Spring in Stockholm?

It's almost too good to be true...Spring? Is it really here in Stockholm?

The signs are all over the place!

The tentative crocus blooms...

Pretty, overnight flower carpets...

A weekend of sunshine!

A dearth of ice floes in the city...

More and more pedestrians...

Overjoyed Swedes relishing in the need for sunglasses...

And perfect weather for mini Renaissance fairs! (Or Viking fair...if you will)

Headgear, past and present.

There were even some battling knights for everyone's amusement.

Check out that leather skullcap.

The first weekend of spring seemed like a good time to grab a meal at Max Burger, where you can choose your burger based on its cost in CO2.

I decided to skip the guilt and order from the Climate menu! Minimal CO2 emissions when you make falafel I guess.

A less environmentally friendly meal, but just as delicious. Maybe more..?

Semla buns (cream bun on the right) are delicious, by the way.

We took a walk around the piers near the Royal Palace.

And attended the Lust & Vice show at the National Museum--a collection of erotic art through the centuries. This terrific pixelated nun's butt points directly at the front of the Royal Palace. Some curators somewhere are sharing a big chuckle.

The square in front of the Nobel museum, and site of Stockholm's Bloodbath in 1520.

...they say the rain water sometimes still runs red here....

It's great that Sweden holds no delusions of tropical warmth and instead provides blankets for everyone. So practical.

In Gamla Stan. Beautiful old city built on medieval trash!

Bicth

"Sweden needs more competent English teachers."

Malaga, Spain

I spent a week visiting K in Malaga and a different K in Paris 10 days after I arrived in Stockholm. This being my first real trip to Europe I decided to try and see as much of it as possible.

In Spain, K met me at the airport and after a short train ride, a walk through the old town center and up a really long staircase we reached her beautiful apartment.

The view from her balcony.

The picturesque alley she lives on.

Culture shocks #1 and 2: There is Dunkin' Donuts in Europe and they have espresso sized cups!

She lives right near this old plaza and imposing theater.

Tea break!

It has become clear to me that Cville's Mas really is a rip off. Real Spanish tapas in real Spanish portions.

Yum.

Nothing like some morning coffee and..

..a plaza of people to watch!

The Malaga museum is under construction and in the meantime the building is covered with this vertiginous and disorienting image.

I explored the Alcazaba, Malaga's Moorish fortress and the castle that was later added on.

Getting to the castle involved a steep hike, but the views were breath-taking.

The bull ring. Later that day K and I saw some fighters practicing inside with a bull dummy on a wheel barrow.

This landscape is definitely more green than Stockholm right now, so I felt right at home among the beaches, mountains and bushy tropical plants.

Some Stockholm

Catch Up Pt. I

Oh me, oh my, it’s been a long time since this blog has seen new material. Several reasons from L’s end anyway: craziness of trying to wrap up loose ends in Thailand, meeting the 20 kg luggage limit after one year of accumulating things, jet lag, reverse/genuinely new culture shock in Europe, traveling to see friends, plus the big one: being reunited with D!

But there are still stories that need to be told, and after finally finding my camera battery charger this morning, I sat down to try and cover some of them.

1. The Similan Islands

I organized a group trip with 10 of my favorite people and we headed out towards surreal beauty in a speed boat, jouncing along on the waves and avoiding the spiky bamboo fish traps.

The Similan islands are gorgeous. They are considered a Thai national park and efforts are being made to keep them healthy despite the daily plague of tourists (myself included) that are allowed to visit 7 months out of the year. The park closed two dive locations this past year due to coral bleaching, and even snorkeling, as we were doing, revealed a declining underwater landscape, BUT the fish are still beautiful and vibrant. We even saw a sea turtle and some box puffers. My favorite was an incredibly ugly and human-looking fish that I watched dig a hole with its big, human-looking teeth.

The sand there has the consistency of powdered sugar, and yes, the water really is that clear and blue. Amazing Thailand.

Afterward, I went to the Rusty Pelican with S and B, where we dined on mussels steamed in white wine…!!!

2. Last Weeks of School

As the semester came to a close and with different grades taking exams at different times, teaching became much less structured and to my joy I found myself spending entire periods hanging out outside with my students, chatting in English and Thai, reviewing, singing and playing volleyball.

3. One Last Taste…

A few weeks before I left I made a list of all the Thai foods and snacks I would miss and set out to have one last taste of every one of them. This was very enjoyable.

I visited my favorite mango sticky rice (khao niao mamuang) lady:

She can peel a mango with the precision and artistry of a ninja.

And my favorite papaya salad (som tam) lady:

4. Goodbye Beach

5. Octopus Hunting

Not for babies. I thought one of my colleagues had invited me to go crab hunting, but I misunderstood. We hunted on the Point at low tide in the evening.

High tide:

Low tide:

The bottom is a little murky and slimy.

I helped one of my students by keeping an eye on the prawn-tipped bamboo stick he wedged into the entrance of the octopus hole while he scouted for other entrances. Once I saw wispy tendrils emerge from the hole and begin to pull the prawn in, I would frantically begin to yell “geen!” (eat) and grab the other end of the stick. One octopus was so big I had to employ both hands for an all out tug of war with it. My student would come sprinting back with a two-pronged metal rod and spear the rocks right below the visible part of the octopus.

If we were lucky, the prongs would reappear with a pissed off octopus attached.

Live octopus suckers feel very strange on your skin and when you pull them off it sounds like popping bubble wrap. I thought my student and my colleague were selling the day’s catch at the market, but no, they were just bringing home the octopus for their families’ dinners.