More about Sweden

Here's a fly-by upshot:
We had a half-day and then two full days in Stockholm:



Then we took an overnight train 12 hours north:


And stayed in the OMG WOW TreeHotel - we got the MirrorCube:

  

Inside picture, and picture of the on-site sauna:
  


Then we went even further north:

Where we saw Northern Lights (not a great show, unfortunately, though I know it sounds ungrateful), and enjoyed some fresh air as we hiked around a little:


And finally, we went to the Ice Hotel which was as amazing and crazy as it sounds. It's built every fall and is gone - melted! - by May. Since it's so popular they've now built IceHotel 365 which will use solar power to generate a cooling system and keep the rooms below freezing year-round.

 
Our room - brrrrrrr! Though the sleeping bags were quite snug:
 

Finally, we returned to Stockholm for some final walking-about, great meal, and final night.

In general, Sweden is very easy to visit - everyone speaks terrific English, the exchange rate was decent at this time (apparently not usually the case), and the food was amazing. Here are some final food shots:
      

Swedish goodness

Sweden was awesome! No surprise, I suppose, since it WAS vacation after all. It's a great place to visit - everyone spoke excellent English, it was easy to get around, heck, my cell phone even got data service there! (Thanks, provider!)

One thing I loved was the breakfast buffets - lots of delicious food, usually included in your lodging cost. My boyfriend and I would usually eat a hearty breakfast, skip lunch, have a late afternoon snack and then have dinner.

I have come back vowing to recreate the bread I found at every breakfast offering. It's dark, but not dry or heavy. It's got some nuts or seeds in it but no heavy flavoring. I've found some recipes that call for orange or anise or fennel and I'm certain the ones I had didn't have those elements - some posts hint that's a Christmas-related flavoring choice.

 

At one place I cleverly took a picture of the label, so I would know the ingredients involved when looking for recipes.



The above label indicates it's bread made with filmjölk, or sour milk. I have a friend in Sweden (who we didn't get to see) who tells me it's sort of like a cross between buttermilk and yogurt; they always have it on hand for their kids to drink. He even made a little video as he poured it into a glass so I could get a sense of its density!

I've tracked down some recipes for "sour milk bread" and also found this post for so-called Kavring, or dark rye bread. It calls for plain yogurt and a little milk or cream if the dough is too thick, so I think that is her attempt at substituting for the sour milk ingredient used in Sweden.

There are two more odd ingredients on that label: one is mörk sirap - aka dark syrup. Apparently it's kinda like dark corn syrup, sorta like molasses crossed with light syrup.. on that I took no chances. I bought a bottle and brought it home.

The final mystery ingredient is nyponskal. Here, I'm sorry to say, the internet has not been helpful, nor has my friend. The best I can find that this is rosehip husk... it can be used in soup. I'm thinking it's kind of a ... bran-like thing? Anyway I bought a bag of what seems to be rosehip meal.. so I will try that and see if it works.

I'm going to construct a recipe that mainly follows the Kavring one but has some additional elements, and will sub in my best guess at the Swedish-specific options.

Stay tuned!

tap, tap, tap

*clears throat*

Well it's been a while! I'm resurrecting this blog because on Friday I'm heading to Sweden for a week and putting stuff up on social media is fun for the likes, but isn't easy to look back at later. I don't know if I will REALLY update this every day, but I might.

Agenda:

• arrive Stockholm on Saturday the 21st, explore the city all day Sunday & Monday. Take an overnight train 12 hours north to be above the Arctic Circle. 
• Tuesday night: stay at the TreeHotel in the MirrorCube 
• Wednesday night: stay in the Abisko Mountain Station at the one combination hotel/hostel. I'm vague on what this thing is - but the entire point is to go to up a chairlift to the Aurora Sky Station for a swank dinner and then a Northern Lights observation (we hope)
• Thursday night: stay at the IceHotel - yep. Yes, we will be sleeping in a room that is cold enough to have its very own ice sculptures. Yes, I am open to the idea of finding the sauna and sleeping there! 
• Friday: fly back to Stockholm, last night there in a yacht hotel! 
• Saturday: bonus excitement, flying back in international business class as a way to extend the vacation just a leeetle bit longer. 

