Swedish Easter

I missed posting this Easter postcard I found at the grocery store...

Day Four - Christiania

Wednesday, April 16 - We had a free morning before flying to Billund, Denmark and Legoland so we had to check out what Christiania was all about. 

Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania (Danish: Fristaden Christiania) is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood of about 850 residents, covering 34 hectares (84 acres) in the borough of Christianshavn in the Danish capital Copenhagen. Civic authorities in Copenhagen regard Christiania as a large commune, but the area has a unique status in that it is regulated by a special law, the Christiania Law of 1989 which transfers parts of the supervision of the area from the municipality of Copenhagen to the state. It was closed by residents in April 2011, whilst discussions continued with the Danish government as to its future, but is now open again.

Christiania has been a source of controversy since its creation in a squatted military area in 1971. Its cannabis trade was tolerated by authorities until 2004. Since then, measures for normalising the legal status of the community have led to conflicts, police raids and negotiations which are ongoing.

We walked around a lot of Christiania and through the Green Light District where residents nicely made sure to let you know it was not okay to take photos... cameras had to be put away and vendors had their lower faces covered with scarves. I'm happy to report that the girls were uncomfortable and didn't enjoy the experience.  I wonder how long the impression will last?!  I found it all kind of sad. 

a lot of colorful murals and graffiti decorate Christiania

outside the Green Light District

I had the feeling from some of the houses that these were people who never outgrew the building-a-fort phase of their lives!

a nice house on the lake

Christiania's flag - the 3 dots represent the dots in Christiania's 'i's

photos not ok in the Green Light District!

some of the original buildings in the area

Day Three - Tivoli Amusement Park & Hotel - Copenhagen

Tuesday, April 15 - The day the girls have been waiting for has arrived, a day at Tivoli!  Tivoli is right across the street from the main train station so it has been taunting them all week.  We lucked out with perfect weather too.

Tivoli opens at the civilized hour of 11am and closes at 11pm. These people are masters at packing rides, games and activities in a small space so it's manageable and your feet aren't aching by the end of the day. Tivoli encompasses one large city block.

Entrance to Tivoli is 99 Danish kronor (dkk) for anyone over 8 years old.  Rides cost from 1-3 tickets each with tickets being 25dkk/ticket.  The Tivoli Hotel had a great deal for accommodations (full breakfast buffet included) and park entrance which included lunch in the park (a choice of five different restaurants) and five roller coaster photos.  A city bus stop is right out front and stops at the entrance to Tivoli.  We bought a three day bus pass to get around.  Buses run reliably like they do in Sweden!

By far the best amusement park food ever!  We had lunch at Wagamama... our closest version of Doc Cheys.  A peaceful, sit down restaurant in an amusement park!  Not to worry, there was plenty of the traditional candy floss (aka cotton candy, popcorn, mini donuts).  I love a place that actually has rhubarb flavored candy! 

Green Tivoli trivia:  most of the park's rides are powered by off-shore windmills. 

the official entrance

the side entrance (across from the central train station)

Aunt Jan's favorite ride from Grona Lund is represented here... the spinning, high flying chairs!  Had to shut down for a bit due to high winds.

Gordon gets to do the spinny rides with the girls.  It aggravates Gabby to no end that Audra and Sofia can spin like mad on rides but get motion sick in a car or train.  Gabby, on the other hand, will not do the spinny rides, due to motion sickness! 

Since the girls were born, Gordon has been waiting for them to get old enough for amusement parks.  I wasn't fully aware of his enthusiasm for amusement parks until now.  He was a bit relentless in bugging Gabby to go on rides with him. 

Gabby is so happy that Audra will finally do most of the roller coasters with her!

Tivoli is as much about gardens and beautiful settings as it is about rides

I braved the swooping Monsoon ride with Gabby and Gordon

Nimb, Tivoli's fine dining

not a posed picture!

love this old fashioned metal light fixture

I have a weakness for light fixtures

beautiful white peacock

after a long day at the park... the perfect dinner!

The hotel was very nice but a bit off the beaten path.  I feel like I didn't get to know Copenhagen very well since we didn't get to wander the heart of the city much... weather definitely had something to do with that, our only good weather day was this day.

Tivoli Hotel, Sofia loved the colorful lights at night

fun, blinking dragon fly lights outside the hotel

full hotel playground

Happy Easter - playing Kubb

Glad Påsk!!

Easter in Sweden is not really a big event.  Honestly, for most of Sweden, Easter is a four day weekend.  Friday and Monday are 'red letter' days, basically bank holidays... businesses are closed.  When we arrived back home from Copenhagen at 7:30pm on Saturday night we planned on ordering sushi from the restaurant across the street.  Closed.  Only grocery stores, larger restaurants and chain stores are open this weekend.  

