A LAST DAY IN SMÅLAND!

We cannot imagine this fairy tale country in a winter. Hard to do so, when every year we admire the blissful month of May in Sweden… And we got to know Småland dressed in the best spring dress and with the best weather possible! Sick and tired of cold and wind in Skåne and Halland, we were wonderfully surprised to have a splendid summer weather on the other side of Sweden ( ‘ It’s not normal for end of May- they were saying- It’s a July weather!’) Edwin insisted to take credits for that- he was our weatherman: he himself arranged this weather for our time in Småland. Not a better gift could we have expected. We know that even Swedish, with their sarcastic sense of humour ( which is more usual for the Denish, we have learnt) say: ‘This year the summer fell on Tuesday’. When we got a lovely day on Saturday, of course, we took it as a solitary pearl and enjoyed it to the utmost. But the days were passing by and every day we were woken up by the brightest light and warmth which made it possible to do my yoga and stretching exercises outside, in the patio.
Småland is a nature marvel in May: not only bright yellow raps fields witch we know from Skåne, but all the shades of green, also the ubiquitous chestnuts and lilacs in bloom! All the flowers simultaneously in a May orgy! And what do Swedes do? Of course, they get our of their houses (even though we see almost abandoned looking towns and villages, with no people out in the streets) and go our to work in their gardens, to picnics and seaside. This is definitely NOT tango weather! With so many temptations and such a longing for sun, we hardly expected a small group of tango addicts to appear in our workshops. But- what a surprise! They must have not noticed that the spring has arrived and they came for the tango torture on this beautiful spring weekend…
This special sunny period (it is spring and not summer, which is suppose to be niece and warm. Summer is very capricious and rainy: thus unpredictable) we discovered THE JOY OF GARDEN PARTIES!

Of course it’s always great to be invited for dinner or lunch, but the most luxurious invitation, weather permitting, is LUNCH IN THE GARDEN. If we imagine a perfectly spruced up garden- it’s A SWEDISH ONE- and in this context everything tastes better! But we got special guests treatment from our students: Ana & Ole have prepared an idyllic lunch in their house in the middle of the forest. I have no better description than a comparison to Monet’s paintings: play of lights and shadows, juicy green around, flowers, a wind delicately caressing, the best food and wines offered…
GASTRONOMY:

We love Swedish cuisine. First because it’s very tasty, then because it’s healthy and third- because it’s completely different from Argentinean one. It’s not based on MEAT, but on FISH. And we are :
-great SALMON LOVERS ( smoked: in cold and hot, cooked, fried, row…)
-we adore Swedish YOUNG POTATOES, Who would ever guess potatoes can be a jewel on a table. YES, THEY ARE!
-And Swedish bread? We, who almost NEVER buy bread in Buenos Aires, we devour all those wholemeal kinds and our favourite is a flat, round, with a whole in the middle: SWEDISH BREAD! With butter on top of it, as a local ritual wants it!
-We tried KROPPKAKOR , which is potatoes and meat filling, with a fruit of the forest souse on the top
we cannot have a day without FIL, Swedish KEFIR and those wonderful Swedish YOGHURTS. Argentina is a backward country in these terms…
-and Swedish marmalade
-and herrings: I would never thought about having herrings with onions or mustard for breakfasts-but in this context I accept!
The same as we did in Russia and Ukraine: having vodka or champagne for breakfast.
-We have not had moose on a plate this year YET, but I thinks even this experience is coming. We had that experience last year and moose with blubbery souse is a delicacy.

-There is always a choice between beer and WINES- thanks God Swidish are our BROTHERS-IN AMRS when wines drinking in considered! We keep up good habits!
I love Swedish way of serving a lot of side dishes ( OUR PICADITA) with humus, tzatziki, Fish salad, rucula-tomatoes cherry salad, different kinds of cheeses, hams..
This is the Joy For Our Eyes to watch and for our palate to taste!
The SWEDISH ARE JUST PERFECT IN THE MONTH OF MAY!

One would never guess that swedish, being so correct and proper, have such basic sense of humor, or rather- sense of business! As mentioned before, we were absolutely impressed by the MOOSE ROAD SIGNS in many places in Småland. Nothing unusual, as we have heard-everybody is enchanted by a MOOSE and especially German tourists. As I have first exclaimed: Stop a car! when I saw the first moose road sign, Inger, very swedish and serious repplied: you are NOT going to steal this sign! I was so surprised as the idea never crossed my mind. All I wanted was to take a photograph of it to include in the blog. But, as Inger explained, those moose signs are so precious that they are objects of constant theft ( Fermans especially, but also other tourists with NO MOOSE in their countries) Inger went on explaining that a moose is such a desirable animal , not only to hunt eat or collect the road signs with it, but even his EXCREMENTS are sold to the tourists as a souvenirs! YES, Swedish make business selling MOOSE SHIT in hermetic bottles and you can get it in any souvenir shop! As we travel with tango we notice that people have a morbid sense of humour and we have already seen bleeding plastic ears of Van Gogh, hands and necks with signs of Dracula's bites. Victor suggested I should offer my underwear after using it in a show. One of the rooms in Anna & Ole's fairy tale house in the woods..

Edwin, our host, has told us about his face to face with a moose. Not a nice encounter when you drive a car and a gigantic animal (much bigger than a horse) crushes into it.’ A moose is so BIG that the sight of it freezes the blood in your veins- says Edwin- and your you could almost drive beneath his body, between his legs’. This encounter leaves special souvenir on your car . Fortunately Swedish are perfectionists and their cars are MOOSE- PROOF: each car has to undergo MOOSE CRASH TEST!

One of Edwin's suggestive sculptures ( MIND YOU! IT MOVES)

Wanderful example of a Romanesque church on the road to Trotorp..Especially at dusk..