Fish and Champagne

7/11/2007

Rain was the theme today, but there was a fortuitous sunny window for about 2 hours today. Taking advantage of this window, we went as a group to an old archeological site which is similar in style to Stonehenge. It overlooks the sea and the flat Swedish landscape but it is a perfect calendar and sun clock. The stones are in the shape of a giant ship and is mathematically perfect. I don’t know if this is common, but the tour guide gave his whole speech in English just because of me. I felt very embarrassed, but I expressed my gratitude after his tour in front of the whole group. He said thank you for the opportunity to practice his English.

I am so impressed by the ancient cultures who were so in tune with their surroundings that they could create a calendar – I think it would take us a long time to figure that out today if our technology disappeared.

We ate in a small fisherman’s town, I had a plate with a 2 inch thick slab of smoked salmon with mashed potatoes and yoghurt dill sauce. Awesome. Well its dinner time, and I’m about to enjoy Swedish Smorgasbord, which is basically a table filled with an assortment of foods that you can pick from (kind of like a mini buffet. I learned that Thursdays for Swedes are a designated day for having split pea soup and thin dessert pancakes. I was told that a good champagne should have notes of chocolate on your tongue.. I was surprised to find this is true.