not so fast

Saturday.
Going home day.
or not.
We were up at 3:30 to make it to the airport for our 6:30 flight to Munich.
All systems were go. It was snowing heavily, but this is a nordic country, and they should be able to handle that, shouldn't they?
Apparently not.
Two hours of sitting on the plan at the gate and we are told our flight has been cancelled. Freezing rain in Munich. Airport closed.
It took significantly longer than it should have to get us rebooked, out of the airport, and back to the hotel, but we got there.
So what do you do with a found day?
Well, you wander around, looking for lunch, and find it in a nice cafe. I finally figured out what linsoppa is - pureed vegetable soup. Tour a museum. Poke in some shops. Go have a pint.
So, let's try again.
Sunday.
Going home day.
fingers crossed...

Time Together

P and I finally got some together time after all of his meetings. 

Thursday evening, we went to the French place for pizza. While we couldn't do it for the 49Kr take out price that we did when we lived here (asking for a 2 cheese 3 cheese pizza as in without the blue cheese), the menu and atmosphere was the same, and the pizza was just as delicious as we remembered. Al has taught me bad habits, as I now ask for Prosecco or champagne instead of a beer. After that, we went to Liseberg to experience all its wonder with the twinkly lights and julmarknad stands. P bought some sugared almonds and I wandered around with a mug of glögg. We met a runaway reindeer. He was wandering around near Jultomten's factory. Apparently he didn't want to follow his master and give sleigh rides. It was cold. I was dressed for it; P was not.

Friday, we packed as much into the day as possible. We started with a drive out to the sea, to Arandal. Beautiful as always. Then, we hit IKEA and did the grocery shopping (yes, we came all the way to Sweden to do the groceries). Then lunch at our sushi place and lots of erranding, before wandering around the Stadsmuseet. I wanted P to see it because it's a lovely space and there's so much about the history of Göteborg that he just didn't know. He was a good soldier and showed appropriate interest. This year's julfilm is appropriately weird. Poseidon comes to life - with his fish. Dinner on Friday was at Dinner 22 on Södravagan. It was extraordinary. P started with elk carpaccio, which was out of this world, then we both had the reindeer, which was also out of this world. Desserts were a little more pedestrian. The best part of P's apple crisp was the rumpunch ice cream. And the kanelbullar crisps. I had the "chocolate parfait" which was an assortment of 3 chocolate things. There was a chocolate cannoli filled with blackberry cream, a medium chocolate triangle of mousse - nice, not overpowering, and a blob of white chocolate ganache which was out of this world. this was probably the best dinner I 've ever had, and I've eaten in a lot of wonderful places. 

Gothenburg is enchanting with the lights and the snow. It's the perfect winter wonderland. No wonder they call it Sweden's julstad.

Choir

The best part of my week when I lived here was choir. Wednesday nights, for 2 hours, I was enveloped by friendly people singing beautiful music. Thursday mornings, the Ladies International Choir met, sang, chatted, commiserated, and fika'd. Today, Thursday morning, was just a warm and inviting.
Their julkonsert is this coming Sunday. Sadly, we will have flown home by then, but rehearsing the old familiar swedish songs was lovely. Only 4 friends remain from my time here in Sweden: Shivaun, Eva-Maria, Shirin, and Michelle, but that is the nature of the group. We are ex-pat wives - the decisions that govern our lives are made by other people. We come and go. I had a wonderful visit over fika, catching up on what they've been up to, and what the future may hold.
Peter the conductor continues to be the heart of the group. I really enjoyed his special vocal warm-up and his beautiful accompaniments. Tack för idag alla, och god jul.

Julbord at Långedrag

The swedish Christmas buffet, julbord, is a fish feast. Last night, Al and I went to the very beautiful, very fussy Vardshuset in Långedrag which is a suburb of Gothenburg out by the sea. From our vantage point in the corner of the glass house, we could see the 3-sided fireplace and all of the beautiful decorations.
There are standard dishes at julbord. There will be herring, several kinds, and fish, also several kinds. The famous Swedish Christmas potato dish is Janssons Fretelse, which is like scalloped potatoes with anchovy melted in. This julbord had 12 different kinds of herring (the julherring was my favourite; the orange, glögg, and lingonberry one was very interesting). There were 5 or 6 types of smoked salmon, and a half dozen again of cooked fish, salmon and others. The Janssons Fretelse was nice and creamy, and the dried sausage did not disappoint.
All of that was followed by a gluttonous assortment of desserts, including äggost med silt, which is sort of an egg custard with blackberry sauce, tartes and pastries, and risgröt, which is Swedish rice pudding.
It was a lovely evening out, complete with glögg and french champagne. 

