THE FIKA PROJEKT: Eating the gigantic KANELBULLE of Haga

THE FIKA PROJECT: PART TWO

In our attempt to try and mastering the art of Fika in Gothenburg, we were bound to cross paths with this famous mutated baked good at some point. 

The concept is really simple - you take the typical Swedish cinnamon bun and make it about 4-5 times bigger. When we started The Fika Project, Felicia pitched ideas on what to eat and where to Julia and Jonas, and when she said "..Oh, and so the gigantic kanelbulle in Haga, naturally..." Jonas admitted He. Had. Never. Been. In. Haga. 

THAT WAS THE UTTEREST FORM OF DISGRACE TO YOUR GOTHENBURGIAN HERRITAGE, 

Julia and Felicia thought and off course also told him so, and the next stop on the Fika-map was set. 

WHEN LIFE IS LEMON-ISH, TAKE A WEEKEND TRIP - 24 hours in Stockholm

Although Gothenburg is The Best Swedish Town - true story -, we do come second in one area: the musical scene, as in having more than one musical currently playing. Because of that, we had to go all the way to the grand capital to see the Swedish production of Book of Mormon. 

We had the fortune to stay at relatives, as Jörgen, Felicia's mother's boyfriend, so kindly opened up his home to us. 

When trainprices are what they are, our two night stay resulted in only one day in Stockholm, as the cheapest train left from Gothenburg at 8 pm friday night and the return trip started early sunday morning. But even though that, we had time to spend 24 great hours in Stockholm. 

Here's our day. 

SWEDISH TRADITIONS: Celebrating 'Semledagen'!

Sweden isn't known for being particularly nationalistic - actually quite the opposite. The national anthem has been changed and banned several times and many swedes don't even know when the national day is.
But what Swedes lack in engagement for the calendrial holidays, they more than make up for with their excitement for the.. The calendrial sweetdays.

One Swedish tradition in particular is celebrted with banners and fanfares - and with good reason: 

SEMLEDAGEN

ALKEMISTEN - A Café Story

LISEBERG CHRISTMAS MARKET

Fake snow in heaps, snowmen on parade and a fantastic tale on ice. 

We grew up today,

bought blue cheeses for hundreds of kronor

and drank glüweihn without having to show ID.

Christmas at Liseberg has been a part our holiday celebration since it opened 2001. 

It's the perfect place to go for afterworks, gift shopping, getting full on free samples... 

It's also quite romatic, if you're into that.

CAFÉ REVIEW: SeaCup Café

"I know a place by the sea", 

Victoria said to me regarding the friday-fika we'd planned, 

and I was immediately intrigued. 

Both because she'd brought me to great places before, 

but also for being in Eriksberg again. 

I've spent many picture-perfect summer afternoons 

strolling the quayside by some of the most expensive appartments in Gothenburg. 

So the mood was set, but did it end up as good as we hoped?

Will I trust Victoria to find us a place for four-hours of gossip and coffee again? 

READ ON AND YOU'LL SEE... 

SOMEWHERE IN STOCKHOLM

"I'm from a place where we never, openly show our emotions

We drown our sorrows in bottomless bottles and leave them to float in the ocean

I'm from a place where we never, separate people from people

Some generalize, but in general I still believe that we are treated as equals"

"Somewhere in Stockholm"
by Avicii

TRÄDGÅRDSFÖRENINGEN IN GOTHENBURG

Light was unfortunately falling and so was the temperature. 

Autumn is coming for real, and soon, but yet we have a couple of nice bright days left. 

LENS FLARE IN SLOTTSKOGEN, GOTHENBURG

Summer is soon to be over, but with global warming extending the 25 C temperatures all the way to October, we took a chance that we would have at least one more cloudless weekend, and took to Slottskogen for some photographing, pokemon-catching and sucking in the last proplets of sun.

We were in luck.

LISEBERG - SCANDINAVIA'S BIGGEST AMUSEMENT PARK: Day 1

This summer, we've been fortunate enough to spend two picture perfect days in Liseberg, one of Sweden's biggest tourist attractions (for a good reason? we'll see...) which also, coincidentaly, happens to be where we both work.

