Uppsala is the place to be for Valborg, Swedish labor day/May day/Spring festival. It is one part Mardi Gras, one part Homecoming, one part Mtv Spring Break, and one part English garden party. This year was apparently more calm and less crowded since the university limited the number of guest passes being sold. Valborg is technically May 1st, but everyone parties on April 30th. Recently, the parties start even sooner on Kvalborg (Valborg's Eve, April 29th). Everyone has two days free from work/school and the population of the town triples overnight. Even though I didn't party nearly as hard as I could have, I was still exhausted and needed most of Friday to recover. Here's why:
7:30 am : get up and make porridge for our picnic breakfast
8:30 am: walk down to the river and try to find a decent spot along the route for the boat race where Stephan and I can spread out a blanket and enjoy our champagne breakfast
9:00 - 10:00 am: eat breakfast which consists of the traditional champagne, strawberries, and porridge. We actually had fruit salad because half our strawberries had grown fur :(
10:00 am: the boat race starts! Teams of 2-4 people had been making boats out of wood and Styrofoam for the past week in Polacksbacken. All of the boats had some sort of theme (some better than others) and everyone had tons of fun even though the water was cold. The point is not so much to be the first one through town, but just to make it over the two waterfalls, poor construction techniques, and the other teams bombarding your boat with water balloons, squirt guns, and splashes.
12:00 pm: Sillunch at Kalmar nation. Sill = herring. This was a very traditional Valborg event that most students do not attend, rather it is an activity for returning alumni. So although the food was delicious, the company was interesting to say the least. Plus in typical Swedish fashion, beer and snaps were served.
3:00 pm: Chancellor's speech at the Carolina Rediviva Library. The Chancellor is supposed to give a speech about how Spring has arrived from the balcony of the library then everyone waves their white graduation caps. Unfortunately we missed the 30 second long speech because we arrived early and fell asleep on our blanket due to the warm sun and the huge meal.
3:00 pm: Champagne Gallop. After the hats have been waved, everyone heads to their nation where the partying commences by spraying everyone with champagne. Depending on the nation, there is then dancing with music from a live band or a DJ. Stephan and I decided to only observe this tradition as we thought it ridiculous to pay double the price you would at the store for champagne that will only end up drenching your neighbor. And that's if we had waiting for an hour in line at one of the bigger, party nations. If we had stayed at Kalmar where we would have been first in line because of lunch, we would not have been able to spray the champagne, only sip it as we continued to make small talk with older Swedes.
4:00 pm: get some candied almonds on the way home to take a nap
7:00 pm: finally wake-up from the nap and realize that I'm sunburned
8:00 pm: attempt to go to Flogsta for a rooftop BBQ but realize that it will be quite late by the time we get there, grill our bratwurst, and get back to town for the night parties, which by the way cost double what they normally would and you have to stand in line again for 2 hours to be certain you'll even get in
9:00 pm: cook the sausages at home and decide a better use of our time/money is staying in and watching Spaceballs :)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In other news:
-Stephan and I have started taking walks around Uppsala to explore the landscape now that the weather is nice (well sort of...now it is rainy and cold for the rest of the week). So far we have discovered the woods around Eklundshof and found an awesome place for a lakeside picnic :)
-There is a sheep pasture now in the field connecting Polacksbacken, Angstrom, and the BMC
-My wireless card bit the dust. I have ordered a new one which should be here in a week or so. In the mean time, I am using a Bluetooth network with Stephan's computer to access the internet so my connection is really slow. I apologize.
-Apparently half of my Milan pictures managed to not get put in the proper set on Flickr. If you have been browsing my photos via sets, please look at Milan again to see what you've missed.
-Keep checking the "Exploring Around Uppsala" set on Flickr for pictures from the random walks and other sights around town
7:30 am : get up and make porridge for our picnic breakfast
8:30 am: walk down to the river and try to find a decent spot along the route for the boat race where Stephan and I can spread out a blanket and enjoy our champagne breakfast
9:00 - 10:00 am: eat breakfast which consists of the traditional champagne, strawberries, and porridge. We actually had fruit salad because half our strawberries had grown fur :(
10:00 am: the boat race starts! Teams of 2-4 people had been making boats out of wood and Styrofoam for the past week in Polacksbacken. All of the boats had some sort of theme (some better than others) and everyone had tons of fun even though the water was cold. The point is not so much to be the first one through town, but just to make it over the two waterfalls, poor construction techniques, and the other teams bombarding your boat with water balloons, squirt guns, and splashes.
12:00 pm: Sillunch at Kalmar nation. Sill = herring. This was a very traditional Valborg event that most students do not attend, rather it is an activity for returning alumni. So although the food was delicious, the company was interesting to say the least. Plus in typical Swedish fashion, beer and snaps were served.
3:00 pm: Chancellor's speech at the Carolina Rediviva Library. The Chancellor is supposed to give a speech about how Spring has arrived from the balcony of the library then everyone waves their white graduation caps. Unfortunately we missed the 30 second long speech because we arrived early and fell asleep on our blanket due to the warm sun and the huge meal.
3:00 pm: Champagne Gallop. After the hats have been waved, everyone heads to their nation where the partying commences by spraying everyone with champagne. Depending on the nation, there is then dancing with music from a live band or a DJ. Stephan and I decided to only observe this tradition as we thought it ridiculous to pay double the price you would at the store for champagne that will only end up drenching your neighbor. And that's if we had waiting for an hour in line at one of the bigger, party nations. If we had stayed at Kalmar where we would have been first in line because of lunch, we would not have been able to spray the champagne, only sip it as we continued to make small talk with older Swedes.
4:00 pm: get some candied almonds on the way home to take a nap
7:00 pm: finally wake-up from the nap and realize that I'm sunburned
8:00 pm: attempt to go to Flogsta for a rooftop BBQ but realize that it will be quite late by the time we get there, grill our bratwurst, and get back to town for the night parties, which by the way cost double what they normally would and you have to stand in line again for 2 hours to be certain you'll even get in
9:00 pm: cook the sausages at home and decide a better use of our time/money is staying in and watching Spaceballs :)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In other news:
-Stephan and I have started taking walks around Uppsala to explore the landscape now that the weather is nice (well sort of...now it is rainy and cold for the rest of the week). So far we have discovered the woods around Eklundshof and found an awesome place for a lakeside picnic :)
-There is a sheep pasture now in the field connecting Polacksbacken, Angstrom, and the BMC
-My wireless card bit the dust. I have ordered a new one which should be here in a week or so. In the mean time, I am using a Bluetooth network with Stephan's computer to access the internet so my connection is really slow. I apologize.
-Apparently half of my Milan pictures managed to not get put in the proper set on Flickr. If you have been browsing my photos via sets, please look at Milan again to see what you've missed.
-Keep checking the "Exploring Around Uppsala" set on Flickr for pictures from the random walks and other sights around town
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