Glögg for breakfast

Lycka 12-12-12! Today is a big day here in Sverige. Either that, or the day before Lucia is a very big day. The stores are insanely busy. There are tables set up all over the place offering passersby free cups of glögg.
This morning, I slept in, which never happens. I was supposed to meet Al at 10:15 at le Pain Francais near our old flat. My plan was to arrive there about 10 so I could enjoy a cup of their St Tropez tea. Instead, I woke up at 10:20, didn't have Al's cell number to ring her and explain, and the next hour included a lot of panicked dashing about, but no breakfast. When we did manage to connect an hour later, we set off to shop, and it wasn't until I was standing in the never-ending line at Johanssons waiting to pay for my äggostform (when I picked up #74, they were serving 35) at 10 minutes to 1pm that a salesclerk offered glögg and pepparkakor to the customers waiting in line. Ah breakfast, Christmas in Sweden style.

känner mig svensk

I must have looked the part today. I wore the Russian silver fox hat with my red puffy coat and big snö boots. Everyone I spoke to expected me to speak in Swedish. Two ladies even stopped me in the street to ask for directions. Unfortunately for them, while I understood them perfectly, all I could muster in reply was "Viktoriagatan..." and a point in the right direction. I wanted to tell them it was 3 blocks on, but I couldn't find the vocab in my head.

The sun did come out, and so did the wind. Glad for the hat. Al and I had a good wander around town. We stopped into Indiska on Kungsgatan, my favourite store. It's my favourite partly because of the stuff they sell (think Anthropologie at a lower price tag), but mostly because of the interior space. It's a 2 story shop, with clothing on the main floor and the housewares up top. Up top is a balcony that rings the walls, overlooking the sales floor below. Looking at the store from the street, you would never know that it opens up like that, until you're inside. After lunch at Cafe Garbo (still the same, reliable lunch place - isn't that nice), Al had to go pick up her boys from school, and I set off on a bigger wander in search of ljuskatter, starting at Saluhallen.

Saluhallen is the indoor market. It's an old building. I would guess it dates from the late 1800s based on the one small corner of it they haven't renovated. The renovations had started when we were still here 18 months ago, so I was interested to see what was new. Not much. The same vendors are there, but the signage has been fancied up. I found my ljuskatter med saffron and a very nice Lucia pepparkakor, and continued on my way.

I used to walk a lot when I lived here. Today I retraced many of those steps to find favourite boutiques to browse through. Many are still there, but not all. My favourite cafes are still there in Haga. I haven't done the shops in Haga yet, but there's still a few afternoons left before we travel home again, to tittar på to my heart's content.

Dinner tonight was with my swedish teacher, Margareta, and my french lady friends, Laurence, Florence, and Michele. This group was a mainstay of my time when we lived here. Together, the 5 of us navigated the grammar and vocab of the swedish language twice a week. We'd have class in swedish for 2 hours, then go off for lunch in french for 2 more. For a few days after a holiday, I always found it really tiring having to think in all those languages, until I got used to it again. The language of choice for tonight's dinner was swedish, and I did a really good job of keeping up. Jag förstår (I understand) but on a time delay. I need a few extra seconds to process the words before I can find the response in my head. It's not a terribly useful language to know, swedish, because it's only spoken in one country in the world. I like to think of it as an odd talent I would like to continue to cultivate.

Tomorrow is more wandering with Al, followed by julbord at the very swanky Långedrags Vårdhuset. I've only been there once, for lunch during our pre-visit in April 2010, but I've been aching to go back for more.

Still dark at 8:45am

We made it to Gothenburg yesterday afternoon, 24+ hrs later than anticipated, but we made it. There is snow, and it's cold, and it's perfect. Walking past our flat, we could see that the doctor and his family that took over the space from us have kept our dining room chandelier and the enormous IKEA ball of flowers light in our bedroom. The julgranar are for sale in the church lot, but none seems to be as tall as the 11 1/2 foot Christmas tree we had the year we lived here.
Dinner at Sjöbaren was a bit like time with an old friend - familiar items on the menu, and one of the waitresses we recognized is expecting, so that's nice. I had a chance to meet up with Shivaun and Rosie for a late drink, and I got caught up on all of their news.
Today, it is still dark at 8:30am, although the heavy cloud cover isn't helping the light I don't think. Peter left before 7 to walk over to his meeting at Gothia Towers. He's decided to stay here at the Elite with me for the week and "commute". In a little over half an hour, I'll meet up with Al and we'll do the town in ways you can't when you're pushing a stroller, as she was when we were here. It's been a year and a half. Somehow, more seems the same than different.

