Kulturnatten

On Saturday, Andrea and I went into Uppsala for Culture Night, which is kind of like having a First Night celebration on the first weekend of school (in a university town) instead of on New Year’s Eve, and wasn’t as much warmer as one might have hoped. Lots of street food vendors (more candy than we are used to), performance locations throughout the city, shops open with enticing sales. There was a densely printed program that we didn’t even try to read through much of, since it seemed like we’d be pretty well able to find something interesting to do wherever we were.

A few highlights:

• Used books! A good day to find folks peddling books at sidewalk booths. I now have several more lovely children’s books in Swedish (don’t ask if I’ve actually found time to read them yet), including a copy of Nalle Puhs hörna (The House on Pooh Corner), and also a nice book of wristwarmer knitting designs.
• Princess grodorna! I misremembered them as monsters, although they are clearly labeled as frogs, but the bakery where Mills and I found princesstorta critters in 2007 is right where we left it. We shared one to celebrate.
• Fire show! Well, OK, this would have been a highlight if we had gotten there in time to see over people’s heads, but Elin assures us it was fun if you got there in time to sit.
• Organ concert! The last event of our evening was a short organ concert in the enormous and majestic domkyrka (cathedral).
• Home by 3am! OK, this wasn’t exactly a highlight either, but it was certainly noteworthy. A few minutes after we hopped on the 12:19 train, before it had even gotten out town, we hit a person on the tracks. She was pronounced still alive at the hospital. The rest of us sat for another couple of hours before the train moved again. Looooong day.