In Gothenburg, almost every kid is crazy about Liseberg. It's the place you go with your friends on your first outing by yourself at thirteen, and it's the place to bring your first date at sixteen. In our childhood, one of the highlights of oth summer and winter was to go crazy on rollercoasters for a whole day, or stroll around and taste as many types of candy as possible in the cozy christmas market.

One might think that when you go to an amusement park every day all summer, it's not that amusing anymore, and in the beguinning of this summer, we were ready to agree. But working in happyland also has its perks - free tickets for us and our friends. So we decided on reliving our childhood utopia and do a real thing of it this year; tourpasses for everyone, tons of ice cream and a positive attiude even though the tolerance for turning upside down seven times in a row had drastically decreased since our youth.

And you know what?
It was as perfect as it could be.

TIME IS FROZEN AT FLICKORNA LUNDGREN

As last entry fortold, every summer, we try to go to our aunt in Skåne and live the countryside dream for a couple of days. This year, work was eating all our time and even with rescheduals and countless tries to get some extra free days, we still only manage to stay for 2 nights this summer.

During these days we did have time to go kayaking, ziplining and tobogan-ing, as well as celebrating our aunt's grandson's 2nd birthday - but we didn't have time to visit the best café in all of Sweden:

Flickorna Lundgren på Skäret. 

So this entry brings you back to a sunny, wonderful afternoon last year in july, when we drove the minivan to Skäret, a tiny tiny village in southern Sweden, and enjoyed an nostalgic Astrid Lindgren-like afternoon with a piece of Princesstårta and freshly brewed coffee.

TOBOGAN AND ZIPLINING IN HALLAND

So we went south in the most wonderful way possible - we went to visit Felicia's aunt in the tiny community Kvidinge in Skåne. Tagging along were also Felicia's sister Julia, 19 yo, and her brother Victor, 15 yo.

Coming from a somewhat stressful, modern city like Gothenburg, going to Skåne makes it feels like you're going back in time, or that the time has stopped. All three of the Axelssons have always visited Skåne during summers and family bithdays, so that might be a reason for the nostalgiac feeling.
Last year, we invited Jonathan to this tradition and soon it became a must even for him.

When arriving at aunt Cina's idyllic house that is pretty much equipped with everything you'll ever need in a Swedish summer, like an outdoors hot tub, a strawberry garden, a glassed-in porch, it was hard imagining finding a reason for even leaving the grounds.

Luckily, Cina is a master at finding things to do and we left for Kungsbygget, a ski slope that turns in to a tobogan/zipline in the summer.

STREET ART OF GOTHENBURG

In the last couple of years, we've enjoyed street art around the world as a highlight of our trip. Just take Lennon Wall in Prague or the mosaic wall in Hanoi as an example. So when we started to explore our own city, we started seeing street art everywhere.

Why not photopraph it then, we figured, and off we went.

CAFÉ REVIEW: ORANGE n BLK

ORANGE N BLK 

We stumbeled upon this newly-opened gem while walking around in inner city photographing street art.

 Here's our thought, pictures and stupid comments.

GOTHENBURGS BREAKFASTS: Kafé Vanilj Review

We love to eat big breakfast here in Sweden, at least according to Ula in the 2005 major-failiure movie The Producers. One of our favorite things to do in our apartment is to have long morning-breakfasts scrolling around on our computers, making the morning proceed for longer than lunchtime.

The most important part of these morning are each others company hah no. It's of course coffee. Sitting with a cup of coffee playing the Sims 2 while Jonathan is looking at Yogcast playing Civilisation (a.k.a perfect nerd-morning) is plain heaven.

But sometimes we socialize - no, really, it's true. And this morning I decided to take heaven outside of our home and into the city. I met up with Ida for trying out Kafe Vanilj's hotel breakfast.

GORGEOUS GOTHENBURG: TÅNGUDDEN

Trying to convince ourselves that the beauty in the world is not limited to unfamiliar contries, we went on a stroll down Tångudden and Nya Varvet as tourists in our home town.