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. 

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.

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.