What else is going on with me?
Job: I'm five months into my new job and it's still feeling pretty good. I took a month off between jobs (which was SO GREAT) and then was in training for pretty much the entire rest of 2016 (which is an astonishing investment for a company to make). I'm actually/finally now going fully live on doing my job and it's a lot to juggle but so far I am very happy I made a change.

Fitness: this fell apart. I did summit South Sister with friends in August, and it was so hard - 13 hours of hiking because it was a LOT of very steep up and down, and I'm slow. But my running practice ground to a halt and hasn't been replaced by anything. I have intentions of getting back into it if we ever see the ground again.

Snow! We get snow here in the Pacific Northwest every now and then but we got about 8 inches a week ago and it's just lingering. It's been temps in the 20s, we don't have plows, ice and snow still all over the side streets.. I haven't been in a car since last Tuesday, and I ventured out on foot last Thursday night and on Saturday afternoon - that's been the extent of it!

The state of the world: big enormous panicked grump. Trying to focus on the good, learning how to use my voice politically. Very sad I'm going to miss all the amazing energy of the political protest march here in town on Saturday - I think it would be enormously uplifting. Stockholm is hosting a march that day as well, but I don't know if we will get there in time to participate.

January challenge: For the weeks between Christmas and Sweden, I've done a challenge to have no sugar/no alcohol/no restaurants. Part of this is health-related, part of it is financial: I think by spending NO money (except on groceries and doing some political activism), I will balance the spending in Sweden and come in okay for the month's total.

On the plus side: Cutest niece ever. Knitting some more. Cooking a lot of good food.

Travel & revelations

So, I've been crazy busy this spring - in a span of six weeks I hosted my parents, went to Puerto Rico, went to Seattle for a weekend with my parents & sister, worked the last week of a nearly nine-year job, went to San Francisco & started a new job, went to Paris, and had friends in town. And I didn't get sick!

It's been great. Paris was nothing short of amazing; I have ten billion pictures but will have some restraint here...

Suffice to say, my friend and I spent at least 10-12 hours on the go every day. He had a very long and ambitious list of things for us to see & do, and we hit almost every single item!

Sometimes when I travel I have something of an epiphany. Three years ago I was in Amsterdam and the thought crossed my mind, "I don't want to figure out how to travel constantly; I want to figure out how to get back to Portland!" And lo, shortly after my return from that trip I started the process that got me where I wanted to be just a few months later.

I don't know that I had any major revelations this time (except that I am hopelessly NOT chic, though I faked it reasonably well for a few days). I was waiting for the train with my friend and he joked "If you were a runner, this trip would have had an entirely different to-do list!" and without thinking about it, I shot back "But I AM a runner!"

So, maybe that's the thing I've learned this time. I've become a runner, much to my shock. I didn't run in Paris - I was focused on traveling light - but I picked up where I left off on my return. I lost some of my conditioning, and I still don't have a clue about setting and maintaining a pace, but I've run nearly 100 miles this year, and it's time for me to get some new shoes. I've managed to squish the weekday runs into my new-work-training schedule, which hasn't been easy but has felt really necessary.

All the good things

So, I'm ramping up for five weeks of total madness. Tonight I leave for a week in a warm place with friends, and 12 hours after I get back home I turn around and go to Seattle for 24 hours. Then I'll be home for almost a week before heading to San Francisco to start my new! job with five days at HQ. And I'll be home from that for four days before heading to Paris to visit a friend, and as soon as I'm back from THAT I'll have friends coming to stay for the weekend.

It's daunting, I admit it. I'm loading up on vitamins to try to stay healthy, and I'll do my best to get lots of sleep. Well - I'll go to bed in a timely fashion. Staying asleep has not been my strong point lately, and the 2am hour is all-too-familiar at this point.

It'll probably be good for me to have a little less vacation time at my new job - sad, but good. I tend to say YES to absolutely everything and then run myself ragged. Weirdly, I don't get much sympathy!

