Hej då

How sad I am to be leaving this beautiful town. 

I have spent the last week with new people and I have had such a wonderful time. My friend came to stay from London and we spent the week meeting new friends, drinking and having cozy evenings together. 

When I met some of Björn's family, they asked me what differences I noticed between England and Sweden and during my time here I have come up with many. One of my favorite things about Sweden is how free I feel here. The first night I met everyone, we went to another town to stay with a friend and we spent the evening down by a lake and it felt as though we were in the middle of nowhere. We went swimming and built a fire to warm up. As night fell the lake looked so beautiful and mysterious and we sat around just drinking and chatting. It isn't really possible to do that in England, there are always too many people around and the scenery is often far less impressive than here.

And that is it for now. I'm too sad to update anymore right now.

Unusual foreign foods

I went out for lunch today with Björn and met some of his family from his father's side. They were extremely warm and friendly people and I had a lovely time talking with them. It was a buffet-style lunch and at one point I decided against picking up some strange looking sausage, which I was later informed had been horse meat. Björn attempted to get me to try some, but I really couldn't face it. This got me thinking about why people feel ok about eating certain animals while there are others that they cannot stomach. Perhaps horses, for example, are less of a familiar animal here than in England and therefore people find it easier to remove themselves from what they have on their plate, whilst I couldn't take my mind off of the horses that live at the end of my garden at home!

What is the strangest food you have ever eaten? I became a vegetarian when I was 16 and a vegan at 18 before becoming a meat-eater again at the age of 20. However, it wasn't until I visited Sweden that I really began tasting some very different dishes to what I was used to. After a couple of weeks of trying different foods we finally had something I recognised: Tacos. (I found it a little unusual that this mexican food seemed to be a very popular ''Swedish'' meal). When I was making mine, I noticed that the mince looked a little strange but didn't think much of it until I tasted it and was met with a very strong and quite bizarre flavour. Tentatively, not wanting to appear rude, I asked Björn's mother: "What meat is this?", "Moose", she answered, very non-chalantly. I gulped a little and managed to murmur a small ''ok'' before continuing eating. Perhaps this was quite a Swedish dish after-all! Of course I am used to coming across the occassional unusual animal at dinner time now, and have learnt to avoid anything slimy looking that has come from a jar, due to a small issue I have with fish, but I was wondering how you find the food when you go to different countries. Do you like to try unusual foods or do you steer clear and stick to what you are used to? I think it is nice to try delicacies, but I draw the line at anything remotely pet-like!

inspire nordic

Just a little something...

I just wanted to share this video with you. I was at this concert last year and it was amazing. I'd never seen special effects used in this way, on stage. I love what he says at the beginning of the video, it's such an inspiring thought - chasing your dreams and not allowing yourself to be weighed down by your fears.

inspire nordic