Midsummer

Midsummer at the island was as enjoyable as ever. We left on Thursday morning, to a slightly cloudy sky, but with promises of sun all weekend according to the newspaper meteorologists. Nearly as soon as we arrived at Ramsen, my aunt and uncle's island, (map at right) it started drizzling. Nevertheless, we set up camp and by the end of the day there were more than twenty of us there. Amit got to enjoy several firsts, including the real Swedish sauna experience, complete several chilling dips, as well as a canoeing adventure around the island. While we were on the other side of the island we could see the large trans-baltic cruise ships...then we saw them get swallowed by the pea-soup fog. So we sped up our pace to make sure we could find our way back.
The weather on midsummer itself (well, technically Friday is midsummer eve, but that's when the fun happens) was beautiful. We woke up to rain falling on the tents, but only a short while later the sun burst through the clouds and graced us with its presence all day. Amit enjoyed the sill (pickled herring, another first) and got to sing Helan Går in the appropriate setting with the appropriate imbibement. I heard some new nubbevisor myself, so hopefully I can pass those along.
The centerpiece of the day was surely the roasted lamb. We brought our 15kg friend with us all the way from Ängby, and as the pictures will (soon) show, even on the boat ride over. After some initial trouble getting the fire started, our grillmasters Johan and Ludvig grilled the meat to perfection.
Of course, no Swedish midsummer (or any other day, for that matter) would be complete without a game of Kubb. Or several. We did play one that made us quite ashamed to call ourselves founding members of the NC State Kubb Team; an hour and a half later, the game ended when Johan knocked down the king prematurely.

We have plenty of pictures of the weekend, but we don't have a way to get them off the camera. We tried though, we found an old sony handicam that would accept sony memory cards, but we think it was incompatible with this newer card. So part of our mission for tomorrow is to find an internet cafe where we can upload them. We'll also be sure to update you about our adventures in Stockholm over the next few days, until we leave for Helsinki and Tallinn on Tuesday. Yes, we did manage to get tickets, and yes, we learned nothing about "voting with out wallets" and went with the company that gave us such poor service.