So Paris will be my last hurrah for a while, in terms of big trips. I negotiated taking the time off without pay since I won't have earned any time yet. I actually wanted to start working in May but they were eager to get me going, so this is the compromise situation.

It's going to be great - all of it - but I sure hope I can sleep on the plane tonight.

Thankfulness!

Thanksgiving is around the corner! I love this holiday, as it's the official beginning (in my mind) to the holiday period, I usually have a couple of days off, and I get to stick around town and be lazy.

This year I'm continuing a tradition of having TG with a couple I've been friends with for quite a while. They do the turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes, and then the other guests bring the rest. This year the guests are me, my sister, and another friend. We are bringing/making:

• bubbly and regular wine
• an appetizer: cranberry salsa atop goat cheese & crackers
• some sort of roasted potato & eggplant recipe (my sister's job)
• an apple-onion-cheese gratin
• and for dessert, a bittersweet chocolate tart

 I think my sister is also in charge of gravy, and I can't remember if we were ALSO doing Brussels sprouts or not - but for five people, I think we have more than enough food.

I'm hoping to go for a hike in the  morning before coming home and doing tart assembly; we're eating in the early evening so there should be plenty of time for that, weather permitting. I'll have YET ANOTHER friend's car to drive, since she'll be out of town. This is at least the sixth household that has helped me out since I totaled my car in September, for which I am very grateful.

I did spot a super duper cute car on Craigslist, but it sold already (at least, the post is down). I feel a little sad to have missed it (red! two-door!) but I know it would have been silly to try to rush it through. On Friday I have a red-eye to the Dominican Republic where I'm spending a week at an all-inclusive resort with a bunch of my Canadian friends. When I come back I'll have ten days in town before heading East for Christmas (holy crap I have to shop), and then I'll be back before the New Year and THEN I can see what's happening, car-wise. Yep, I plan to obsess about it until then.

Too much!

Have you heard the saying "Too much of a good thing is still too much" or have I made it up?

In any case, I'm living that. And, I don't feel like I can really comment on it because it's obnoxious, but here goes: I've been doing WAY too much travel this  year. I love to say YES to every offer I get, and I've been using miles so my flights have cost me very little, but this has been my year:

 - January: work trip to the Bay Area; weekend away with one of my book groups
 - February: 2 weeks in Toronto
 - March: weekend houseguest
 - May: work trip to Detroit, weekend in Toronto; overnight guests 
 - June: two-week trip to Hawaii for (awesome!) family wedding; weekend trip to Ashland
 - July: weekend in Nashville for family reunion;  long camping weekend (of excellent good times!);   houseguest

 - September: week-long bike trip (of awesomeness!), bracketed by houseguests; houseguest and grad school reunion party (of splendor!)
 - October: weekend in San Francisco; 9-day visit to see family in Hawaii;  overnight guests
 - November: weekend in Ashland, bracketed by parents visiting Portland; weekend away with one of my book groups
 - December: weeklong trip out of the country;  East Coast for Christmas with possible day trip to NYC

On top of all that was biking a TON and running a lot; and totaling my car in mid-September. Of the eight weekends left in the year, I'll be home for three.

So, I'm having an awesome time, I'm spending WAY too much on travel (because even if the flights are $100 or less, it costs money to be in other places), and my biggest issue is that it's very hard to enjoy each little piece, because I view it as part of a larger, more-stressful whole.

I solemnly swear I'll be better in 2015. I already have a few things planned (weekend away with friends, between one and three trips to warm places in the spring, trips to Toronto and a family reunion in the fall...), and I foresee a few more (a couple of zero-birthday celebrations, work conference travel), but I'll TRY to do better. Because no one likes a whiner.

Seeing the light

Last week I worked remotely from my brother's house in Hawaii. It was so great to spend time with him and my sister-in-law (which is such a funny concept! but she's great so it never feels weird), and it was good to work from there instead of burning vacation time on a place I'd already visited. Plus, that way they could work too, and then we either went out to dinner or cooked at home. Very low-key and nice visit.

