smörgåsblogg
What is this thing?
Answer to last week: Okay, it was a hand warmer thing. You people are hard to stump.
The bi-annual motorcycle show was in Gothenburg this weekend. It's nice to be able to walk there, instead of doing the usual battle with traffic & parking when it's at the Javits Center.
*Click here for more pictures*
I went skiing with some Volvo folk last weekend; about a 7 hour drive from Göteborg.
*Click here for more pictures*
What is this?
Answer to last week: Yeah, yeah, that was an orange peeler. Too easy! Frida, it is owned by the Johansson's, so you can find out from them where they got that particular style from.
That's the moon, not the sun, on a crisp & clear day, 4:30pm.
We just had another hail storm. It was just as heavy as last time (and set off a car alarm again), but only lasted about 30 seconds this time. A bunch came down the chimney and bounced onto the floor. They melted before I could get a picture, but you can still see the drops of water where they landed:
From the archives (since we haven't done anything interesting this week). A New Years Day walk to the Skansen Lejonet, one of Gothenburg's old defense points along the river from the 1600s.
What is this?
Answer to last week: I can't believe The Other Allison actually got it! That was a cactus we saw at the local botanical garden. See the tall fuzzy one on the right:
All liquor stores in Sweden are state run; no bodega on the corner where you can grap a six pack, no wine at the grocery store. The stores have the same basic selection and the same limited hours, which means that after 2pm on Saturday, you're out of luck until Monday. The drinking age is 18.
Most of the stores have been remodelled over the last years and look more or less somewhat like you'd expect, with a strange warehouse twist. The older ones, which have not been remodelled are not self-service. The inventory is on display. You take a number and get called up to the corner to order your booze. You buy everything by the single bottle or can.
So lets review: The government sets the tax level on the country's most popular drug (at quite a high level), then has a monopoly on the sale of it. Sounds fair to me.
.JPG)
.JPG)
Leo's motorcycle finally made it to Sweden. We went to pick it up from the port yesterday.
.JPG)
It was rainy and cold, so I resorted to taking pictures of its arrival home from the balcony.
.JPG)
Not a scratch on it, and after 5 months of being in that box, it started right up!
.JPG)
We had quite the hail storm last night. It only lasted maybe 15 minutes, but it came down so heavily a few car alarms were set off. There was one explosion of lightning and one tremendous crack of thunder, and then it was over.
.JPG)
All the white stuff is the hail--all the snow we had a few days ago was washed away by rain the next day.
.JPG)
This is what our balcony looked like.
Packy hail...hmm...I wonder if I could make a hail fort?
.JPG)
What is this?
Answer to last week: Okay, apparently frisbee golf is not as obscure a sport as I thought it was! We haven't tried to play it yet, but the course is very close to home so we probably will at some point. Thanks to Casey and Katrina for adding some very good, and creative, guesses!
There's some weird candy here. These are labelled as 'stekta ägg' (fried eggs). I don't really know why, but it is somehow stranger than candy fish, worms, bears, etc...
Finally, real snow!
*Click here for more pictures*
a.JPG)
We went skiing today. Leo had to try out his new snow blades. It was fun even though I can't say the conditions were all that great (80% icy man-made snow, only one slope open, and lots of teenagers), but that is pretty much what we expected for a place less than 2 hours drive east of Göteborg. And we only managed to fall off the T-bar lift once!
*Click here for more pictures*
There are some strange creatures roaming around Göteborg these days.
I know scandinavians love their salty licorice candy, but shouldn't gum be a refreshing flavor? I wonder if this could ever catch on in the States...
What do you think this is?
Answer to last week: Okay, that was too easy since everybody knew it. Yes, that was a thing you put on the bottom of your shoe to help get traction when walking on slippery surfaces, very much like winter tires for your feet.
Armed with a thermos of hot chocolate, we watched the professional fireworks (at 5pm) from the Götaälvbron (a bridge over the river).
I'm glad we walked there and avoided the traffic chaos after the show.
Ameteur fireworks are legal and encouraged here, and the ones you can buy at any of the home improvement / hardware stores are serious stuff. The whole neighborhood was a constant explosion from about 10pm-1am in a fashion that made the 4th of July look like a funeral. The last of the loud music (and louder Swedes) vanished at about 6am. This picture is from our livingroom window.