Small displays of chocolate eggs or marzipan chicks, color feathers, small to large paper mache eggs appear in stores a few weeks before Easter and batches of twigs topped with color feathers start showing up at flower vendors.

the explanation for the feathers is that they represent the traditional, symbolic palm frond at Easter

I was happy to find a few bags of plastic Easter eggs... no big bins or rows of plastic eggs for Easter egg hunts! There were a few traditional egg hunts around town but they seem to be the exception rather than the norm.  Friends living in the suburbs had egg hunts with neighbors.  Small scale.

I have not heard any references to the Easter bunny at all, but curiously the large paper mache eggs filled with treats for the girls were covered with scenes of the Easter bunny doing his job.  Go figure!

Sweden has giant, paper mache Easter eggs filled with candy and surprises instead of baskets

The Easter tradition or belief in Sweden (a pretty non-religious country) is that witches fly to Blåkulla on Maundy Thursday to have dinner with the devil.  Why?  I have no idea.  Traditionally (and maybe this happened in the suburbs, because we didn't see it) children dressed up as witches and went begging for treats (yes, like Halloween) from their neighbors.  

happy girl!

Peeps from the U.S.!!

No big Easter brunch this year, but we did make some of our favorites:  curried deviled eggs, beignets, Bloody Marys, cheese grits and bacon. 

spicy (I add quite a bit of Tabasco), curried deviled eggs... a tradition since 1999!

beignets

Bloody Mary!

I cleaned up the balcony and put out the furniture

our little slice of true blue Swedish sky from the balcony, we could also hear a military band!

We were determined to spend a family afternoon outside on a gorgeous, 60 degree Easter Sunday.  It's always a challenge to get out the door before 4pm. Gordon packed up a smorgasbord lunch and we walked along the water to Djurgarden.  We were not the only ones with this idea because when the weather is nice in Stockholm the masses are out walking, biking, soaking up the sun. 

We didn't want to push it with a long walk so we found a spot, as free of goose poop as possible, on the lawn across the street from the Nordiska Museum.  The girls brought their jump ropes and we brought the Swedish lawn game Kubb (pronounced: koob), (a.k.a. Viking chess).

The object of the game is to knock over wooden blocks by throwing wooden batons at them.  It sounds crazy but we did get into it!  Here are the rules as we understand them (meaning we probably have something wrong!)

• the playing pitch is an 8x5 meter rectangle
• two sides face each other (8 meters)... although we shortened our distance after the first few attempts to knock over the kubbs because we couldn't knock over anything
• each side has a base line (5 meters wide)
• 5 wooden blocks are placed along each baseline, these are the base kubbs
• the wooden king is placed in the center of the pitch
• to start, each team throws one baton toward the king, whoever lands closest starts
• a team stands behind the its baseline and throws their six batons underhand (only holding the end of the baton, not the middle) at the base kubbs
• IF you are lucky enough to knock over any base kubbs with your batons the other team then has two chances to throw the knocked over base kubb onto the pitch between the king and your baseline... these are now field kubbs
• if, in two throws, the kubb doesn't land in the space between the king and your baseline, you get to place the kubb in the field, no closer than the length of a baton from another kubb
• the most important rule of the game:  the king is like an 8 ball in pool... if you knock it over before the end of the game, you lose
• confused yet?!  if it is your turn and there are field kubbs in front of your opponents base kubbs, you must knock over all the field kubbs first. 
• if you accidentally knock over your opponents base kubb while trying to knock over a field kubb that's okay, just set it back up
• IF you fail to knock over all of your opponents field kubbs on your turn your opponent can stand in line with the closest field kubb to your side of the pitch on their turn (unless they are trying to knock over the king)
•  let's review: throw batons, knock over blocks, field kubbs first, base kubbs second, don't knock over the king until the very end
• this is the point where we probably have missed something in the rules...  once you have successfully knocked over all of your opponents kubbs (field and base) you turn around and throw the baton between your legs to knock over the king.  We have not found this backward throwing direction anywhere but it's how the girls played it at school... and it's fun and funny.  
• rules can vary country to country

At first we were pathetically bad, but after shortening our pitch and many rounds we did get better.  Tip:  team up with Audra!  Maybe you'll see her one day at the Kubb World Championship held annually in Gotland, Sweden or at the U.S. Championship held annually in 'The Kubb Capital of North America' - Eau Claire, WI, USA.  There's a whole other world out there!

 

what form!

Audra is the ringer! 

knocking over the King Kubb!

ice cream on a perfect Easter day! 

All in all it was a really nice day.  As much as the girls are happy here and really like living in Sweden, holidays make them really miss Atlanta, family and friends.  No matter how many Easter eggs you hunt for and deviled eggs you eat, nothing can take the place of the people you know and love.  xoxoxo