Their rental house is high up on a hill with mountains behind them and the ocean in the distance - amazing view! Since I worked 5am-2pm every day (so I could stay on the same time zone as my colleagues), I watched daylight arrive and took pictures when I could.

Best contrast: early in the week picture:

vs later in the week when a hurricane was in the area: 

And most striking:

Now all that rain has followed me home to Oregon. Thank goodness for friends willing to give me a ride or I might not ever get out of the house again. I have a feeling this car-less thing isn't going to outlast the winter!

Fortunately yesterday was nice (and I knew the rain was coming) so I did a bike-errand to the library and grocery store. My backpack weighed over 25 pounds when I was done getting everything (you better believe I weighed it) - that should count as an extra workout!

Minor travel

I got to go to the Bay Area for a work party this weekend. I really appreciate getting to go there to visit - living there was never a great fit for me, but I miss seeing my friends down there! I got to admire some of the city lights - and have a hot dog/pretzel dinner with some goofballs,

 

I went on a road trip north of the city and visited a really great open studio at a pair of potters: 

And I started the nigh-impossible task of furniture shopping, since my sister (with her living room furniture!) is moving out shortly: 

I had a great time, and I'm glad to be home. I don't know if he missed me, but I was thinking about this guy!

It's all about time

I'm going to do a blog challenge and update every day this month. Readers, take note!

Since it's May first I flipped my homemade calendar to a new month. The picture from this month is from the world's largest cuckoo clock, in Triberg, Germany. Triberg is in the southern part of Germany  known as the Black Forest, about an hour or so north of the border with Switzerland.

This particular attraction is along the road as you head into town, and we pulled in JUST before noon, as you can see on the clock face. It cost a few euros to go inside and get access to the yard, so we stood around in major anticipation of the cuckoo doing its glorious call.

Friends, that cuckoo was the most raggedy-ass thing you've ever seen. It emerged slowly from its door, then emitted twelve exhausted "coo...koo" calls. It didn't bounce in and out between cries, just sorta sighed on the end of its perch. Wretched.

Fortunately, we found it absolutely hilarious. I hope we didn't hurt the feelings of the woman inside, whose father created the clock, but I imagine she contented herself with our euros!

Catchup

If I don't do some kind of update, I'll never get back on the blogging wagon!

Hawaii was great fun - I went on two dive trips, for a total of four dives. One of the dives was advanced and we went down to 100 feet! I have to admit I freaked myself out a little bit at the depth, but once I calmed down and got my ears to clear it was fine. We explored a barge! And everyone could  hear whales singing! I confess I'm not sure *I* identified the whale song, but probably because I was borderline hyperventilating, I could barely focus on anything outside my body. All in all the dive experience was fun, and the next time I'm someplace tropical for a period of time I think I'll pay to take the advanced dive certification course.

The house is still standing, though the night I came back from vacation I had a dream that the oven caught fire, the fire department wouldn't come, then it spread to the attic, then the whole ceiling caved in from a deluge. So, I guess the reality is settling in a little bit - owning a house is all well and good but is a responsibility too! Also, there's the whole yard thing - at the moment my sister is doing the lion's share of work out there, but I keep thinking I shoulda got a condo. Oh well, I didn't, and I can handle this. I'm going to spend the next few years lessening the grass imprint and boosting the path/bed/ground cover/patio/deck elements. Or at least that's the plan. I DO talk a good game!

Spring has sprung and while it's not the glorious SUMMER that was in Hawaii, it's been pretty lovely this week. My garden is starting to grow, and I get five more sets of plant starts soon.

AND I'm heading out of town for another week - I get to go visit my stomping grounds in the Bay Area. It will be a very very very intense week though so I hope I squeeze in sufficient volumes of Fun.

off to paradise!

Well, I'm heading to Hawaii for a while, and am very very excited about the entire thing. I'm flying first class due to some internet wisdom, which is no longer on offer, but which worked for me! I'm flying round-trip, first-class, for about $400. I will concede that I'm departing on a Tuesday and returning on a Monday, so it isn't ideal in that way, but eh, I'll take it. And I hope I get a lei out of it!

