It's served with mashed potatoes and lingonberries, which are citrus berries that both counter the fish taste and help absorb the high amount of iron in herring. Finally, I had Västerbotten, which is a savory cheese puff pastry served warm with cloudberry jam and vanilla ice cream. I was lucky to have a waitress who explained everything to me, and it really helped me put Swedish cuisine in the context of its environment and history.
While in Sweden, I did get to hear some Swedish music on the radio and in the stores while browsing the shops. However, for the most part, I hear American music that was popular at some point in the past five to seven years in the U.S. playing here when I'm out and about. My friends and I always wonder about that when we hear Selena Gomez or Flo Rida in a small café in the small town of Dinant in southern Belgium. My roommate and I have a collaborative Spotify playlist where we add the different French songs that we learn about from colleagues, and usually, I listen to American or Bollywood music while exercising.
My favorite activity was visiting Junibacken in Stockholm on Friday! It's a children's attraction that opened in 1996. Initially, it was meant to feature the work of Astrid Lindgren who is probably most famous for her series about Pippi Longstrumpf, or Pippi Longstocking as we know her in English. However, Astrid Lindgren wanted it to be a broader project than that, so it turned into a children's attraction - a combined museum and bookstore - that features different Swedish fairytales in hopes of encouraging children to read.
