
Don't they look appetizing?
When the water is boiling, in they go.
After being cooked and cooled, it is dinnertime.
Leo even tried a tiny bite.
Time for another one. What is this a picture of?
Answer to last week: Good guesses, everyone! But the picture was of cages used to trap kräftor (crayfish). I'll post pictures of the entire process soon...
Göteborg had a culture festival this past weekend, kulturkalas, and here was one act from Australia featuring people moving around on top of bendy poles:
Today, father Hans has been in the US of A sixty years. Here he is rowing in Central Park in 1947, soon after his arrival. Congratulations pop!
You can still ride on a vintage tram that was used when the first electrified ones were introduced in 1902.
Even the clouds here seem to follow the highways:
Almost every street here has dedicated bicycle and walking lanes. Love it!
Time to guess again. What is this a picture of?
Answer to last week: That picture was a cluster of some kind of algae covered bivalve attached to a concrete pier in the ocean. It was too cold to go swimming that day, but water was clear and otherwise quite inviting!
We've been pretty lucky with the weather so far--mostly warm, sunny, bright blue days. For the past couple of days we've gotten the occasional rain shower, which brings out the slugs and snails.
These guys are about 4 inches--I mean 10.2 centimeters--long. They look like dog poo, and are just about as annoying to avoid stepping on.
The snails are prettier, but can also be easy to step on.
We have raspberry, gooseberry, red currant and white currant bushes growing in our backyard. Yum!
We spent this weekend relaxing in the Swedish countryside.
Here is the little stuga we stayed in, just big enough for two:
Here are a couple of the other stugor, plus the nicest utedass (outhouse) on the planet:
Here is the main house on the property:
Thank you, Noréns!
We had to fill up our FlexiFuel car for the first time today. We put E85 in it; that's 15% gasoline from dead dinosaurs and 85% ethanol from fast growing Paulownia trees. Look for the blue handle and fill it up.
I am introducing a new game. What do you think this picture is?
This is the control panel for our washer/dryer combo unit. One should not need to be a rocket scientist to be able to clean one's skivvies. The clothes did come out smelling better than when they went in, so I guess I'm doing something right.
We went swimming at a local lake this evening. Leo learned the hard way that one ought to pay attention to the signs that forbid diving into shallow waters with rocky bottoms.
We've already been to two IKEAs and four Home Depot/Lowes equivalent stores, but our first trip to the grocery store yesterday was the most exhausting and entertaining. Here are a couple of highlights:
How many Americans does it take to make each bottle?
This was in the international aisle. Of all things they could import...Marshmallow fluff?!
Of course I like cheese, but I'm not so sure about having it mixed with ham, bacon, shrip, or crayfish and squirted out of a tube...
Yesterday morning I woke up, looked out the window, and thought I saw a dog walking very strangely, until I realized it was this huge hare just walking down the middle of the street. Then in the evening there goes a mama and baby deer walking down the other street. I wonder if this kind of thing will be a regular occurance?
The tram has been running in Gothenburg since 1879. Originally horse driven, later electrified, it's still the prefered method of transport around the city.
Ali went for her first ride yesterday.
Spårvagn #3 and #5 stop just down the block from our place, so we can zip around the city lickity split. They're clean, fast, airy, convenient and easy to jump on and off of. Each ride costs about 2 bucks.
One more thing: You can pay via text message (SMS) using your cell phone: It's true!
We visited the tax office today and received the almighty personnummer (kind of like our SSN). It's used in every way to identify yourself (taxes, benefits, salary, credit, healthcare, banking, etc...) so you don't exist in Sweden until you have one. Now we're no longer individuals, we're just a couple of numbers in the socialist machine.
We got a very warm welcome to Sweden from little Tim. It was nice to hang out with someone who knows the Swedish language on about the same level as I do.