In related musings: I've had my iphone for all of a month or so, and I'm already debating if I should even bother bringing my camera. I love the convenience of being able to blog right from my phone and post pictures from it, like I did with my garden post. Actually what I really like to do is start the post, upload the pictures, save them, and complete my post from my keyboard. But I won't have a computer with me, so my posts will either be quite photographic, or rather non-existent.

I plan to hike, and scuba, and loll, and snorkel, and go to a couple museums, and check out Honolulu, and go to a luau. Stay tuned for photographic goodness!

Calendar: September

My September calendar shot is another one from last summer's trip to Greece, and it's not the last time pictures from that trip will be featured this year! What can I say, but that Greece is extremely photogenic.

I took this picture on the Acropolis, but I can't say for certain which building it's attached to! I can picture where I was standing when I took the picture, and I think that this is a column on the Erechtheion, more famous for its Porch of the Caryatids. You can see that the part below the curve has been better protected from the elements, but it's mind-boggling to think that this was created over two thousand four hundred years ago.

Vacation brain again

I've been super occupied with work and career and life stuff, but guess what? Vacation awaits! In a few short days I'm heading back to Germany - this time to see my sister receive her master's degree, and to spend some time touring with my parents (and sister, part of the time).

I'm revisiting my packing list from the spring - it will be warmer, but it doesn't look like it's going to be hot, so I think I'm going to pack:

- 2 pairs pants: jeans and khakis (both can turn into capris if necessary)
- 1 skirt (will work for the graduation event and if it gets hot on the trip)
 - 2 pairs shoes: probably some version of walking shoes and some summery sort-of sandals
- weather protection: a rain jacket and scarf/wrappy thing; 1 lightweight long-sleeve sweater (blue); 1 lightweight 3/4-sleeve cardigan (black)
- 5 tops: 2 short-sleeve tops; 2 3/4-sleeve tops; 1 dressy tank top. (I bet I'll crack and add something here)

for both parts of the trip: 
- pajamas: t-shirt & shorts
- miscellaneous toiletries, socks, etc.
- camera; ipod touch; cell phone (to be stored away until I return to the states); chargers & a plug adapter; guidebook; passport; perhaps a knitting project.

On this trip I won't be using a rail pass, since with three of us it's more sensible to rent a car. Since I'll be driving I won't have so many knitting opportunities, but it's a great thing to have on a flight. Even though I'll be traveling in business and first class (thanks to miles and my clever booking-savvy friend!!), it's a long long time to stay awake and occupied. I can't sleep for all of it (and don't want to miss out on the fun of the high-class travel) so knitting is a good thing to have on hand. Perhaps I'll make another set of socks to complement the ones I did for much of my last trip:

I'll have something like 22 hours in London, then 12 nights in Germany before returning. I'll be able to do laundry once in the middle of the trip, so I think that will work. I may panic and add something to the pile - we'll see!

Calendar: July

This month's picture is another from my trip to Honduras last May (more than a year ago already!).

I've already forgotten most of the feeling from that vacation - I know with my head I walked barefoot on the beach wearing a summery dress, but it's hard to really recapture that!

It was my first full-on tropical resort vacation, and it was amazing. I intend to spend time visiting Hawaii over the next few years, and can't wait to get back into that warm sun/swimming and snorkeling and diving/fruity drinks space.

Calendar:June

This is the third and, I think, last calendar shot from my trip to New Mexico last year. You can read my February post if you want a little more about that trip!

Sorry for the radio silence. I know it's the way in blog land. I've had a LOT going on behind the scenes with a large possibility of major life uprooting (in a good way, but it's scary too) so my brain has been churning but I haven't been sharing. I hope everything's settled in a few more weeks.

If not, well, I'm off to Germany again for a chunk of time in the middle of July, so I'll be sure to drink plenty of beer!

Beers of Germany - part two

In my last post I showed the glassware associated with the various beers I ordered in Germany, Belgium, and Amsterdam.When I got back to Germany, I got a bit braver at striking out in new directions when I ordered beer. Germans put STUFF in their beer!

