Midsommar

Friday was Midsommar Eve and we were not prepared.

It felt like everyone was having a party without us.

We stopped at our favorite lunch destination and got our favorite lunch.

Notice the big strawberry outside?  Strawberries = big deal

We took a picture, because by now, we were super fans.

Here's our cart.  I loved the way you pulled it behind you like a little red wagon.

We bought these strawberries and they were the best strawberries of my life.  I have moved up a strawberry bracket!  They seemed to be a big thing for Midsommar and once we tried them, it was clear that no one would want to eat anything else.  Ever.

As the afternoon progressed, we saw that Midsommar was not your Columbus Day, Groundhog Day sort of holiday.  It wasn't even a Labor Day, Memorial Day sort of holiday.

It was like Christmas.

Everything was closed.  Every restaurant, every store.  Everything!

In every little village we drove through we saw people outside, the women almost all wearing dresses and some with flower wreaths on their heads.  They were carrying picnic baskets (presumably with strawberries inside).

We stopped at Ales Stenar, Sweden's Stonehenge!  It was right on the southern coast.  There were restaurants on the water's edge that looked like they would be great places to eat, but everything was closed.

The waterfront was beautiful though.

There was a little path we hiked up and atop a grassy knoll, there are these huge stones in the shape of a ship.  No one knows how they got there or who put them there.

It was pretty incredible.

There are no Marriotts in Sweden, so we had to branch out.  Adam found a sweet little bed and breakfast in Ystad.

We got there on Friday night/Midsommar Eve and there was no one at the desk.  There was a page ripped out of a notebook and it had our name and a few other guests' names on it with a number next to our name.  There were numbered keys and we just checked ourselves in.

The room delighted me.  I felt like I was sleeping in my grandma's basement.  

Despite our fabulous strawberries, we were in fact hungry for dinner.  After checking into our hotel, we decided to try our luck to find something to eat.  We drove around awhile, but finally found a Max Burger.  It was a fast food burger kind of place like McDonald's.  It was the single place I saw fountain drinks.  There were about six other people in the restaurant and they were all young men about Mark's age.

That is the demographic you are apparently relegated to when you don't have a Midsommar picnic to attend.

Breakfast was a little intimidating the next morning.  Everyone was decades older than us and it was in this small room and I felt like I didn't want to do the wrong thing.

This wee Midsommar decoration on the table made me think someone had made it at homemaking meeting.

(In a continuation of Holidays We Don't Understand, in Denmark on June 23, we were driving across the country and saw enough big bonfires that it couldn't be a coincidence.  I googled it and on June 23, it is Sankt Hans in Denmark.  They celebrate Midsommar then with bonfires and witch effigies and singing songs.)

(Kind of) Related:

Adam and I loved the way beds were in Scandinavia.  Two duvets.  Yesterday Mark and I went to IKEA to buy bins for my kiva at school.  I bought two twin sized duvets with white covers.  Very comfy!

Now if I could just get some of those strawberries....