Birds Eye View

Good morning from the airport lounge. We are situated in a modern quiet space with a wall of window overlooking a departure hall.
For 10 after 7 in the morning, it is surprisingly calm, especially for a Monday morning. The Amsterdam Schiapol airport has "rainforest" stations. Every now and again, you walk past a poster or an artificial tree with rainforest sounds coming from it. Tree frogs chirping over waterfalls. It's lovely, but it catches you off guard.
The weather in Copenhagen isn't much better than it was yesterday when we couldn't land. Apparently, there were 8 other airplanes that couldn't land either. Let's hope the pilot is able to touch down today. Otherwise, I'm not too sure where we'll end up.
Stay tuned...

Amsterdam

Tonight, I am in Amsterdam. I am supposed to be in Gothenburg. P and I left home yesterday about dinner time, anticipating an uneventful flight to Copenhagen and an easy connection through to Gothenburg, that would land us there with enough afternoon left to enjoy some of our former home.
But this was not to be.
The transatlantic flight was uneventful enough, but wind speeds in Copenhagen were high this morning. Our pilot must have circled the airport for an hour before attempting to land. Ultimately, we were diverted to Amsterdam, where we have spent the afternoon putting in time.
They have a light show here in the downtown. We've seen pictures, but decided that with the wind and the rain lashing the windows of our hotel, it was better to give the light show a pass.
Fingers crossed for smooth transitions tomorrow. Tomorrow was to be one of 2 days we had together. Ironic seeing as we had Gothenburg as our home address for almost a year, but with P's travel, he's hardly seen it. It was supposed to be a day for taking care of business (a trip to the bank to pay taxes), and quietly wandering around, enjoying the day together. Now, we're hoping to make it there by late afternoon, with just enough time to have a nice dinner together at one of our favourite restaurants, Sjöbaren in Haga, before I link up with the book club ladies to catch up over a drink.
Fingers crossed...

On The Road Again

Well, I'm back at the airport this morning. I'm off to St Lucia today for 2 weeks with the St Lucia Learning Project. I'm thinking that I'm out of practice with this travelling business. I used to be a seasoned pro.

While St Lucia is work, it's also reward. This year, we're in a new school and we're initiating a connection with the Teachers' College. Current plan is to hike the Gros Piton if the weather is good (forecast says thunder and lightning every day for the next 2 weeks - good thing I remembered the bug spray), and get up to Pigeon Island.  Currently though, I'm just really tired. Let's hope that fresh air, good company, good works, and good food (plantain please TiTi!) will bring me back to life.

Here's to falling asleep listening to rain on the galvanized and waking up to the rooster.
All for now - time to move down to the departure lounge.

Lily of the Valley season

It 's lily of the valley season, and the lesson here is to take the time to enjoy it while it is here.
Lily of the Valley are my favourite spring flowers. I love the way they smell. They grew in the shade on the far side of the garage when I was growing up, and in my current house, they grow right under my office windows so I can smell them while I work.
Many years ago, I noticed they were in bloom, and promised myself I'd get out there to cut some and bring them inside, but I was so busy working, that by the time I went out to enjoy them, their season was over.
Take the time to stop and enjoy while you can because time is fleeting.
~ As time can be redeemed at no cost, spend it well, let no hour be lost.~

NYC Anniversary trip - day 3

Sunday. Sunny. Windy. Cold. Very quiet in NYC. Our mission today - to see the site of 9/11 for ourselves. We caught a taxi, early in the morning, and were driven down to the bottom of Manhatten island. 


Several things struck me. The area is enormous. They're building 5 new condo/office towers. The footprints of each of the twin towers are now giant reflecting pools, each an acre in size. The space fenced off for the new construction is several acres across and down. It's huge. And very quiet. There is no evidence on the other buildings of what took place. The turn-of-the-century church is still intact. The buildings that would have been across the street are free from scars. The only architectural casualty seems to be a monument located at Battery Park, across from the statue of Liberty that imploded because of the heat from the explosions. The first fire station that answered the call is located literally across the street. On its wall is now a large brass sculpture honouring those who lost their lives.


I'd like to say we stayed reverent for the rest of our day, but we didn't. The rest of the time before heading back to the airport was filled with more walking, shopping, and lunching. And watching in awe as people actually paid money to sit in the open air on a freezing cold December day to ride across the water to the Statue of Liberty. Better them than me. Wall street, which still had its barricades in spite of the Occupy'ers recent departure, is actually more of an alley than a street. I had pictured something more impressive for the centre of North American business. 


We had a wonderful weekend. Happy Anniversary my love.