For example, you can get lemonade in your beer. This was super yummy and felt really refreshing on a warm spring day. It's a lot of liquid to drink, but it didn't feel at all boozy.

There's also a thing called "Berliner Weiss mit Schuss" that I was on the lookout for. My great-aunt and -uncle lived in Germany in the 1950s, as part of his military tour of duty. My great-aunt is still extremely active and sharp, and when I saw her this spring she told me about living in Berlin, and recommended I look for that particular item on the beer menu. It turns out that "Berliner" is a brand of beer. They are known for making a rather bitter form of weiss, the wheat beer common in the area. The "mit Schuss" bit is where it gets odd - Germans will put in a shot of brightly colored sweet syrup, either red or green. This takes the bitter edge off the beer, and adds either raspberry or woodruff flavor. Yeah... I don't know what woodruff flavor is, and I preferred the raspberry version. I tried both, though, like the adventurous traveler I want to be!

Here is the red. I was so proud to order "Berliner Weiss mit Schuss" and was confused when that wasn't enough information - until I remembered the red/green bit. I randomly chose red.

When I next got the chance to get this, I went with green. I also randomly pointed at something on the all-German menu and accidentally got scrambled eggs for lunch. oops.

Mary got in on the Berliner action. On the right, another verson of the red. On the left, something that was not very nice at all - I thought it was going to be another lemonade-in-beer, but it was SOUR. Perhaps it was lemon JUICE in beer. It was the only drink I didn't finish:

And last, and weirdest, and most oddly tasty: banana juice in beer. Yes. And look - more of that yummy Franziskaner! In this case we got a good-sized bottle of beer, and a glass with about 5 inches of banana juice in it. Then you pour in the beer at will. The beer & banana juice foamed a lot, but didn't stay fully mixed, so there was plenty of juice at the bottom of the glass to mix with the leftover beer.

If there's any other beer-juice mixtures, I don't know about them, but I'll keep an eye out on my next trip in July. Otherwise I'll stick with what I tried!

Beers of Germany, Belgium, and Amsterdam - part one

The region I was traveling in (Germany, Belgium, Amsterdam) offered beer, a LOT of beer. Every beer comes in unique glassware, so you can tell at a glance what everyone is drinking. Observe:

Krombacher, in a schnitzelhaus in Hannover, Germany. We got the same brand of beer but different styles - if you look closely you can see our glassware is different.

The beer menu at this pub in Bruges was literally at least 20 pages long. I ordered an Ezel completely at random and was disappointed to get a bottle of beer (I am probably wrong to be snobbish like this but my perception is that draft beer is better) - but it also came with its own distinct glass!

Also in Bruges - this is Kasteel brand beer.

In case there's any doubt that Kasteel = castle, check out the base of the glass:

I enjoyed poking around Ghent, and I wandered pretty aimlessly after my sister took off to return to Germany and her homework (responsibility is so boring!). I wound up stepping into a pub, where I incredibly awkwardly ordered a beer from the bartender. His English was probably fine but I find that MINE fails me when I get embarrassed about language barriers. I wanted to convey that I like dubbels (one of two main styles of Belgian beer) but he thought I said I wanted a Duvel. That worked, too.

I was traveling solo in Amsterdam and only went to a couple of pubs. I forgot to get a picture of the Jupiler I tried. Well, I probably thought of it but it was awkward since I was sitting at the bar. Anyway, at the second pub I visited (on another day!) I had some privacy to get this shot of the Texels - the bartender recommended it as a local special beer.

Back in Germany, my sister and I traveled to follow the good weather. Here is her Franziskaner, I think the only beer we had in more than one place. She orders the dunkelweizen - it's a weissbier/wheat beer, as the glass indicates, but dunkelweizen means dark wheat, and it's a little more robust than a regular weiss. We both liked that style a lot.

In Lubeck we both ordered pretty randomly, I think. I can't remember whose is whose, but the Duckstein on the right looks like a dunkelweizen, so it's probable that was Mary's since she knows that's what she likes. I probably had the Erdinger weissbrau on the left. I'm certain I drank it all!

To be continued, with more on the German beer front.