Glad midsommar!

It is the most important 'holiday' of the year and as big as Christmas Eve - Swedish midsommar!

It is really exciting to be in Sweden at this time of the year because back home we just know midsommar from IKEA ads and that the prices drop to that time ;-)
Here in Stockholm they have REA (Sale), too at this time of the year, which is really good for me and my limited budget - since I had to re-book my flight from Tassi which costs me a fortune, but I will not get into this anymore! Just to mention it - I need a job here in order to finance this flight ticket, holy ****. Anyway.

The biggest celebration for midsommar is held at Skansen and Anna recommended to go there early on Friday because lots and lots of people will attend the maypole dance in the afternoon. So I took the T-bana to the city and then the bus no. 44 to Skansen, which hundreds of other people (with their mob of children) and it was 10am! and the maypole thing started at 2pm! Because Anna told me that it is a tradition to do a picnic on midsommar eve I took the vegan blueberry cake with me (which was not my greatest one and so I decided to eat it on my own and bake another one on Sunday for Anne and Harvey).

At Skansen I could not believe it how many people were already queueing! The entry fee of 150 SEK was also kind of surprising but you have admission for the open-air museum and the traditional shows also included. Because there were all these families with their huge amount of children I could not find a place on the lawn and I had to do my picknic on a park bench :-( 
Not really the same but the small kids still tried to steal some of my food, but as they discovered that I took dark chocolate with Stevia, Rice Milk, Soy Joghurt and a vegan blueberry cake with me, they left me alone ;-)

After my healthy picknic I was searching for the maypole area in order to get a good view of the celebration. For nearly two hours I was waiting that they start, sitting on a rock next to an American woman who was talking to me all the time about her new incredible camera *annoying*! After several delays, caused by some unexpected small rocks on the 'dance floor' which would cause some dangerous circumstances for the older generation, they finally started with erecting the maypole. I got the opportunity to stay right next to the official photographers, so I had a good view to take my pics.

For some pics of the midsommar celebration you can go to my Facebook page, it should work even if you are not a Facebook member or Facebook friend of mine *hopefully*

But the most horrible thing was getting back to town from Skansen, because at around 7pm everyone had the same idea as I had - getting home. All the trams, busses, walking tracks and so on were full of people and leftovers of their celebration.

On midsommar day (Saturday) it was raining all day long and there were hardly any people outside. I was staying inside, too - after I ruined my sneakers due the heavy rainfalls. They could not stand Stockholms midsommar weather and fell into pieces after they dried up :-)  I need to buy new ones, which is a good opportunity for me to have a look at all these fancy inner-city shops!