A Long Weekend In Stockholm

The annual career fair, Handelsdagarna, took place this past week at school, so as a result, we didn't have our normal classes on Thursday. This gave us a nice, 6 day weekend. On top of that, Handelsdagarna is very much a work hard, play hard type career fair. Everybody does their smoozing during the day, and then school throws huge parties in the evening.

Wednesday, after the Vasa Museum trip, we met up with Corne at the restaurant within Lappis. We had a couple beers there before heading over to the University of Stockholm for a party there. We weren't looking for a late night, and that was probably a good thing, as this party had the main effect of making Joe and I feel ancient. Also, Corne ran into one of his German lady friends with a couple of her German friends. They couldn't run quickly enough to circle around the Dutch German-magnet. It is truly an impressive phenomenon

Thursday night the plan was to head over to school for one of the Handelsdagarna afterparties. Beforehand, Joe and I decide to head to Dovas for a couple drinks and some facetime with face tattoo man. The crowd here tonight is actually very nice, and a little bit more our speed. There is one girl in the corner that would be extremely pretty if you could talk her into removing the bull/nosering thing she has going on. In all seriousness, this place is not so bad after 10; just an odd group during the day. One kid is very drunk causing the owner, one of the scariest men I have ever seen, to just stare at him and his friends. Very glad to not be a part of that group....we enjoy a couple starkols and head over to the party. The party at school is indeed as crazy as Gustav had described. Odd versions of MJ songs blaring and drink being drank....

On Friday, Oskar has invited us to eat a very Swedish dinner at his family's place. This will give us a chance to meet Oskar's dad and brothers and enjoy some fine cuisine. We grab a bottle of good old fashioned Napa Valley wine and head on over. We aren't sure exactly what to expect on a food and drink level, but we have heard that moosemeat is on the menu. The first thing that I notice is that we have one napkin, two forks, and three.....drinking glasses. First things first, a round of a traditional Swedish liquor, aquavit, is poured for us to sip on prior to eating. Skoal.....and that was not sipped, that was shot. I see how we are doing this. Aquavit is actually quite smooth on the way down for being 80 proof, but the aftertaste is very....interesting. Heinekens are then poured into the beer glass and we work on the starters. The first round is some flatbread with herring and some sort of sauce on top. I feel like Jim as I stare nervously at the dish. It wasn't exactly my thing, but certainly delicious in its own way.

After round 1, more Swedish liquor is poured and shot, and then the moosemeat is brought out. The moosemeat is very delicious. Not quite as "gamey" as I had expected, but very tasty. Along with the moosemeat, is a dish that is very similar to potatos au gratin, but includes onions and some different flavored spices. It is amazing. I help myself to many helpings of both that and the moosemeat while of course not ignoring the Heineken glass. Also, whenever one person gets the inkling for some Swedish liquor, they are not supposed to drink alone, so a skoal is called out and we all drink.

During the main course, some zingers are thrown out amongst the family. Oskar's brothers are significantly less outspoken, so Oskar teases them about this and claims after one of the skoals where Petter is forced to leave the table "I have failed my family. I have not properly taught my younger brothers how to drink." Oskar's dad also delivers a nice one when he tells Oskar that he needs to figure out how to find a lady. All in all, nice to see that picking on family members extends outside the Johnston household.

After the main course, wine is poured into our third drinking glass, and desert is brought out. With desert is the introduction of coffee and then of course a fourth drinking glass for any scotch you might desire. Having never been one to turn down a nice scotch, I oblige. We eat a cheesecake type dessert that is also delicious, and I am full in both my eating and drinking stomachs. The conversation then somehow turns to tax policy somehow and Joe is using words too big for me to understand, which I imagine means those to which English is a 2nd language are also a bit confused. Although it is hard to keep Joe's average word size down after a couple shots of Aquavit and some Heineken. After enjoying a couple cups of some strong Swedish coffee, we are ready to head to school. As I stand to leave, I remember that we had four separate vehicles in which to drink alcohol out of during dinner. I also think that during that meal, I doubled the amount of Heineken I have had in my lifetime as it has not traditionally been a Drew beer of choice. Regardless, we head to school. We know there will be a queue, but Oskar "knows a guy in the choir." I chuckle for two reasons 1) guy in the choir and 2) this wields power? To which Oskar shuts down both with 1) Well he hangs out with all girls, mostly Swedish and they sing and drink wine together and 2) apparently so.

We get to school, and there is indeed a huge queue. Luckily Oskar's friend comes to meet us. Oskar then comes over and says "we will have to wait a while, so lets grab a drink across the street" Apparently, his connection allowed him the ability to chat with said choir boy, but not actually enter the party. We head over to NSee bar for a quick drink, and we will try our luck later. By the time we enter the party, Joe and I are a bit spent, so we actually leave very shortly thereafter. Oskar has disappeared into the mix to find Mrs. Kroenmark. We head on back after a very fun, Swedish meaty night.