Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Weather and Waffles in Stockholm, Sweden

Today’s weather forecast for Madrid, Spain: Partly cloudy with a high of 61.

Today’s weather forecast for Stockholm, Sweden: Mostly cloudy with a high of 37.

Back from Spain after almost a week. Arrived back in Stockholm last night. Late at night. And we were met with some different weather than what we had grown accustomed to while in Spain. And I am strangely ok with this. Because there was all kinds of snow on the ground. And it was still snowing when I woke up. Apparently my desire for a real winter trumps good weather. Especially in March.

I went outside for work this morning into the driving snow and the distinct smell of bacon. Both were glorious although the bacon smell was a bit confusing. The snow however was not confusing. So I walked to the train station in the snow. Deep, soft, silent, lovely Swedish snow.

On a side note, for all of you wondering. Sweden is today celebrating Waffle day. Earlier it was Semla day, today Waffle day. Swedes love their baked goods and even celebrate them by giving them official days. Which I honestly had no idea about until moving here. I’m not really sure how I missed this because I love baked goods also. And the bigger question is why the US doesn’t pick up on this. Someone needs to tell Little Debbie that America is ready for an official Twinkie day.

Anyway, waffle day came about because of an evolutionary linguistic movement. From vårfrudagen to våffeldagen. The difference being that “vårfru” is our lady, you know – Mary of the immaculate conception. And “våffel” is waffle. So instead of celebrating the Virgin Mary, Swedes celebrate waffles. I’m sure that’s exactly what God had in mind when he impregnated Mary with Jesus.

Welcome to Sweden.

10 comments:

  1. That's the beauty of Swedish secularism!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is pretty glorious that a religious day became a waffle day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good details here!
    I didn't know the religious side of a waffle before :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. God made Belgians, Belgians made Waffles, ergo God made waffles and there was much rejoicing. It makes perfect sense theologically.

    I can't wait to move!

    mmm... waffles.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @smek this - I aim to enlighten

    @john - you are a wise man. it al makes sense now.

    @isle dance - welcome to sweden

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love swedish våffla with raspberry jam and whipped cream. I also love that there's a special day for it. I heard there was a cinnamon bun day cheesecake day as well. Great! innit?

    ReplyDelete
  7. yeah whipped cream and delicious berry jams on waffles is hard to beat.

    I'm telling you... Swedes love their baked goods.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Not to mention the week of the awesome prinsesstårta and the day of the Kanelbulle etc. You are not kidding when you say they're proud of their baked goods! Go search on google and you'll probably find lots of more days for some delicious pastries. It's fucked up that they're not fatter than us Americans. seriously

    ReplyDelete
  9. seriosuly. and the princesstårta is amazing. seriously. I've never come across such a delicious cake.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.